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HITLIST THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
✽ 21 Revolutions Female writers and artists respond to the eclectic collections
at Glasgow Women’s Library to mark the organisation’s 21st anniversary. See preview, page 97. Platform, Glasgow, until Sun 7 Dec.
✽ Anna Oppermann: Cotoneaster Horizontalis Complex arrangements of
photographs, drawings, paintings, slogans and objects make up the late German conceptual artist’s first major UK show. See review, page 98. Cooper Gallery, Dundee, until Sat 13 Dec.
✽ Dominic Samsworth Emerging artist and Glasgow School of Art alumnus
exhibits a new collection of paintings inspired by plans of swimming pools and created out of industrial pool paint. See Private View, page 99. SWG3, Glasgow, until Sun 14 Dec.
✽ Chloe Dewe Mathews: Shot at Dawn A moving photography exhibition
capturing the locations of soldiers executed for desertion during WW1. See feature, page 27. Stills, Edinburgh, until Sun 25 Jan.
✽ Stan Douglas Solo exhibition comprising film and photography from Canadian artist. The show includes elements from Douglas’ play Helen Lawrence, shown as part of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival programme. See preview, page 97. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 15 Feb.
✽ Mike Nelson: Eighty Circles Through Canada (the last
possessions of an Orcadian mountain man) An installation of objects inspired by the artist’s friendship with artist and mountaineer Erlend Williamson. See preview, page 100. Tramway, Glasgow, Sat 15 Nov–Sun 11 Jan.
D A R N O C Y N O T ©
TONY CONRAD Handmade ‘acoustical tools’ constructed out of everyday objects
A n exhibition of Tony Conrad’s work shouldn’t be silent: and this one certainly isn’t. As soon as you’ve entered the first room in Inverleith House, the howling, whistling and scraping of a new composition, made with his collection of homespun instruments, draws its fingernails down your internal blackboard.
Conrad, an American artist, composer and filmmaker who was associated with offshoots of Fluxus in the 1960s, is regarded as one of the pioneers of drone-based minimal music. This show is a ‘comprehensive’ survey of his ‘invented acoustical tools’ (he does not call them ‘instruments’, as they produce noise rather than music): single-string constructions made from bead chain and plumbers’ brackets, chimes made from golf club sleeves, a ‘bagpipe’ made with a Tesco carrier bag .
As sculptural objects, some are more impressive stringed instruments have real presence, while his than others:
the
96 THE LIST 13 Nov–11 Dec 2014
deconstructed drums look rather forlorn. The show also includes his 2008 work, ‘Quartet’, a wooden bench suspended a few inches above the ground which visitors can ‘play’ by tapping on it, and his important 1965 work, ‘The Flicker’, a deconstructionist exercise which reduces film to a series of flashing black and white frames.
While the spirit of his work is best summed up by the documentary film in the basement, in which a sprightly Conrad enthuses about his Heath Robinson inventions, the overall effect of the show is to remind us that deconstruction has its limits.
While taking music apart has some value as an artistic exercise, it is possible to finally end up with something rather less interesting than thing being deconstructed. (Susan Mansfield) the
Invented Acoustical Tools 1969–2014, Inverleith House, Edinburgh, until Sun 18 Jan ●●●●●
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