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VISUAL ART | Previews & Reviews
REVIEW FESTIVAL OF ARCHITECTURE HINTERLAND St Peter's Seminary, near Cardross, run ended ●●●●●
The word ‘hinterland’ has mystical connotations: a world unknown, something intangible. It encapsulates perfectly the magical experience that members of the public were invited to for the launch of Scotland’s Festival of Architecture 2016 at the ruined St Peter's Seminary near Cardross.
Developed by public art specialists NVA – whose Speed of Light has toured the world – Hinterland was brilliantly orchestrated. Buses picked up a hundred-strong crowd in Helensburgh and whisked them off through the dark to their mysterious destination.
On arrival, the expedition of architecture-lovers and
adventurers led themselves through the atmospheric woods aided by illuminated climbing sticks provided on arrival by enthusiastic NVA volunteers. Glimpses of the A-listed brutalist seminary could be gleaned through the branches, lit up dramatically by polychromatic projections.
Nearing the structure itself, it was impossible not to be swept up in the spectacle of light and sound. ‘Brought to life’ doesn’t do justice to the work carried out by the team of artists and technicians. The main performance inside hypnotised a captive audience. An awesome light show penetrated the darkness using the architectural skeleton as a canvas on which to paint sweeping areas of light that seemed to melt the distinction between fore and background. This is just the beginning for the regeneration of St Peter's:
with £4.2m funding now in place from Heritage Lottery Fund and Creative Scotland, NVA (alongside a crack team of architects) will lead the space's development as a new 600-capacity cultural resource and venue to open in 2018. Hopefully, Hinterland is a mere taster of brilliant things to come. (Laura Campbell)
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REVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY WOLFGANG TILLMANS: PICTURES FROM NEW WORLD Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Sun 7 Aug ●●●●●
Pictures from New World sees the 2000 Turner Prize winner Wolfgang Tillmans return to documentary- style photography after years of concentrating on studio-based abstract works. The exhibition comprises sparsely arranged digital prints produced between 2009 and 2012, with the artist stepping out of his comfort zone to document ‘exotic’ terrain, including China and the Middle East. The photographs vary drastically in scale, subject matter and tone and are given ample (perhaps too ample) room to breathe. The proximity of some pieces does work extremely well: an enormous print of a suburban scene at dusk is juxtaposed with a smaller intricate aerial view of a sprawling metropolis in the daytime. The protagonists in the former can be seen basking on deckchairs in the orange light of the suburb, with a few topless men playing a board game set up provisionally on a pavement.
But others – including carefully composed landscapes and close-ups of fungi and flora – are given less direction. Undoubtedly this exhibition showcases the poetic handling that this artist is capable of, but a few more photographs could have made it brilliant. (Laura Campbell)
100 THE LIST 7 Apr–2 Jun 2016
PREVIEW VIDEO INSTALLATION CRYPTIC NIGHTS: MATERIALS AND DURATION 1.2 – HEATHER LANDER CCA, Glasgow, Thu 14–Sun 17 Apr
‘Illusion, the idea of presence, our perception of reality and the virtual are all equal when I think about this piece,’ says Heather Lander of her new sculptural video installation Materials and duration 1.2. ‘What we see, hear, know and even what we physically touch is all so malleable and personal. The piece is essentially exploring this idea.’
The first version of the piece was created while Lander was on the MFA course at Glasgow School of Art. ‘The video content is an amalgamation of documentation from earlier work, namely the “Screen sculpture”, which I originally assembled during my first year on the MFA,’ she says. ‘This content is projected onto the ‘Materials and duration 1’ sculpture, which is a layered series of sheets suspended from a steel armature. The room will be saturated with colour, with light, dark and sounds of classical instruments abstracted.’
Lander has collaborated with Pete Sach on the classical composition elements of this latest version of the piece, and with the visual aspects she’s aiming for something more abstract, because ‘creating this ambiguity makes me think about how you actually tell the difference between what is real and what isn’t.’ (David Pollock)
PREVIEW PAINTING BRIDGET RILEY: PAINTINGS 1963– 2015 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edin- burgh, Fri 15 Apr–Sun 16 Apr 2017
Of all the iconic images of the 1960s, few evoked the grooviness of swinging London more than those by Bridget Riley. Her hallucinatory array of black and white Op Art checks and geometric shapes shimmered their way into a two-tone styled mod- culture mainstream which, more than half a century on, is indicative of a moment even if it was ultimately fleeting.
Like her paintings, Riley too has kept moving, as this major show of work spanning those 50 years should demonstrate. Centred around her 1966 work, 'Over', which has been held by the SNGoMA since 1974, this collection of major paintings draws from a back catalogue of rarely seen works. Seen together they reveal that at the moment when TV and popular culture morphed from monochrome to technicolour, Riley was embarking on a very personal trip from London to France, Egypt and beyond, absorbing influences as she went. With Riley having recently come full circle in terms
of working in black and white, this major show demonstrates how over the last six decades she has coloured her world beyond shades of grey. (Neil Cooper)