list.co.uk/visualart Previews & Reviews | VISUAL ART
P H O T O :
T A T E /
I I
N A T O N A L G A L L E R E S O F S C O T L A N D
MEMORIAL EXHIBITION KATY DOVE Dundee Contemporary Arts, Sat 17 Sep–Sun 20 Nov
Dundee Contemporary Arts will celebrate the work of Scottish artist and musician Katy Dove in this memorial exhibition, presented in partnership with Discovery Film Festival.
Despite Dove’s untimely death in 2015 aged just 44, she left behind a substantial body of work, ranging from drawing, painting, printmaking and music to her much celebrated animated films, all of which will feature in this showcase.
It is fitting that a tribute to Dove should take place at DCA, as Dove graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee in the 1990s. She is one of a generation of graduates from Dundee who went on to establish successful careers, including Luke Fowler, Lucy McKenzie and Stephen Sutcliffe, all of whom were included in DCA’s significant exhibition The Associates in 2009. She also worked at DCA on numerous occasions, as an employee when it first opened and later producing a series of prints with their print studio.
DRAWING JOSEPH BEUYS: A LANGUAGE OF DRAWING Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 30 Oct ●●●●●
Joseph Beuys might be one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, but he is a difficult artist to exhibit. So much of his work was in performance, existing now only in grainy photographs and a few props, like the relics of a saint. This exhibition – part of the ARTIST ROOMS project – is a rare show of
more than 100 drawings spanning 40 years, the most important collection of these outside Germany. Beuys drew prolifically, to work out his ideas, to plan performances and sculptures, and as works in their own right, particularly in his abstract Braunkreuz series. He drew spontaneously, with whatever was to hand, on scraps of torn paper
and hotel room notepads, as well as with certain symbolic materials such as hare’s blood. Early drawings are often symbolist in approach, featuring animals or female figures, though he tried his hand at geometric abstracts too. Among the later works are plans for scientific experiments, notes for ‘actions’ and a draft manifesto for a political party.
Her kaleidoscopic, melodic and accessible artworks deserve to be Each work is accompanied by extensive explanatory text and, to be fair,
celebrated here again. In an interview with Simon Yuill in 2005, she succinctly said, ‘I am not so interested in analysing what these images might mean, but in using them to explore a state of mind that is beyond language.’ (Rosie Lesso) we need it. Immediate as these drawings were, and important as they are for historical record, they don’t bring us easy insight into Beuys’ mind. Mostly, they remind us how singular and multi-faceted that mind was, and how difficult it is to recapture its essence. (Susan Mansfield)
EXHIBITION JACQUELINE DONACHIE: DEEP IN THE HEART OF YOUR BRAIN Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow until Sun 13 Nov ●●●●●
It’s been a while since Jacqueline Donachie has exhibited her work within the confines of a white-walled gallery space. For a long time, the Glasgow-born artist’s practice has remained consistent with her roots as a 90s graduate of Glasgow School of Art’s influential environmental art department, with public sculpture and subtle ephemeral interventions making up the majority of her CV.
So how does her work operate in a conventional exhibition
without the noisy interference of everyday urban occurrences? The quiet reverence of the gallery helps us pick up on the many subtleties inscribed in her minimal sculptures. The arrangement of metal ramps carefully piled in the centre of the room looks like a stage, but it is the tiny marks from everyday use that bring it to life. Another work comprises elongated neon scaffolding that sweeps through the gallery at awkward heights. These works make us look harder at the things we think we know while acting as metaphors for the obstacles we face and overcome in life.
While linked thematically, the 2015 film Hazel, which stems from Donachie’s period of research with women who suffer with myotonic dystrophy, feels quite separate from the sculptures and works on paper. What does unite them is a strange sense of detachment from the artist. We learn that members of Donachie’s own family suffer from myotonic dystrophy, which could come as a surprise given the unsentimental, matter-of-fact style of the film. The exhibition is at once personal and impersonal: stoic and
poetic. Life is peculiar, unpredictable and tough, Deep in the Heart of Your Brain seems to tell us: all you can do is take it as it comes. (Laura Campbell)
1 Sep–3 Nov 2016 THE LIST 89
E K R A L C H T U R
: O T O H P