Severed Heads, Psychosculpture and Pilgrimage: This Week in Scottish Art
This week, art news covers ground from Livingston to Venice, with a bumper week of events across Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh and beyond.
With a level of excess that’s less anachronistic than would be hoped, the Venice Biennale has begun. On a complicatedly critical bent, Anthony Schrag will set off from Huntly in Aberdeenshire on the 2500km route to Venice. To help Schrag with funds towards his supplies and equipment, he has launched a crowdfunding campaign. There is more information to come in next month’s print edition, where there will be an interview with Schrag about his contemporary pilgrimage.
In more domestic news, Frank McElhinney presents 45 Sun Pictures in Scotland, which runs until Sunday. As a lyrical and loose response to last year’s referendum, McElhinney documented the 45 most populous cities and towns in Scotland, by installing 200 pinhole cameras on lampposts and drainpipes facing south. After a month, they were recovered and the photographic papers scanned digitally. From Friday through Saturday, McElhinney will be available for questioning in the hosting gallery, the Grace and Fyfe Clark Gallery in the Glasgow School of Art’s Bourdon Building.
Elsewhere in Glasgow, the 6 Foot Gallery presents the work of 10 female photographers in A Glass Expanse, as part of the gallery's Month of Photography. Included in the line-up is Tine Bek, who featured in our art showcase back in January – the show runs until 20 May.
Meanwhile, the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh hosts a panel discussion tomorrow (Wed 13), in which artist Rachel Adams discusses with two specialists the role of the object in Brazilian art from the 1950s to the present – the event runs from 6-8pm.
On Thursday in Dundee, artists Valerie Norris and Laurie Figgis and fashion historian Mairi Mackenzie present their respective responses to the exhibition on iconic artist and stylist Maripol currently taking place at DCA. It’s a free event, and begins at 6.30pm. Also taking place this week, Transmission hosts the Psychosculpture project, which “adopts the form and technique of psychoanalytical talk therapy in order to produce works of art.” On Thursday, the artists running the project will present their findings after a day-long workshop with the Transmission committee, with an open call for participation in workshops this weekend – details here.
Valerie Norris, Laurie Figgis and Mairi Mackenzie give their responses to DCA's Maripol show on Thursday
In the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop this Thursday, artists Tommy Perman, Rob St John, and Simon Kirby will give a talk on their recent Concrete Antenna sound installation in ESW. Concrete Antenna explores the past, present and (potential) future of the ESW’s site. Comprised of field, archival and specially made recordings, the work is presented on speakers on a 20 metre concrete tower. From 7pm, free entry, booking advised.
Taking matters a little outside the big three cities, to Livingston’s Howden Park Centre, Michael Craik and Eric Cruikshank present an artists in conversation event this Thursday on their recent exhibition of abstract paintings. The talk takes place between 7-9pm and the exhibition continues until 24 May.
In Glasgow this Friday, the V&A travelling show 'Design In Motion' arrives at the Riverside Museum. Travelling since February this year, the custom-designed bus gallery showcases some of the design heritage and cutting-edge technology that will be featured in V&A Dundee when it opens in 2018.
In the CCA this Friday, the Gnommero series of publications is brought to a close, with its fifth and final publication. 27 artists and writers present new work in the latest pamphlet, and 12 of the contributors will present live versions of their work. Doors are from 7.20pm for a 7.30pm start (free and open to all). Staying at the CCA, on Saturday at 3pm Hardeep Pandhal will explore the history of the severed head in art, literature and life, in conversation with anthropologist and author Frances Larson. Pandhal will also screen a new film, which in part documents the fabrication of a four-metre tall painted beachfront facade of an anthropomorphic “guillotine man”, installed near Tobermory.
Out of the city again, this time to a former Primary School at Temple, Midlothian, where former Summerhall curator Paul Robertson’s new project The Lust and The Apple opens its latest exhibition this Friday. Inside and outside the venue, three artists install new work, and “New York’s premier queer Jewish artist” Cary Leibowitz will present custom-designed football scarves with “self-deprecating slogans”. Starting from 7pm, a minibus will run from Tron Bar at Hunter Square at 6.30 and 7.30pm. A return costs £8, and the return bus will leave at 9.30 and 10.30pm.
Finally this week we return to Edinburgh itself, for A World of Ego Close to the Gods. This exhibition at Embassy Gallery showcases the work of ECA MA and MFA students, and runs in tandem with their showcase at Talbot Rice Gallery later this month. The exhibition opens on Friday 15 May from 7-10pm; Embassy hosts a discussion on the main themes of the exhibition this Monday (18 May), followed by a drinks reception – free tickets are available here.