Lost Lake, Chalk Burst @ Generator Projects

At once poetic and arbitrary, Lost Lake, Chalk Burst is named after two colours of Dulux paint. The title would seem to cutely explore the gap between art and descriptive words, with language a recurring theme in the show. Curated in collaboration with four Glasgow-based artists, we see a diversity of practices that are more or less engaging.

The first room contains Argot by Laura Smith and Rebecca Wilcox, presenting text in the form of digital prints on the wall. This reads as a monologue spoken in abrupt sentences and is displayed next to freestanding steel frames. A similar tableau is installed in the larger room, alongside a video projection of a still life in muted colours. Like the frames stood empty and uninviting, the work here seems to want for content.

Rather more diverting is the arrangement next door by Michael Kent, who projects desolate landscapes onto upturned sculptural plinths. Last Days, No More Time, Now or Never does at least bring a certain post-apocalyptic sensibility to the room.

In the show’s most affecting work, the Everly Brothers’ mournful croons drift longingly through Generator’s galleries. The chorus of All I Have To Do Is Dream plays with just the word ‘Dream’ on a loop – part of Graham Kelly’s video installation Coil, Logo, Song, Spire, Eclipse, Slide. The music cuts to a scene of swimmers spiralling down a water slide, tourists traipsing around a sunlit spiral staircase, then on to the lighting of a green mosquito candle that burns in another anti-clockwise spiral. More sightseers look skywards to an undefined spectacle, shielding their eyes from the glare of the sun. Kelly’s work presents itself as “the dissection of processes of production and presentation.” But it’s the film’s etherealness that lingers with you, a reverie that echoes with the Everlys’ song. [Ben Robinson]