Tacita Dean @ The Common Guild

The Tacita Dean exhibition in The Common Guild is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Scotland in over a decade and it’s worth making the trip to the gallery in Glasgow’s West End to see this succinct and perfectly formed show.

Beginning with the style of work that Dean is most famous for, a lingering 16mm film, blurred almost to abstraction, showing long, textural close-ups of pears growing inside bottles, the slow focusing of the lense highlighting the play of light across the glass, the exhibition also presents some of Dean’s wall-based work. It’s a treat to get lost in the detail of her Painted Kotzsch Trees, six small albumen prints, the background of which the artist has delicately whited-out, leaving the leafless trees to stand alone like old men, wizened and wrinkled.

The final room shows just one piece, the monumental Floating Dolmen, an ancient burial chamber, floating amidst a matte black background. Removed from conventional context, the Neolithic structure exudes a sense of the eternal.

This considered exhibition gives insight into the artist’s relationship with history and the passing of time and although it would be nice to see more of Dean’s work, a library of the artist’s books and catalogues is shown alongside, which gives the exhibition a broader scope. Fans of the artist, or those intrigued to find out more, won’t want to miss the screening of Dean’s recent film, Craneway Event, on 17 and 18 December at Scottish Ballet or the series of exhibition talks at the Woodland’s Terrace venue.