Talbot Rice Gallery,
Edinburgh until May 4
Four stars
Whatever state we’re in,
the international language of art continues to break down international walls.
This of-the-moment group show brings together twelve artists to map out a world
of possibilities that go beyond delusions of empire to chart the means of
production in motion as natural resources are colonised to keep the economy
afloat.
Lonnie van Brummelen and
Siebren de Haan’s Monument of Sugar (2007) is a striking sleight of hand which
places blocks of sugar beneath a 67-minute film charting a journey that
subverted trade barriers. Two other pieces by the duo, Monument to Another
Man’s Fatherland (2008-2009) and Episode of the Sea (2014) focus respectively
on Turkish migrants hoping to move to Germany and the Urk fishing community in
the Netherlands.
Mona Vatamanu and Florin
Tudor’s Le monde et les choses (2014) is a map of commodities instead of countries,
hung opposite Amelia Pica’s Joy in Paperwork (2016), 402 images made from
passport-style stamps. Rosella Biscotti’s The Journey (2016) charts the epic
consequences of dropping an object into the sea.
Ghosts of very real
divides haunt Between (Where the Roads Between Derry and Donegal Cross the
Border) (2019), Willie Doherty’s haunting study of all points between County
Donegal and Derry where roads cross the border separating the Republic and
Northern Ireland. In Black Flag (2015), Santiago Sierra turns the world upside
down through images of anarchist flags planted at the North and South Poles to
suggest a new republic.
Khvay Samnang’s Preah
Kunlong (The Way of the Spirit) (2017) films tribal rituals in Cambodia, Ruth E
Lyons’ Salarium (230 million BCE-ongoing) is a series of salt bowls that mine
ancient resources, while Lara Almarcegui’s Mineral Rights (Tveitvsngen) (2015)
is a slideshow that cuts to the core of the land beneath us.
In Troika Fiscal Disobedience
Consultancy (2016/2019), Núria Güell sets up a pseudo corporate DIY guide to
civil disobedience where the clocks on the wall for different countries all
tell the same time. That time is now.
The List, April 2019
Ends
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