Marchmont
House, Greenlaw, Berwickshire, September 21st 2019
It’s
a house Demarco knows well from his time spent there in the company of musician,
artist and former resident, Rory McEwan, whose work he showcased in several
exhibitions at his Edinburgh gallery during the late 1960s and 1970s. The heartfelt
address that followed was delivered by Demarco without recourse to any kind of
slide-show presentation like most of the day’s other speakers. In essence, this
gave him the air of a living sculpture in constant motion.
Demarco
wasn’t just asking for McEwan’s work to be shown at Marchmont House alongside
pieces by the likes of Eduardo Paolozzi and Antony Gormley already in place in
the 390 acre grounds close to the house now styled by its current resident and
driving force behind its reinvention Hugo Burge as ‘a home for makers and
creators’. The presence of work by the late Tim Stead inside the House, with
large-scale outdoor works by local artists, including Charlie Poulsen, Frippy
Jameson and Keith McCarter, all of whom spoke at the symposium, bears out its
refreshed status.
Despite
this, Demarco’s emotional plea was for sculpture to be allowed to thrive today
in the face of he sees as its ongoing intellectual and artistic denigration. This
may be a familiar refrain for long-term Demarco watchers, but, given the
context of this day-long event sponsored by the London-based Pangolin Gallery –
one of few in the UK devoted solely to sculpture – and Edinburgh-based
international auction house, Lyon and Turnbull, it had an extra resonance.
There
were plenty of other rhetorical flourishes during the course of the day’s
packed programme, ushered in by Burge, who somewhat magnificently described sculptor
William Turnbull as “the Billy Elliot of the sculpture world.” Art historian
and Scottish Art News contributor Bill Hare’s fascinating preview of his
forthcoming book on the parallel lives of Turnbull and Eduardo Paolozzi - Two
Giants of Scottish Sculpture as they were presented here – gave weight and
depth to both artists.
Andrew
Patrizio of Edinburgh College of Art introduced the day with a provocative
primer in contemporary Scottish sculpture from the end of the Second World War
to today. Drawn in part from his now twenty-year-old book, Contemporary
Sculpture in Scotland, Patrizio’s updated tour began with images of the
ticketed and rarefied Sculpture in the Open Air exhibition at Kelvingrove Park
in Glasgow in 1949, took cross-country diversions that included David Harding’s
key work as Glenrothes town artist in the 1970s and John Latham’s similarly
visionary environmental work.
The
1988 Glasgow Garden Festival, the Kelpies and the utopia of Ian Hamilton
Finlay’s Little Sparta sculpture garden were all there. As was Martin Creed’s marble
reimagining of Edinburgh’s Scotsman Steps in Work No 1059, before Patrizio
alighted back at the seemingly more open Kelvingrove of today.
In a session
on collecting Scottish sculpture for both public and private collections, curator
of Jupiter Artland Claire Feeley spoke about how private individuals are
stepping into the breach as public funding dissipates. Curator and ‘creative
broker’, Matthew Jarratt, whose adventures in public art have included major
public art projects from Newcastle to China, talked about trying to persuade
property developers to take risks. Burge spoke about the ongoing transformation
of Marchmont House over the last couple of years in terms of its sculpture, and
his ambitions for its future.
What
is Contemporary Scottish Sculpture Today? was the fifty-million-dollar question
posed by the Pangolin’s gallery director Polly Bielecka in a post-lunch session
in which living proof was provided by a panel of artists David Mach, Kenny
Hunter and Sandy Stoddart alongside senior curator of the National Galleries of
Scotland, Alice Strang.
Strang
showed off the fantastical possibilities of sculpture by way of images from
Monster Chetwynd’s recent show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
in Edinburgh that saw all manner of creatures burst through the frame, barely
contained by the gallery walls.
Stoddart
lobbed a semantic grenade into the mix by gleefully suggesting that the word
‘contemporary’ was a stupid one, fostered by a leftist plot. He preferred the
word, ‘contra-temporary’, and, inbetween references to Schopenhauer and Moses,
pointed out how “being a sculptor is being on the edge of catastrophe every
single month, week, day.”
In a
session on supporting Scottish sculpture, CEO of Wasps artists’ studios Audrey
Carlin stressed the necessity for affordable studio spaces in the social
enterprise initiative’s nineteen buildings. This was echoed by Edinburgh
Sculpture Workshop director Laura Simpson, who highlighted how ESW, Wasps,
formed part of a much bigger network. Writer and trustee of the Tim Stead Trust
Giles Sutherland highlighted a need for more outlets for critique in a world
where print media was shrinking.
Wrapping
up the day, while Burge stressed the importance of a broader creative spirit,
Demarco quoted a conversation he had with Joseph Beuys not long before the
German icon of social sculpture died. Beuys told Demarco he not only wanted to
come back to Scotland again, but that, rather than simply making a work, he
wanted to transform the entire country into a sculpture. If Burge and other
fellow travellers gathered in Marchmont House have their way, it may happen
yet.
Scottish Art News - November / Autumn 2019
ends
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