Dundee Contemporary Arts until June 21 2009
4 stars
The DCA celebrates its tenth anniversary with this show of seventeen now major artists weaned on its doorstep at Duncan of Jordanstone College. Named in homage to the most flamboyantly brilliant pop group ever sired in the city, pop culture pulses through this lovingly crafted affair, from the subversions within Stephen Sutcliffe’s video piece featuring a young and hugely pretentious Ian McKellan giving a Shakespeare master-class, to Katy Dove’s naïve animations, which occasionally recall yet another Dundee institution, Jackie magazine.
With many artists connected to contemporary acts including The Phantom Band and the late, lamented Uncle John and Whitelock, music references abound, from the collage of Kevin Hutcheson’s ‘Badgewearer’ to Luke Fowler’s photographs of ex Cabaret Voltaire member turned wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson and the Bohman Brothers. Scott Myles’ orange day-glo signs recall the Neville Brody designed font for 1980s style bible The Face, while Steven Cairns’ video piece sets footage of the Berlin Wall to a glossy synthesised dance beat.
This, then, is New Pop art, the sights and sounds of a couple of generations whose ideas were bigger than the place they may or may not have been inspired by, and who found some sense of belonging within it. Much of that, one suspects, came from the influence of lecturer the late Alan Woods, for whom Raydale Dower hung an impromptu homage at the show’s opening. Those first impressions, it seems, still keep you guessing after all.
The List, April 2009
4 stars
The DCA celebrates its tenth anniversary with this show of seventeen now major artists weaned on its doorstep at Duncan of Jordanstone College. Named in homage to the most flamboyantly brilliant pop group ever sired in the city, pop culture pulses through this lovingly crafted affair, from the subversions within Stephen Sutcliffe’s video piece featuring a young and hugely pretentious Ian McKellan giving a Shakespeare master-class, to Katy Dove’s naïve animations, which occasionally recall yet another Dundee institution, Jackie magazine.
With many artists connected to contemporary acts including The Phantom Band and the late, lamented Uncle John and Whitelock, music references abound, from the collage of Kevin Hutcheson’s ‘Badgewearer’ to Luke Fowler’s photographs of ex Cabaret Voltaire member turned wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson and the Bohman Brothers. Scott Myles’ orange day-glo signs recall the Neville Brody designed font for 1980s style bible The Face, while Steven Cairns’ video piece sets footage of the Berlin Wall to a glossy synthesised dance beat.
This, then, is New Pop art, the sights and sounds of a couple of generations whose ideas were bigger than the place they may or may not have been inspired by, and who found some sense of belonging within it. Much of that, one suspects, came from the influence of lecturer the late Alan Woods, for whom Raydale Dower hung an impromptu homage at the show’s opening. Those first impressions, it seems, still keep you guessing after all.
The List, April 2009
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