Inverleith House, Royal
Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, until June 23rd
3 stars
X marks the spot in
Inverleith House's latest show in which a contemporary artist
responds to work in the RBG's Archival holdings of botanical-based
art. Arriving just in time for the sun to belatedly shine, and
running alongside 'Nature Printed', featuring actual examples from
the RBG collection, Canadian-born, Glasgow-based Ciara Phillips
beams down a series of groovy-looking screenprints brandishing vivid
colour blocks that gets back to nature in homage to publications by
eighteenth century nature printer Johannes Kniphof. Amidst the
abstractions, there are blurry archive images of hourglasses and
lush, lime-coloured landscape splodges amidst the flora and fauna.
The show's centrepiece
finds the gallery's central column of walls wallpapered with sa
blanket of watery, ice-blue and white prints, on top of which is
draped a banner-like large-scale print of two yellow pencils, crossed
like swords. While referenced in several smaller works, here,
fully-sharpened and rubbered-up, the pencils appear to be prepared to
repel all boarders. It's a triumphal-looking flag of convenience one
could readily imagine blowing in the wind.
The List, May 2013
ends
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