Edinburgh Printmakers
until July 13
Four stars
The smell of rubber
lingers throughout the inaugural exhibition in Edinburgh Printmakers’ new home
in Castle Mills, the former rubber factory which later became a brewery. As the
show’s title suggests, German artist activist Thomas Kilpper embraces the social-political
and artistic history of the venue, marking out its contradictions as he goes.
He does this via a monumental site-specific rogues’ gallery that fills floor
and ceiling with a partisan topography of past, present and possible futures. Mirror
images of a carved-up cast list of pop/art stars that would put Peter Blake's
gathering for Sergeant Pepper in the psychedelic shade as they inhabit
Resembling a woodcut of
a trade union banner writ large, over thirty-six images, Kipper juxtaposes
images of factory workers with art figures such as Joseph Beuys, Richard
Demarco and Andy Warhol. John Lyndon and Jeremy Corbin are there, as are
artists Jim Lamble, Ross Sinclair and Alasdair Gary. Rats sit aloft the
shoulders of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage. A wobbly Theresa May trotters next
to a Glastonbury-up Kate Moss, while Fountain bridge boy Sean Connery, capture
in his artists’ model days, shows exactly why he’s called 'Big' Tam. As a
statement – of intent as much as reflection, Kilpper celebrates how worlds can
be turned upside down, with rubber soul aplenty.
The List, May 2019
Ends
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