Skip to main content

Lines from Scotland

Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries until May 10th; Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, May 16th-July 25th.

 

The pen-pal style intimations of the title of this independently curated exhibition for Fife-based arts umbrella Fife Contemporary is a very gentle double-edged sword for the broad exploration of drawing it covers. The old-school stencil font of each label for the twenty-three cross-generation artists puts stylistic and symbolic faith in its craft, particularly in relation to the natural world. 

 

Things start simply enough, with Elizabeth Blackadder’s quick-fire capture of Edinburgh in View of North Bridge (1972) and three drawings by Carol Rhodes, Factory Roof and Countryside (2001-02), Reservoir (1999) and Wharf (1999), all so much more than studies for paintings. Blackadder returns later, with reciprocal portraits by and of her and John Houston, that capture the relaxation of marital bliss at its best. 

 

The exhibition’s brief expands by way of musician Inge Thomson and artist Deirdre Nelson, who weave together traditional and contemporary concerns with song, knittedhatsandmusicalnotationsreflectingthehandcraftedknittingpatternsofhermotherandgrandmother.

 

There is music too from Hanna Tuulikki and High Heels and Horse Hair, aka violin and cello duo Sonia Cromarty and Alice Rickards. Separate works named TRANSPLANTED: Heartsease (2014), respond to Baroque composer James Oswald’sAirsfortheSeasons, asetof96 minisonatasforviolinandcello, eachdepictinga differentplant or flower. Where Cromarty and Rickards have recorded a new composition, Tuulikki has drawn a visual score, in which two plant shaped swirls of notation float in space. Hearts and flowers, indeed

 

Elsewhere, there is elemental looking jewellery by Dorothy Hogg, and pithy animation by David Shrigley commissioned by Pringle knitwear. Lizzie Sanders’ meticulous text-book watercolours of leaves and shoots contrasts with Rory McEwen’s 1970s black and white etchings of something similar. This fits with Frances Walker’s Storm Beach Fank (2000/1). two solitary studies of rock formations in isolated islands. Three piece by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham similarly sees the land pulse with swirls of energy from unknown forces.

 

In Lucy Skaer’s Available Fonts (2017), three Church-like wall-hangings patterned with compressed and shrunken versions of much larger images are collated with others to make a monumental display. 

 

Thomas A Clark and Laurie Clark’s series of Small cards are accompanied by haiku-like meditations that recall shades of Hamilton Finlay. Hamilton Finlay’s postcard, zigzag book and silkscreen print, PROEM (1977-98) are as beguiling as Andy Goldsworthy’s own scorched earth look at the relationship between human beings and nature. Best of all is the industrial-domestic detritus of Norma Starszakowna’s wall-mounted collages that looked bashed into shape and surviving its way into the future.

 

Scottish Art News, Autumn 2020

 

ends

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Butlin - The Sound of My Voice

When Ron Butlin saw a man who’d just asked him the time throw himself under a train on the Paris Metro, it was a turning point in how his 1987 novel, The Sound Of My Voice, would turn out. Twenty years on, Butlin’s tale of suburban family man Morris Magellan’s existential crisis and his subsequent slide into alcoholism is regarded as a lost classic. Prime material, then, for the very intimate stage adaptation which opens in the Citizens Theatre’s tiny Stalls Studio tonight. “I had this friend in London who was an alcoholic,” Butlin recalls. “He would go off to work in the civil service in the morning looking absolutely immaculate. Then at night we’d meet, and he’s get mega-blootered, then go home and continue drinking and end up in a really bad state. I remember staying over one night, and he’d emerge from his room looking immaculate again. There was this huge contrast between what was going on outside and what was going on inside.” We’re sitting in a café on Edinburgh’s south sid

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) 1. THE STONE ROSES    Don’t Stop ( Silvertone   ORE   1989) The trip didn’t quite start here for what sounds like Waterfall played backwards on The Stone Roses’ era-defining eponymous debut album, but it sounds

Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

Disc 1 1. THE REZILLOS (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (12/77)  2. THE EXILE Hooked On You (8/77) 3. DRIVE Jerkin’ (8/77) 4. VALVES Robot Love (9/77) 5. P.V.C. 2 Put You In The Picture (10/77) 6. JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS Dead Vandals (11/77) 7. BEE BEE CEE You Gotta Know Girl (11/77) 8. SUBS Gimme Your Heart (2/78) 9. SKIDS Reasons (No Bad NB 1, 4/78) 10. FINGERPRINTZ Dancing With Myself (1/79)  11. THE ZIPS Take Me Down (4/79) 12. ANOTHER PRETTY FACE All The Boys Love Carrie (5/79)  13. VISITORS Electric Heat (5/79) 14. JOLT See Saw (6/79) 15. SIMPLE MINDS Chelsea Girl (6/79) 16. SHAKE Culture Shock (7/79) 17. HEADBOYS The Shape Of Things To Come (7/79) 18. FIRE EXIT Time Wall (8/79) 19. FREEZE Paranoia (9/79) 20. FAKES Sylvia Clarke (9/79) 21. TPI She’s Too Clever For Me (10/79) 22. FUN 4 Singing In The Showers (11/79) 23. FLOWERS Confessions (12/79) 24. TV21 Playing With Fire (4/80) 25. ALEX FERGUSSON Stay With Me Tonight (1980) 1. THE REZILL