Coffee-Table Notes

The cancellation of 2020 degree shows by all four of Scotland’s art schools due to the Covid 19/Coronavirus pandemic has curtailed a rites of passage that ordinarily makes for one of the liveliest weeks in the summer artistic calendar. With input from students and lecturers alike, all four main art schools in Scotland are attempting to plug the gap with an online presence that showcases the work of graduating students as best they can. Glasgow School of Art has already launched its  online showcase , while Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, Edinburgh College of Art and Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen will all be hosting virtual shows between now and July. While all four schools emphasise the involvement of graduating students in the showcases, a nationwide ‘pause or pay’ campaign has called into question the wisdom of art schools going ahead with them while charging full tuition fees.   Pause or Pay UK   is calling for the guarantee of a physical degree show by 202

Philadelphia Contemporary Everything was falling apart by the time I settled down to listen to Muffled Drums, Susan Philipsz’ new four-part digital sound installation, available to stream on the Philadelphia Contemporary website. No, not the big wide world outside that’s fallen prey to the mass destructive powers of the Covid-19 pandemic and the enforced global lockdown that followed. Nor the pains of confinement that go hand in disposable plastic glove with the enforced isolation that goes with it. I’m talking about the actual everyday material wear and tear of domestic fixtures and fittings that were starting to take the strain from me being indoors too much. Where normally we’d have time apart as I took advantage of having the freedom of the city, now, other than my state-sanctioned daily constitutional, the furniture and I are pretty much cooped up 24/7, and we’re all feeling the strain. It was the wind that did it, the weekend just past when it swooped in from the wes