Simon Gowing

A PRISM APPLIED TO THE EYE GLASS OF MY REFLECTOR - Press Release

2011-02-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

A PRISM APPLIED TO THE EYE GLASS OF MY REFLECTOR - ARCAN MELLOR presents SAMUEL NIAS at The Duchy

2011-02-14T08:37:00.000-08:00

A Review of 'Insert Tiara' by Nicola Wright for MAP

2010-10-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

In conversation with Lila de Magalhaes and Micheal White about 'Insert Tiara'

2010-08-02T11:51:00.001-07:00

'Insert Tiara' at +44 141 Gallery, Glasgow

2010-07-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

Preview

Friday 30.07.10

19:30 – 21:30

31.07.10 – 21.08.10

Weds – Sat

12:00 – 18:00

For their forthcoming exhibition at +44 141 Gallery, Lila de Magalhaes and Michael White will present a series of performative objects consisting of new sculptures, paintings and video work to create the context for a one-off collaborative event.

The evening of the opening will feature a series of performances commencing from 19:30.

Lila de Magahlaes, born Brazil, 1986, has exhibited with The Duchy Gallery and was selected for New Work Scotland at The Collective Gallery, 2008 for which she was also undertook a residency at Studio Voltaire, London.

Michael White, born Ayrshire, 1987 was selected for New Work Scotland, 2009 and has exhibited in group shows in Glasgow and London.

'Insert Tiara @ SWG3' by Andrew Cattanach for THE SKINNY

2010-07-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Someone has thought it a good idea to show the work of Michael White and Lila de Magalhaes in an intimate two man show. Both these New Work Scotland veterans have distinctly divergent practices. Michael White makes dirty, big sculptures that only someone of his proportions could conceivably make, while Lila de Magalhaes is best known for unsettling videos peopled by odd characters in wigs.

Pretty messed up, you might be thinking to yourself. Well you’re probably right. In a sneak preview of his work White revealed some unwieldy looking objects that are as uncompromising as they are aesthetically subversive. Towering plaster forms, all craggy and mottled with colour, sit heavy on the studio floor. He points to a spiky bit of plastic at the base of one sculpture and explains that it’s a nose, soon to be framed by an equally crude mouth and eyes.

De Magalhaes, the more cerebral of the two, has been making some videos involving a guy with a yellow face. Marrying humour with the disturbing, she’ll draw on the carnivalesque and notions of urban shamanism. Inspired by the films of Harmony Korine, amongst other things, Magalhaes looks to exhibit a multi-screen video installation alongside sculptures and drawings. Expect to see objects made out of foodstuffs that highlight the sordid domesticity of her videos.

Perhaps not as oddly matched as you might think, both White and de Magalhaes are interested in the staged and the theatrical. What is more, they share a similarly carefree attitude to making art. “We’re just doing what we want to do,” de Magalhaes explains.

Looks like it’s going to get messy.

'In the Frame' by Simon Bishop for the OLD PAULINE NEWS

2010-06-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

'Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art' - Oliver Basciano for ART REVIEW

2010-04-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

'Glasgow International: less of a show and more of a marketing umbrella. But you know what? There is nothing wrong with that. Instead of some sledge-hammered theme – 'affect', ‘touched' – it would seem the organisers programmed a few key events and asked everyone else to make an extra special effort with their shows. The result was an influx of Volcano-surmounting artworld types journeying north to meet their Scottish counterparts for two days of art and frivolity. Clutching maps, we toured Glasgow’s myriad of publicly funded, commercial and artist-run spaces and found, by and large, quality stuff.

...

'Down an industrial back road, opposite the Modern Institute’s new space (the Jim Lambie show was still being set up when I popped my head round: very colourful was all I could make out), is a series of rail arches, one of which has been commandeered by the artist-run organisation SWG3 as a project space. The whitewashed walls played well with a tight solo show of work by Dan Miller. Not known to me before – though he has a good CV of shows around Glasgow, with solo outings in Copenhagen and Düsseldorf – there’s a pristine pale minimalism to his practice. The pared-down nature of the paint application operates, refreshingly, at odds with the usual glossiness that in-vogue Scottish minimalism so often adheres to. The exhibition plays with a sense of symmetry and repetition that suggest an interlocking algorithm operating, hidden, behind the curation.'

Jimmy Durham - 'Universal Miniature Golf (The Promised Land)'

2010-04-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

'STATE OF THE ART NATION: Glasgow's Children of the Evolution' - Amy Birchard for the SKINNY

2010-01-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

"The saying goes that when a recession hits and stock is down, skirt hemlines go up. So too, it would appear, do the motivations and aspirations of the nation's newest artists – moneymaking never really featured on most art grads' 'to do' lists.

Glasgow, navigable on foot unlike London and its wearisome commutes, has a lot to offer gallery goers. Many newcomers walk in the wake of astute dealers such as Sorcha Dallas, whose Glasgow gallery has an increasingly well-regarded reputation internationally. Graduating from painting at GSA in 1998, Dallas and Marianne Greated founded Switchspace, producing a series of one-off contemporary exhibitions in unusual locations.

More recently (six months ago to be precise) The Duchy, set up by Ainslie Roddick and Lauren Currie, has opened on Duke Street with a gallery and studio space. Say the curators: “We took advantage of the economic downturn by finding two properties with cheap rent in a central location”. Their approach heralds a return to painting and an emphasis on practitioner engagement.

In up and coming Bridgeton, four graduates, including photographer Max Slaven, have renovated a building and installed erstwhile classmates. David Dale’s twenty-foot gallery would have proved a financial impossibility in a la-di-dah location, but here occupants get value for money and gritty ‘garret chic’ into the bargain.

As the Scottish Arts Council tightens its belt to the last hole, a drastically diminished public budget demands ingenuity. SWG3 has recently raised its profile as a forum for both emerging and established artists, extending the runs of its exhibitions to give the public more opportunity to drop in, and streamlining its promotional methods. Their recent fundraising dinner used their reputation to good effect, an art A-list attendance ensuring the generation of impressive sums of money to channel back into the studios and gallery – a remarkable feat in present conditions.

Curator and artist Simon Gowing has this advice for young upstarts: “Offer your time in exchange for experience, but don't expect to get paid (nobody does!).

“Transmission via the Chateaux and the Project Rooms, there's always room for something more and an audience that wants to know. A good party afterwards helps them remember - it is Glasgow after all.”

'ART RANT' - Rosamund West's pick of the year for the SKINNY

2009-12-01T04:16:00.000-08:00

"December being traditionally the time to present the experience of a year in list form, my highlights of 2009 were: The Glasgow Gallery Weekend, particularly the Jamie Radcliffe exhibition which I like even more now that I've found out it came from actual real-life stalking. The Venice Biennale was both terrifying and dazzling, bringing me face to face with the international art world and leaving me quite scared. The PLACE Projects' collaboration between Rachel Maclean and Simon Gowing in the Collective's guest room was small but perfectly formed. Trongate 103 made me want to move back to Glasgow, until I remembered the incessant rain."

'APERTURE, 1724' in DOUBLE TAKE at the Milton Gallery, London

2009-11-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

Installation view

'Now I Know My ABCs' archive on Central Station

2009-11-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

Central Station have published all the material gleaned from their coverage of 'Now I Know My ABCs' 2009 at +44 141 Gallery. This includes photographic documentation and Johnny Barrington's two part documentary film that they commissioned.

It can be found here: www.thisiscentralstation.com/collections/now-i-know-my-abcs.aspx

British Council Collection choice for Central Station

2009-11-02T09:20:00.000-08:00

As part of my involvement in the Central Station 'First Wave' I was asked to choose a piece of work from the British Council Collection that I admired and write about it. I chose Adam Chodzko's intervention at Frieze 2004, Night Watch.

"The only creatures to ever get into Frieze for free... An interesting look at how a viewer experiences the gallery. The animals represent the most uninitiated of viewers, robbing the works of their definition as 'art' and reducing them to objects and obstacles. The map invites the human visitors to do the same, encouraging them to navigate the space according to baser stimuli - instinct and smell rather than conventional signage. The prospect that one of the members of the night shift may have exercised their critical faculties all over one of the pieces is very exciting."

Adam Chodzko (b. 1965) was commissioned by Frieze (www.frieze.co.uk) to make a poster proposing an alternative mapping of the art fair site to be distributed free to visitors. In the early hours of the morning, in the lead up to, and during, the 2004 Frieze Art Fair, animals roam the site. Choosing their own paths through the labyrinthine interior they collectively form a nocturnal parade. Their plotted tracks serve as advice to the daylight visitor.

The British Council Accession No. P8o88

Original article: www.thisiscentralstation.com/collections/british-council/night-shift.aspx

'New Work Scotland Programme' - A review by Rosalie Doubal for THE LIST

2009-10-29T04:57:00.000-07:00

"Three swings with long chains made of china and crockery currently hang from a great height in Craig’s Close. Staggered and poised, they drop in close proximity to the walls: only chinks remain between the unforgiving brick and the fragile porcelain. If you were to swing from them, their supports would crunch and crack in your grip, a thought that lends a menacing depth to this, artist Jennifer Grant’s playful piece.

"Standing sentry for the level of work currently exhibited by the rest of the New Work Scotland artists, Grant’s off-site installation proffers a raw mix of risk and considered creation; an alternative model that in turn makes provision for alternative thoughts. Inside, Glasgow School of Art graduate Michael White’s sculptures stage a not-so-formal investigation into formalist concerns. Lacking the sensitivity exhibited elsewhere, the artist juxtaposes guttural and dissonant plastered sculptures with sleek geometrics.

"The Guest Room has been turned over to selected curators PLACE Projects, a Glasgow-based artist-led initiative. As a result, much lauded young artist Rachel Maclean has collaborated with Simon Gowing, and a pleasing presentation of Maclean’s signature hyper-kitsch sits with a minimal work by Gowing. The most interesting work, however, comes from Anna Tanner. Washes of paint on paper re-work and stretch the medium, and like Grant’s successful works, point to alternative ways of imagining a scene. One to watch, Tanner achieves incredible levels of suggestion from little workings, and her paintings, which contain unbearably light references to the film Western, elicit an unmatched vitality."

'A Time and A Place' - An Interview with Rachel Cloughton for THE JOURNAL

2009-10-28T06:04:00.000-07:00

Now in its second year, Place Projects is fast becoming an integral part of the Collective Gallery’s ever-expanding New Work Scotland Programme. The artist-led initiative aims to support emerging artists by developing a community in which constant dialogue leads to the creation of art. Places are coveted by recent graduates, eager to be nurtured by one of Scotland’s leading galleries and keen to collaborate with some of the country’s most talented up-and-coming artists.

In keeping with this spirit of the free exchange of ideas, The Journal spoke to Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) graduate Rachel MacLean and Glasgow School of Art alumnus Simon Gowing. Maclean and Gowing’s collaboration, The Principal Inhabitants of the Moon, is the first of two Place Projects to be shown at the Collective Gallery.

Q. Rachel, how is the environment you're working in now—within the NWSP—different to your experience at ECA?

RM: It's exciting to be working collaboratively, as my experience at the ECA has largely been working towards criteria which specifically assess individual achievement. It is great to work with Simon, Place Project and The Collective—it's an opportunity to connect with the art scene outside of the college and encounter different perspectives and working methods, which has helped me to expand my ideas beyond the framework of the art institution.

Q. How did your collaboration come about?

RM: The collaboration was curated by Place Project, who organised individual interviews with a selection of recent graduates to decide who could work together.

Q. What can we expect from your exhibition?

SG: The exhibition came about as a response to William Hogarth’s etching Some Principal Inhabitants of the Moon, a surreal and obscure work depicting a fantasy lunar ruling-class, illustrating figures with personified, semi-mechanical attributes.

Hogarth’s image is framed within the aperture of a telescope, allowing the voyeur access to a distant fantasy. However, this vision is defined by familiar signifiers, and as with so many human musings on extra-terrestrial life, we try and explain the inexplicable in terms that we can comprehend—explaining the tendency for alien's to be humanoid.

The print, rather than simply a whimsical fantasy of moon life, can be viewed as a satirical mirror to life at Hogarth’s time. In this sense, he is an outsider looking at contemporary life as something he doesn't understand, trying to understand it in terms he can comprehend. What is created is an abstract. As a parallel, the exhibition is an abstract of an abstract— there is a gap in understanding (created by our ignoring the initial intention of the print) upon which we have created further abstract.

Q. As recent fine art graduates, is it difficult to set up a successful, independent art practice?

RM: In some ways it depends upon what that practice involves. The more studio space and equipment necessary the more financially difficult it is to fund your work beyond college. However, I believe that with the networking opportunities offered by the internet, it is much easier to broadcast your work for free, and connect with a local and international art scene than before. Also, if it's not too romantic a suggestion, I like the notion that some of the most interesting creative moments can emerge from working within undesired limitations—though if you remind me of this optimism in a few months, I may have changed my mind.

For now it seems MacLean and Gowing’s "most interesting creative moments" will have to wait, though their current situation is far from undesirable. With the increasing popularity and prestige of the New Work Scotland Programme their artworks have suddenly been catapulted under the art world’s microscope. With the Collective Gallery as a springboard to their future careers surely the only way from here is up?

'Curating the Collaborative II' by Nicola Wright for the COLLECTIVE forum

2009-10-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

"The previous post asked the question ‘what are the parameters of collaborative practice.’ In answer to this, several answers were already given by PLACE’s contribution to NWSP; the partnerships between artists and then following this, between artists, curators and organizations. However, when anticipating the result of the collaboration between Simon Gowing and Rachel MacLean, ‘The Principal Inhabitants of the Moon’, my immediate preconception was that the object, installation, video or other artwork shown would trace provenance back to both artists; that is, an artwork conceived of and then executed by the two participants. As there is Tatham and O’Sullivan, Cardiff and Bures Millar, Chapman and Chapman, there would be Gowing and MacLean. This, of course, not only narrows the given ‘parameters of collaborative practice’ but seems to assume too much about how the partnership could play out. These artists had to discover a common ground, rather than having previously established one. There are several points of note in the documentation presented by PLACE; for example they find that they both have an artistic interest in ‘Second Life’. Perhaps the notion of two separate authorships within the resulting exhibition are only clear with a familiarity with each artists’ practice, but given PLACE’s documentation, such knowledge appears inevitable. It seems significant that Gowing proposed William Hogarth’s etching ‘Some of the Principal Inhabitants of the Moon’ (1724) as a starting point because it directly reminded him of MacLean’s practice, given that her histrionic aesthetic remains so entirely uncompromised. Her totem of beatific yet grotesque figurines, glittering babies turned clowning gargoyles, takes centre stage in the Guest Room. Gowing’s presence is felt in a subtler yet equally persuasive way. The sculptures which inhabit the corners of the space are abstractions of the framing devices used in Hogarth’s etching and, fitted into the Guest Room’s unusual architecture, his cornices ‘curate’ the viewers gaze, appropriating the framing devices which are already given- the view through the doorway and the window. While MacLean’s totem could function autonomously, Gowing’s sculptures seem to be made in direct response to both the totem and the space in which they are placed. Does this constitute a ‘collaboration’ then? Perhaps not in the terms which I expected it to, but a clear relationship is established between the two works. MacLean’s totem certainly grabs, as an outlandish, uncanny, technicolor interpretation of the source material – and also very funny - but it is Gowing’s work which alters and eventually outlines the space in which we view it"

'APERTURE, 1724', 2009

2009-10-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

Installation view

THE PRINCIPAL INHABITANTS OF THE MOON, 2009

2009-10-22T05:42:00.000-07:00

Installation view

'New Work Scotland 09' - A Review by Rosamund West for THE SKINNY

2009-10-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

"First out of the trap for the tenth instalment of New Work Scotland are three artists: Michael White and Anna Tanner inside the gallery, and Jennifer Grant with an offsite installation down Craig’s Close across the road. Grant’s stacked glass and ceramic ornaments, glued together and suspended above the path of a dank Edinburgh wynd is the standout work of this round of exhibiting, lending a touch of magic and a wee surprise to a public thoroughfare, an intervention to subtly improve the daily grind.

"From the street outside the gallery, we are confronted by White’s giant, brightly coloured, rough hewn sculptures. They initially seem merely poorly made, yet gain a new sense of purpose when re-appraised after a brief reading of the accompanying publication. Is this necessarily a good thing, to have work that only functions when contextualised by an accompanying text? Well, in the context of New Work Scotland, with its specially commissioned essays from emerging art writers and its emphasis on demonstrating the levels of collaboration necessary to create successful artwork outwith the college environment, yes it is.

"Even the text could not engage this particular viewer with the work of Anna Tanner, unfortunately. Freeform writing to accompany allusive painting leads, in this case, to bafflement. On a more positive note, the Guest Room’s takeover by Glasgow-based curating team PLACE Projects (not to be confused with the Edinburgh-based curating team, The Place Project) looks set to create a fertile ground for discussion and invention, as they marry up two pairs of recent graduates and get them to work collaboratively and then exhibit. First to experiment with the process are Rachel MacLean & Simon Gowing. The completed outcomes are not yet on show at the time of writing, but we await them with bated breath."

THE PRINCIPAL INHABITANTS OF THE MOON @ Collective

2009-10-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

PLACE Projects present 'THE PRINCIPAL INHABITANTS OF THE MOON', a collaboration between SIMON GOWING and RACHEL MACLEAN, as part of this years New Work Scotland program at COLLECTIVE.

PLACE Projects' core focus is on building a community of emerging artists and to provide supporting opportunities for that community to make and show work. PLACE Projects view artist's networks as fundamental to supporting the ability of an artist to believe in the purpose of generating artworks. Communal purpose and consistent dialogue between peers allows a sense of possibility to be fostered.

PREVIEW: THURSDAY 22nd OCTOBER 6 - 9 pm

22/10 - 22/11

COLLECTIVE

22 - 28 Cockburn Street

Edinburgh

EH1 1NY

'Review: New Work Scotland 2009' - Kamila Kocialkowska for THE STUDENT

2009-10-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

"'Contemporary artist' is not a career choice for the light-hearted. For those not adept at schmoozing with Russian oligarchs, it can be extremely difficult to get a foot in the door.

"It is therefore encouraging to see a gallery of Collective's calibre dedicating a show to the works of recent graduates art students.

"The most interesting work to be seen here isn’t actually housed by the gallery, but is hung as an off-site installation in Craig’s Close; one of those narrow, cobbled, delicately urine-scented alleys you find dotted around Edinburgh.

"Despite looking suspiciously like the abode of rapists, it's worth braving an excursion down here to see Jennifer Grant’s work. She has worked an eclectic assortment of glass vases, candlesticks, porcelain jugs into a junk-shop-assemblage neatly threaded together onto a string and hung up from the lofty buildings. The overall effect; of innocent, playful splashes of colour against the dirty brick walls is wholly charming.

"The on-site works are less consistent. Michael White’s mixed-media sculptures are intriguingly beautiful with their contrast of shiny, plastic forms and crumbling, plaster formations. Elsewhere small, crudely painted canvases of soldiers, dead horses and stormy skies are hung simplistically in a largely bare room. These look potentially intriguing, but on closer inspection bear more affinities with GCSE artwork than anything else.

"Artists Rachel McLean and Simon Gowing are also featured, who on the 22nd October will unveil a collaborative performance piece. This, no doubt, will be excellent; McLean was one of the absolute stand-out degree-show names last year. For the moment, the gallery displays their artistic dialogue so far:hundreds of pages of their e-mailed correspondence, are neatly stapled together and fasted to the wall with ring binder clips.

"All in all, it looks marginally less exciting than the contents of an average accountant’s filing cabinet. If you find yourself with 5 or 6 hours to spare one day, by all means go and have a read. Despite a slight mix of standards, however, its still encouraging to see these burgeoning young artists enter the professional world, and certainly worth a visit."

RESIGN at the opening of HEAVY INFLUENCE

2009-09-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

HEAVY INFLUENCE, RAW, JIM COLQUHOUN & ALEX HETHERINGTON from Alex Hetherington on Vimeo.

Raw footage from the opening of HEAVY INFLUENCE at ESW, 14 August 2009. Shot by Dan Brown. DJs Janie Nicoll & Rachel Thibbotumunuwe. Hetherington will develop performances and film screenings around pre-existing material which will build in layers, constantly changing during the exhibition. The concept of virtual spaces will be exploited by connecting the artists and activities in Scotland with equivalent artists and activities in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

With: Jim Colquhoun, Ben Shaffer, Ben Fallon, Lyndsay Mann, Lewis Holleran, Janie Nicoll, Simon Gowing, Peter Nelson, Karla Milosovich, Richard T Walker, Chris McCann and Victoria Skogsberg, and references to material from 1980 motion picture Cannibal Holocaust, directed by Ruggero Deodato.

RESIGN at 'Who's your Dada?'

2009-08-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

Who's Your Dada? from Alex Hetherington on Vimeo.

Performance, August 18 2009, at the installation Heavy Influence, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, featuring Alex Hetherington and Chris McCann. Part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2009.

HEAVY INFLUENCE @ Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

2009-08-02T10:59:00.001-07:00

I will be exhibiting at the Edinburgh Arts Festival in HEAVY INFLUENCE, a show curated by Alex Hetherington. The show opens at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop on the 14th August from 6-8pm.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
25 Hawthornvale,
Newhaven,
Edinburgh, EH6 4JT

15 - 30th August

NOW I KNOW MY ABCS, 2009

2009-08-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Extensive documentation of the NOW I KNOW MY ABCs show can be found on the SWG3 website at www.swg3.tv/swg3/?p=3647

'ALPHABET STREET' - Emlyn Firth's review for CENTRAL STATION

2009-07-23T05:17:00.000-07:00

"So much to say, so little time to say it in. Just about got my voice back after this one.

"The Now I Know my ABC's exhibition had been on our radars for a while – exactly the sort of self-determined, emergent artist activity we like to get excited about here at Central Station HQ. For those uninitiated, the exhibition takes a curated assortment of graduates from GSA, ECA, DoJ and Grays and reconfigures their offerings for a one-off show in the +44 141 Gallery in SWG3. (Coincidentally one of the ABCers, Emma Macintyre, was also the recipient of a years free studio space, that SWG3 offer to graduates annually – what a great scheme).

"The brainchild of Jamie Kenyon and Mutley, this year's show was curated by GSA graduate Simon Gowing. Handily they are on the forum too so you can ask them really tricky questions yourselves, and I'll just give you a brief and inaccurate description, because this was a gutsy, brilliant and at times hard to fathom exhibition. There was a visual barrage of kitsch and craft – dayglo pink castles, gold lame drapes, a central column dressed in Mexican pinata style and even a video homage to the 8 colour load graphics of a ZX Spectrum. The show became darker on closer inspection, more of a black comedy than a carnival...

"Our contribution to proceedings was two fold. Filmmaker Johnny Barrington spent the day documenting the work and interviewing the artists. I can't wait to see the results, because Johnny appears to be no ordinary filmmaker. His set up for the interviews for instance were about as far removed from the traditional fly-on-the-wall doc as you could imagine, referencing 60's avant-garde lighting and Bryan Ferry pop-video direction.

"We also decided to host the after-party. We thought it would be a good opportunity to chat to those folk who wanted to know more or who had signed up to Central Station. Chat above rocket-sized decibel levels and 350 people. What a fantastic night. We got music/arts/parties collective Lucky Me to do a showcase of their talents for us, including fellow forumista Tom Scholefield (Konx-Om-Pax) on music and visuals. SWG3 even kept it open an extra half hour we were all enjoying it so much! If you didn't make it along, too bad... if you did, would you mind telling your friends to re-enter their name onto the landing page as most of their writing was illegible. That's the last time I take a clipboard out raving."

'ABCs OPENING 17/07/09

2009-07-18T04:54:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to all those who came down to the opening of NOW I KNOW MY ABCs last night. There was a great turn out for both the exhibition and the after party. Particular thanks to Emlyn and his team at Central Station, without whose collaboration the after party would not have been possible.

NOW I KNOW MY ABCs flyer

2009-07-05T02:22:00.000-07:00

THE SKINNY REVIEW THE GSA DEGREE SHOW

2009-06-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

"Degree shows are the most emotionally rife affairs on the art calendar, ripe for extended metaphors all round. If you can get past the queasy feeling that you’re watching a thousand hipsters publicly push out their first born in a bloody performance sans epidural – then the whole affair comes terrifyingly close to a trip to Primark. A headfirst dive into a physically un-consumable pit of art / sequin body-con mini skirts; followed by a series of huffing and puffing attempts to appear more equipped than your fellow viewers / shoppers; concluded 2 ½ hours later by a weary exit, convinced that you, and you alone, have found the best mixed media installation / plimsolls on offer. Sacrilegious but true.

"While the high street has its recurring heroes, a certain type of work tends to survive at degree shows as well. And subtlety is rarely it. Humour often comes up trumps in the battle to woo the hungry, tired and caffeine-starved hoards that traipse through; humour and nigh perfect craftsmanship, plus a bit of good luck from the gods of space allocation.

"Down a blackened corridor, Simon Gowing’s brilliantly effective neon work, Resign, captures an element of what’s at stake all round: a foreboding sense of the climate these graduates are stepping into and the reactive, adaptive approaches that’ll be necessary for survival. It seems fitting then that Gowing has stepped up to the curatorial plate for Now I Know My ABCs, the third annual Scottish graduates' group exhibition, held at +44 141 Gallery at SWG3 from 17 July.

"In the photography camp, Travis Souza’s touching piece, 20 Ruskin Square: Portrait / Archive, meticulously maps out the home of Jean Archibald, whose passing during the completion of the project transforms the book of collected images and email correspondence into a poignant epitaph of a life lived. A similar manipulation of the complicated relation between the universal and personal is drawn out in Harriet Lowther’s humble approach to the monumentality of consumerism in The Big Thank You Project. Dominating an entire wall, in a typically minimalist / conceptual spread, Lowther has presented copies of ‘thank you’ letters shipped out to the producers of everything from Clarins moisturiser to Seven Seas Orange Syrup and Cod Liver Oil.

"A deft conceptual subtlety is saved from obscurity by sheer scale in Max Slaven’s expansive work, Piece by Piece. Impeccably executed, scientifically presented photographs of geological specimens from multiple gallery buildings propose a complex stance between artist, viewer and institution. In a simultaneous act of homage and guerilla appropriation Slaven reflects the text and mortar of the art world back at itself, laying terrifyingly bare the literal ideological structures which will so condition the future of this graduating class.

"On the way out, Nikolas Kalli’s Catch Me A Fairy video installations provide a fitting allegory for the tentative entry that these artists are about to make onto the proverbial high street and into the real world beyond. Big monitors huddle under tables, sheltering stooped, agitated figures that peer nervously at the feet that pass them by."

Rebecca Pottinger

The entire article can be found here:
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/46166-gsa-degree-show-2009

Artists chosen for 'ABCs

2009-06-17T03:42:00.000-07:00

Having toured the Scottish degree shows, I have chosen 11 artists from the four institutions to show in the graduate show at +44 141. They are...

From GSA:
Carrie Skinner
Max Swinton
Ralf Mackenzie
Travis Souza

From ECA:
Rachel Maclean
Jake Rusby
Chris Mackie
Richard Bracken

From Gray's:
Angus Cameron

From DCA:
Emma Mcintyre
Jamie Fitzpatrick

GLASGOW HERALD GSA DEGREE SHOW REVIEW

2009-06-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

"As you wander round a degree show, it's tempting to pick out emerging themes. Early on in my sneak preview of this year's show at Glasgow School of Art, I appear to be writing down the words apocalyptic and bleak in my notebook more times than seems healthy.

"Possibly I've lost the plot by reading too many artists' statements, or perhaps Fiona Brown Hovelt's arresting image, staring scarily at me with its one eye from this year's degree show literature, has influenced me from the off. Whatever. I'm seeing bleakness in all directions.

"In The Mackintosh Gallery, Rachel Wright has used the cold unforgiving stone carvings of Glasgow's Necropolis as an eerie backdrop to her paintings, which are almost hallucinogenic in their ferocity. Next to her, Eleanor Royle has produced a series of starkly beautiful photographic etchings incorporating metal plates used to board up doors on disused buildings.

"Upstairs, Jen White, influenced by Kafka and HG Wells, has been doing dystopia too, collaging and merging machinery like a woman possessed, while Julia Heslop has been exploring the "legacy of de-industrialisation", separating bleak from dispiriting in loosely painted scenes which convey a real sense of place. In another room, Amy Birchard's powerful paintings are a mix of Hitchcock meets Freud in a particularly disturbing dream.

"It took a laugh to lift the spirits and that came from Harriet Lowther's Big Thank You project, profiled in yesterday's Herald, which walks a fine line between entertaining and pertinent.

"Behind Lowther's installation, Simon Gowing's Resign of The Times neon signage made me do a double-take. There are a good few conceptual layers to his resign signage at the end of a darkened corridor, but it works. Does this mean there is light at the end of the tunnel?

"All the fine art students' work is to be found in the famous Mac building and adjacent McLellan Galleries. It's impossible to view everything in one take, and, bleakness aside, I found genuinely fresh and interesting work here, particularly in fine art photography and printmaking - always strong subjects at GSA. In fine art photography, Yngvild Mehren's crystal-clear Norwegian landscapes still linger, while Merry Swarbrick's playful use of language to explore past events is worth taking time over.

"I also detected a real will to get back into the medium of paint. Louis Guy's Breughel-inspired narratives on the excesses of military heroism and Beijing artist Yuan Wang, painting from life and memory, reinforce this point.

"Before you head over the road to textiles, jewellery and silversmithing, visual communications, product design engineering and product design, keep an eye out for Desmond Church's bike inlaid into the famous Mackintosh railings."

The entire article can be found here:

www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.2513834.0.talent_shines_even_from_bleak_subjects_at_students_show.php

NOW I KNOW MY ABCs (Poster)

2009-06-01T03:36:00.000-07:00

Poster designed by Rosie Ferrier and printed by Edwin Pickstone.

WEST HIGHLAND TERRIER (A RELIEF) @ GSA Degree Show, 2009

2009-05-30T03:32:00.000-07:00

Smooth-Cast 300 plastic casting resin

DEGREE SHOW INSTALLATION, 2009

2009-05-30T03:28:00.000-07:00

Installation view

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A WEST HIGHLAND TERRIER, 2009

2009-05-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

Polyurethane foam, white fur, elastic

NOW I KNOW MY ABCS @ +44 141 GALLERY

2009-05-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

In July I will be curating the third annual graduate show at the Studio Warehouse's +44 141 gallery in Glasgow. The artists will be picked from the students showing at the degree shows at Scotland's four art schools (Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Gray's School of Art and the Duncan of Jordanston College of Art & Design).

GYRONNY OF EIGHT, 2009

2009-05-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

12mm MDF, Acrylic Paint

IN-WORLD STUDIO

2009-04-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

This is the Glasgow School of Art's island in Second Life. It will be the site for the IN-WORLD STUDIO project, which is being planned in collaboration with RM*. Students have been invited to work with in-world tools to create site-specific works on this island.

RESIGN FOR THE TIMES, 2009

2009-03-21T12:04:00.000-07:00

Neon signage, perspex, 2x2 timber, gloss paint

RESIGN OF THE TIMES (INVITE)

2009-03-16T00:47:00.000-07:00

A public art work being shown in the old Bannermans Pharmacy building at 291 Maryhill Road. It will be available to view from the 18-20th March between the hours of 11:00-15:00.

WEST HIGHLAND TERRIER (RELIEF), 2009

2009-02-21T09:25:00.001-08:00

5 mm foam board

A relief of the face of the west highland terrier captured in the documentation North / South. Checkmate. Installed low on the wall at the height of a dog's head.

NORTH / SOUTH. CHECKMATE: A RETROSPECTIVE, 2009

2009-02-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

Installation view

An exhibition of work documenting and responding to a correspondence chess match staged across the Clyde in February last year. More images of the show can be found on my Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/simondonaldpetergowing).

NORTH / SOUTH. CHECKMATE: A RETROSPECTIVE (POSTER), 2009

2009-02-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

A3 graph paper, fine-liner

An advertisement for my first solo show in the Assembly Gallery, Glasgow.

www.ARCANMELLOR.co.uk

2009-02-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

ARCAN MELLOR has a new website (www.arcanmellor.co.uk). At present it is still under construction. Check back soon for information on new projects at the gallery.

Documentary photographs of our first exhibition, ABOUTTIME, can be seen on ARCAN MELLOR's Flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/arcan_mellor_gallery).

RESIGN at Beer Barnes Circus, 2009

2009-02-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

Neon signage, perspex

RESIGN installed at the 'Beer Barnes Circus' show at Glasgow School of Art.

RESIGN, 2009

2009-01-31T14:28:00.000-08:00

Neon signage, perspex

The final sign shown in the North / South. Checkmate given physical form as a neon sign . In order to give the sign a life beyond the event it will be installed in a variety of different contexts. The first of these is in Beer Barnes Circus, a show of new work by final year students from the Glasgow School of Art.

RESIGN in progress

2009-01-26T14:02:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Norry at ID Signs in Easterhouse for all his help in making RESIGN happen.

ABOUTTIME at ARCAN MELLOR

2009-01-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

The opening of the ARCAN MELLOR gallery at 291 Maryhill Rd, Glasgow. ABOUTTIME presents a selection of new work from Glasgow-based and international artists.

HANNA BAYATTI
ALEX POLLARD
LEO BRUNOTODD
PHOEBE COLLINGS-JAMES
PATRICK COUTU
LILA DE MAGALHAES
JESSE OWEN WADE
TOMAS POBLETE

'Another Place' Wrapping Paper, 2009

2009-01-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

Spray paint on cartridge paper, stamp ink, card, string

My father's birthday gift wrapped in a second edition of 'Another Place'.

Another Place, 2008

2008-12-11T18:30:00.000-08:00

Spray paint on cartridge paper

A drawing exhibited in 'Another Place' at Glasgow School of Art. In January, the show will travel to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China.

Glasgow School of Art Goes Pop, 2008

2008-11-29T18:30:00.000-08:00

Record sleeves, spray paint and ink

Sleeve designs for 9 special editions of the single Tears for Smokey by Paul Vickers and the Leg. The record was released as part of the Glasgow School of Art Goes Pop compilation on the Leeds based label Art Goes Pop (www.myspace.com/artgoespop).

The Curious Incident of the Dog on the Clydeside, 2008

2008-10-20T03:54:00.000-07:00

A4 black & white print, A4 plastic folders, cable ties

An attempt to get in contact with all the participants in the North. South. Checkmate event. This dog and its owner subconsciously became a key part of the documentation of the project. The adverts are an attempt to start a dialogue with them. A mobile phone number has been set up as a point of contact for any responses.

Sesam Öffne Dich, 2008

2008-06-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

Overhead projector, photographic print on acetate

An installation in Domäne Marienburg, a castle in Germany. The exhibition was part of the Re:Do project, a collaboration between students from the Glasgow School of Art and Hildesheim University. It was discovered that a set of external doors had been plaster-boarded on the interior. This plaster-board creates part of the gallery wall. The projector shone the image of the exterior doors on to the gallery wall.

PTFC, 2008

2008-06-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

German flag, cardboard stencil, white paint

An observation that the colours in the German flag are the same as those played in by Partick Thistle, a football team in the west end of Glasgow. The flag would not look out of place on the terraces of Firhill, Partick's home ground.

When I move you move, 2008

2008-05-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Overhead projector, printed acetate, chess pieces, projection screen

Installation as part of the SEA Salt exhibition in an abandoned shop-front space in the Salt Market area of Glasgow. At the opening a Chess set was set-up on top of an OHP for viewers to interact with. The game played was back-projected into the shop window to be seen from the street. The projector abstracts the pieces and the moves. The piece creates a link between the interior and the exterior of the gallery.

North. South. Checkmate, 2008

2008-02-20T10:59:00.000-08:00

Dry whiteboards, dry whiteboard markers, travel chess sets, binoculars, kitchen chairs, collapsible packing cases

A chess match played across the Clyde at Finnieston, Glasgow. Both players came from competition chess clubs in the city. Moves were signalled from one side to another using large white boards and viewed through binoculars.

‘S’ for Throb, 22/11/07, 2007

2007-11-23T12:08:00.001-08:00

'S' Stamp, lots of people

Documentation of an intervention at the monthly art event Throb on 22nd November 2007. The regular entry stamp at the door of the Flying Duck was replaced with the aforementioned ‘S’ Stamp. Thus, every customer entering was, without notice, marked with an ‘S’.

'S’ Stamp, 2007

2007-11-23T12:08:00.000-08:00

Silicon rubber, wooden chisel handle

Moulded red silicon rubber dyed with oil paint. Motif on the stamp-face depicts the letter ‘S’.

Self-portrait as Douglas Gordon, as Kurt Cobain, as Andy Warhol, as Myra Hindley, as Marilyn Monroe, 2007

2007-10-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

Seventeen self-portraits whilst dressed in a white shirt and blond wig taken in front of a Hitchcock poster. These images document my attempt to mimic Douglas Gordon in his work, Self-portrait as Kurt Cobain, as Andy Warhol, as Myra Hindley, as Marilyn Monroe. In between shots the composition was reviewed and compared to the original. Adjustments were made.

Empire (Bootleg), 2007

2007-04-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

Green flute-board letters (A3)

Sign depicting the word EMPIRE in Brunswick Street, Glasgow. Both the site and the content of the sign referred to the Douglas Gordon work 'Empire', which was originally sited in the same place. Piece attached to the front of the Fox and Hound pub directly opposite the wall where Gordon’s work once hung.

1 x White Chalk, 2006

2006-05-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

Amplifier, Minidisc recording, Minidisc player

Sound work recording the length of time it takes for a fresh piece of chalk to be worn into dust, whilst writing “1 x White Chalk” over and over. The recording was played into the gallery space from a locked balcony, thus rendering the source invisible to the viewer. The gallery space was populated by the work of others, which were subtly changed by the presence of the sound.