26 May 2011 at 6pm
This month Spin members are invited to Gravitiy’s Rainbow to see and discuss work by artists David Batchelor, Jonathan Callan, John Chamberlain, Ian Davenport, Yves Klein, Peter Liversidge, Kay Rosen and Ed Ruscha.
Gravity’s Rainbow is, as the title suggests, an exhibition about colour, with a nod to the American writer Thomas Pynchon’s use of ‘borrowed’ colour adjectives as imaginative prompts in his novel of the same name. This is a show in which colour is integral to the work, and may even be its subject, but which always originates elsewhere: ‘Found’ colour – borrowed or stolen from outside the studio. This exhibition includes a diverse range of inspirational work including: a site-specific piece by Tommy Grace and Kate Owens who have transformed the gallery’s glass frontage by creating a temporary stained-glass window from coloured plastic bags; a wall drawing created by Ian Davenport by deconstructing an old master painting into its colour components and re-assembling it as a series of poured lines; and an sculptural installation by Peter Liversidge presenting found objects and fragments united only by their common hue.
This exhibition will be an opportunity for us to discuss how contemporary artists think about colour and to consider the shifting moment in twentieth-century art when artists began to perceive colour as ‘readymade’ rather than as a vehicle of spiritual or emotional content.
26 November 2004 at 6pm
Some of you may have heard Ed Ruscha speak with his old friend Janet Street Porter earlier in the month about his artistic practice and life in LA. We now have a chance to look at selected works in more depth, in the company of Glasgow-based artist, Ross Birrell.
Ruscha is a (anti-)hero of American art, and the exhibition at the SNGMA is a thrillingly comprehensive survey, starting with his very early pieces from 1961-2, and going right the way through to some great new works from this year. He was one of the first artists to combine word and image, popular material and philosophical concerns. Less widely known than the East coast Pop artists, Ruscha’s profile has been slow-burning, but his influence has been huge amongst designers, artists and filmmakers. Ruscha is the original and quintessential recorder of roadside signs and highway petrol stations – the current fad for books of Boring Postcards would not exist without him – but he is far from glib. With sustained viewing, elements of lyricism and compassion emerge from underneath his wryly observed phrases.
Like Ruscha, Ross Birrell explores, re-uses (and sometimes abuses) texts. His sources are more overtly literary and theoretical, but he nevertheless navigates the weirdness of human culture and experience in similar ways to Ruscha. He makes films, photographs, and text pieces based on his travels around the globe. He was co-editor of Justified Sinners, a survey of Scottish counter-culture. Ross won the Absolut Open at Inverleith House in 1999 and has shown recently in Amsterdam and Graz.
