31 October 2019
This month we will be heading to the Gallery of Modern Art for the sixth and final instalment in their series of NOW exhibitions. The exhibition will focus on the work of Glasgow-born artist Katie Paterson (b.1981). A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art and Slade School of Art, London, Paterson’s work is developed through long periods of research and collaboration with specialists in scientific and other fields from around the world, creating intimate, poetic works that connect people with the environment around them.
The first major showing of Paterson’s work in a public institution in Scotland, the exhibition will explore key themes to her work such as deep time and the cosmos. The exhibition will feature the installation work Totality (2016), a large-scale mirror ball created from almost all known images of solar eclipses captured by humankind, and Light Bulb to Simulate Moonlight (2008), held in National Galleries of Scotland’s collection.
NOW also features work by Darren Almond, Shona Macnaughton and Lucy Raven. The artists’ work shares thematic ties with that of Paterson’s and will be shown within the surrounding gallery spaces.
Joining us to discuss Paterson’s work is Professor Andrew Patrizio from the University of Edinburgh. Andrew specialises in contemporary art exploring Scottish art since 1945 and on art, ecology and the environment.
24 September 2009 at 6pm
For this month’s Spin event, we will be visiting The Enlightenments at the Dean Gallery presented by the Edinburgh International Festival, to see works by acclaimed international contemporary artists Tacita Dean, Greg Creek, Gabrielle de Vietri, Lee Mingwei, Nathan Coley and Joshua Mosley.
Against the backdrop of Edinburgh and its philosophical history, the artworks that make up The Enlightenments offer contemporary observations on subjects including religion, philosophy, superstition, architecture, literature, natural history, the cosmos, scepticism, stoicism and social manners.
Highlights include a new commission by Glasgow-based, Turner Prize nominee Nathan Coley who has re-presented three gnarled tree trunks that supported the roof of a remote 19th century stone cottage in Perthshire. This new sculptural installation is described by curator Juliana Engberg as ‘like a forest but it’s not. It’s like a natural cathedral but it’s not. It’s like a sanctuary but perhaps it’s more spooky than that. It’s for the viewer to decide.’
Other highlights include Lee Mingwei’s Letter Writing Project which invites viewers to think about communicating with absent friends, family and loved ones by writing all the letters they always meant to. Joshua Mosley’s digital film of animated clay figures, presents a fictional encounter between two of history’s greatest thinkers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Blaise Pascal as they journey through a forest and talk about God and nature. In The I Don’t Know Show: Philosophy for Kids, artist Gabrielle de Vietri has recorded interviews with eight to twelve-year-olds in which they answer fundamental philosophical questions about art and life.
Joining us in discussion will be art historian and curator, Bill Hare. Bill is an Honorary Fellow in Scottish art history at the University of Edinburgh and Honorary Curator of the Universitys Fine Art Collection. He has also been a lecturer in modern art history and contemporary critical theory with Edinburgh College of Art for the past 30 years and has recently been apppointed Exhibition Curator of the ECA Cast Collection. He has curated many exhibitions working with major artists incuding Alan Davie, Eduardo Paolozzi and Boyle Family. His most recent exhibitions included Divided Selves-The Scottish Self-Portrait from the 17th Century to the Present (2006) at the Talbot Rice Gallery and Beyond Appearances-Painting and Picturing in Scottish Modern and Contemporary Painting (2007) at the City Art Centre.
