28 October 2010 at 6pm
Our Spin event will be split over the two modern art galleries to see the work of Turner prize winner Richard Wright who was commissioned by The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art to make a major wall-painting in one of the public stairwells of the Dean Gallery; and Part 3 of the rehang What you see is where you’re at featuring the work of Luke Fowler.
Glasgow-based artist Richard Wright is best known for painting on walls, where the context and architecture of the space are the content of the work. Believing that ‘there’s already too much stuff in the world’ Wright describes his work as having similar qualities to a musical performance in that it exists in the memory of the creator and the audience, but can’t be owned, sold, or carried around.
The title of the rehang What you see is where you’re at comes from the film on display by award winning Glasgow-based artist Luke Fowler. Fowler’s film documents and explores the Kingsley Hall social experiment carried out in the 60s by the Scottish psychiatrist and writer R. D. Laing and is part of his ongoing investigation into radical thinkers and those responsible for the development of progressive ideas.
We look forward to you joining us in discussion to uncover how the Dean building’s architecture, history and present function have all informed Richard Wright’s work and how the medium of film has provided Luke Fowler with the unique ability to facilitate access to such a sensitive subject. This will also be a chance for us to see some of the new contemporary works on display as part of the re-hang including Robert Therrien and Gilbert and George.
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.
29 May 2003 at 6pm
For this month’s Spin event, we are going to look at the dynamic portraits exhibition by Mario Testino. Our invited guest will be Glyn Davis, Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at Edinburgh College of Art, who will reflect upon the works in this spectacular and fashionable show.
Some of the questions we will consider in the show are;
Portraits, are they art or not?
How do we go about evaluating portraits of people in the public eye?
What are the different visual dialogues that occur within the show?
Mario Testino is one of fashion’s most-sought-after and charismatic photographers, whose name is synonymous with images of glamour, style and joie de vivre. Based in London, Testino travels extensively for international fashion magazines, whilst his work has been exhibited widely in Europe and Japan. Mario Testino: Portraits brings together over 100 photographs, in which he has captured contemporary celebrities from the worlds of fashion, film and music. His subjects include Robbie Williams, Catherine Zeta Jones, Liz Hurley, Kate Moss, Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna, as well as Diana, Princess of Wales, photographed shortly before her death in 1997. Much of the fascination of his work lies in today’s cult of celebrity, youth, and a particular ideal of beauty.
