30 September 2004 at 6pm
After the excesses of Festival time, we will be kicking off the autumn season with a spot of introspection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG). Keeping Faith is an exhibition of photos by recent ECA graduate Luke Watson.
For his acclaimed degree show at Edinburgh College of Art last year, Luke created a series of portraits of faith leaders from all over Scotland. The striking square format images stood out as perceptive and cleverly composed – with glimpses of the personality of each subject emerging from, and merging with, the institutional trappings of their faith (whether ornate, ritualistic, informal and so on).
Great news then, that James Holloway, Director of the Portrait Gallery has acquired the whole series, along with some newer pieces, for the SNPG permanent collection. We will talk to Luke about the conception behind his project, about his ‘photographic encounter’ with the subjects, the iconic style he has developed from renaissance painting, and the traces of subversive humour and affection that have crept into the pieces.
24 June 2004 at 6pm
See what Edinburgh’s art students have been up to this year, with a tour around the highlights of the Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show. This is the biggest extravaganza of new work in the annual calendar, and well worth dipping in to.
Your host for this month’s Spin will be Andrew Patrizio, Director of Research in Art and Design at ECA and recently a buyer for the Contemporary Art Society. Andrew has a refreshing and thoughtful approach to looking at contemporary art. Some of you will remember his bad jokes from last year at the Gallery of Modern Art and the Collective Gallery . . .
He will be joined by Catriona Grant, an acclaimed Scottish artist working in lens-based media. Catriona teaches in the Photography department, and has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London as well as further afield (her recent work has been shown in Basel and New York). She was featured in Portfolio 37 last year.
31 July 2003 at 6pm
We are delighted that this month’s Spin date coincides with the opening of the Festival show at Edinburgh College of Art, BLACK BOX. All members have been invited to join the opening party from 6-8pm in the College. This is a great opportunity to see the work before the exhibition opens to the public, and although there will be no formal discussion, Kirstie Skinner and Emma Nicolson look forward to chatting to members informally over drinks.
BLACK BOX is a collaboration organised by Edinburgh College of Art (eca) and the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), consisting of four acclaimed film installations by internationally-acclaimed artists: Turner prize nominees Jane and Louise Wilson (1999); Isaac Julien (2001); Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli and US-based artist Malerie Marder.
Jane and Louise Wilson present Gamma: a multi-screen installation that was shot at Greenham Common, the American military base in Berkshire which stored cruise missiles during the cold war. The abandoned nuclear installations and institutional architecture appear sinister and surreal in equal measure.
First exhibited in Germany at Documenta 11, Paradise Omeros by Isaac Julien is a semi-autobiographical narrative set on two island settings, St. Lucia and Britain in the 1960s. Julien conveys the story of a young boy’s expulsion from his native Caribbean paradise. Exploring post colonialism and globalisation, the work includes extracts from the poem Omeros by Nobel Prize Laureate, Derek Walcott.
Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli’s The End of the Human Voice portrays a broken love affair starring political activist Bianca Jagger as the forsaken heroine, and Vezzoli himself appears as the ex-lover who listens to her as she is pushed to despair. The film is based on Jean Cocteau’s monologue for theatre The Human Voice and brought to the screen by Roberto Rossellini.
At Rest by Malerie Marder is an exploration of how humans behave in the fleeting state of sleep. The footage, shot over two years in various locations including LA, London, New York and Paris, portrays desire without sexual intention. Beautifully shot, the work is accompanied by sound produced by Jonathon Bepler, who also composed the sound for Matthew Barney’s Cremaster films.
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.
24 April 2003 at 6pm
At the next session we will be looking at still and moving images from the Warhol to Koons display with Louise Milne from the Department of Film, Television and Media at Napier University. We will look at work by Bill Viola, Gilbert and George and Jeff Wall.
