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.
25 October 2018
This month we will visit the fourth phase of the contemporary art exhibition series NOW which opens on Saturday 20 October at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Senior Curator Dan Brown will meet us there and offer us an insight into the production of this group exhibition and the practice of the artists represented.
Previous editions of NOW have shown work by Nathan Coley, Susan Philipsz and Jenny Saville (amongst many others), this instalment is built around the work of Turner Prize nominee (2012) Monster Chetwynd. Renowned for using diverse cultural and historical sources to create performative work, sculptural installation and video, Alalia Chetwynd was born in London in 1973; she later adopted the name Spartacus Chetwynd, then morphing into Marvin Gaye Chetwynd before earlier this year becoming Monster Chetwynd. She studied Anthropology and holds a BA in Fine Art from Slade School of Art (London). In 2002, she completed her studies with an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London.
Until 28 April 2019, Chetwynd’s work, including collage and painting, will be on show at Modern One surrounded by the work of four international contemporary artists: Moyna Flannigan (Scotland), Henry Coombes (Scotland), Betye Saar (USA) and Wael Shawky (Egypt). Although working in diverse mediums and with different approaches all these artists share a desire to challenge convention.
25 January 2018
For our first event for 2018, we will be exploring NOW – the second in a series of exhibitions which highlight the range of quality of work being made by artists associated with Scotland and across the globe.
The centrepiece of NOW is new and recent sound installations, paintings and photographs by the Turner Prize-winning artist, Susan Philipsz. Born in Glasgow in 1965 and now based in Berlin, she is renowned for her installations and how sound can trigger memory and heighten perception.
Seven Tears (2016) features seven synchronized record players each playing a single note taken from the baroque lament, Lachrimae or Seaven Teares Figured in Seaven Passionate Pavans (1604) by the English composer, John Dowland (1563-1626). The original composition was written for viol and lute and is based on the motif of a falling tear. Philipsz has isolated individual tones from the original song, making it less recognisable. Each note was produced by running a wet finger around the rim of glasses filled with water. These recordings have then been rendered onto transparent vinyl records.
To complement Seven Tears, Philipsz has made a series of salt paintings, produced by submerging painted canvases into a bath of salted water.
Other featured artists include paintings by Michael Armitage, a newly commissioned installation by Sarah Rose, photographs by Yto Barrada, video installation by Hiwa K and a display pairing 19th-century dolls with drawings by Kate Davis.
A key thread woven through the exhibition is storytelling and ideas around collecting, play, legacy, memory and loss.
27 April 2017
NOW is the first in a series of exhibitions which brings together contemporary art from Scotland with works by leading international artists. Over the next three years, through a series of six exhibitions, NOW will explore and celebrate the role of artists in society and the alternative ways of seeing and understanding the world through their work.
The centerpiece of the first show is Nathan Coley’s The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh, 2004. This iconic work features 286 sculptures which depict every place of worship listed in the 2004 edition of the Edinburgh Yellow Pages directory, offering a snapshot of the city at a particular moment in time through its places of religious meeting.
A key theme running through the exhibition is place and its relationship to time. Peter Doig’s imagined landscape is shown with Jock McFadyen’s real landscape of Carlton Hill recalled from memory. Rivane Neuenschwander’s Colheita Harvest 2013-2014 is a portrait of a London community through an installation of 365 shopping lists collected from supermarkets.
Performance Documents 1980-1987/2013 by Mona Hatoum presents rare archival material documenting the actions and performances she produced during the 1980s. And The Acrobat c.1982 by Peter Horobin, documents performances and interventions he did whilst on a month-long residency in Kassel under the persona of The Acrobat.
Joining us to discuss the works on show will be the curators of the exhibition, Lucy Askew and Julie-Ann Delaney.
