Yesterday I visited the Fleming Collections selection of Scottish talent chosen from this years RSA New Contemporaries exhibition in Edinburgh.
I approach this exhibition biased as I graduated with two exhibiting artists Ben Martin and Caitlyn Haynes.
Martins’ work is visible as soon as you walk into the gallery, drawing you down into the basement. Having been drawn into the web and upon closer examination, his work holds an element of risk and impermanence in its strong structure and exploration of weight and balance. The use of weight and rope create volume and an immersive space through its geometric aesthetic. The monochrome of black rope against the white gallery walls is bold and juxtaposed by the raw aesthetic of the found weights that are integral in the creation of the work. The stillness of the potentially kinetic work allows for contemplation of how it alters its surroundings and the new use of the industrial materials that have existences beyond this work.
Caitlyn Hynes is found upstairs in the second gallery; her work again greets you as you enter this space as it stretches across the entire expanse of the opposite wall. Hynes is the polar opposite of Martin as her work is complex and detailed while exploiting the artists touch. Her art plays on the handmade as you can see her marks used in the creation of the colorful and darkly humorous hangings and sculptures. She creates faces and images that appear like religious icons and can be read into beyond their busy but relatively simple aesthetic. Her palette is colorful and materials at some points quite kitsch, which makes the work seem cheerful but this appears to be a mask shielding the emotion present underneath. There is a link between the haunting characters she creates and the work of Grayson perry, the artist of our time that also reaches to her fabric backed works being hung in a somewhat religious manner on the wall.
Perry appears again in a film work in which an extract from his broadcasted rieth lectures is played alongside many other appropriated audio extracts as a soundtrack to two screen projections. These projections presented at right angles to each other and relate to the audio separately then finally together. This work by Edward Humphrey is exploring the connection between spoken word and the visuals we create as well as investigating a relationship between the two separate visuals being seen as one and being connected trough the mutual audio. It is a clever exploration of the way we absorb the world around us, our beliefs and the way we gather information through storytelling.
The director and cinematography duo of Alan Mcilrath and Jeppe Nielsen produced another film work shown in the exhibition. This work was entirely compelling as Mcilrath and Nielsen create suspense with an artfully shot story of loss and mystery. Each frame on the small monitor was striking with considered lighting bringing the most inanimate of subject matter to life and building the tension for the viewer. The only thing I feel would have enhanced the work would have been a seat as it is a piece you simply cannot and would not want to walk away from. I was fixated and engrossed as I stood in front of the screen, disbelieving that this was the work of graduate students as the story unfolded, passed through time and flowed seamlessly with dark, emotive undertones. A work that straddled the boundaries between film and art, and was successfully, each and both.
There were many more noteworthy works in the exhibition sitting in this multi level central London Gallery. The challenge while curating a show of this manner is the complete disassociation each individual practice has with the next and the connections and connotations created when placing them in a space together. I feel a successful and unlikely pairing was found in the second room where Hynes became a backdrop and contrast to the geometric work of Tim Dalzell. The emotive and expressive wall hangings and sculpture completely juxtapose the clean and simplified elements present in the artificial landscape created by Dalzell. This work stood out in the exhibition, not only for its ambition and presence but its refined aesthetic. This simplified and almost purist approach to represent “nature” is inspired by the graphics of old video games. The 3d work brings the flat world of pixels to life with angled surfaces and crude neon plants all manmade with shiny plastic. The work is bold and doesn’t attempt to hide anything from the viewer but is transparent in its simplicity and honest to the subject.
This is just a slice of the exhibition, that is a refreshing and exciting glimpse into the artists being produced by Scottish art schools and the future of art in and coming from Scotland.
