There is a strange mix of traditional painting / drawing (of which Gabi and my work sits) and some rather perplexing, interesting sculptures. One work I was particularly enamoured by, was a diggers shovel, filed with knives, Like a metal, non-threatening porcupine (the knives pointed inwards). Perhaps it was supposed to present a futile attack on the building / construction industry? or is it "just" an aesthetically pleasing array of knives? It's also housed in a perspex box, I had a feeling that this had to be there, for safety reasons, or was it? (the classic "is that fire extinguisher part of the art question...). There were also some interesting fake stairs (squint, oblique angles etc), stopping access through one of the many RSA alcoves, I'd looked for the catalogue number, but couldn't see it, then, in the other room, I saw the "back" of the sculpture (what looked like a stage set), and there was the number...this made me think, is this the "front"? is this the part the artist wants us to look at? It looked temporary, out of context, whereas the "front" (to me), was perfect, odd steps (painted white) making me feel off kilter with the room...
I did enjoy the exhibition, but again, felt there was too much to see (with my mind on the parking ticket price accumulating with every second I spent in there...a real shame). The only thing that let it down, were the shabby staff, unhelpful, sometimes rude (wee man at the elevator acting like the usual jobs worth)..and, they don't take credit cards...how annoying when you don't have a spare tenner in yer wallet...bah humbug.
My MFA head needed "more art" (or should I say, refined, condensed and focused art). So I suggest we head to the Fruitmarket to see the Trenton Doyle Hancock work. It's a stramash of images and text (in a good way), an explosion...a battle. It's about "good vs evil" (in an imagined world of "Vegans and Mounds". I'd hate to live in this world, it all looks ugly and unwelcoming. oozing orifices, poking fingers, broken joints, hellish underworlds...not a nice place, but, from the other side, it's a fascinating place. I'd likened the work to Paul Guston fighting with Robert Crumb in a Hieronymus Bosch scene. It's a spectacular show, in that the blizzard like paintings are hung on walls that have hand written narritives, passages and texts by the artist. They do create a giant comic book effect within the building. A few "sculptural" (installations?) are seen, one giant skinny, bony arm comes from the wall, holding a bucket with "pink" in it. (I think the pink was the "good juice" that the Vegan Priest "Sesom" (Moses backwards) is trying to collect, to convert all the bad vegans into Mound Loving people....It's all a bit silly, but the conviction of Hancock (in his video) is astounding. this world exists in his head. He's had dialogue with these "people"..His history of the world, details of who's who (players) why these "people" have (are) fighting etc...if this was not in a gallery, it could be construed as mental health / art therapy outpourings!Gabs and I got back the the car, 3 mins late...and for that, we have to fork out £9.60...bah fukken humbug indeed. (mah bawbies are precious, don'chaken)
listening to : heaps on the fantastic MP3 player all the way down and all the way back. (Dead brothers, bert jansch.....)
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