This Week in Scottish Art: WASPS & EAMIF
The week might have started high with the Turner Prize, but there's plenty more to get into over the next week, including Edinburgh Artist Moving Image Festival and a host of one-off events across Scotland.
We start with the inaugural Edinburgh Artist Moving Image Festival, which begins tomorrow. Until Saturday, there are several events structured around main screenings from Glasgow-based artists Stina Wirfelt, Torsten Lauschmann and Rachel Maclean. They are accompanied each by international shorts.
These three events will take place in Filmhouse on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday respectively, and tickets are charged at usual Filmhouse rates. Also included in the festival is the free Embassy programme of moving image work, curated following an open call. Taking place this Saturday at Summerhall 2-7pm, the Embassy event will be punctuated by a discussion on the theme of artist moving image in Edinburgh.
Art in Glasgow
In the CCA tomorrow at 5pm, there is a performance by Giles Bailey as part of his continuing exhibition with Jeremiah Day. Both working in performance, Bailey in particular makes reference to literary forms in his work.
Wednesday’s performance makes simultaneous reference to 20th-century conceptual artist John Latham and contemporary video artist Laure Prouvost. For the performance itself, Bailey will interpret in movement the contents page of The Chemical History of a Candle, a book Latham picks up in Prouvost’s film, All These Things Think Link.
Monday saw architectural and design collective Assemble win the 2015 Turner Prize 2015. We've taken a closer look at the collective's work, and the ramifications of their win for the contemporary art world; read our thoughts on Assemble and the other nominees in our review of the Tramway exhibition.
If you’d like to try making some of the ornamental and decorative objects Assemble use in their renovations of derelict houses, visit Tramway this Saturday. From 1-3pm, for ages 16 and over, there is a ceramic tile painting session. Booking is required and tickets cost £5/3.
There is also, on Thursday night, a discussion event on the topic 'How do you Make a Glasgow Artist?' Chaired by Glasgow School of Art Head of Fine Art Dr Alistair Payne, there will be conversation about the value of art education and place of the art student. Tickets cost £5/3 and are available to book online.
Assemble won the Turner Prize earlier this week. Picture: Keith Hunter
WASPS Galleries and Studios
Throughout the various WASPS (Worskshops and Artists Studio Provision Scotland) gallery spaces across the country, there are three exhibitions opening up throughout this week.
In Glasgow’s Briggait WASPS spaces, studio resident Calum Stirling presents three new works made on residency in Dusseldorf. Stirling has for some years been working experimentally with sound, advanced construction techniques and often robust and technical metal sculptural work.
For this exhibition, he experiments with the complicated process of “magnetically embedding audio” into “iron oxide… iron meteorites, steel car parts and tramlines.” In self-reference, included in the installation is a reading by Barry Burns of a transcript from recent discussions by the artist about this process of audio embedding.
In the Dundee Meadow Mill WASPS space, there is the third exhibition from the Dundee Print Collective. Recently returning from the Impact 9 international print conference in China, the emphasis is in this instance on the cultural significance of the Silk Road.
A new series of screen-print has been produced by the collective for the exhibition, and this Saturday the opening will be marked with an event including performances and music by local artists from 7-10pm. After this, the exhibition is open on 13, 19 & 20 December - or by appointment.
Also previewing this Saturday night in the Meadow Mill Projects, Dundee-based artist Val Norris exhibits new and recent work in Marble dusting/Fixed satin, as the prelude to an exhibition in Dundee later next year. Across her paintings, collages and sculptures, Norris works in an intuitive way with oblong shapes and pastel colour.
Often on torn-off book pages and with found objects appearing in sculptures, there’s an open-ended engagement with surroundings, and an attempt to make the humdrum lyrical. As with the Silk Road exhibition, following the preview from 7-10pm this Saturday, Val Norris’ exhibition will be open 13, 19 & 20 December 2-5pm.