Scottish Art News: April 2016
It's a special bumper month in Scottish art, as the British Art Show in Edinburgh coincides with the Glasgow International. Here's our pick of the 62 openings and events planned for the weekend of 8-10 April.
April 2016 presents a rare visual arts eclipse, as Glasgow International coincides with the continuing British Art Show 8 in Edinburgh. Essentially, there’s more art to see than hours in the day this April.
Forewarned is forearmed when it comes to GI, and we’ve been keeping tabs on it since September. Elsewhere on the site, you can read our programme rundown and an interview with festival curator Sarah McCrory, and we also take a look at the festival's social and community-oriented projects. At the time of writing, there are 62 openings scheduled between Thursday 7 and Sunday 10 April. By any standards, it’s an extravaganza so be sure to settle on your itinerary in advance.
Amongst the stellar programme of artist talks and activities, there are some one-off events that deserve special reminders. As one of the main billings for the festival, Lawrence Lek will be exhibiting his video game software rendering of the Glasgow-built QE2 luxury ocean liner, illustrating its fictional return to the city, and on 9 April, composer and cellist Oliver Coates will perform the soundtrack live in Tramway at 1.30pm.
There's more performance on Saturday 9 April from 6-9pm, when artists’ collective Opera Autonoma unveil their multi-disciplinary production at The Albus, Unit 7, 100 Brook Street. Elements of the choreography and costumes look towards military drills and outfits – with one eye on militaristic power relations, the collective provides a critical examination of their sublimation by fashion and the wider culture industry.
Also across opening weekend (8-10 Apr), you can catch the live performance of Leila Hekmat’s new work at Koppe Astner (Fri, 9pm; Sat, 9pm; Sun, 5pm, with complimentary cakes). Deconstructed biographies and unconscious bodily movements are combined with a fizzy boundary between private imagination and publicly political history. Admission is £3 at the door.
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More from Art:
Glasgow International 2016: Where's the booze?
Edinburgh Art Festival unveils 2016 exhibitions
Meanwhile, Talbot Rice hosts a British Art Show 8 event to coincide with the closing reception of the Association of Art Historians’ conference. Starting with a panel discussion on the topic of British Art Now, there will then be a chance to view the exhibition and enjoy a wine reception with – presumably – many art historians. The event’s scheduled for 6-7.30pm on Saturday 9 April.
A little later on in the month, a special event has been arranged by Dundee Contemporary Arts to accompany its current exhibition Grey Gardens. Themed around concrete and modernism, on Sunday 20 April there will be an intimate event held in a modernist house by Dundee architect James Parr, on the outskirts of the city. As well as a tour from the owner, there will be contributions from DCA Exhibitions Curator Graham Domke and artist Mairi Lafferty, who made a work entitled LOVE about Parr’s “maligned Tayside house.”
Three of the featured artists this month (Mandy McIntosh, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Jedrzej Cichosz) will be part of the Outskirts festival at Platform on Saturday 23 April. McIntosh will present the fashion pieces she’s been working towards with Easterhouse teenagers, while Chetwynd and Cichosz will doubtless have something exciting up their sleeves, most likely with makeshift costumes and loosely planned choreography. They’ll be featured alongside new music collaborations, theatre production, specially commissioned jazz and an aerial performance.
Rounding off the month, another take on British Art Show 8 is given, this time by the Leeds and Edinburgh curators. On Friday 29 April from 1-5pm, a symposium of key BAS8 figures participate in a symposium at the Scottish National Gallery, in the Hawthornden Lecture Theatre. Tickets are free to book.