This Week in Scottish Art: 1-7 June

This week, there's screenings, discussions and openings across Glasgow and Edinburgh - and the last week of ECA's degree show, until Sunday!

Article by Adam Benmakhlouf | 01 Jun 2016

Wed 1 June

Fiona Bradley, the director of Fruitmarket Gallery, gives a short informal presentation on the current exhibition by Sara Barker, Change the Setting. Marking the last week of the show’s run, Bradley will discuss Barker’s sculpture work, which ranges from delicate metal frames with painted parts attached, to more robust outdoor installations. Tickets can be booked through Eventbrite, with the event starting at 6pm.

Later in the evening, in the CCA's clubroom, artist Dan Shay presents a screening and discussion on the ideas of philosopher and writer Vilém Flusser. After a career engaged with 20th century philosophy, from phenomenology to existentialism, Flusser went on to consider ideas of art and communication – the themes of which are explored here. This event is part of Bookmark, a regular series of reading group style events open to all, and starts at 8pm.

Thurs 2 June

On Thursday, Glasgow Print Studio hosts the opening event for an exhibition by Helen de Main. Working with the screen printing process, de Main’s recent work concentrates on women’s lives in images that represent active, uninhibited, everyday women, combined with graphic motifs and elements. The preview takes place from 6-8pm, and the work is on display in GPS until 3 July.

Also from 6-8pm at The Common Guild, there's a round-table discussion on recent exhibition The End of Time, by Lebanese artist and archivist Akram Zaatari. There’ll be short contributions from invited speakers (artist Duncan Marquiss and Jenny Crowe, arts manager of Platform – not to mention your humble correspondent from The Skinny), before a big group discussion with all welcome to attend. Free, but book to get a place on Eventbrite.

Cryptic Nights takes residence in CCA again from this Thursday to Saturday, featuring invited sonic artist Anna Lucia Nissen. Working with a team of collaborators, Nissen develops the sound installation she presented last June for the MFA degree show in The Glue Factory. In collaboration with artist Luke Fowler and musician Richard Youngs, she’ll be performing with her band Womanmann, and promises “a heady mix of guitar, vocals and electronica” amongst the sculptures – “a pack of Afghan hounds that are curiously paired with domestic appliances to produce sound and inspire accompanying visuals.” The performances take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; doors 8pm, tickets £9/£6.

Fri 3 June

Friday sees Mary Mary unveil a solo show by Gerda Scheepers, entitled Body Corporate, which sees the artist installing generic instant garment closets that she’s variously cut out, painted or embellished. Hinting at an absent figure or body, Scheepers also gives a sense of her own practice and studio in notes and plans for the work and future projects. The opening takes place from 6-9pm, and Scheepers’ exhibit continues until 30 July.

From 7pm, meanwhile, 1 Royal Terrace hosts a book launch for Alex Kennedy’s The Use of Style. An art historian and journalist (see his collected writings in How Glasgow Stole the Idea of Contemporary Art), in this work Kennedy considers more abstractly ideas of style, whether in the judging subject or the aesthetics of the object. 

Sat 4 June

Over in the Avant Garde bar and music venue on Trongate, you can catch the first edition of FOMO, which brings together 18 artists to showcase their film work. There’s also sets from DJ Forever Sound, with Glasgow newcomer Moral playing live. It’s all in Avant Garde’s basement from 7.30pm to midnight.

Sunday 5 June

Rounding off the art week, LUX present this month’s Crossing the Line in Glasgow Film Theatre. Every month, GFT reserve a slot for a film that straddles the boundary between film and art, and this month they’re showing the Berwick Street Collective's Nightcleaners. Starting as a straightforward documentary on the difficult conditions, exploitation and victimisation of the women who cleaned offices at night in the 1970s, they began to incorporate experimental film techniques to be able to represent the complicated power networks. See the GFT website for tickets for this showing at 8pm.

Don't forget to make time this week to see Edinburgh College of Art's degree show. See our review for a taster of this year's crop of graduates.