This Week in Scottish Art: 21-27 Feb

Collective Gallery unveils an exciting new historical take on its Satellites programme with Jess Johnston, while Transmission's show on Carribean Queer Visualities from today, as well as more openings in Talbot Rice, performance in Rhubaba and more.

Article by Holly Gavin | 21 Feb 2017

Tue 21 Feb: Transmission Gallery

Visit Transmission gallery (open 11am to 5pm) to see Caribbean Queer Visualities, an exhibition curated by Small Axe in partnership with the British Council. The exhibition was first shown in Belfast at the Outburst Queer Arts Festival. The exhibition is curated by David Scott, from Columbia University, Erica James from Yale University, and Nijah Cunningham from Princeton University includes the work in various media by ten artists. These young artists belong to a new generation of Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora artists who are changing Caribbean visual practice and visual culture.

The show’s title stems from a domain of the same name, which considers the aftermath of sovereignty. Scott, director of The Small Axe Project writes: ‘And as the old anti-systemic movements for social and political change became installed in power in the new states of the region they stultified into new modes of orthodoxy, into their own terrified normativities, anxiously policing the boundaries of identity and community, the expressions of personhood and belonging, of sex and pleasure.’ This exhibition runs until Sat 25 Mar.     

Wed 22 Feb: Cooper Gallery

The Cooper Gallery is hosting a reading group and screening led by Dr. Catherine Spencer from 6 to 8pm tonight as part of their extended programme of events paralleling their current exhibition Chapter 2: Of Other Spaces: When does gesture become event? Spencer, a lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of St Andrews, will lead a discussion on women in the UK and France involved in strike action during the 1960s and 1970s.

The short and little-known film Women of the Rhondda (1972) directed by Esther Ronay, Mary Kelly, Mary Capps, Humphrey Trevelyan, Margaret Dickinson, Brigid Seagrave and Susan Shapiro will be screened as well. The film explores the largely forgotten role and contribution of Rhondda women during the Welsh Miners’ Strikes of the 1920s and 1930s. The event is free, but register for tickets here on Eventbrite.

Thu 23 Feb: Reid Gallery and CCA

Confluence/Konfluenz – Simone ten Hompel, a life with metal at the GSA's Reid Gallery closes today, it's open from 10am to 4.30pm. Curator Amanda Game has included sculptures, images, photographs, models and domestic object to trace Hompel’s 35 year career in Silversmithing. Hompel developed her own ‘language of metal’ to help her overcome severe undiagnosed dyslexia as a child.  

Cruising the 1970s – Between the Sheets: Radical print cultures before the queer bookshop is a two-day event starting tonight with Bob Orr and Sigrid Nielsen in conversation with James Ley in the CCA's Creative Lab from 6pm. Between the Sheets is a programme of conversation and introductions with several speakers recollecting their experiences of print cultures in the 1970s.

The programme will consider the value of reading and writing as vital actions for community-building in a decade of feminist and LGBTQ activism in Britain. Screenings and performances are also scheduled. The conversations also aim to reconsider the importance of these radical queer print cultures today.Tickets are free, but check ticket availability by calling the CCA box office on 0141 352 4900.

Also at the CCA this evening is SUPERLUX Masterclass with Anja Kirschner: Behind the Scenes of an Artist’s Film from 6.30pm presented by LUX Scotland as part of Glasgow Film Festival’s programme. Anja Kirschner makes narrative films and video installations utilising factual research, literary sources and pop cultural references to create genre hybrids. Kirschner will draw on her new feature film Moderation (2016) to share an insider’s account to making an artists’ film and its different stages of inception, development, realisation and distribution.

The artist and filmmaker will also present her research on horror cinema from cold-war Europe, Metapolitefsi Greece and Infitah-era Egypt. The event is free, but tickets must be secured in advance; these will be available at the CCA box office on the day from 10am.    

Fri 24 Feb: CCA, David Dale and Collective

Between the Sheets continues today in the CCA’s Clubroom from 11am to 5.30pm.Today’s programme – viewable here – includes an introduction, two conversations, a talk and a discussion. Admission today is also free, but tickets must once again be reserved at the CCA’s box office.  

Rob Chavasse’s Slow Dance previews at David Dale tonight from 6-9pm. Slow Dance includes new installation and video work by London-based Chavasse. It is also the first of six exhibitions in David Dale Gallery’s 2017 Annex programme, which curates solo shows in its gallery space and external warehouse. Chavasse explores systems which become obscured within economies and societies in his work. The exhibition is on display until 1 April.

The group exhibition Ours curated by Grace Johnston also previews tonight at Collective in Edinburgh from 6pm. The exhibition is centred around a historical drawing by Beatrice Whistler, which emerges in hybrid form as an interpretation of multiple female voices despite its absence. This drawing includes three outline sketches of a birdcage from different perspectives probably with a purpose of instruction. The exhibition, open until 26 March, includes a painting by Glasgow-based painter Carol Rhodes, a commissioned text by Sophie Collins and archival photographs of Whistler’s garden.

Sat 25 Feb: Fruitmarket Gallery, Dovecot Gallery, Talbot Rice and Leith Theatre

Head to the Fruitmarket Gallery for their annual Artists’ Bookmarket, running today (11am to 6pm) and tomorrow (11am to 5pm), celebrating artists' books and artist-led publications. The weekend event sees participants from far and wide congregate at the Fruitmarket’s stalls. View the full programme of workshops and talks on the Gallery’s website here; entry is free, talks and workshops must be booked online in advance, and workshops charge a fee.   

Colour and Light, an exhibition focusing on the relationship between the two in recent Dovecot projects, closes at the gallery today; visit between 10.30am and 5.30pm.

Catch Talbot Rice Gallery's trio of new exhibitions this weekend. Between Poles and Tides includes works recently acquired by the University of Edinburgh’s Art Collection by acclaimed international artists and recent graduates. The pieces on display deal with elemental forces, cosmology, destruction, social discord and displacement, as well as tackling politics in personal and universal ways. The Torrie Collection, meanwhile, is on display for the first time in over ten years.

For Object(hood), Kate V Robertson has created a sculptural cabinet playing spoken word and moving-images inspired by eight objects from the University of Edinburgh’s collection. A new object will be featured in the cabinet each week alongside creative written responses. Between Poles and Tides & The Torrie Collection run until 6 May; Object(hood) runs until 8 April.

Blind Love Bad Taste by Siôn Parkinson and the Rhubaba Choir at Leith Theatre starts at 7pm tonight. Artist and singer Parkinson has developed the piece with the Choir – a commissioning platform of singers based at Rhubaba Gallery and Studios in Edinburgh who provide their voices as material for new works by invited musicians, artists and writers – for the past six months.

Blind Love Bad Taste combines live percussion and voice with sound recordings to perform the tale of an ancient foul-smelling shark and two worms permanently attached to her eyes who discover companionship and song during their journey through endless darkness. Tickets are free but book a space here via Eventbrite to guarantee entry; don’t worry if you miss this performance, another one is scheduled at the Cooper Gallery in Dundee on Sat 4 Mar.

Sun 26 Feb: The Lighthouse, Queens Park Railway Club and The Number Shop

There are three exhibitions closing today: in Glasgow catch Chris Leslie’s Disappearing Glasgow at the Lighthouse and Conor Kelly’s Daddy in the Algorithm at the Queens Park Railway Club; Calum Monteith’s Other is at the Number Shop in Edinburgh. Leslie’s exhibition at the Lighthouse’s Gallery 2 includes photographs of recent changes in Glasgow’s skyline and urban identity; visit between noon and 5pm. Conor Kelly’s and Calum Monteith’s exhibitions are both open today from noon to 6pm.  

Mon 27 Feb: Tramway

Visit Tramway’s Time for Art is 10! exhibition in its Upper Gallery from 9.30am to 6pm today. The exhibition celebrates Time for Art’s ten-year anniversary by displaying works produced over the last decade; Time for Art is an initiative by Tramway established in 2006 to support people aged over fifty-five by providing a space to realise individual and collaborative art projects. While you’re here, visit Claire Barclay’s stunning installation Yield Point and Oliver Laric’s fantastic video work.

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