This Week in Scottish Art: 24-31 May
This week the degree show action keeps on, as Dundee continuesand Edinburgh opens on Saturday. There's also a whole host of talks and openings across Scotland.
Tue 24 May: CCA, Generator Projects
Tonight in CCA, painter and filmmaker Elín Jakobsdóttir is in Q+A with Modern Edinburgh Film School’s Alex Hetherington from 6.30pm. Based between Berlin and Glasgow, Jakobsdóttir’s work “combine drawing, paper cut-outs, painting, sculptural objects and film.” Tonight, she presents a selection of films from the last ten years.
At Generator Projects in Dundee, there is the opportunity to hear from Edinburgh’s Collective Gallery on the topic of their Satellites programme. A very well established opportunity for young and recently-graduated artists, it ran as New Work Scotland for 10 years before changing to its current name. Giving the selected participants support in the form of mentorship and a final exhibition, it’s a good shout for this month’s degree show exhibitors, and starts at 7pm...
Wed 25 May: Collective, Summerhall
... and it’s the same again from Collective on Wednesday, only in Edinburgh from 6pm. They’re meeting in their own space, and providing info on the 2017 Satellites programme, in the Observatory on Calton Hill.
Across town, Summerhall preview two new, related shows under the title Inner State/s Gestural Intention/s. One solo show and one group show, the participating artists consider notions of faith and identity within the context of religion, as well as contemporary technology. The preview is from 7pm; register your interest here.
Thu 26 May: The Whisky Bond
On floors five and six of the Whisky Bond, there is the preview of Oscillate Me Widely, a 16-strong group show of “emerging artists sharing their recent bodies of work and ongoing research.” Opening between 4-8pm, there is a programme of performance through the evening; the show is open until Sunday.
Fri 27 May: ECA, The Modern Institute, Jerwood/FVU Awards
Starting Edinburgh’s degree show early, on Friday from 4pm there is a presentation of performance works from graduating students Anna Danielwicz and Adam Hussain. From 4pm Danielwicz will present a 15-minute “micro-play in three scenes”, then at 4.30pm it’s Hussain’s “live performance of meditative dance and Sufi whirling” with audience participation vocal improv.
From 7-9pm in Glasgow at The Modern Institute's Osborne Street space, there's a new solo show by artist Cathy Wilkes. Known for her figurative sculptural installations, her figures often are set in melancholic and affecting scenes made up from sculpted and found objects and fabrics.
Also in Glasgow from 7-9pm, there’s the preview for this year’s Jerwood/FVU Awards at CCA. Every year, this organization awards £20,000 each to two artists; this year, the theme is Borrowed Time with references to personal debt and the international financial crisis. Both artists have considered power stations, with Alice May Williams thinking of London’s Battersea power station, while Karen Kramer looks at the landscape around the Fukushima nuclear reactor.
Sat 28 May: ECA Degree Show, Hidden Door, Good Press
Edinburgh College of Art unveils its 2016 degree show on Saturday. We've profiled loads of students from Sculpture, Painting, Photography, Intermedia, Landscape Architecture, Illustration and Design, Architecture, Performance and Costume Design and more – get up to speed with the work with our guides to the various departments; the degree show runs until 6 June.
Also in Edinburgh this Saturday, there’s the first free performance of CU by artist Michelle Hannah from 3-5pm. Considering the title as shorthand for copper and – in film – “close up”, the performance merges different strands of pop culture and technological processing with a meditative delivery for two hours in The Cage Room at Hidden Door Festival's Kings Stables Road site. There will be further performances as part of Hidden Door on Fri 3 and Sat 4 June.
At Good Press in Glasgow from 3-6pm there’s the opening of a two-person painting show by artists Alexandra Ruby Leach and Stefanie Heinze. Both making painterly and semi-abstract works, they’ll be displayed above Good Press’ stock of zines and prints.
Sun 29 May: Peacock Visual Arts, DJCAD
In Peacock Visual Arts in Aberdeen, it’s the last day of The Brutalist Playground, the exhibition by Turner Prize-winning architecture collective Assemble and artist Simon Terrill. The show “explores post-war design for play …. by recreating the post-war playground structures in soft pastel coloured foam” as an “immersive and climbable installation” – so for kids and adults alike to walk and play on.
Sunday is also the last day of the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art degree show in Dundee. Have a read at our review here for a taster, and head up to see this year's crop of artists.