This Week in Scottish Art: 29 Nov – 5 Dec

Tue 29 Nov: The Fruitmarket Gallery

Ambient Audiences is the closing event for Edinburgh Artists’ Moving Image Festival at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh tonight from 6pm. The event, which is free to attend, will take place in the Fruitmarket’s bar. The evening starts off with an electronic and contra-bass flute concert by Carla Rees, Matthew Whiteside and Michael Oliva. The night will continue with screenings of videos and films by artists based in Scotland including Rachel Hendry, Fran Oralio, Chris Kohler, Laurence Chan and Sam Spreckley, as well as Polish artist Simon Gerbaud.

Wed 30 Nov: Inventors of Tradition II

From 6-8pm there is The Inventors of Tradition II book launch on Wednesday at The Art School in Glasgow. The launch will feature a performance of Jill Bryson's 1981 Degree Show piece at Glasgow School of Art. Conceived by the artist-design collaboration Atelier EB (artists Lucy McKenzie and Beca Lipsombe), the project originally took place around Glasgow during May 2015 with a design collection, exhibition and events programme. Beautifully produced, and with new essays and crearive responses to the project, it is for sale tonight for £35.

Thu 1 Dec: Rhubaba and the Lighthouse

Wow! I can’t hear the sound :( it looks amazing though at Rhubaba from 7pm is the first meeting of a planned monthly Music Video Reading Group. The aim of the group is to consider the music video as a medium and a content-holder for discursive topics ranging from self-promotion to political protest and artistic experimentation.

Participants will be able to contribute to future “reading lists”, or rather “watching lists”. Please sign up and join the waitlist on Eventbrite; you’ll be sent a selection of music videos to watch prior to the event, which will be discussed and screened once more on the evening. No food or drink will be provided, but bringing your own beer and snacks is welcomed.

Head to the Lighthouse this Thursday for a preview of Jennifer Kent’s exhibition in the Review Gallery from 6-8pm. Knitwear by the Glasgow-based designer on display was developed by Kent during her residency at Cove Park and explores Sanquhar geometric knitting patterns. This exhibition is free to attend and will be open until 5 Feb; 10.30am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, and 12-5pm on Sundays. Register here for tickets for this week's preview.

Fri 2 Dec: Mount Florida Studios, CCA, Glasgow School of Art and Collective

“… Jon pinn ground” previews at Mount Florida Studios from 6-8pm The small exhibition of paintings promises 'a group of nice-looking pictures that may be funny, but are not necessarily original'. Jonathan Pinn is a recent graduate of GSA’s MLitt Painting postgraduate programme who has been left devoid of miraculous inspiration and instead has drawn on an encyclopaedia of tried and tested, perhaps exhausted painterly references. Come along to see if maybe cutting-edge newness is not the solution to resuscitate painting; the exhibition is free to attend, and runs until 4 Dec.

At CCA over the course of the weekend, Fictional Matters is a series of performances, events and screenings curated by choreographer Colette Sadler. Sadler has compiled work by Scottish and International artists including Miranda Pennell, Daria Martin and Adam Linder in line with her research concerning the inanimate and its fictional potential. There will also be work by Glasgow School of Art MFA and doctoral students – see the full programme of events here. Weekend passes can be bought for £25 (£20); prices for individual events start from £5 (£3), and some are free. Visit the CCA’s website for more information.

There is a screening of ELIZABETH, a new short film by Katharine Meynell in the GSA's Reid Building at 6.15pm. The film tells the story of Elizabeth Friedlander, the only woman of her generation to design a typeface, ‘Elizabeth’, which was commissioned in 1928 by the Bauer Type Foundry. The narrative follows Friedlander’s life and work as she leaves Germany where she trained at the Berlin Academy in 1936 and crosses Europe as a refugee working in Milan then London and arriving in Kinsale, Ireland in 1961. The screening will be followed by a discussion between Meynell and Dr. Helen McCormack. This event is free, but tickets must be booked in advance via Eventbrite.

‘W.W.W. (Whole World Working)’, an exhibition devised by Anastasia Philimonos previews at Collective in Edinburgh from 6-8pm. The exhibition presents work and text by several artists investigating the incongruities between borderless information technologies and geopolitical confines and boundaries.

Buckminster Fuller’s utopian ideology is also cited; it proposes the computer as a solution to social and economic disparities resulting from a world demarcated into bordered states. The show is on until 5 Feb; open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-4pm.

Sat 3 Dec: MFS, Transmission, GoMA and Cooper Gallery

Head to Mount Florida Studios for a Christmas Market 11am to 7pm with stalls with goods for purchase by artists and makers, and gluttonous holiday refreshments; you can also catch the aforementioned 'Jon Pinn Ground' exhibition.

Transmission is screening the Scottish premiere of Generation Revolution followed by a Q&A session with directors Cassie Quarless and Usayd Younis, and a local Glasgow activist from 6.30-10pm tonight. The film has follows a new generation of black and brown activists in London struggling for political and social liberation. The narratives of individuals and organisations capture political and personal awakenings and moments of disillusionment, see the trailer here. The evening is free for all to attend; refreshments will also be made available.

Poppies – a show by Berlin-based Max Brand and London-based Joanne Robertson – previews at GoMA today from 5-7pm. The show marks the first collaboration between both artists and features new paintings and sculptures alongside a co-produced musical work made for the occasion.

Dundee’s Cooper Gallery is hosting International Symposium // 12 Hour Action Group from 11am-11pm, to mark the culmination of their show Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event?. The first chapter of a two-part exhibition, the event will take the form of an international symposium with talks, collective readings, screenings and a roundtable conversation related to Feminism as a political movement.

The programme will also consider works on display, which juxtapose contemporary and historic artistic approaches to feminist thought. Speakers include Amelia Jones, Lynda Morris, Laura Mulvey, Adele Patrick and Marina Vishmidt. Attendance is free, but registration here via Eventbrite is mandatory. A full programme and itinerary will be emailed to you after sign up.

Sun 4 Dec: Telfer Gallery and CCA

Today is your last chance to catch catch No Place Like Home at Telfer Gallery. The exhibition is a collaboration between artist Oliver Hickmet and curator Elaine Tam, which considers our relationship to surrounding environments mediated through a scripted gaze sometimes influenced by the history of a place. The show includes a film by Hickmet and texts by Tam on display, it is open from 12-5pm.

Ella Orleans is giving an artist talk and performance – Movement in the cinema and music – as part of Fictional Matters at CCA from 6pm tonight. The evening will reflect on the Glasgow-based artist’s recent work and research concerning the process of editing in musical and cinematic arrangements. Tickets can be purchased online; £10, (£7 concession), 12+ advisory.

Mon 5 Dec: CCA

Catch Things to Come, a 1936 dystopian sci-fi classic at the CCA Cinema at 7pm; the screening is the Christmas Special event for the CCA’s Cities series of talks, lecture and screenings. Things to Come is a projection of Christmas in 1940 based in Everytown. Protagonist John Cabal, played by Raymond Massey, fears an imminent war, which materialises and propels his city into a dark age of plague and petty despot-rule. This event is advised 18+ and free to attend, but tickets must be booked in advance at the CCA box office or here on their website.