This Week in Scottish Art: 3-9 May
There is a whole range of performances, panels and openings this week, with Sue Tompkins in Edinburgh, the MFA Interim Show in Glasgow, archive discussions in Dundee, and much more besides!
Wednesday 4 May: Fruitmarket Gallery, CCA
Tomorrow in the Fruitmarket Gallery, there's a discussion of current exhibitor Sara Barker's work. Quoting early 20th century poet and art collector Gertrude Stein, the title is ‘I am writing for myself and strangers.’ Led by two art historians and a curator and writer, they will consider how writing might relate to sculpture as a tool and means of research. Tickets are still available (from here), with refreshments served from 6pm and the panel beginning at 6.30pm.
A little later in CCA's Clubroom in Glasgow, from 8pm there is Bookmarks #24. This group meets fortnightly to discuss texts or screenings, ranging from Art, Culture, Politics, Philosophy, Anthropology and Sociology. This week, there's a short text suggested for reading, 'The Subject Aesthetics of the Absolutely Redundant', by De-Arrest Editorial Services (a collective endeavour). There is also the invitation to those attending to bring ideas for texts, screenings or books to discuss in future meetings.
Thursday 5 May: Trongate 103, Rhubaba
With the first Thursday of the month come two events from Trongate 103. In the Glasgow Print Studio, they present their new featured artist June Carey. In a new series of etchings, Carey explores the theme of love through images of figures with leaves, wings and a symbolic language of written words often in Latin. This Thursday's preview begins at 5pm.
Upstairs in Sharmanka, Glasgow band Dead Agents perform live to accompany the kinetic sculpture and light show. They've been chosen especially for their blend of evolving drones, eastern scales and harmonic overtones to sound alongside the kinetic sculptures. After Sharmanka's scheduled 7pm peformance, Dead Agents will play from 8-9pm – donation collected after.
Head to Edinburgh on Thursday for an event by Rhubaba and performance artist Sue Tompkins. In amongst a new set of ceramic sculptures and wall-based pieces by artist Tom Gidley, Tompkins will deliver Sake I. Across her performance work, Tompkins will repeat and somehow make weird everday words and phrases, that sound like overheard fragments – all the while interjecting singing and onomatopoeic interjections.
Friday 6 May: GSA Reid Gallery, Collective, Generator Projects
This Friday in the GSA Reid Gallery, the first years of the two year MFA Programme preview their interm show from 6-8pm (then open 7-15 May). The 24 students work across painting, drawing, sculpture, video, performance and installation, and without any big themes (or even a title) the show promises to be eclectic.
Also previewing from 6-8pm this Friday, but in Edinburgh's Collective, there is artist and choreographer Mark Bleakley's A Nude Descends into a Lump. Looking out to Calton Hill, Bleakley has imagined a dance sequence to be realised across performance, video and an audio work. This Friday, there is a performance of the work at 7pm – and thereafter at 1pm on Tuesday 17 May, Saturday 28 May and Thursday 2 June.
From 7-9pm in Generator Projects in Dundee, there is Panel Discussion 2006. This is an outcome of research conducted as part of the current archival residency programme. Intended to exacerbate the limits of the documentary record, there will be a performance of a panel discussion from 2006 (you might have guessed), read from a transcript. Free event, no booking necessary, and with refreshements provided.
Saturday 7 May: Tramway
Performance artists Peter McMaster and Nick Anderson this Saturday consider approaching the infamous age of 27. They're described as ‘unashamedly’ autobiographical and push their bodies ‘towards exhaustive extremes, inhabiting moments of pain, grief and elation, transforming the threat of untimely death into an explosive celebration of being.’ Tickets are still available at £10(7) from here.
Sunday 8 May: Generator Projects, BAS8, Transmission
Generator Projects continue their archive themed weekend with Raiders of the Lost Arc-hive. Several artists who incorporate archival practices into their work will be discussing the usefulness of these activities. Free event, with refreshments from 2-4pm. Spaces is limited so arrive early, Generator warn.
Memo: British Art Show 8 finishes this Sunday. Spread across Talbot Rice Gallery, Inverleith House and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, it's an impressive survey of some of the most important practitioners of British Art. It's a free, and on through the week until Sunday.
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At 7pm this Sunday, artist Sidsel Meineche Hansen discusses her current exhibiton and events programme at Transmission Gallery. Featuring references to "3D x-rated image production, sexuality and digital space". Part of the exhibition involved a range of invited practitioners who have delivered zine photocopying parties, Wiccan-inspired ritual-based performances and talks – all as a means to ‘insitute otherwise.’ After the artist's talk at 5pm, there will be screenings and a talk by Radclyffe Hall – ‘a concomitant group of artists and writers dedicated to exploring culture, aesthetics and learning through the lens of contemporary feminism’ – until 8pm.
Monday 9 May: CCA
This month's edition of regular series TalkSee Photography is given this Monday by Geneva Sills. Her photographs are described as ‘unapologetically photographic tableaus’ utilising the ‘performativity of the medium’ and often looking obviously staged. 7pm, free and unticketed.