This Week in Scottish Art: 7-13 March 2017

Tue 7 Mar: Reid Gallery

At the Reid Gallery, the Observing Women at Work exhibition presents works from feminist social documentary photographer Franki Raffles, plus photographs by Margaret Fay Shaw, Helen Muspratt and The Hackney Flashers (a feminist and socialist collective formed in 1974, including Sally Greenhill, Elizabeth Heron, Michael Ann Mullen, Maggie Murray, Christine Roche, Julia Vellacott, Jo Spence and Ann Dekker). 

Observing Women at Work features selections from three bodies of work: Women Workers in the USSR (1984/1989), To Let You Understand (1987-88) and material from Prevalence (1992) – the first Zero Tolerance campaign; a charity developed by Raffles and Evelyn Gillan in the late 80s, raising awareness of violence against women and children perpetrated by men. The exhibition is on until 27 April, open daily from 10am-4.30pm.

Wed 8 Mar: House of an Art Lover

Over at House of an Art Lover in Glasgow, Shelagh Campbell’s exhibition Going Solo at Sixty-Nine is the painter's first solo exhibition, and part of her award from the venue at last year’s Paisley Art Institute exhibition. Campbell studied at Glasgow School of Art during the 1960s before moving to Ullapool, Wester Ross where she still paints her surroundings today. Until 3 April, 10am-5pm daily.

Thu 9 Mar: Arusha Gallery, The Out of the Blue Drill Hall

The Amorist: a devotee of love, especially sexual love previews from 6-9pm this evening, at Arusha Gallery in Edinburgh. The Amorist features work by 11 artists concerned with themes of personal versus constructed femininity, sexuality and love. Works in different media are included to inspire a dialogue about innocence and power. Open until 30 March, Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 1-5pm.

Meanwhile, from 7pm in the Out of the Blue Drill Hall, you can catch the preview for Metamorphosis/Transformation. This opening also launches the multi-arts Syn Festival Edinburgh, featuring over 100 emerging artists, performers, musicians and filmmakers. This year’s project is "a creative experiment on the complex relationship between the arts and the multiple meanings and interpretations of mythical trope of metamorphosis." Metamorphosis/Transformation continues until 22 March.

Fri 10 Mar: ECA, Meadow Mill Projects

At ECA,  guest speaker Cosey Fanni Tutti is the last in ECA’s Friday Lecture Series on the theme of Material. Tutti will be discussing “material” in relation to her art – and, as such, her life – with author, critic and musician David Keenan. Tutti, whose career began in 1969, is a respected artist and musician of worldwide renown – for her art, her work in the sex industry, as co-founder of industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle, and for her electronic music as a member of Chris & Cosey and Carter Tutti. The event takes place from 11.30am; entry is free with no booking necessary.

You could also head to an artist talk by Paolo McClure, 2.30-3.30pm – part of the Dundee Women’s Festival and organised in conjunction with Edges of Transition at Meadow Mill Projects in Dundee, featuring new sculpture by McClure and digital images created with photographer Alan Richardson. The sculptures combine ready-mades, ornaments and salvaged materials; these mark a new departure for the artist, showcasing an evolving practice.

McClure and Richardson’s ongoing collaboration explores human fragility in the face of and response to unanticipated occurrences. The digital images present McClure’s sculptural figures in different environmental settings and in a video work featuring an alien creature stranded on the shore. The exhibition itself is closed today – visit Saturday and Sunday, 2-5pm.

Sat 11 Mar: WASPS Studios Dundee, Kelvinhall, Glasgow Women’s Library, Mary Mary, Modern Institute and The Number Shop

Also part of the Dundee Women’s Festival, the tenants of WASPS Studios in Dundee are opening their studios to the public this weekend, 2-5pm, with a "small programme" of talks and an exhibition to compliment the open studios.

Organised by GSA’s MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) students, In/Human: the Body as Resource gathers performance, screenings and symposiums to explore our understanding of the body and its evolution towards a posthuman horizon. The exhibition event is now fully booked, but you can still register for a spot for the closing event: a screening of Marcel Broodthaers’ 1974 film Figures of Wax (Jeremy Bentham) from 5pm.

In the film, Broodthaers interviews a  wax effigy of 18th century philosopher and social reformer Bentham, who designed the Panopticon prison model, supported posthumous discourse, and advocated the abolition of slavery, child labour laws and animal rights. The screening takes place at The Universityof Glasgow's Andrew Stewart Cinema, located in the Gilmorehill Centre, and will be followed by a wine reception. Book your tickets here via Eventbrite.

When the Light Shifts opens from 1.30-3.30pm today at Glasgow Women’s Library. This touring exhibition presents the work of Scottish female photographers with a wide variety of interests and practices, offering the chance to meet selected artists during the preview. Until 1 April: Monday-Fri 9.30am-5pm (Thursday 9.30am-7.30pm), Saturday 12-4pm.

Curve of a hill like the curve of a green shoulder closes at Glasgow's Mary Mary gallery today. The exhibition features sculptural works by Aleana Egan, Mary Heilmann, Judith Hopf, Amanda Ross-Ho and Erika Vogt, who share performative elements as well as personal experience of artistic environments and the idea of the object, the studio and the interior. 11am-6pm.

Both Modern Institute exhibitions close today; catch Crisis Tourism by Tobias Madison on Osborne Street and The Gap Between the Fridge and the Cooker at Aird’s Lane for the last time between 12-5pm.

Picture a Garden by the Florida artist collective (Caitlin Merrett King, Hannah Reynolds and Isabella Widger) also closes at The Number Shop in Edinburgh today. Visit between noon and 5:00 PM.

Sun 12 Mar: Market Gallery and EMBASSY

1957 Chevy Apparition closes today at Market Gallery, with three short films by Ross Little and Florrie James, documenting and inspired by their time in Havana, Cuba. Lester Alvarez Meno’s film The Glass Bead Game (2014) also features. 11am-5pm.  

Also closing today is Don Salon at Embassy gallery: visit the members show, 12-6pm.

Mon 13 Mar: Dovecot Studios

Dovecot Studios’ new exhibition The Weaver’s Apprentice commemorates the 100th anniversary of the deaths of John ‘Jack’ Glassbrook and Gordon Berry in 1917, during the First World War. Glassbrook and Berry were the founding master weavers at Dovecot; their passing was followed by the threat of the Tapestry Studio’s closure before Ronald Cruickshank, Richard Gordon and David Lindsay Anderson (all young apprentices at Dovecot) returned to continue weaving practices at the Studio.

The Weaver’s Apprentice includes work by current studio apprentice Ben Hymers, and the famous tapestry The Chace, produced by Morris & Co. and woven by Glassbrook and Berry following their apprenticeships with William Morris. Monday-Saturday, 10.30am-5.30pm, until 1 July.