DCA Thomson @ Dundee Contemporary Arts

Review by Adam Benmakhlouf | 26 Jan 2017

Beginning with original items from the archive, the DCA Thomson show brings out forgotten excitement and mixes it up with surprising responses from Beano / Dandy / Dennis the Menace fans who also happen to be accomplished contemporary artists.

Making some strangeness amongst the familiarity of DC Thomson, Japanese artist Hideyuki Katsumata intricately paints over characters like Dennis the Menace with round furry monster heads.

Also working with layers over the original visuals, Glasgow-based artist Rob Churm takes the titular first plates of the Jonah comic, sets them together and on overlaid tracing paper delves into the graphic abstractions that suggest form, making slimey organic looking knobbles and poetic text that curl around the grid of drawings.

Receiving a makeover of a different kind, Craig Coulthard begins with the Commando comics, then uses subversive textual insertions to change the tone from riproaring adventure into a poetic and clanging protest. Text from the official army website for Trauma Risk Management draws out the evocative potential of the Commando’s dramatic tableaux.

As well as the hung artworks, there’s a moment for sitting and reading Malcy Duff’s no-text surreal take on the materials, in The Pineapple Reading Room. And through the power of Twitter, Sofia Sita includes Broons-inspired and brightly coloured illustrations of the visitors who took a selfie at her mural outside the gallery.

Rabiya Choudhry makes two abstracted images of the head filled with characters like the Beano’s Numskulls. One, open and funny, a little nutty figure reads a fax ‘go to disco’; the other has teary eyes and is bricked up, between them negotiating ideas of interaction, and retreating into the mind. Not so much transforming the source material, each of the artists celebrates the strength of the imagery, humour and sharp narratives throughout the DC Thomson archive.

Dundee Contemporary Arts, until 19 Feb http://theskinny.co.uk/art