New Work Scotland 2010 @ Collective

New Work Scotland kicks off again, and first up we have considerably dissimilar Glasgow based artists Shelly Nadashi and Jacob Kerray.

Originally from Israel, Nadashi graduated from the MFA programme at Glasgow School of Art in 2009 and is perhaps best known for her performance art. As well as an overcrowded installation consisting of two video works and two sculptures, Nadashi performs an offsite piece called Why Stone.

Seated in chairs set well back in the Thomas Morton Hall, Leith, the audience face a stage with a door at its rear. From the door extends a thick rope that traverses the hall and is tied to a wooden cut-out in the shape of a rock.

From backstage comes the sound of singing voices before Nadashi, lying on her side, slides onto stage. She tells how often she swims in the week and that she’s naked when she does so and pays particular attention to her body. She makes swimming motions.

Endearing and innocuous, the performance ends too soon. Nadashi manages to charm but provides little in the way of bite. It’s unclear what she sets out to achieve with her work, asides from making us all quite like it.

Jacob Kerray’s paintings are in the main portraits with funny names. Drawing on Star Trek and traditional baroque portraiture alike, Kerray has produced a few laugh-out-loud works, particularly one large-scale portrait where the subject has barely a stump for a head. Likewise, Prince Khan Noonien Singh of the United Great Khanate Principalities 1993 has a funny face, football boots and a ruff around his neck.

Where Nadashi could have edited her space better, Kerray might have upped the excessive salon-style hang and added a load more work. He is a proficient painter with a good sense of humour, nonetheless. [Andrew Cattanach]