Noise, light, and the principality of Sealand: This Week in Scottish Art

This week's summary of what's happening across Scotland in contemporary art

Feature by Adam Benmakhlouf | 18 Nov 2014

In Glasgow's CCA this week, following last year’s double show from Sarah Forrest and Mounira al Solh, the programmers have once again paired two contemporary artists whose respective practices don’t initially seem to have a lot in common.

In this year's exhibition, Guatemalan Manuel Chavajay has been partnered with Glasgow-based Rebecca Wilcox. While Chavajay collects and considers the local histories of his town in sculptures and paintings, while Wilcox’s practice is focused on the limits and potential of language as a mediator of experience, and works with text in expanded publications. See how the space between these distinct practices is negotiated in their show This Might be a Place for Hummingbirds, open until Sun 18 Jan.

Meanwhile, upstairs in CCA’s Intermedia Gallery is Toby Christian, who works initially with text, which then informs the development of his sculptures, videos and installations. In the CCA, Christian has transformed the space into an immersive installation, having installed a brand new temporary ceiling under which he has placed text and interactive concrete sculpture. Christian’s work will be on display until Sat 29 Nov.

Also in Glasgow, at the Briggait and across three other venues this week, is the first curated exhibition by the YAKA Collective. YAKA will present a range of sculptural installations, performances, events and workshops across the Briggait, Laurieston Arena, Laurieston Arches and Caledonia Road Church until 29 Nov. See the exhibition programme – which reads more like a work in itself in places than an informative material – for more details. 

On Friday night Canadian-based musician and sound artist Tim Hecker will take those inside Glasgow venue Stereo to “the intersection of noise, dissonance and melody” in his concert. Hecker also collaborated on the 2004 audiovisual work Radio Marti with Stan Douglas, whose work is on show in the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh until 15 February. See our December print edition for a review of the event, and get your tickets here.

Over at the Collective gallery in Edinburgh, Collette Rayner will preview her show Access as Idiot Distraction this Friday. For this exhibition, Rayner will present text, sound and a digitally animated film as a response to her research into the “Principality of Sealand, a sovereign micronation located six nautical miles off the Port of Felixstowe.” In the December issue, we’ll be showcasing Rayner’s work and our discussion about the two-generation royal family of Sealand. Fri 21 Nov, 6-8pm

In Dundee, in Nomas Projects’ four window gallery space on Ward Road, Oliver Mezger’s exhibition continues until 27 Nov. Mezger works across a range of media, including 16mm film, flick-books, knitting, and concrete poetry. These media in the current show are used to explore ideas of memory’s fallibility, and the contemporary reliance on what he refers to as “temporal methods of recording” as opposed to the more “fluid ways to capture the legacy of our ‘physical trace.’”

Also in Dundee this week, Jim Campbell will take part in a Meet the Artist event to accompany his first solo show in the UK. The show itself features several of Campbell’s light sculptures, built from films of simple movements, for example birds in flight or commuters walking. The event will take place at 6.30pm in the DCA galleries and is free but ticketed. Tickets are still available here – in our video of the week above, Campbell presents a selection of his work and explains some of his methods.


MORE ON current SCOTTISH ART...

 • Cuban Revolution posters at Glasgow School of Art

 • A look at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's Suttie Arts Space

 • Creative Edinburgh Award winners announced


Please send details of future art events and exhibits to adam@theskinny.co.uk