Insert Tiara @ SWG3

Article by Andrew Cattanach | 20 Jul 2010

Someone has thought it a good idea to show the work of Michael White and Lila de Magalhaes in an intimate two man show. Both these New Work Scotland veterans have distinctly divergent practices. Michael White makes dirty, big sculptures that only someone of his proportions could conceivably make, while Lila de Magalhaes is best known for unsettling videos peopled by odd characters in wigs.

Pretty messed up, you might be thinking to yourself. Well you’re probably right. In a sneak preview of his work White revealed some unwieldy looking objects that are as uncompromising as they are aesthetically subversive. Towering plaster forms, all craggy and mottled with colour, sit heavy on the studio floor. He points to a spiky bit of plastic at the base of one sculpture and explains that it’s a nose, soon to be framed by an equally crude mouth and eyes.

De Magalhaes, the more cerebral of the two, has been making some videos involving a guy with a yellow face. Marrying humour with the disturbing, she’ll draw on the carnivalesque and notions of urban shamanism. Inspired by the films of Harmony Korine, amongst other things, Magalhaes looks to exhibit a multi-screen video installation alongside sculptures and drawings. Expect to see objects made out of foodstuffs that highlight the sordid domesticity of her videos.

Perhaps not as oddly matched as you might think, both White and de Magalhaes are interested in the staged and the theatrical. What is more, they share a similarly carefree attitude to making art. “We’re just doing what we want to do,” de Magalhaes explains.

Looks like it’s going to get messy. [Andrew Cattanach]

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