Jim Lambie Metal Urbain @ Modern Institute

The behemoth that is the GI International Festival of Visual Art keeps rumbling along, with Jim Lambie’s solo exhibition marking the opening of the Modern Institute’s new Glasgow gallery. And, whoosh, what a turnout: the lengthy queue outside the gallery is more typical of an X-Factor audition than a gallery opening (though with slightly fewer impromptu bursts of Back to Black).

As for the actual exhibit, well Lambie has some luminous metal wall hangings, whose brightness does little to conceal the underlying sadness of the work as a whole. Accompanying the hangings are sculptures of mangled metal on concrete, comprised of either medieval armour, or modern metal appliances. It seems that Lambie is using the Middle Ages as a starting point here, a seemingly arbitrary year zero. From this point he imagines two different pathways leading to two separate results in terms of the dominant textures and colours of the times: the vibrant flippancy of the walls versus the grim industrialism of the sculpted pieces.

The wall-hangings represent the vividness that modern life could have, as opposed to the grey concrete, dull leather and rusted paintwork that dominates our actual environment. The real tragedy is that this modern stuff is not only dowdier than the colours splashed on the wall – it’s also more prosaic than the medieval gubbins that it’s supposed to have progressed from. [Brian Cloughley]