Karla Black @ Inverleith House

An artist who has described her own work as “in no way supposed to look like a landscape”, Black was faced with a challenge in the form of Inverleith House’s stunning surrounding plants and hills for her new show. Surprisingly, the result is such that it’s difficult to picture the works looking better in a different venue. The shadows of trees hitting the rooms might highlight the fantastically organic aspects of the show, but the heaps and puddles of plaster and coloured chalk appear even more still and artificial in this context.

In the first room, half a ton of smooth dirt (seedlings regularly picked out) is coloured only by chalk and spray paint. Walking around the blunt edges and unnaturally shaped surface, the visitor quickly becomes mesmerised and forgets about the natural quality of the soil for the expanding object-like presence of the work.

In other rooms the heavy plaster, cellophane, and plastic bags hung from the ceiling highlight the industrial, lifeless material chosen by the artist. Yet, her fingerprints left on plaster and smoothed surfaces are unexpected signs that some works are not as immovable as they appear and seem likely to shiver when a visitor walks by.

While most works were made in situ, the three paper sculptures brought in from Black’s studio are, interestingly enough, those that don’t fit in – the only drawback to an otherwise excellent exhibition. [Adeline Amar]