Laura Yuile @ The Duchy

As with many independent galleries in Glasgow, The Duchy is an old shop front in the east end. A five minute walk from George Square, the gallery and its adjacent artists’ studios are a modest attempt at making a mature and established space for young, emerging artists. Perhaps a little too image conscious, the gallery, nonetheless, consistently produces interesting shows, making all the right decisions when pairing artists for group exhibitions.

How to win when you love to lose, a solo show by Laura Yuile, is no exception to the directors’ canny judgement. Using objects mainly associated with fashion and retail, such as coat hangers and clothes rails, Yuile makes installations that imply a performative element. Everything has been meddled with, manipulated and yet retains its pristine newness. Despite the absence of a performer the exhibits leave you feeling a voyeur nonetheless.

As well as referencing the absent body, the picture frame is central to Yuile’s installation. A graduate of Painting and Printmaking from The Glasgow School of Art, she repeatedly uses objects that frame the surrounding space. Clothes rails outline an area where other objects are placed. Coat hangers, likewise, demarcate a space.

The work plays on the voyeuristic nature of art: the looking, peering and scrutiny of the art viewer. A space is always outlined, whether by the gallery itself or the frames it incorporates.

The fashion and retail industry, too, is perhaps an elaborate framing device. With it we frame our bodies and our personalities, padding out the deficient void that is ourselves. And in this sense Yuile’s work is a stark reminder of our scant existence, that we are tragically incomplete, desperately plugging the gaps in our vacuous personalities with junk we pick up on the high street. [Andrew Cattanach]