GENERATION. 25 YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN SCOTLAND

GENERATION. 25 YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN SCOTLAND

Part 1. 10th of July, 2014. Edinburgh, Scotland. 

I’ve been waiting for the Generation exhibitions to start since what feels like forever. When I started my Contemporary Scottish Art module this past February, one of the first things my professor told the class was that this was going to be a great summer for art and specifically for seeing the art we were discussing. Generation, for those who doesn't know, is a nation-wide series of exhibition featuring Scottish artist active in the last 25 years. It's huge and exciting and taking place mostly within the summer months. Gutting for me— I’m never in Scotland in the summer. I always miss all the fun (like the Fringe) and all of the days when the sun hardly ever sets. So when I realised that I would, in fact, be here for at least part of the summer, I was ecstatic. When people asked me what I was going to do for a month in my University town all alone, I replied, “I’m going to see ALL of the art.” And this past Thursday, I finally got a chance to start. I headed down to Edinburgh ready for a full day of art-ing, all hyped up. 

I started at the Scottish National Gallery, where the upper galleries of the Academy building were devoted to work by some of the bigger names in Scottish art: Steven Campbell, Christine Borland, Martin Boyce, Karla Black, David Shirgley, Rosalind Nashashibi, Callum Innes. Nearly all of them are graduates of The Glasgow School of Art (Innes is the sole exception) and the vast majority are at least Turner Prize nominees if not winners. Because I’d spent the year studying them, I’ll have to admit up front that I went in with fairly cemented opinions which the exhibition did little to change. Boyce and Borland have been favourites of mine for several years, and their installations were the highlight for me. Boyce’s Our Love is Like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea, and the Hours (2002) is, for me, unmissable. 

Martin Boyce, Our Love is Like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea, and the Hours (2002).

Even within the Academy building, a space that must be the most conventional and institutionalised in Scotland, Boyce’s installation still has its Glaswegian teeth. It’s a room I could’ve stood in for hours, but for the pull of Borland in the room next door. For L’Homme Double (1997), Borland asked six different sculptors to make a bust of the Nazi Josef Mengele, noted for his beauty as well as his cruelty. It’s a fascinating and subtle exploration of, as the title suggests, the two sides of a man and the difference between the exterior and interior image. 

Christine Borland. L'Homme Double (1997).

For Boyce and Borland alone, I would label the Generation show at the National Gallery worth seeing. The curators also did a wonderful job of making the space interactive, which should help those not familiar with contemporary Scottish art. There’s an area with books and information about the artists just as you walk in as well as a chalkboard to record your thoughts. I also thought the wall texts were very cleverly placed: accessible but a bit tucked away, forcing you to spend some time with the art before turning to the “explanation.” 

With all that said, I didn’t love it. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why these particular artists were exhibited along side each other. I guess it’s possible the aim was to show diversity, but for me, it was a bit of a chaotic mess. There wasn’t anything approaching a unifying theme and there certainly wasn’t any kind of conversation between the different works. It also didn’t make me appreciate any of the artists that I didn’t already like (ie Steven Campbell). I was also always very aware that I was seeing the paintings in a setting very far from the one they’d been created and originally exhibited in. The loving official academy approval they’ve been granted with just feels odd. 

Because of that, the lower galleries felt like a breath of fresh air, not least because all the artists were entirely new to me. The exhibition, titled RSA Open Dialogues, took one artist from each of the six previous RSA New Contemporaries exhibitions (now who came up with that name…?). The work was playful and serious and excellent. I was especially drawn to Ernesto Cánovas’ dyed wooded boards, Geri Nolan’s “Accidental Film” and Stuart McAdam’s cabinet of adventures. They were also (mostly) for sale, so there was the opportunity for (people richer than me) to support young artists. I was highly tempted to go back upstairs to encourage all of the people sitting in the Steven Campbell room to go see some better art downstairs. I resisted.  

RSA Open Dialogues with work by Ernesto Cánovas and Geri Nolan.

It was a beautiful day, and, unable to oppose the pull of sunshine for any longer, I headed to Calton Hill and Collective. Calton Hill has always been one of my favourite places in Edinburgh, but I’d never paid much mind at all to the little art gallery up there. I was intending to do one of their Observers’ Walks, Memorialmania, by Ruth Ewan and Astrid Johnston. After I awkwardly entered the wrong door and blundered into the office, a very nice woman set me up with an iPod and a map. It took me all over the area and talked not only about the monuments but about the geology of the hill too. It was simply wonderful to be able to engage with one of my favourite spots in a new way. I did feel a little awkward at times taking instructions from an iPod, as I’m pretty sure no one had a clue what I was up to, but I enjoyed it enough to go back for the next Observers’ Walk in the series, Outwith, by Bedwyr Williams. Where Memorialmania  was based on the history of the hill, Outwith was made up of a collection of stories. I enjoyed it, although at 20 minutes it felt longer than the hour long Memorialmania. The next walk, due to be released in August, is about Scottish photographers Hill and Davison and sounds fascinating as well, and I’m gutted to be missing it.

Now, for a confession. I’ve never understood Ross Sinclair. More than that, I don’t care to try to understand Ross Sinclair. I feel a little bad about that second part. When my Scottish Art module ended, I was ready to happily wash my hands of him and as such,  I had no intention of going into his Generation exhibition at Collective’s space in the City Observatory complex. I guess Calton Hill has a lightening effect on my mood (or maybe it was the weather), because after I turned in my iPods, I found myself staring at 20 Years of Real Life. And it was kind of fun? Words I never thought I’d say. It was a really nice interactive space that had instruments, a section for drawing, and a film. If I had been with friends and it hadn’t been so close to closing, I could seen myself having an excellent time there.

Ross Sinclair, 20 Years of Real Life.

After I hanging out in the space for a while, watching Ross Sinclair sing about how he’s going to give instruments to teenagers, I headed out, planning on going back to my friend's house. I made the mistake of walking past a museum, however, and I’m never able to resist the sweet siren call of art. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, blissfully open late on a Thursday, was showing their own Generation exhibition on the ground floor: a 61-minute film by Luke Fowler entitled The Poor Stockinger, the Luddite Cropper and the Deluded Followers of Joanna Southcott (2002). It’s a profile of the Marxist historian EP Thompson, and at least for the 20 minutes or so that I was there, discussed mostly education. It sounds like it should be quite dull, but because of his use of found footage, ends up being quite captivating. I was loath to tear myself away. 

Luke Fowler, The Poor Stockinger, the Luddite Cropper and the Deluded Followers of Joanna Southcott (2002).

All in all, it was a lovely day of art, and I can’t wait to see more of Generation. The next stop for me should be Perth. 

EXHIBITIONS VISITED:

Scottish National Gallery. GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland. 28th of June - 2nd of November.  (Academy Building. Upper Galleries.)

Scottish National Gallery. RSA Open Dialouges 28 June - 21 August. (Academy Building. Lower Galleries.)

Collective. 20 Years of Real Life, Ross Sinclair. 27 June - 31 August. Calton Hill.

Collective. Observers’ Walks: Memorialmania, by Ruth Ewan and Astrid Johnston and Outwith, by Bedwyr Williams.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery. GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland. 20th of June - 2nd of November.