A Glorious Return— Gallery Hopping in Edinburgh

GALLERY HOPPING: THE FRUITMARKET, STILLS GALLERY, OLD ST PAUL'S, THE NATIONAL GALLERY

29th of November 2016. Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Well. Hello? I’m not exactly sure how one goes about digging up the corpse of a blog that’s been dead for a year and a half, but here I am, shovel (and pen) in hand. First of all, a reassurance. I definitely haven't been away from this little corner of the internet because I haven’t seen any art in the past months. Quite the opposite. In fact, I moved to London, Best City Ever for Art^tm, and I undertook an MLitt in Modern and Contemporary Art at Christies Education. 

In spite of the fact that I spent the totality of my undergraduate years swearing that I would never do a masters degree, it was a really fantastic year filled with interesting people and amazing art. My days were stuffed with gallery marathons and intense study sessions in the library— two of my favourite things. I got to visit the Venice Biennale for the first time, and I spent a week sprinting between galleries for Berlin Gallery Weekend. I fell absolutely head over heels for Robert Smithson, and I capped it all off by writing a thesis about space exploration and art.

Sadly, all of this cavorting about left very little room for recreational writing (although you can find writing I did for Christies here and here). Now though, I’m through the other side and, like the nerd I am, I’m already missing writing about art. It turns out that even after a 100 page thesis, I just can’t kick the habit. Your girl has to see art and when she sees art, she just can’t shut up about it.

Edinburgh's Cockburn Street, conveniently home of both the Stills Gallery
and my old favourite, the Baked Potato Shop.

So all this comes around to the fact that recently I went on a bit of an art binge. After being ever so slightly out of the game for the past few months editing my thesis in Oxford and then spending some time in the woods of New England, I returned to the gallery lined city pavements with a vengeance. Over the course of several days, I saw much art. I saw so much art that I almost went over the line of feasibility. Was it even, perhaps, too much art? …Nah. Not possible. 

Before I headed to London from Oxford, I eased myself back into the art world with a quick trip to Edinburgh. While the real purpose of this trip was to see some friends from my university days, my undergraduate obsessions with Scotland’s art scene meant that I simply couldn’t resist revisiting some old haunts before I met up with the old gang at the Christmas markets. They should really expect so much by now.

The light, while lovely, did make it hard to capture the space.
(Watt, Still (2004).

As we had set a time to meet and there was mulled wine waiting for me, I limited my list to just four places, all just a stones throw away from the festive cheer— Old St Paul’s Church, the Stills Gallery, the Scottish National Gallery, and the Fruitmarket Gallery.

I had been meaning to get to Old St Paul’s Church for years to see Alison Watt’s 2004 four panelled painting Still. As a noted fan of Watt, it was simply a must for me. I’ve had a lot to say about her on this blog in the past, so I won’t go on, but suffice it to say, my high expectations were met. It was a privilege to see her work installed in such a reverent, serene environment. Beautifully lit with only the naturally grey Edinburgh light, the feeling of absence, an inner void, was so clear and striking. 

At the Stills Gallery, I was treated to an exhibition of the 2016 Jill Todd photographic award, on until January 22nd. As can be the case with exhibitions of recent graduate’s work, I found the photographs a bit hit and miss. The standout for me was undeniably the Emma Levy’s National Park series (2016), award 3rd place in the competition. A contrast to some of the larger format photographs earlier in the exhibition, the small framed images oscillated between the intimate and the universal, at once specific and comprehensive. I was also struck by one of Mad Holm’s street scenes from his series Above Common Ground (winner of 1st place) and enjoyed the work of both Calum Douglas and Arthur Montgomery. This was my first visit to the Sills Gallery, and I was so impressed with the space. Not only is their exhibition space lovely and their location ideal, but they also have both digital and darkroom faculties on site. 

Emma Levy's series National Parks (2016) installed at Stills Gallery.
Image courtesy of Stills Gallery.

As my trip to the National Gallery was really just a quick nip in to see The Goldfinch, on loan from the Hague until the 18th December, I’ll move on to the Fruitmarket Gallery where, until 19th February 2017, there’s an exhibition of recent work by William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland. I remembered the Fruitmarket Gallery as one of the best spaces to see art in Edinburgh, and I wasn’t disappointed. I went in with no preconceived conceptions about either artist and came out absolutely head over heels, almost unable to tear myself away. My friends, waiting for their mulled wine, weren’t so impressed. 

Both artists come from the same generation of South African artists and have been friends since they met as students in the 1970s. I was immediately struck by the overt inclusion of words and literature in both Koorland’s paintings and Kentridge’s films. Playing with text and image, they seemed to be commenting on how we tell and construct narratives. Reworking and un-working existing material, playing with erasure and data, the probe at the idea of truth and identity. This is surely doubly relevant for artists from South Africa working in a European context, where their national stories and character are so often misunderstood and simplified. Take Kentridge’s Second-Hand Reading, made in 2013. 

Kentridge, Second-Hand Reading, 2013.

The film begins with an open book, where the left hand side of the page has been obscured with paint and flyers and the right is left clear, showing data printed in neat rows. Over the course of the video, hands come into frame, slowly removing the pasted in images and swirling paint until the original printed text is revealed. On the one hand, it seems like Kentridge is preforming some kind of excavation, revealing truth. But, even as he does this, he’s also removing personal expression. Which image, what version of the story is more complete? The one with data and facts or the one with individual experiences? Realistically you need them both. This is the case in his 2012 Anatomy of Melancholy as well. Using a dictionary as his support, he overlays his own words, his own images. There is a constant play between the officially sanctioned and the personally true.

The exhibition really opened my eyes to both Kentridge’s and Koorland’s practices, and it’s well worth a visit if you find yourself with a spare hour or two in Edinburgh. 

Later in the week, I found myself in London, eager for more. So much more, in fact, that I went to 16 museums and galleries in two days. Yes, my feet hurt very much. No, I don’t regret it. Still, I think that trip will have to be fodder for another day. Seems I just can’t keep it short when I’m writing about art!

See you art lovers soon. 

EXHIBITIONS VISITED:

- Old Saint Paul's Church. Still by Alison Watt. Ongoing.

- Stils Gallery. 2016 Jill Todd Photographic Award. 4th November 2016 - 22nd January 2017.

- Scottish National Gallery. The Goldfinch. 4th November - 18th December 2016.

- The Fruitmarket Gallery. William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland: Conversations in Letters and Lines. 19th November
2016 - 19th February 2017.