There has been quite a lot of exhibitions opening the last few weeks, the highlight of a week past Friday being Pockets of Landscape in the Lower Foyer Gallery at DOJ which included fellow classmate Hayley Mathersin it. All the work in it was lovely, sharing a quite, subtle, contemplative feel, focusing on objects and drawing.

After that there was the Alex Frost opening at the DCA which I did enjoy. His portraits are stunning and the methods he uses to produce his “2d” work is quite stunning. The noses were interesting although I fear lost a little charm out of their original residence of a water reservoir outside Glenfiddich distillery. It was hard not to enjoy the exhibition, especially with a whisky cocktail in hand!

The DCA was followed by a mysterious event at Tayside Recyclers entitled Miscellaneous Enquiries, featuring 8 female Dundee artists. There was a bit of secrecy around this event, but sharing a studio with half of them did result in bits of jigsaw coming together in my head to make it not such a mystery as to those involved ;) It was an excellent night! We were all handed a lab coat when we went in, making us, the viewer, feel part of the event itself and thus engaging their audience automatically. They had a mock job interview we could take part in, film projections of the artists themselves and the Tayside Recyclers staff, the dissection of Jelly Beans, and a sound performance utilising, mainly, exercise machines of sorts. I have a few photos uploaded over in the gallery at dundeefineart2010.co.uk.

This last Friday also saw a few exhibition opening. The first was Moving Images At The Attic Archive at the Cooper Gallery at DOJ. I got through a couple of the film pieces and plan to visit again in the following weeks. There is a good amount of things to keep you occupied. The Attic Archive itself is related to Peter Haining, who we had an artist talk from in 3rd year and who was at the last Cupar Arts Festival, with part of his archive. The stuff at Cupar was mainly literature that was a highlight and included quite a few publications I wouldn’t mind in my own collection. More info on The Attic Archive is here.

After that there was Billow Bellow, an exhibition of Deilia Baillie and Lee O’Connor, both of whom were 1st year tutors of mine. It was rather good, mainly paintings with a few photographs by Delia. I loved the paintings, there is a quality to Lee’s that make me instantly connect to them, and Delia’s have always impressed me. Also could not help noticing the flat they were exhibiting in had an amazing ceiling and entranceway, which joined with a couple of musicians in the background made it a good evening.

This was all then topped of with a visit to the union metal night \m/ The next Distorted is the last one of the (academic) year, which is a sobering though since it is on May 7th, effectively degree show time, technically the last one ever for me (I doubt I’ll venture back outwith studentdom) and possible summer weather will be occurring. Better get on with that to-do list!

The second thing is an exhibition by Tracy McKenna & Edwin Janssen called Life is Over! If You Want It, currently on at the Cooper Gallery at DOJ. The exhibition is related to the artists experiences with assissted suicide. The most striking thing about the exhibition is the smell as you enter the gallery. There is a huge vase of lillies on the table the artists are using as a discussion area, and it instantly reminds you of a clinical hospital environment, of illness and death. The lighting is low, and on a personal level reminds me of hospitals at night, and the sort of nervous anticipation of a family member being moved from a&e to a ward at 2am in the morning, where the atmosphere is still, eerie and you yourself are in a sort of daze. The exhibition includes a selection of paintings the artists have borrowed from galleries/museums in Perth and Edinburgh and their own “research” in the form of pinboards and a projection of written notes, which will be added to as they will be in the exhibition space to actively discuss issues arising from the subject. The most touching part of the exhibition is a projection of a film that on first few appears not to change, but to be a photograph of an indoor scene, until you notice the digital photo frame on the table within it, showing personal photographs. The exhibition also includes drawings from their ongoing series of THE JOHN & YOKO DRAWINGS, which actively relate to the subject with slogans such as Death Is Gentle. Overall the exhibition is quite somber but very peaceful at the same time. As part of our speak programme we also got a talk from Tracy McKenna and Edwin Janssen, which touched on their solo work prior to working collaboratively and subsequent works, ending with this one. It was quite a moving talk as Edwin Janssen spoke about his fathers death by assisted suicide, highlighting the difference between assisted suicide and euthanasia. One of the most powerful aspects of the exhibition is probably that it has come from personal experiences.

The first is Straylight Cavern, put on by Cell Project Space, and is a collaboration of sorts, described best on their website:

Straylight Cavern is a continuum of Richard Priestley’s curatorial approach to his art practice in which he provides the construct of the scenario in which the artists he has selected are to be shown. This approach invites the participating artists to succumb to the effects of the ambiance, politic and genre of the structure upon their work within the intensity of the installation and its interior. Blurring the boundaries of the artwork this approach questions authorship and the recontextualisation of individual works.

The full statement/information is here. Our artist talk 2 weeks ago was by Richard Priestley and Milika Muritu, the curators of Cell Project Space, and was quite interesting to hear how they built up Cell Project Space, obtaining exhibition spaces, providing studio space and providing support and community based projects. It all sounded very positive. The exhibition itself, Straylight Cavern, is so much fun! The structure (artwork) that was built to house the artworks of participating artists was really what made it for me – very sci-fi but definitely reminded me of being inside an iceberg or glacier. It was freezing outside the entrance to it, whether that was on purpose or not it added to the atmosphere, and the jagged structure and grey/white material created a great affect. It had a great sense of fun surrounding it as well, and did have elements of being a kid, exploring away. The other artworks, mainly at the heart of the structure, were pretty cool and fitted well with the ambience of the structure. I was intrigued by the Angelo Plessas piece, which actually turns out to be this website! His work appears to be websites made for viewing and, to a certain extent, interaction. I spent the night having great fun visiting them all, and find it is a really interesting concept.

The second exhibition that opened last week was There Is No I, which was a collaboration between A.R.T (the uni’s art society), and current 4th year students Kezia Merrick and Jessica Ramm. The exhibition was to explore the themes of collaboration. The space had been filled with strands of wool, attached the floor, wall, ceiling and a series of ‘random’ objects. The wool structure itself, even for it being strands that are not really close together, does give a strong feeling of enclosure, and the way they are intertwine and overlap definitely brings to mind the issues surrounding collaborative practice.

I think there will be two more exhibitions in these spaces before the end of term, both of which look pretty cool, and if not they add a little distraction when my paintings are not going to plan!