Queen Mary’s Vaults Bank Street, Inverness, until 18 August 2007

GunOil AK47 on Board, 34" x 34", by Michael Forbes.

HOT ON the heels of their show at Midmills last month Highland Artists have staged another showcase event in a temporary venue beside Johnny Foxes on the riverside.

Unfortunately soon to become a bistro, Queen Mary’s Vaults feels like the first real contemporary art space in Inverness. An organic product of the collective energy and collaborative work being done by the Highland Artists group, this independent exhibition is the kind of event that actually gives our Year of Culture substance and meaning.

Initiator of the Highland Artists group Michael Forbes is to be applauded for his vision in the use of a transitional space in the city centre. This exhibition gives the audience a sense of diverse work being represented in undiscovered spaces, expanding the vision of our city and the local art scene.

For anyone who saw the last show there are plenty of new works and a number of recent additions to the group to be discovered.

Works by Kirsty Cohen, Denise Davis, Helen Denerley, Alex Dunn, Michael Forbes, James Hawkins, Pat Hay, Caroline Hewat, Gerald Laing, Fin Macrae, Anita Jeanne Murray, Rosie Newman, Leon Patchett, Linda Smith, Erland Tait, Pamela Tait and Eugenia Vronskaya represent a diverse range of work in painting, photography, sculpture, drawing, video, printmaking and mixed media. This combination of quality work in a new space (however temporary) is an inspirational and exciting mix.

One of the most striking series of works in this show is a compelling photographic tryptich by Fin Macrae; “Innocence”, “Innocence Lost” and “Innocence Gained”.
Suspended in front of the central image is a glass apple containing pure, clear water, which operates in counterpoint to the apple in the photograph, filled with blood-like fluid. The reflective glass and the suspended object, derived from the photographic sequence and present in the room with the viewer, create a self-reflexive experience for the audience.

The sequence of images themselves read like a gaining of knowledge in the image of fallen apples and the figure seen from the waist down clothed in cartoon pants like a symbol of burgeoning adolescence. The focal point of the central image of the hand outstretched, delicately supporting the glass apple and the final image of smashed glass spilling its bloody contents onto a mossy stone curiously seem to invoke a state of mind rather than a physical state.

The final image of destruction seems natural in the sequence because it invokes in the idea of innocence as not lost forever, but a human quality to be experienced in full knowledge as “Innocence Gained”. Innocence and experience are not necessarily opposite concepts or isolated to certain stages of life.

Although there are overtones of a modern fairytale, particularly in the apple imagery or the biblical associations of that which is forbidden, this is multilayered work which does justice to the complexity of being human. It is also an extraordinary example of the art of photography which is not valued nearly enough in this country. Whilst we equate the art form with the fleeting glance of a snapshot it can be so much more, and here it certainly is.

Anita Jeanne Murray has contributed an engaging combination of mixed media, sculpture and video work to the exhibition. “Threshold” with gold shoes sunk into cement is an absorbing and ironic image of the feminine while a series of small scale works in mixed media emerge beautifully in layers of paper collage, pencil, pastel and painted mark.

“Under a Green Sky” is a beautiful example of abstracted form contrasted with a vibrant green ground generated out of the fluid method of collage. This same quality can be seen in the video work which, like the intimate scale of the mixed media pieces, is deeply personal.

“The Tablecloth is White” (5mins 28 secs.) utilises generations of photographs and images filmed during the preparation of a family meal, which draw the viewer into an intimate circle. Music and dance are part of this cultural and familiar embrace. The camera slows as if merging stills, dwelling for a moment on individuals – the turn of a head or a gaze.

Within the comfortable zone of a family living room, at ease with each other and naturally drawn into the rhythm of what sounds like Turkish music, there is also an element of voyeuristic unease, like watching someone else’s home movies.

The black and white images conjure an attitude of remembrance and the surfacing of memory, although as spectators we bear no relation to the family on screen we are drawn in. The final two images of a hooded figure and crouching child surface ominously in relation to the previous footage.

Alex Dunn’s “Grey Drawing 29″ explores spatial relationships in a drafted construction of squares. The cross hatched ground contrasts with the carefully drawn boundaries of line, ambiguous in terms of scale.

“Grey Drawing 37″ comprised of subtly shaded rectangles, vertical and horizontal lines that have an almost architectural quality about them. Although this drawing suffered in viewing from dim light, Rosie Newman’s “House of Cream” revealed all its glorious layers of under-painting in such a light, with glowing gold seeping from beneath pink, blues and cream.

Michael Forbes has contributed two works to the show laced with his characteristic brand of humour and irony. “We interrupt this war for a word from our sponsors” in oils depicts a smiling George Bush and a gun plastered with oil company logos with a distorted target underneath. Forbes’ engagement with popular culture and his graphic style is a potent mix.

“You can’t change what it is”, depicting a dog cut in half salami style with the word dog labelled on the inside is both ironic and absurd in the Surrealist / Dada tradition. This work reminded me of the saying; “The truth is like castor oil, people don’t like the taste so you make them laugh and when their mouths are open you pour it in.”

Whilst I will mourn the passing of Queen Mary’s Vaults as a venue for contemporary art, it is certain that Highland Artists group are gaining momentum and will continue to do what artists do best; creating new spaces and new work to challenge and alter our perception.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• Highland Artists
• Alex Dunn
• More images from the Double Vision – Highland Artists’ exhibition

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