Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, until 16 February 2008

We Are Not Amused - Carole Robinson

GEORGINA COBURN hopes for an enlightened arts policy that will help foster greater development of arts and crafts work in the region beyond the Year of Culture

THE HIGHLAND Council Exhibitions Unit Craft Residency Project Over The Hills and Far Away placed craft makers in selected schools across 8 areas of the Highlands and Islands between 2004 -2007. Artists were selected by students in each school and this latest showcase features new work from 2006/7 artists in residence Hanne Mannheimer and Carole Robinson together with works created as part of previous “Over The Hills” residencies. New work from makers featured in connection with Highland 2007; “Craft in the Highlands – Cridhe Na Gaidhealtachd” and works from the “Highland Constellation – Co-result Na Gaidhealtachd” project are also displayed as part of the exhibition.

Originally from Sweden and currently based at Blue Door Studios, ceramicist Hanne Mannheimer worked with pupils at Rosebank Primary in Nairn as part of Over the Hills and Far Away in 2006. Her characteristic visible joins, use of screen print onto clay, drawn marks and incisions are an intriguing mixture of craft and fine art techniques. Embedded materials together with fragments of text and image are used to good effect, creating a series of layers that allow us to read the work rather than simply admire a functional or decorative vessel. Each piece feels like an artefact infused with personal history and the colours used, umbers and greenish opaque glaze give the impression of the work being a natural by product of climate and time.

‘Memory of Suntack’ is a good example with its circular form and threads of textiles woven through it. The scraped, excavated and ingrained surface of the vessel seems to be peeling away with the words “marry me” etched into the clay like the remnant of a memory. A larger four panelled work ‘Samling – The Collection Series’ is beautifully composed of found objects, wire, glass, metal and clay accented with pencil drawing and isolated sections of text. The textures of all these elements and the freshness of drawn marks make this an absorbing piece to contemplate.

Carole Robinson worked with students from Inverness Royal Academy in 2006 and 2007 creating works in fused glass, wire, beading and found objects. ‘We Are Not Amused’, a headdress and choker assembled from glass, wire and everyday objects is a humorous piece fit for a Dadaist monarch. Also on display are examples of beaded jewellery incorporating textiles, metal and glass and a series of eight framed panels by students of the Academy. Each panel is comprised of smaller sections of fused glass highlighting the colour, density and translucency of the material. Robinson’s assemblage piece ‘Time Waits For No One’ extends our perception of craft beyond the purely decorative. It is a work that can be seen as sculpture, assemblage or even as portraiture.

The sculpture ‘Neither Here Nor There’ (found wood, metal glass and clay) by Robinson and Mannheimer, a collaboration between artists in residence, is an aspect of the project that might be further developed in future residencies. Contact between artists working in different disciplines is a terrific catalyst for professional and creative development.

‘A Box of Things We Made’ featuring work by Tim Johnson, Mary Butcher, Sue Parakova and Vincent Large contains some wonderfully unexpected juxtaposition of materials such as coil rope and porcelain. Like the Pushing the Boundaries exhibition by Scottish Basketmakers, it is great to have your assumptions about the range of craft traditions and techniques expanded and actively challenged.

The ‘Star Jewellery’ collection featuring work by Lucy Woodley, Beth Legg and Gilly Langton, projections by John McGeogh of Arts in Motion with rotating collaged kaleidoscope and natural images and a large hand bound volume by Laura West are some of the creative responses to the ‘Highland Constellation’ project on show. Within this volume clad in a metallic rocket design new writing, outdoor artwork and other documentation of works created in Highland schools as part of the project have been recorded.

It is a shame not to be able to see the whole contents through video or other electronic means as the single volume is understandably displayed behind glass. Recordings in relation to the three ‘Highland Constellation’ installations created at Glenuig (‘Seven Stars’, ‘Solas’ and ‘Iasg a’ leum’) might also have given a wider audience more insight into the scope of the project which incorporated craft, digital art, literature and astronomy.

The ‘Highland Constellation’ project named a new constellation ‘Isag a’ leum – The Jumping Fish’ by measuring significant dates in local history in light years from the earth and locating stars according to this calculation to form the new constellation. Artist Gill Russel, writer Linda Cracknell and bookbinder Rachel Hazel worked with the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh and selected schools in the Highlands to explore our relationship to the night sky. Creative reinterpretation of our unique natural environment, history and culture is central to this exhibition as a whole and raises questions about continued education and development of contemporary craft in the Highlands and Islands.

A project like Over The Hills that brings students directly into contact with working artists and makers, makes them part of the decision making process and introduces the idea of art and design as an integral part of life is extremely important in an area with limited cultural provision and access. With Highland 2007 now concluded a fitting legacy would be for this work to continue with the aim to reach every school in the Highlands. A regional Arts policy to develop Creative Industries in the region and provide a continuum of experience through education would help ensure that Over the Hills does not end with 2007.

Contemporary Craft has the potential to be a significant international draw, part of a positive redefinition of our cultural map, an interpretative tool for understanding our heritage and identity and a central driving force for the Highland economy. Another component of the exhibition highlighting the work of Highlands & Islands based artists and makers such as Mhairi Killin, Angus Clyne, Sandra Murray, Brodie Nairn, Nicola Burns, Linda Soos and Daniel Kavanagh makes this potential abundantly clear.

Mhairi Killin’s “Long Night Moon”, a large work of intricate sections reads like the ebb and flow of natural forces in metal. Each section on blackened and burnished metal reveals itself in a play of light on moon discs and silver wire. It is a conceptual work of fine art and craftsmanship that can be read as a sequence of movement, comforting in its constant cycle of change.

Angus Clyne’s work celebrates the natural properties and grain of wood through turning, carving and burning. ‘Europa’ is ingenious, an amazing sphere of finely fused platelets, with an opening in the top like a vessel. It is a superb example of craftsmanship and intellectual proposition in equal measure. ‘Is It?’, a great piece of Douglas fir displayed like a Celtic Cross slab, recalls the great grave stones of the past. On one side the grain and knots in the wood conjure the image of a cross or human face while on the reverse spiral pattern and cup marks suggests Bronze Age monuments. It is a wonderfully ambiguous work that captures the imagination and the inherent mystery of our ancient stones.

The inspiration of the Highland landscape and reinterpretation of traditional techniques and materials have been explored in varying degrees through a series of craft projects for Highland 2007 including Homeroom, This One Feels Just Right and the Highland Constellation project.

While these projects have resulted in new works being created there is still no permanent showcase of artists and makers outside the private gallery sector and no coherent programme of promotion and development of Craft in the Highlands that seeks to place this work on an international stage. The quality of work by individual artists and makers displayed as part of this exhibition demands that this situation be addressed and that a sustained long term programme of development through education continues beyond the Year of Culture.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• Dark Sky Scotland
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