Inverness City Centre, until 20 January 2010

New Eden

THE LATEST in a series of public art projects initiated by Inverness Old Town Art (IOTA), Getting Up: Windows On The City, is a joint initiative with BID (Inverness Business Improvement District), funded by the Inverness Common Good Fund.

With empty shop syndrome so prevalent in towns and cities all over the country, it is always good to see such spaces utilised, albeit temporarily, for a variety of creative projects. To see art reclaim neglected spaces as potential flashpoints for inspiration or thought is hugely exciting, and to be universally applauded. This is especially true of work which encourages us to stop and pause in the extreme haste of daily life and perhaps perceive our surroundings or our place in them in a new way.

The presence of contemporary art within a climate of economic downturn, empty shop locations and the current High Street/retail park consumer orgy that is Christmas is certainly a potent recipe for visual irony. The best work in the Getting Up project, curated by Richie Cumming and Stacey Hunter, visibly engages with this dynamic – sometimes profoundly, sometimes playfully, utilising visual language as a conscious trigger.

Mike Inglis’s striking three dimensional installation NEW EDEN (Ex Video Drive-In shop front, 83-85 Church Street) explores the idea of a contemporary Garden of Eden in a reinterpretation of Albrecht Dürer’s 1504 engraving the Creation of Adam and Eve. The strong graphic style in stark black, white and red, depicting a faceless space boy and girl attended by four skeletal humours, translates the allegorical language of art relegated to history into a graffiti tag for our time.

Greed is the new religion and The Fall into consumerism belongs to us all. This is an intelligent multilayered work from the outer layer of stencil on glass through the tableaux of figures and arterial trees. The theatrical setting of the work contributes to our narrative reading of it, while the style of design makes it instantly accessible. Well crafted both in terms of ideas and technique, Inglis’s work is a welcome and thought-provoking addition to the Old Town streetscape and a timely comment on the state of the planet.

Another section of the former Video Drive-In shop front containing an installation by Hilary Grant and Mahala Le May is less successful. The largely blank white window inhabited by sparsely drawn and three dimensional lit mushrooms on the floor felt insignificant, dull and badly executed. The combination of media including felt, papers, UV LEDs and fluorescent light reflective materials was equally unconvincing.

While the art of NOW often demands engagement with technology, this should be integral to visual communication rather than a superficial nod to being contemporary. While the installation subverts the visual demands of a shop window, i.e., it doesn’t immediately capture attention, this felt less like artistic intent and more like lack of understanding of visual craft. The growth of mushrooms on the shop floor might prompt contemplation from a very observant passer by; however, I suspect it is unlikely to promote any lasting interest in its current form.

Adjacent to this work, Inflatable Monster by Dundee based mixed media artist Andy MacVicar displayed a collection of projected local archival film footage drawn from the Scottish Moving Image Archive. The sepia tinged quality of the images, shifting depth of field and human subject matter, created a strangely elegiac sequence of images.

The nature of archival film, its colouration and movement of the camera are naturally reflective of time etched in celluloid, and it would have been good to see further exploration of this found footage beyond the obvious discovery, editing and screening. The relationship between the human subject matter, actual found material and location begs for more expansive artistic interpretation.

Glasgow artist Janie Nicoll’s contribution to the project in the former Harry Gow shop front (14 Union Street) actively turns advertising and sales language on itself. The sequential arrangement of red and white banners displaying both associative narrative and sales text create an interesting dialogue between that which compels us to buy and that which compels us to reflect, dualistic impulses of the festive season.

Now Now, a Glasgow based art collective, provided an entertaining and playful take on contemporary art values and the empty shop with their Tombola event, culminating in a prize giving of contemporary art in the former 99p shop (4/6 Drummond Street). The bargain 99p price of a ticket bought participants a piece of original artwork housed amongst the found object remains of Christie’s 99p store.

The pyramid of shop fittings and red baskets, together with an array of sculpture, drawings, paintings, hybrid objects, prints and photography, provided an interesting juxtaposition between mass production and the handmade art object. The means of distribution as per a community fete or fairground leveled the expectation of access to art and the array of art – both trash and treasure – added to the sense of anticipation. In this democratic exercise, everybody who invested an affordable 99p was a winner.

The project launch in the Rose Street multistorey carpark (19 December) featured live music from Withered Hand, Mississipi Hoodoo Man and local band 28 Jacks, video projections and art installations. Graffiti works in refuge alcoves of each stairwell landing were particularly effective, together with found object sculpture which gave an unexpected twist to the familiar site. The random nature of works added to the sense of discovery and ambiguity between art intentionally placed in the space and the accumulated life of the building. An acoustic set from Withered Hand (Edinburgh based visual artist Dan Wilson) was one of the highlights of the evening with its offbeat and understated take on life, love and the joys of AC/DC.

Distributing sound and video art via Bluetooth, Dundee artist’s group Yuck ‘n Yum, who promote the work the work of emerging artists via their quarterly art ‘zine and events outside traditional gallery spaces, will have a presence in the city throughout the project with their mobile distribution van.

While the energy and ongoing work of artist groups such as Yuck ‘n Yum and NOW NOW is fantastic to see and will certainly give local artists food for thought in terms of the scope for public engagement with contemporary art, the domination of this event by groups from outside the area did lead me to wonder about the extent to which “the artworks involve and reflect the local community”, artistic or otherwise.

The urban identity of Inverness is a complex issue and whilst IOTA has actively engaged in all its projects with the idea of Inverness as a city and what that might mean in cultural terms, this should be in the context of a wider programme of education, access and development. The context of artistic exchange needs greater definition in this and future projects.

Art displayed in unexpected locations is a necessity in Inverness, a city still without any significant public art spaces. Whilst temporary projects and events give lightning flashes of inspiration and are an important part of access to different kinds of visual work, it is frustrating for these to be consistently unconnected to a wider cultural framework or infrastructure. As local press coverage of previous events negatively concentrating on funding over function have demonstrated, public perception of visual art and its value has a long way to go before it is understood and accepted as an essential part of our cultural landscape.

The Getting Up project is a fantastic opportunity for engagement with a varied range of work by emerging artists and with ideas of urbanity and consumerism that influence all our lives, especially in this heightened season of mass consumption. In many ways the most successful artworks draw attention to the forces that have emptied the Old Town centre of life in recent times, while simultaneously breathing creative life into these abandoned spaces.

© Georgina Coburn, 2009

Links

• Getting Up
• IOTA