Orkney Art Graduates 2009-10, Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney, until 12 March 2011

OKAY, what do we want from new graduates? We, being old and hair- and tooth-less, want reinvention.

So what do we have? The Pier, as always, creates the ambience.  I’m looking for a new voice, a new sound. And you know what I think? I think that what they have is a really horrible thing to cope with. They are gifted with a whole clanjamferie o’ technocological stuff – and then you come and look at it and you’re banjaxed.

Work by Matthew Lynch

They all have to do videos and digital imaging, and hard stuff involving dark rooms and orifices. And the Pier, nice and kind as they are, sets it up for them, so we all walk in a bewildered way through a lot of darkened rooms with flashing images.

Well – just don’t!! What I think we want is a sense of personality.

So what you find in this Pier exhibition is a remarkable reinvention of what’s good. I’m always bursting to hear or see what’s good. So what do we have? We have a lot of kind of pedestrian stuff (sounds horrible but it’s true), which hasna quite emerged from the tyranny of technology, and we have the stuff that’ll carry on. And the energy of these young people – it’s amazing!! But that’s the beauty of a new show.

They’re all very strange and odd. Clearly, Leila Dearness has a remarkable world view; you couldna make up her fur things, they’re her own imagining. What I think is that they are all, these new graduates, in their different ways, fighting with a very complex technology. We have become sophisticated viewers.

Ingrid Garrioch's Tweed skirt and jacket, and embellished silk shirt

So when we as the viewers look at a bit of video, we make horrid judgements, like the sound’s a bit crap. And because we are all very aware folk, we say – oh no!! I can’t hear that. I don’t think that’s made well. So I’m sorry. Gareth, it was a nice animation, but I want to be made to think further, I thought the sound was a bit poor   I couldna hear the voices. And that’s not fair on you, because I’ve watched a lot of films.

And Angus; well, you know, I think art’s about physicality. It’s about touching. So maybe travelling in Vietnam will give you that. And Helen – well, the Hubble did those images. Think beyond. There’s a coldness about these pictures which makes it hard to engage.

But then you think – they clearly want, these young people, to explore the digital, the non–physical, the thing that makes art something precious. They care.

I was in the gallery with Sophie (nearly nine) who loved Ian Rtchie’s pop-up pink book. And I think his work actually encapsulated the problem these wonderful, engaged, caring artists have. He plays with the idea of cardboard, physical pop-up books – plonking them into the lastminute.com world. It’s pink and witty, and what he’s doing is reminding us that cardboard is what folk like; we don’t really like computers.

So, in the end, what I think about this show is that I want something I can touch. I want to feel a person. And the only person who makes me think I can touch her understanding of our world is Alex Ashman. I think art’s really about sex. I think it’s about, when you look at it, it gives you a thrill.

So here we have a wee animation, and a character development, full of vigour and craziness, and – oh, excellent, A Coo’s Tale.  A joke! That’s the only moment (and it’s a fine drawing) when you are aware these are actually Orcadians, in the show. And she has the bravery to say  – I’m no going to be sucked into the digital thing, I’m going to draw people.

So – give me drawings. Give me engagement with the real messy world. Be brave with your art. And remember – like Lee Garson does – that photography is a vital art; it can tell you miles of Orkney stuff.  A photo of two shoes gives you far more miles than a whole big video about orifices.

© Morag MacInnes, 2011

Links

• Pier Arts Centre