Neither Here nor There, an exhibition by Doug Fishbone, will open at the Highland Institute for Contemporary Art on Sunday 1 April, 2012, 2-5pm.

Neither Here nor There brings together two recent video works by the London based conceptual artist Doug Fishbone that extend his examination of consumer culture, mass media and the relativity of perception and understanding. Elmina and Untitled (Hypno Project) both question the way information is processed and presented in the contemporary visual landscape, and undermine the relationship between audience, meaning and context in different ways.

Elmina, a new feature-length melodrama which was shot in Ghana with a cast of major Ghanaian celebrities and scripted by a leading local production team, offers an unexpected hybrid of the contemporary art world and the West African popular film industry. What allows it to cross over is the presence of Fishbone, a white man from New York, in the lead of an otherwise completely African film – a part that would normally be played by a black West African actor. No reference is made to this oddity of casting, which quietly challenges conventions of race and representation in film, and offers a new perspective on globalization and the possibility of a shared visual language. Released as both a limited edition art work for a Western art-world audience and an inexpensive DVD for mainstream African and African immigrant markets, Elmina upends conventional notions of value, authorship and celebrity, defying any single identity or reading.

Elmina had its world premiere at Tate Britain in 2010, and was recently shown as part of Dublin Contemporary and the exhibition The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989 at the ZKM in Karslruhe, Germany.

In Untitled (Hypno Project), twelve protagonists are filmed as they watch a short video under the influence of hypnosis, each having been given specific suggestions instructing them to respond in certain ways at different visual and aural cues. Their reactions to what they watch unfold with a curious but humourous tension, raising a broad range of questions about manipulation, propaganda and behavioral conditioning in our media-saturated visual and political environment. The project opens a window onto an alternate zone of consciousness and, as with Elmina, presents the possibility that a given work can operate on a number of different levels simultaneously – depending on who views and in what context.

Fishbone earned an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London in 2003. Selected solo exhibitions include Tate Britain, London (2010-11), Rokeby, London (2010-11, and 2009), Gimpel Fils, London (2006) and 30,000 Bananas in Trafalgar Square (2004). Selected group exhibitions include Rude Britannia: British Comic Art, Tate Britain (2010), Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea (2008); Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery (2008), London; British Art Show 6, Newcastle, Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester (2006). He performs regularly at both international and UK venues, including appearances at London’s ICA and Southbank Centre.

Neither Here Nor There has been supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland and the Henry Moore Foundation. Elmina was made with the support of the Arts Council England.

The exhibition runs from 1 April – 6 May, and is open on Sundays 2 – 5pm, or by appointment.

HICA, Dalcrombie, Loch Ruthven, Dores, Inverness-shire, IV2 6UA, UK

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Source: HICA