Their ideas, techniques and materials are the inspiration for this Highland Council exhibition of innovative objects from the Crafts Council and Highland Council collections.

Observed Incident, 2002. Tapestry, two joined embroidered panels, one panel (Panel A) depicting a woman looking out from behind a curtain and the second panel (Panel B) depicting four police men. Cotton canvas is stretched over a wooden frame. The canvas has been given a wash of thin acrylic paint to set out the main areas. This stitching all done by hand. Collection: T172 (Photo: Heini Schneebeli)

There is a mystery contained within each of the objects in this exhibition. Thoughts, ideas and materials have been twisted and turned to create amazing, unusual, unsettling, surprising, amusing and unexpected objects. Trails of connections exist just waiting to be discovered.

A bizarre looking cormorant by Nicola Henley made from dyed, painted and embroidered calico echoes the new textiles by Forres based textile artist Jennifer Cantwell who is experimentally combining textiles with the sound of birdsong. An unexpected Perspex and polyester resin brooch of a seagull on a goalpost by Rosalind Perry continues the bird theme while the boundaries of textiles are pushed in Guinevere’s Veil by Pamela Woodhead with multi-coloured squares of woven Lurex metallic yarns woven on hand frames bonded with pigmented resins.

Tom Dixon, Chair `S', 1988. Traditional rush weaving over welded tubular steel frame. Collection: W84. (Photo: Nick Moss)

Observed Incident by Audrey Walker brings tapestry into the present day with two joined hand embroidered panels, one depicting a woman looking out from behind a curtain and the second depicting four policemen. A shaggy shocking lime green wool bag by Hikaru Noguchi expresses her joie de vivre while a jacket and t-shirt by Susie Freeman fuses clothes with medical artwork.

Room Temperature 2007, Photo-etched sterling silver sheet, acrylic liner, glass thermometer; hand folded and manipulated silver sheet, photo-etched by Lin Cheung, Collection: M79 (Photo: John Hammond)

Crossing over textiles and into the work of Caroline Dear is the use of techniques. Working in natural fibre, Caroline is exploring the function and purpose of ‘twisted’ ropes using a variety of plant materials from her home in Skye. Her exploratory use of natural materials is reflected in the iconic ‘S’ chair by Tom Dixon where rushes are woven using traditional techniques over a contemporary tubular steel frame. The versatility of natural materials appears again in the beautiful basquetry disc threaded with stones on wires by contemporary basketmaker Dail Behennah.

In the wilds of Caithness jeweller Patricia Niemann, who is inspired by body adornment, uses metal, hot glass, textiles and found objects in her work which is often gothic and unusual with an element of humour. This sense of surprise and shock threads its way through the jewellery in the exhibition. The disconcerting group of 14 pieces which combine to create Ballet to Remember by Maria Militsi featured in the BBC’s popular A History of the World in 100 Objects. Inspired by the 1944 book of ballet poses ‘Ballet to Remember’ the artist has grafted ballet shoes onto found or second hand objects, such as old surgical instruments and the shell of a Siemens mobile phone with flower sticker. A room temperature by Lin Cheung, made from a glass thermometer with photo-etched silver, uses Fahrenheit and Celsius measurements to define emotions and feelings.

Maria Militsi, Ballet to Remember, 2009/10. Materials: used objects (found on the street or sourced from ebay, second-hand shops and antique markets), silver 18ct gold details, lost wax casting. (Photo - Nick Moss)

Ring sets are the trademark of internationally renowned jeweller Wendy Ramshaw and the set of four ‘pillar rings’ is one of her early designs with spire-shaped bezels inspired by the space age and urban development of the late sixties. A necklace by Katy Hackney is created from shock cord with ‘beads’ hand carved from laminated cellulose acetate.

Jane Adam has an international reputation for her unique jewellery, and her brooch, neckpiece, bangle and earrings, influenced by natural objects, are made from an anodised aluminium sheet, blockprinted and dyed then milled to stretch and craze it.

The material of found objects re-cycled into something new creates a path through the exhibition. Cut, beaten and soldered tin, plastic and a cheese grater have been re-cycled by Lucy Casson to create the colourful and playful 32 figure chess set. Her world of creatures reflects her observations of people and her love of kitchen utensils.

Lucy Casson, Chess Set with 32 figures, 2003 Recycled tin, cut, beaten, soldered Recycled plastic and nylon Recycled cheese grater. Collection: M75. (Photo: Heini Schneebeli)

This imaginative twist on how we view products reflects the work of Inverness product designer Nick Ross who has developed a single chair in several ways to express different concepts. It is also perfectly expressed in the quirky Currant Drying Shed with candle powered drying system by Hazel Jones who designs objects for jobs that in reality do not need to be done.

There is a cross over in techniques between metal and textiles in the two towers by Jean Davey Winter, one made of thin brass sheets and the other from sheets of canvas, both on high steel legs. The selection of furniture is completed with marquetry by Peter Niczewski who creates three dimensional forms on a completely flat surface. His panel made from dyed veneers, mainly sycamore, deceptively depicts a letter rack with newspaper, envelope and postcard.

Every object in this exhibition is here for a reason. Rather like reading a detective novel there is a hidden story just waiting to be enjoyed. The challenge for every visitor is to uncover what it is.

Tina Rose, May 2011

Turned and Twisted was on display at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery until 2 July 2011.

CATHY SHANKLAND and DEAN MELVILLE discuss the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Inverness Museum and Gallery with Kenny Mathieson, and sketch out the ongoing implications of the Artist Rooms project for the Highlands & Islands

KENNY MATHIESON: Cathy, let’s start with an obvious first question – what is Artist Rooms?

CATHY SHANKLAND: It’s a series of exhibitions based on the collection of post-war art made by the art dealer, Anthony d’Offay. He sold his collections to the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland last year, who now own it jointly. He sold it for the price that he had paid for it, although it was obviously worth much more than that now, so it was in considerable part a donation. He has stayed on as a curator for the project.

KENNY MATHIESON: And this was a very large collection?

CATHY SHANKLAND: There are over 700 works in the collection as a whole, but the concept of Artist Rooms is that each artist is featured in a solo exhibition, so there won’t be any group exhibitions as part of this project. That allows each artist’s work to be studied in depth, and a number of artists – including some very iconic figures and a number of living artists – are represented by very substantial bodies of work in this collection.

Bill Viola - Ascension, 2000, Color video projection on wall in dark room (photo - Kira Perov )

KENNY MATHIESON: This must be the first time that a national collection has been shared and shown so widely across the UK?

DEAN MELVILLE: It’s nationwide across Britain, from the Pier Arts Centre up in Stromness to the Tate St. Ives in Cornwall. There are eighteen venues involved this year, and twenty-five are interested for next year. In Scotland this year there are four – we are showing the Mapplethorpe portraits, the Pier have Bill Viola, Aberdeen have Ron Mueck, and the Tramway in Glasgow have Bruce Nauman. And of course, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh are showing several Artist Rooms.

We felt that we didn’t want to include things just on the grounds that they might be controversial

KENNY MATHIESON: So how does the distribution of exhibitions work – did you get to chose what you wanted to show?

CATHY SHANKLAND: We had a choice to make from what was available, so you go through all of that and then make your request, and if it is available they will usually let you have it. Robert Mapplethorpe was our first choice – when we got the chance to be part of the scheme we sat down and wrote down the names of the artists we were most interested in from the collection, and Mapplethorpe was on all our lists. Dean was especially keen.

DEAN MELVILLE: I spent three years living in the USA between 1989 and 1991, and there was a show of Mapplethorpe’s work on in Cincinnati at that time, with the large scale portraits and a broader range of his work. It got a lot of news coverage, and was an important exhibition in many ways, and left a big impression on me.

I always liked his work anyway, so when the chance to have it here came up I was delighted. It is a different set of work to the one I saw in Cincinatti, obviously, but d’Offay’s collection is supposed to be second only to the Guggenheim in New York in terms of its holdings.

KENNY MATHIESON: And you went for the portraits theme from what was available?

CATHY SHANKLAND: We felt it gave us a cohesive exhibition, and most of the works in the collection are portraits anyway.

KENNY MATHIESON: What were your selection criteria in putting the Mapplethorpe together?

DEAN MELVILLE: It would have been possible to go for a very different group of pieces, or to group them within the exhibition in a different way. We could also have gone for more of spread of works, but we felt that the strength of the portraits held it very tightly together, and made it more coherent.

Eva Sarandon/ Amurri by Robert Mapplethorpe

KENNY MATHIESON: Presumably you could also have gone for a more controversial selection of his work, say from his S&M period – there is really only one in this show?

CATHY SHANKLAND: We did have that option, yes, but we felt that we didn’t want to include things just on the grounds that they might be controversial. We were drawn more to thematic groups within his portraits, things like the writers and artists or the children. We wanted to show people what a great portrait photographer he was, without getting them distracted by all the S&M stuff.

DEAN MELVILLE: It would have been an easy choice to go for the more controversial pictures, and doubtless people would have flocked to see them, but we wanted to show how well versed he was in art and photography, and that can get clouded when you focus on the S&M and so on. He trained as a sculptor, and I think you can see that clearly in his work. And these works we have are harder to find and see anyway.

KENNY MATHIESON: How much of a dilemma was the final order of hanging them?

DEAN MELVILLE: I’ve had quite a bit of experience of hanging work, but it turned out that I wasn’t here for the physical hanging because my partner was having our baby at the time! But we did try a lot of different possibilities on this one. There is always potential to do it differently, but in the end you have to stop somewhere, and we made our decisions to hang it as you see it.

We could even have reduced the number of pictures, but we felt what we have is right. The people of Inverness rarely get a chance to see this work, so we wanted to include as much as we could without crowding the walls. There are a lot of subtleties in his work, and we have had a lot of people coming back two or three times to absorb it.

KENNY MATHIESON: Why were you selected to take part in the project?

CATHY SHANKLAND: We have a relationship with the National Galleries in Edinburgh that has built up over the years, and through that they offered us the chance to be part of it.

DEAN MELVILLE: Although this show is only on in Inverness, I think that the fact that we are also operating as touring unit was a factor in being offered the chance to take part, and I think they are looking at how we might develop this project beyond the Mapplethorpe exhibition.

CATHY SHANKLAND: We have the potential to roll the project out to other venues in the Highlands in subsequent exhibitions, although that is going to require even more work, because some of the other galleries have not yet been checked out as being suitable from a security point of view and environmental conditions and so on, but it is our aim to roll it out if we can.

Bill Viola - Silent Mountain, 2001, Colour video diptych on two plasma displays mounted side-by-side on wall, 102.1 cm x 121.9 cm x 8.9 cm (40.25 in x 48 in x 3.5 in), Performers: Nathalie Canessa, Ken Roht (photo - Kira Perov)

KENNY MATHIESON: Can you just remind us how the Exhibitions Unit works as a touring operation?

CATHY SHANKLAND: The Unit runs the Highland Council galleries, which is basically four galleries, or five if you count the IMAG spaces as two. There are galleries in Thurso, Wick and Kingussie, and the exhibitions change every four to six weeks, and generally tour round each of the galleries, although that isn’t the case with the Mapplethorpe.

KENNY MATHIESON: Do you have links with galleries that aren’t run by Highland Council?

CATHY SHANKLAND: We do to some extent, and we are looking to develop that further in future, working with galleries like The Lime Tree in Fort William, for example. We also work with spaces that aren’t galleries, and with schools.

KENNY MATHIESON: The education side of your activities is an area that some people feel is lacking at the moment – do you have plans to expand on that?

DEAN MELVILLE: The education side is something we would like to develop, yes. Although we don’t normally work with education as part of our brief – and that is partly down to the amount of time it takes to do everything else – the Mapplethorpe show has been a bit of a gift in that respect.

We are commited to running an education programme as part of Artist Rooms, and that was very much part of Anthony d’Offay’s thinking as well. We have the show here for two months, which is also unusual for us, but it gives us the opportunity to plug it into education and work with the schools. We would love to do more of that.

CATHY SHANKLAND: Generally we have looked to link up with other people who can deliver that programme for us, and that will be starting in June. We got some funding from the Scottish Government and the Art Fund as part of Artist Rooms to do the education project, and there will be material coming out of that which will be available in future Artist Rooms exhibitions elsewhere. Beyond this one, the education element of Artist Rooms is also a three-year project, and that is very much focused on young people from 15 to 26.

KENNY MATHIESON: Is the Pier Gallery working independently of you in the Artist Rooms project?

CATHY SHANKLAND: Yes. We all met up initially and discussed the project and the things we would like to do, but each gallery was then able to go away and make their own choice and apply for it. By and large we got to do what we wanted, and they have given us much more freedom to do what we wanted than we have had with previous projects here from the National Galleries.

KENNY MATHIESON: So what is next in terms of Artist Rooms?

CATHY SHANKLAND: We have to decide on a request for next year, and have a huge shopping list, but at the moment I think we would like to try something three-dimensional and colourful next time, something that will give people a different dimension to their experience of Artist Rooms.

We have to draw up a plan for what we would like to do for the next three years, so we are working on that, and of course, we are in competition with twenty five other galleries. It’s been very much a pilot, not only for us, but also for them. We are the first exhibition to open outside of the Tate and the National Galleries, so we are all learning lessons from the experience.

KENNY MATHIESON: And you are hoping to roll some of the work out beyond Inverness in the course of those three years?

CATHY SHANKLAND: We hope so. We would like to have at least one Artist Rooms exhibition here at IMAG for each of the next three years, and also roll another out across the community. In general I think the way we would go about it is that we would be looking to put something two-dimensional together to go out to other venues.

Andy Warhol by Robert Mapplethorpe

KENNY MATHIESON: Would you like to tempt us with some names?

CATHY SHANKLAND: I don’t want to name names at this stage and give people expectations that we may not be able to fulfil, but we would love to have Warhol here …

DEAN MELVILLE: I have to say that the people working on this at the Tate and National Galleries have been very supportive and very thorough.

CATHY SHANKLAND: What has also been nice is the way in which we have been able to link up with colleagues around the country through this. Up here you can feel a little bit isolated from what is going on elsewhere, and this has been a great a opportunity to make contacts and swap ideas and see what people are thinking.

KENNY MATHIESON: You are going to be limited by the size of the gallery space here at IMAG, aren’t you?

CATHY SHANKLAND: Inevitably that will be case. We did think about taking Ron Mueck for here, for example, but I’m not sure we could get the work through the doors. Some of those pieces are huge.

KENNY MATHIESON: All the more reason to keep the pressure on for the proposed new gallery, and to get it right when it happens.

CATHY SHANKLAND: I think they are still looking for a site, and we hope that this Artist Rooms project will help to maintain interest in keeping that project on the table. We have the potential to do a lot more of this kind of thing if we had the gallery space and facilities that we currently lack. The National Galleries are keener than ever to get work out, but we need to have the right facilities.

Cathy Shankland will resume her duties as Head of the Exhibitions Unit at IMAG when her current secondment to the now deleted post of area cultural officer for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey ends in June. Dean Melville is Exhibitions Officer at IMAG.

Artist Rooms: Robert Mapplethorpe, Portraits is at the Inverness Museum and Gallery until 27 June.

Artist Rooms: Bill Viola is at the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, from 19 June until 5 September 2009.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2009

Links

• Inverness Gallery & Museum
• National Galleries of Scotland
• Tate

An Open Letter from Arts Correspondent GEORGINA COBURN

OVER THE last couple of weeks in my conversations with artists and gallery owners I have been concerned about the lack of awareness regarding the current consultation process for a new Highland Gallery site. I would have thought that people involved directly in Creative Industries and the public in general would have been better informed about this process. Christmas / New Year period is not an opportune time to gather public response on any issue. It is important that the sites be debated and discussed before a decision is made.

There is no information on the IMAG website about the consultation nor is there any information about current exhibitions. I visited the building to review the “Edges” show and though there were brochures at reception there was nothing to direct me to the display or survey area. The brochures themselves in black and brown with encrypted font would not alert anyone passing by to their purpose. The only reason I knew what to look for was having seen the design on the ICP website.

Both shows at IMAG, “Maternity” and “Edges”, highlight the lack of publicity which seems to be symptomatic of the whole approach to Visual Arts in the current building. The Museum and Gallery function appear to be operating totally separately with zero communication or promotion of exhibitions and events between the two. Museum staff have no interest or information about the gallery function and are referring people to the Exhibitions Unit instead of giving on the spot information about current or forthcoming exhibitions in house or by phone.

Access is about information. As an arts correspondent it is my job to know what is on show in Inverness and the surrounding area. Finding out at IMAG is not an easy job and I think you will find that the general public are less inclined to research multiple what’s on search sites (ICP, Highland 2007, National Galleries) or make numerous phone calls to find out.

This lack of interest and provision for publicity is extremely worrying given the current drive for a new site and the insistence on lumping the two functions of Museum and Gallery together. Other than fear, lack of vision and historical precedent why are we retaining the “Inverness Museum & Art Gallery” within the same building when they are clearly not working together?

If you can’t tackle the issue of promotion, publicity and audience development currently how will this change in a new set of walls? A radical rethink of the whole organisation and its attitude to Visual Arts is needed in direct relation to development of a new site. The absence of Visual Arts at the reopening of IMAG post-refurbishment spoke volumes in terms of priority.

The loan of works from the National Galleries is not enough if you do nothing to promote the exhibitions you house or deliver an education and outreach programme to develop your audience. These issues are basic to any public gallery or arts space in the country. They have long been absent at IMAG to the detriment of the whole area. I have not seen a single advertisement for “Maternity” or anything resembling an education programme to accompany it. Whilst the touring exhibition satisfies the National Galleries remit to reach audiences across Scotland it does not facilitate public access on its own.

Infrastructure is about more than bricks and mortar. What kind of training is given to museum staff? What is the long term development plan, budget and provision for the Exhibitions Unit? What commitment to Visual Arts education exists at IMAG and in relation to a new site? In addition to partnership work with the National Galleries what relationships might be developed with organisations such as Engage and VAGA to share good practice and develop audiences? What is the budget and strategy for local advertising and promotion of exhibition and events? How can links between IMAG and local press be strengthened?

Development of a new site is about more than an increase in square footage. The Guggenheim in Bilbao inspirationally quoted in the site literature is a stand alone facility with a permanent collection at its heart specialising in Contemporary Spanish Art and as famous for its architecture as its function. What plans exist for acquisition of new work and the building of a collection as an international draw? Has an audit been carried out in relation to artworks as part of the Highland Council collection?

Since there is no provision for general comments in the response to the ICP consultation webpage I would like this email included as part of the response.

I sincerely hope that discussion between the Museum and Exhibitions Unit will result in a more coordinated approach to publicity and development of the local audience as a lead in to a new site once it is chosen. A more proactive approach (perhaps a HI~Arts e-bulletin? and better media coverage) might result in more people being made aware of the 11 January deadline.

Press coverage so far (as sparse as it is) reads like a popularity contest rather than a serious debate about the issue of a suitable site and its value to our city and region. I hope that local news and arts editors might seriously address this in the next few weeks and help raise awareness about this important development.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

MY WORK HAS always been a mixture of realism and imagination. Sometimes, I concentrate on painting the rhythms of growth in gnarled trees and their relationship to the changing colours in the Highland landscape. In other paintings, the images drawn from trees reflect spiritual beliefs.

Recently, I have become fascinated to find how shapes and patterns have amazing similarities to others on a totally different scale – the branching pattern of the boughs of a tree is found again on the twigs, on the veins of the leaf, on the veins of a human, in the river delta, in lightning, and so on. These all appear in the trees of life paintings.

I have often used different scales in the same painting. To an extent this would happen in a perspective drawing – things are made smaller as they recede, to give an illusion of depth – but that is not what is happening in the trees of life. Here, I exaggerate or diminish the size of things as I please, in order to focus the attention on the beauty of the patterns and structures in nature.

In 1998, I became aware of the Celtic Tree alphabet and old Celtic calendar which linked a tree to each of the lunar months. I have accepted and expanded these themes by incorporating into each painting human foliate faces from conception to death, biological studies of tree forms and Celtic designs. So, the Cycle of the Trees of Life comprise an amalgam of different myths integrated with my own selection of biological images to show a cycle of birth, life, death and renewal.

Above all, the Cycle of the Trees of Life are paintings of mystery and imagination. I hope that they are intriguing to look at because of the subtle colour, the wealth of pattern, and the way one shape changes into another. The panels visually affirm my deep felt belief that there is a beauty and oneness within the universe, and that there is a universality of patterns which repeat themselves on different scales with infinite variety.

In January 2000, I was interviewed as a local artist on BBC Songs of Praise. For this, I wrote a short prayer. Although it wasn’t used on the programme, I have a copy on my studio wall. I reflect on it daily as it has inspired me during the drawing and painting of the Cycle of the trees of life.

Lord God, Creator of the Universe, Let my eyes always be open to the beauty of the colours and the complexity of the patterns in the world around us. Amen

Related Links

• Jean Noble’s Artwork