Viewing articles tagged with 'Edinburgh'

Arusha Art Gallery, 13A Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6QG

Ancient Deities

In September, Arusha Gallery reopened its doors to a world transformed. ‘Ancient Deities’ fittingly extends the viewer an invitation to consider our future by returning our attentions to the myths of days gone by. Co-curated by artist Rhiannon Salisbury, the show depicts a pantheon for the contemporary. 18 artists were invited to respond to a god of the past, reinventing them for a modern audience. Review by Hailey Maxwell

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Collective, City Observatory, 38 Calton Hill, Edinburgh EH7 5AA

Julijonas Urbonas: Planet of People

Julijonas Urbonas is an artist, a designer, the former head of an amusement park, a researcher, and the founder of the Lithuanian Space Agency - an organisation dedicated to the investigation of imaginary celestial architectural projects. For his exhibition at Collective, Urbonas has created a new iteration of ‘Planet of People’: an evolving participatory installation that explores what would happen if, instead of humans colonising existing planets, there was a planet made entirely of human bodies. Review by Clare Robson

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Stills: Centre for Photography, 23 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 1BP

Women Photographers from The AmberSide Collection

This exhibition brings together works from The AmberSide Collection, works made and gathered by a collective originally born in London over 50 years ago and based in Newcastle since the late 1970s. Since then, the group has charted documentary photography in the United Kingdom and further afield, through their own photography or through work acquired, with a focus on images highlighting socio-political situations. These range from depicting the council estates of the North East to wider global scenes, always from a left leaning stance. Review by Nicola Jeffs

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Collective, City Observatory, 38 Calton Hill, Edinburgh EH7 5AA

Sulaïman Majali: saracen go home

On stage is a single mic stand before a row of empty seats. A recording ushers us towards the sounds of the Middle East. But where are the actors? And what is this scene? Dispersed upon the stage are the scattered pieces of diasporic memory. Review by Elaine Y.J Zheng

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The Modern Institute, 14-20 Osborne St, Glasgow G1 5QN, Scotland

Simon Starling: ‘A-A’, B-B’’

Two exhibits across the European continent linking together a narrative built over three centuries. An eighth of a Venetian painting, half a car, two Noh masks, a photograph of a pedigree; between original and representation, masquerade and deception, ‘A-A’; B-B’’ reflects on the power of curation to alter audience perception. Review by Elaine Y.J Zheng

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Collective, City Observatory, 38 Calton Hill, Edinburgh EH7 5AA

Emmie McLuskey: these were the things that made the step familiar

The eight large scale screen print collages, audio works, printed matter and gymnastic ‘furniture' that make up Glasgow-based artist Emmie McLuskey's installation at Collective look at the shared poetics of the filmmaker and choreographer by analysing, describing and recording the body, through its interactions and its gestures, between rest and motion. Review by Alex Hetherington

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Collective, City Observatory, 38 Calton Hill, Edinburgh EH7 5AA

Affinity and Allusion

‘Affinity and Allusion’, the opening project at the new expanded Collective on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, does not refer to a group show as such, as one might expect for the relaunch, or remaking and reimagining of an institution like this, but is rather a title of intention, focus and scope around the nature of exhibitions and displays, given to a cluster, or constellation (the theme of astronomy is in abundance here, given that the site is a former observatory), of complex activities. Review by Alex Hetherington

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National Galleries of Scotland, 73 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DS

NOW | Susan Philipsz, Michael Armitage, Yto Barrada, Kate Davis, Hiwa K, Sarah Rose

NOW is the second in a six-part series of exhibitions presented by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art exploring the work of international contemporary artists. It is dominated by a 5 room display of works by the artist Susan Philipsz alongside works by renowned artists Kate Davis, Sarah Rose, Hiwa K, Michael Armitage and Yto Barrada. Review by Rosie Priest

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The Fruitmarket Gallery, 45 Market St, Edinburgh EH1 1DF

Jac Leirner: Add It Up

Leirner’s works frequently organise and repurpose slight ephemera into a surprising coalescence. Whilst the career-wide spectrum of activity on display successfully demonstrates the consistent concerns within her oeuvre, the volume of works within this cross-section seems at odds with their essential simplicity, which at times is perhaps diluted in the two satiated galleries. Review by Nathan Anthony

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Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL

Stephen Sutcliffe: Sex Symbols in Sandwich Signs

Stephen Sutcliffe’s exhibition at Talbot Rice Gallery opens a moving image season showcasing recent work by three highly-regarded practitioners noted for the referential density of their work, through an ever-closing margin between documentary and fiction and manifested through exuberant styles. Review by Alex Hetherington

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Rhubaba Gallery and Studios, 25 Arthur St, Edinburgh, EH6 5DA

You hardboiled     I softboiled

In this intriguingly titled and intimately composed exhibition, ideas of how love and its stories might be practiced, sought and appropriated move between the published page and spoken word, and are heard through sound and audio. Love is also framed within filmed moments and presented in painted gestures; it is seen in close proximity and recognised across vast distances. The love stories described here are sensed in places, portraits, correspondences and spectres. Review by Alex Hetherington

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