Symposium / 'Art and its Theatrical Turn'
Ulla von Brandenburg, 'Baisse-toi Montagne, Lève-toi Vallon' (2015), Kaaitheater, Bruxelles. Courtesy of the artist © Robin Zenner.
Presented by The Common Guild, in collaboration with the University of Glasgow’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, ‘Art and its Theatrical Turn’ was an informal symposium that considered the reasons for, and implications of, the many recent projects that have combined visual art, scripted drama and theatrical performance.
Discussions included questions of contingency, presence and collective encounter and experience. Rather than ‘degenerating as it approaches the condition of theatre’*, is art in fact inherently theatrical?
With contributions from: Katrina Brown, Director, The Common Guild; Dr. Graham Eatough, theatre maker, co-founder of Suspect Culture, and Lecturer in Theatre Studies at University of Glasgow; Dr. Clare Finburgh, Senior Lecturer Drama & Theatre, University of Kent; Maria Fusco, Senior Chancellor’s Fellow – Reader and Director of Research & Knowledge Exchange, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh; Prof. Joe Kelleher, Professor Drama, Theatre & Performance, University of Roehampton; Dr. Dominic Paterson, Lecturer in History of Art, University of Glasgow; Convener: Prof. Carl Lavery, Professor Theatre & Performance, University of Glasgow.
*Michael Fried in ‘Art and Objecthood’, Artforum, 1967
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Roundtable Conversation / Tine Bek, Max Slaven & Evan Thomas on Thomas Demand
Thomas Demand, 'Daily Show', installation view, The Common Guild (2015) Photo: Ruth Clark.
Roundtable Conversations offer an opportunity to develop various ideas prompted by exhibitions at The Common Guild.
This event focused on the work of Thomas Demand and included contributions from Tine Bek, artist, Max Slaven, Programme Director David Dale Gallery, and Evan Thomas, artist and Technical Manager at Stills, Edinburgh.
Event Details
Roundtable Conversations are free to attend and limited to a capacity of ten participants. Attendees are encouraged to participate in the discussion. Refreshments and light snacks are available.
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Primer / Simon Starling
Simon Starling, ‘At Twilight’ installation view, The Common Guild, 2016. Photo: Ruth Clark
In advance of a major new commission for The Common Guild in 2016, artist Simon Starling talked about the development of his work as part of our 'Primers' series.
Starling is known for his works that investigate global inter-connections through people, and the histories and narratives that become imbued in objects. His new project, in development with theatre director Graham Eatough, will comprise live performance and an exhibition of associated material, and revolves around an attempt to stage a performance of WB Yeats’ play ‘At the Hawk’s Well’, first performed in 1916 and inspired by traditional Japanese ‘Noh’ theatre.
Simon Starling (b.1967 in Epsom, England) lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. He began his career in Glasgow, having studied on the MFA at The Glasgow School of Art. He was the winner of the 2005 Turner Prize and has been the subject of many major international museum exhibitions over the past decade. Until recently, he was a Professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt.
Event Details
‘Primers' offer an opportunity to hear from artists developing projects with The Common Guild and are presented in collaboration with the University of Glasgow.
Listen to Simon Starling –
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Exhibition Talk / Dr. Tamara Trodd on Thomas Demand
Thomas Demand, 'Daily #15' (2015) (detail). Framed Dye Transfer Print. © Thomas Demand, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/ DACS, London. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery/ Esther Schipper/ Sprueth Magers Gallery.
Dr. Tamara Trodd is Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Edinburgh, with a specialism in film and photography. She is editor of the book, 'Screen/Space: The Projected Image in Contemporary Art' and author of the new book, 'The Art of Mechanical Reproduction: Technology and Aesthetics, from Duchamp to the Digital', which is out now with the University of Chicago Press. She has published previously on the work of Thomas Demand, with an essay in the journal Art History, entitled 'Deforming Pictures'. Tamara offers her thoughts on Thomas Demand’s Dailies series, in relation to the question of realism in contemporary art.
Event Details
Listen to Dr. Tamara Trodd –
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Exhibition Talk / Dr. Dominic Paterson on Thomas Demand
Thomas Demand, 'Daily #20' (2015) (detail). Framed Dye Transfer Print. © Thomas Demand, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/ DACS, London. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery/ Esther Schipper/ Sprueth Magers Gallery.
Dr Dominic Paterson, Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Glasgow, offered his thoughts on Thomas Demand’s work and discussed material supports, particularly paper and the photographic print, in relation to the digital imaging technologies that are now used to capture daily life.
Event Details
Listen to Dominic Paterson –
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Thomas Demand – 'Daily Show'
Thomas Demand, 'Daily #24', 2015, Framed Dye Transfer Print. © Thomas Demand, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/ DACS, London. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery/ Esther Schipper/ Sprueth Magers Gallery.
‘Daily Show’ is a solo exhibition by German artist Thomas Demand that includes new and recent works from his series ‘The Dailies’ in an installation devised for the particular nature of the spaces at The Common Guild.
‘The Dailies’ is a project that highlights the extent to which photography has in recent times become a commonplace, daily and social pursuit — a note-taking, diary-like practice for so many. The exhibition as a whole prompts questions about the compulsion to make images, as well as the contemporary relevance and use of photography in the context of the exponential growth in online image sharing, which now sees thousands of images uploaded to social media sites every second.
Thomas Demand, 'Daily Show', installation view, The Common Guild (2015) Photo: Ruth Clark.
Demand’s works have often been based on images in widespread circulation, whether in mainstream news media or online, in what critic Hal Foster has aptly described as “our shared media memory”. They have included many significant scenes, from the Oval Office to Saddam Hussein’s last hiding place. ‘The Dailies’, however, find their origins in less historic places: for each is based on a photograph taken on Demand’s mobile phone. Each one of ‘The Dailies’ depicts an incidental, undramatic scene encountered in the course of his day, visual incidents made of the details of daily life that are in some way nonetheless eye-catching.
Demand is one of the most distinctive artists of his generation and these works continue his established and remarkable practice of re-creating images in the form of three-dimensional replicas made entirely of paper and cardboard, which exist only to be photographed before being discarded. Begun in 2008, ‘The Dailies’ are also notable for the specifics of their production: they are printed using the now rarely used and labour intensive dye-transfer process, which offers an unparalleled, intense colour quality and range, most famously used in American colour photography of the early 70s.
Further Info
Additional Links
Thomas Demand “Daily Show” at The Common Guild, Glasgow, Mousse Magazine, November 2015
Moira Jeffrey, ‘Review: Thomas Demand: Daily Show’, The Scotsman, November 2015
Laura Campbell, ‘Thomas Demand: Daily Show’, The List, November 2015
Adam Benmakhlouf, ‘Thomas Demand Interview: It's Only a Paper Moon’, The Skinny, October 2015
Documents
Supported by
Project Details
Read the Commentary by Dr. Tamara Trodd –
Read the Commentary by Dr. Dominic Paterson –
Engagement
‘In the Shadow of the Hand', Glasgow based artists Virginia Hutchison and Sarah Forrest led a series of workshops relating to ‘Daily Show’.
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Artist Talk / Thomas Demand
Thomas Demand, ‘Daily Show’ (2015), installation view, The Common Guild. Photo: Ruth Clark.
Thomas Demand discusses his recent work and his exhibition 'Daily Show' at The Common Guild.
In association with Aye-Aye books, the talk was followed by a book signing with Thomas Demand to accompany the release of 'The Dailies', published by MACK books on occasion of the exhibition at The Common Guild.
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Exhibition Talk / Sally O'Reilly on Anne Hardy
Anne Hardy, ‘TWIN FIELDS’, installation view, The Common Guild, 2015. Photo: Ruth Clark
Writer Sally O’Reilly offers her thoughts on Anne Hardy’s work and its relation to her multi-disciplinary research on ambiguity.
Event Details
Listen to Sally O’Reilly –
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Exhibition Talk / Dr. Stephen Burn on Anne Hardy
Anne Hardy, 'TWIN FIELDS', installation view, The Common Guild, 2015. Photo: Ruth Clark.
Dr Stephen Burn, Reader in English Literature at the University of Glasgow, has written extensively on Contemporary American and British Fiction and has a particular interest in neuroscience, consciousness, and the novel.
Burn’s talk '“Head Spaces”: Containers of Consciousness in Contemporary Fiction and Art' offers a chance to contextualise Anne Hardy’s work in relation to his research.
Event Details
Listen to Dr Stephen Burn –
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Roundtable Conversation / Kyla McDonald & Sarah Forrest on Anne Hardy
Anne Hardy 'TWIN FIELDS' (detail) (2015), audio (7 minutes 24 seconds), timber, light, breeze blocks, cast concrete, carpet, fan, chain, metal rebar, air, rubber. Installation view, The Common Guild. Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London. Photo: by Anne Hardy and Angus Mill.
Roundtable Conversations offer an opportunity to develop various ideas prompted by exhibitions at The Common Guild. This event focused on the work of Anne Hardy and her exhibition 'TWIN FIELDS' and included contributions from artist Sarah Forrest and Kyla McDonald, Artistic Director of Glasgow Sculpture Studios.
Event Details
Roundtable Conversations are free to attend and limited to a capacity of ten participants.
Attendees are encouraged to participate in the discussion.
Refreshments and light snacks are available.
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'The Persistence of Objects' / Carol Bove, Gerard Byrne, Duncan Campbell, Steven Claydon, Gabriel Kuri, Basim Magdy, Wolfgang Tillmans and Hayley Tompkins
Marking its tenth year of visual arts exhibitions, Lismore Castle Arts invited The Common Guild to curate its most ambitious project to date. Entitled ‘The Persistence of Objects’, the exhibition was staged in existing gallery spaces, as well as a number of other locations around Lismore.
Gabriel Kuri, installation view, St. Carthage Cathedral ‘The Persistence of Objects’ (2015).
‘The Persistence of Objects’ included works by eight remarkable artists and offered an observation of concrete things that defy change, through a range of approaches and perspectives. These may be objects that have endured through ages or generations, the immutable remnants of previous times – much like the 11th century relics found in St Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore – or simple, timeless, constants occurring in nature in the face of radical and dramatic changes in the world they inhabit.
The artists that participated in the exhibition each make works that in some way approach the object. For some, it is the changing cultural associations, meanings and values that accrue to objects over time that is the focus of their interest, while for others the sheer, dumb universality and constancy of the persistent object that is brought to the fore.
Stephen Claydon, installation view, ‘The Persistence of Objects’ (2015).
The exhibition comprised newly commissioned works by Steven Claydon and Hayley Tompkins, alongside new and existing works by Carol Bove, Gerard Byrne, Duncan Campbell, Gabriel Kuri, Basim Magdy and Wolfgang Tillmans.
“Only stone, bronze and the sky shall outlive all the rest”. So reads one of the texts that appear throughout Basim Magdy’s film ‘The Many Colours of the Sky Radiate Forgetfulness’, a poetic layering of colour, image and words. More prosaic, commonplace objects appeared in Hayley Tompkins painted works, while both Carol Bove and Wolfgang Tillmans presented natural objects – such as shells or vegetables – that are heavily mediated yet that remain unchanged.
Project Details
‘The Persistence of Objects’ was conceived and curated for Lismore Castle Arts by The Common Guild, Glasgow.
The exhibition was presented across several venues, including locations beyond Lismore Castle grounds and created a new way of experiencing Lismore through the siting of compelling artworks in locations ranging from the imposing surroundings of St. Carthage Cathedral to a small, disused shop unit.
Shop / Buy ‘The Persistence of Objects –
Limited edition of 500. The publication includes an essay by Maria Fusco.
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Anne Hardy – 'TWIN FIELDS'
Anne Hardy,'Two Joined Fields' (interior view), (2013). Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London. Photo: Anne Hardy & Angus Mill.
‘TWIN FIELDS’ is Anne Hardy’s first exhibition in Scotland and her most ambitious project to date.
The exhibition takes the whole gallery as a landscape, within which are two large ‘twinned’ sculptural structures. Hardy describes these as attempts to make “illusions that you can enter”. These identical volumes reveal their making but not, at first, their contents. Filled with an accumulation of materials and sounds, the sculptural structures create images through a language of component parts.
Anne Hardy 'TWIN FIELDS' (detail) (2015), audio (7 minutes 24 seconds), timber, light, breeze blocks, cast concrete, carpet, fan, chain, metal rebar, air, rubber. Installation view, The Common Guild. Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London. Photo: by Anne Hardy and Angus Mill.
Hardy is interested in what she describes as “the kind of space that is just there, next to you, and you don’t see it”.
In a practice that spans photography, sculptural installation and audio, Hardy constructs environments that hover between depiction and abstraction. Staging our encounters with these spaces through careful composition of physical and audio landscapes and precisely controlled perspectives, she immerses us in spaces that are at once functional and illusory.
This multi-part exhibition offers a total environment enveloping the viewer, suggesting images, associations and relationships, both actual and imagined.
Further Info
Declan Long, ‘Anne Hardy’, Artforum, November 2015.
Moira Jeffrey and Duncan Macmillan, ‘ The Best Art Exhibitions of 2015', The Scotsman, December 2015.
Documents
Supported by
The Elephant Trust
Maureen Paley, London
Project Details
‘TWIN FIELDS’ was presented at The Common Guild in 2015. A publication 'TWIN FIELDS / FIELD / Fieldworks' / designed by Hardy with Åbäke accompanies the exhibition.
Read the Commentary by Sally O’Reilly –
Read the Commentary by Dr. Dominic Paterson –
The publication is designed by the artist in collaboration with Åbäke and features an essay by Lisa Le Feuvre.
Engagement –
‘In the Shadow of the Hand', Glasgow based artists Virginia Hutchison and Sarah Forrest led a series of workshops relating to ‘Twin Fields’.
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Artist Talk / Anne Hardy
Anne Hardy. 'TWIN FIELDS', installation view, The Common Guild, 2015. Photo: Ruth Clark.
In this invited artist talk, London-based Anne Hardy discusses her major commission 'TWIN FIELDS' at The Common Guild, and her practice to date.
Event Details
Listen to Anne Hardy –
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Screening / Basim Magdy
Still from ‘13 Essential Rules for Understanding the World’, Basim Magdy, 2011
Egyptian artist Basim Magdy, named Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year 2016, presents some of his films, followed by a discussion with Luke Collins of LUX Scotland.
Basim Magdy is currently presenting work as part of 'The Persistence of Objects' at Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland.
Basim Magdy (born in 1977, Assiut, Egypt) lives and works in Cairo. Solo shows include ‘A Steady Progress of Nothingness’, Newman Popiashvili Gallery, New York and ‘Confronting the Monster in a Monster Costume’, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2013); and ‘On A Better Day than This’, Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo (2008).
He has participated in numerous international group exhibitions including the forthcoming 13th Istanbul Biennial and Sharjah Biennial 11, Future Generation Art Prize, Venice, Homeworks, Askhal Alwan, Beirut (all 2013); La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris and ‘Transmediale,’ Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (both 2012); ‘One Day We Will Shine Like the Stars’, Kunsthalle Wien and ‘Rencontres Internationales’, Centre Pompidou, Paris (both 2011). Magdy is a winner of the Abraaj Group Art Prize 2014.
Event Details
This screening coincided with ‘The Persistence of Objects’ which was presented by The Common Guild in partnership with Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland.
Following the screening, Magdy was in conversation with Luke Collins from LUX Scotland.