INTERFACE

REVIEW

The Archibald Campbell and Harley WS Photography Prize 2000

Stills, Edinburgh 22 November – 27 January

Reviewed by: Clark Dawson

Contemporary art prizes always get the tabloid press treatment with the obligatory reference to soiled bed sheets and what a waste of money it all is. The inaugural exhibition of the Archibald Campbell and Harley WS Photography Prize was no exception. The readership of one paper was urged to complain about the 'nonsense' on display. However, it was in the artwork itself that much of the complaining was being done, most directly in the work of the eventual winner Graham Fagen.

Contributing two portrait photographs from his current body of work Owners, Fagen plays anthropoligist, scrutinising institutions that have the power to influence thinking. Like much portraiture The Owner of Broadcasting is given attributes: a microphone and squeeky horn. Wearing make-up he resembles a clown to provide us with entertainment. Worryingly, the insanely laughing man also has the responsibility to inform, and the ability to dictate a tainted view of the world.

Similarly, by using digital technology in works like Soho (dur 58.35 mins) Paul Gray questions the reliability of the photographic image. Constructed from images taken from the same view point over the period of about an hour, he creates an event that is false. Likewise, by adding grain and a soundtrack recorded on the streets of Glasgow, still photographs appear to move in Torsten Lauschmann's video Belichtungen – clearly illustrating the fallibility of our own eyesight.

It was spot the difference time in Scott Myles' diptych Everything In-Between. It showed two portraits of the artist, one taken in Dundee in front of an advertising billboard depicting Monument Valley, the other taken eighteen months later at the actual site in California. Alexander and Susan Maris' AMC Transmissions 01.11.00 – 27.01.01 are wireless images of the escapades of the couple's long-term project, The Armchair Mountaineering Club, taken at expedition locations throughout the duration of the exhibition. Just two examples of an ongoing process that goes beyond what appeared in the gallery: the problem was that in some instances too much emphasis was placed on this, and the finished article failed to communicate the concepts. Paul Gray's Drumbrae a panoramic scene of a stone wall and fence punctuated by a single toppling figure, and Ilana Halperin's intimate landscapes showed that art doesn't necessarily have to be intellectualised in order to work.

As it should be, the works retained their independence in a show where connections could be made if so inclined. One of the selectors put it best when she said that "art isn't about what is already known, but what is waiting to be discovered". What I discovered was an abundance of talented artists working with photography in Scotland.

Writer detail:
CLARK DAWSON
works at Collective Gallery, Edinburgh.

Venue detail:

Back to top

Post your comment

No one has commented on this article yet, why not be the first?

To post a comment you need to login

Back to top

Back to reviews »