All eyes are on the prize
Getting your work seen in the increasingly competitive art world is a daunting prospect for young art graduates, and so the annual RSA Exhibition, which is committed to exhibiting work by final year and postgraduate students from the Scottish art colleges and architecture schools, is a wonderful opportunity.
Aside from anything else, there is no selection process - every student may submit one work - so this is one corner of the art world where there can be no cries of partisanship.
Still, those hankering for the thrill of competition - and what serious student wouldn’t, when on the cusp of entering such a judgmental world? - have the added bonus of competing for one of the RSA prizes, of which previous winners have included the likes of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder and Dr John Bellany.
So, what of this year’s crop? “White-boxed”
for the occasion in true contemporary gallery style, 350-odd works, ranging from small panels to large installations, are packed into every last available inch of RSA floor, wall and ceiling space. Indeed, the exhibition is almost unwieldy in its size - you’ll need a good few hours to really make the most of this - and not having gone through a selection process, you get the good with the not so good.
There is a heavy contingent of film, much of which, conceptual in nature, seems to be concerned with making and process. It’s not all successful - indeed, art as aesthetic is resolutely “out” amongst these 2007 graduates, who prefer to assemble a more symbolist construct in sculpture or installation - and some has too much of an obfuscatory tendency to convolution to really make an impact.
One impressive exception is Jessica Harrison’s work, Blind Spot. The Edinburgh College of Art student presents winged multicoloured eyeballs mixing symbolism and aesthetics, hanging just above head-height in Gallery Seven like a brilliant nebula.
Beautifully constructed, with a somewhat magical attention to detail, drawing in its viewers despite existing in a very hard-fought-over space, this cloud of eyeballs is one of the picks of the show - and it won the RSA Sculpture Prize to boot.
Other highlights include Aberdeen’s Mark William Duguid’s amusing Playhoose video, as well as some very promising architecture, including Tom Turner’s Chinese Health Culture Exchange - a beautifully presented, balanced concept from this Mackintosh School of Architecture student, who is also a prize-winner.
Painting, like the more conceptual art, was not devoid of an over-tendency to self-absorption, but there is nonetheless some strong work, not just from the winners, but also from more contemplative and very accessible works such as Melissa MacRobert’s Leaving Seydisfjordur which, even without its evocative title, gives the impression of passing through an obscured landscape in its numerous white and black panels.
The prizes went to the rather more industrial landscapes of Glasgow’s Ellen MacDonald - again very evocative in her impressions of working life at the back of a factory (one assumes) - and Kirsten McAlister from Aberdeen, whose Scalloway is a desolate and very compelling snapshot.
This is a vast exhibition, which is perhaps best seen in two sittings if you’re really serious about finding exciting young artists. The best thing about it is that most of the work is for sale, and some of it is very competitively priced, with appreciation in the eye of the purchaser.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1197335.0.0.php
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