11 Apr 2008 to 24 May 2008
Hours : Tue-Fri 11am-6pm, Sat 10am-6pm
CCA, Centre for Contemporary Arts
350 Sauchiehall Street
G2 3JD
Glasgow
United Kingdom
Europe
p: +44 (0)141 352 4900
m:
f: +44 (0)141 332 3226
w: www.cca-glasgow.com
Co-commissioned by Artangel and Glasgow international Festival of Contemporary Visual Art 2008 and produced by Artangel.
Ninety metres above the ground, a thin metal wire stretches between three of the tower blocks in Red Road, North Glasgow. A solitary figure steps off the edge of the building and onto the line before him. He moves slowly and gracefully, step by silent step, and along the wire.
A multi-screen film and video installation receiving its première at the CCA for Glasgow international 2008 HIGH WIRE continues Catherine Yass’ interest in vertiginous spaces: architecture, height and scale have been dominant formal themes in her previous work.
The installation draws on Yass' filmed footage of Didier Pasquette taken at Red Road in Glasgow in 2007, and is as much concerned with the isolated physical space inhabited by the walker — in a landscape dominated by the brutalism of the tower blocks — as with his remarkable mental and physical transformation during the course of the attempted walk.
HIGH WIRE brings together personal dreams of walking in the air with modernist dreams of a utopian ideal. The exhibition also includes a new series of Yass’ lightboxes evolved from the project at Red Road.
ABOUT CATHERINE YASS Catherine Yass is one of the most innovative artists working with film and photography today. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2002 and has recently exhibited her work in the USA, Spain, the Netherlands and Japan. Her short films generate startling new perspectives on the urban environment, capturing familiar sights from highly unusual vantage points. Presented upside down, Descent (2002) was filmed with a camera lowered from a crane through the morning mist from one of the massive construction sites at Canary Wharf in London. Flight (2002) was made from a remote-controlled helicopter circling the BBC Television Centre in London. In her most recent film Lock, Yass filmed the Three Gorges Dam in China. The work is currently on show at Alison Jacques Gallery, London.
ABOUT GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL Glasgow international is the city’s curated and commissioning Festival of Contemporary Visual Art hosting specially developed exhibitions, seminars, artists’ talks and events. The Festival aims to provide a platform for the best of contemporary visual arts and artists, including newly commissioned work and work that has not been seen in Glasgow before. The 2008 Festival is curated by Francis McKee and launches the first year of the festival in its new biennial format.
Glasgow international - the Gi Festival - is the city of Glasgow’s curated and commissioning Festival of Contemporary Visual Art.
The Festival aims to provide a platform for the best of contemporary visual arts, including newly commissioned work by respected and established artists as well as fresh work by emerging talent, shown in grassroots spaces across the city for the first time.
Gi hosts exhibitions, seminars, artists’ talks and events that have been specifically developed for the Festival, in addition to further collaborations throughout the city that reflect Glasgow’s capacity to exhibit internationally significant art.
Gi is THE event in the Scottish cultural calendar for attracting major international collectors and curators to Scotland and has proved to have the cache to be able to attract significant artists to participate in the festival and underline why Glasgow’s contemporary art scene is recognised globally as one of the most exciting today.
Under the curatorship of Francis McKee, 2008 sees Gi Festival evolve into its new biennial format.
CCA will be acting as a hub for the Gi Festival 2008, as well as hosting Catherine Yass' exhibition, High Wire, and a number of Gi events. Events at CCA include:
Hinterland: 10 - 27 April High Wire: 11 April - 24 May Visiting Arts Curators' Breakfast: 11 April Cast Some Light: 12, 19 and 26 April Artist's Talk, Catherine Yass: 12 April Curator's Talk, Nina Montmann: 14 April Participate, Elena Cologni: 15 - 17 April Private Thoughts and Public Spaces; Public Arts and Private Places: 21 April Curator's Talk, Declan McGonagle: 22 April Publication Launch/Talk: Local International presented by MAP Magazine: 25 Apr
