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Fruitmarket Gallery: Print the Legend The Myth of the West - 1 Mar 2008 to 4 May 2008 Current Exhibition |
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The Fruitmarket Gallery�s major spring exhibition is a group show which presents a selection of northern European sculpture, photography, installation and film in the context of the western and its role in the creation of the myth of the American West. Curated by art historian, lecturer, writer and the editor of Art Monthly Patricia Bickers, the exhibition has its origins in her long-standing fascination for westerns takes its title from the final scene of the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: �Sir, this is the West. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend�. Arguing that the western is a key component in the construction of the myth of the American West, and that this myth is as politically and culturally relevant now as it has ever been, Bickers uses the western as a lens through which to look at work by Adam Chodzko, Peter Granser, Douglas Gordon, Isaac Julien, Mike Nelson, Cornelia Parker, Simon Patterson, Salla Tykk� and Gillian Wearing Print the Legend offers an opportunity to see some great works of art in a new context. Some, such as Adam Chodzko�s Better Scenery (two photographs of signs, one in London describing a site in Arizona and the other in Arizona describing a site in London), play on the idea of the American West as a semi-fictional construct. Others, such as Salla Tykk�s film Lasso, emphasise the enthralling power of this construct � the central image of Tykk�s film is that of a young man spinning a lasso inside his house in suburban Finland. Both Peter Granser and Gillian Wearing deal with the modern compulsion to dress up as cowboys, while Isaac Julien�s complex three-screen film installation The Road to Mazatl�n looks at longing and desire and the homoerotic potential of the western. Three ambitious installations in the exhibition directly reference particular westerns. A wall drawing by Simon Patterson takes its structure from the shootout in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Douglas Gordon�s Five Year Drive-By (The Searchers) is a projection of the film The Searchers, slowed down so that the running of the movie matches the five-year fictional duration of the action, the frame changing at a rate of approximately one every 23 minutes. Faithful to the spirit of the drive-in (or drive-by) movie, this work is projected in the site opposite the Gallery. It runs continuously throughout the exhibition, the image coming up as the sun goes down. The Fruitmarket Gallery are particularly pleased to have commissioned Mike Nelson to make a new work, inspired by the climax of Clint Eastwood�s High Plains Drifter. Echoing the film, Nelson has painted a part of the Gallery not normally open to the public an unforgiving and hellish red. Thus enticing the audience into the unknown and completely immersing them in the artwork/fiction. Print the Legend is part of an ongoing series of group exhibitions at The Fruitmarket Gallery, in which artists, academics, art historians and writers working outside the Gallery�s structure are invited to bring their expertise into the programme. Like all the exhibitions in this series (which includes David Hopkins�s popular Dada�s Boys of 2006), Print the Legend is unashamedly ideas-driven, and begins with Patricia Bickers�s position as a long-term western fan. Nonetheless, it ultimately cedes the floor to artists, providing a new context in which we can begin thinking about the work, but allowing the art itself, endlessly inventive, the final say. During the course of the exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery, a series of westerns will be shown at The Filmhouse. There will also be an exhibition in The Filmhouse Caf� bar of work created by 13-17 year olds on their notion of the Wild West through the Gallery�s Opt in for Art education programme. Patricia Bickers is Editor of Art Monthly magazine, art historian, critic, sometime curator and broadcaster. She has written extensively on contemporary art and politics, particularly about the �special relationship� between the US and UK in terms of art, the most recent being a chapter on art under New Labour in Experiencing the State, OUP, 2006. She has also written much about the so-called YBA phenomenon including, The Brit Pack: Contemporary British Art, the View from Abroad, Cornerhouse Publications, 1995, expanded and updated in Pictura Britanica, Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art, 1997 and, �Sense and Sensation�, originally published in Art Monthly in November 1997, later republished in Art Planet, Vol.1, 1999, the journal of AICA (Association Internationale des critiques d�Art). She has also conducted a number of interviews with both well-known and emerging artists including Hans Haacke, Ed Ruscha, Anya Galaccio, Steve McQueen and Mike Nelson. A new book has been published to accompany this exhibition with a in-depth essay by curator Patricia Bickers on the myth of the West. 3. The Filmhouse Cinema will show a series of films including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Magnificent Seven, High Noon, Unforgiven, High Plains Drifter, Winchester 73, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, The Searchers, Hud and Brokeback Mountain. For almost 30 years Filmhouse has been Scotland�s foremost independent cinema, celebrating world cinema in all its brilliance and diversity. Our programme features new releases and classic re-releases, retrospectives, film seasons and specialist festivals. Filmhouse is also the home of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The Fruitmarket Gallery is a not-for-profit organisation and a Scottish Charity (registration number SC005576), programming national, international and touring exhibitions by leading artists and emerging talent. The Gallery is �Foundation Funded� by the Scottish Arts Council for up to 70% of its running costs and must fundraise to support its world-class exhibitions, education and publishing programmes. |
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