‘New Contemporaries’ brings together emerging talent, a platform for the next generation of artists to showcase their vision and creativity. It offers a glimpse into the future of contemporary art, that is bold, thoughtful and wonderfully unpredictable… to challenge, provoke and inspire’. – Robbie Bushe, Exhibition Convenor, RSA
In this 16th annual exhibition of artwork, 63 graduates have been selected from the 2024 degree shows at the five Art Colleges across Scotland, covering painting, printmaking, sculpture, film, photography, performance, installation and architecture.
Tallulah Batley explores the theme of domestic spaces, childhood and gender. Visitors are invited to enter her Pink Parlour, immaculately furnished in traditional style: velvet chaise-longue, fireplace and mantlepiece with Wally Dug ornaments; bookshelf, lamp, plants and dolls’ house, La Maison Vert with bathroom, kitchen, nursery and drawing room. Around the walls are dozens of portraits of elegant women, c.18-20th century, one of whom is reminiscent of Frances Cadell’s Portrait of a Lady in Black (1921). Batley has envisaged her own version of his favourite muse in Pink Parlour Frame 1B – a fashionable lady in a large hat holding a fan. This wonderful, witty installation focuses on the decorative manner in which we inhabit and design our homes. (Winner of NHS Lothian Charity Tonic Arts Award)
In similar fashion, Olive Sinclair has created a miniature home for her heroine, Tracy. Peep inside a large wooden box to see a Barbie-like doll in a Hello Kitty t-shirt, lying on her bed in a cluttered room with wardrobe, desk, film posters and detective comics. In the accompanying, hilarious animated video, Tracy comes to life narrating her diary entries, thoughts and feelings, to illustrate the fluffy pink stereotype of girly femininity. (Winner of the National Library of Scotland Purchase Prize for Moving Image & Mothadaka Foundation Art Collection).
Documenting a familiar, everyday activity in Mile, Lewis Cavinue presents six photographs of people’s legs striding along in various footwear above a display of the actual shoes. ‘Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes’ is the concept to connect the familiar and strange, personal and shared experiences of life after graduating art school. The grubby, well-worn shoes feature Nike & New Balance trainers and black platform and sports boots to illustrate wry humour how art meets real life.
Exploring ideas around masculinity and changing relationships between men and women, Calder Mackay’s Silent Pews is a poignant study of an elderly couple on Christmas Day, capturing the joy his grandparents shared over the years. This scene tells a personal story illustrating their quiet contentment, wearing silly cracker hats after lunch, with Christmas cards and pictures on the wall. Grandad’s cheery smile recalls a long-lost but unforgotten moment in time and place in the artist’s memory. (Winner of the VAA New Artist award)
Erin McPhee is also concerned with preserving nostalgic family memorabilia and photographs. Four portraits in the show straddle the generations from a baby’s first Christmas to Granny Rose with comical caricature style, exaggerating facial expressions. (Joan Eardley liked to include the quirky squints in the eyes of the Samson children). As Erin comments, ‘I do not intend my work to be insightful but just enough information for the viewer to understand what they see’. The simple message is love. (Winner of the RSA Carnegie Scholarship)
The fathers of Pop Art, Eduardo Paolozzi and Andy Warhol depicted Minnie Mouse, Coca Cola, Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s Soup as a playful critique of Americana. Ben McGinlay is also fascinated by the overwhelming presence of commercial advertising, branding imagery and text.
Here in Sunbeam, a glamorous couple evoke the sense of summer freedom – cold beer and a drive in an Alpine Sunbeam, the classic two-seater roadster coupé, (as featured in the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, 1967). In this clever Pop Art spoof of a vintage advert, the sportscar is not illustrated, yet subtly promotes the romantic, leisurely lifestyle of a Sunbeam driver: the idealised, cultural image of success sells the dream.
Lara Juneman presents a series of four abstract patterns on themes of nature, layering and enhancing texture using wood board, unprimed canvas and newsprint. Intricate experimentation and mark-making are observed in Black – perhaps the rugged, rocky contours of a mountain, and Pink – delicate floral and leaf shapes floating in shimmering water across the canvas. The contrasting techniques and process show such finely-crafted detail of each composition: ‘My intention is for people to get closer to the art and experience it physically and for there to be a lot left unknown’. (Winner of the RSA Landscape award)
Around the RSA, the animal kingdom features strongly in several installations, with surreal narrative vision.
To the buzzing sound of cicadas, the male’s courtship call, transporting you to a Greek island, Theodora Koumbouzis has created a large-scale, kinetic Cicada. If you have a fear of creepy-crawlies, this Cicada is extremely lifelike with prominent eyes, antennae and transparent wings. With a wire and motor contraption, the insect crawls and clambers very, very slowly up the wall. Theodora’s work explores undesirable emotions and the ability to engage with an inert object, once it has become animated. The cicada features in Chinese art and mythical folklore as a symbol of immortality.
From small insects to large mammals – the Highland Cow. Ewan Douglas explores the paradoxical nature of Scottish identity and stereotypes of ‘twee tartan and tinned shortbread,’ in his dreamlike Albaland. In a straw-filled enclosure with the sign, ‘Please do not feed the animals’, five life-size black and russet furry coos stand on their hind legs in a huddled circle. At their feet are empty bottles of Buckfast tonic wine, made by Benedictine monks since 1897 – this fortified, caffeine-rich wine is 15% ABV, so drink responsibly. With self-deprecating humour, this brilliantly inventive sculpture reflects the dark side of the Scots’ love affair with alcohol, engrained in our society. Slainte Mhath! (Good Health)
Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegorical novella about the anthropomorphic animals at Mr. Jones’ Manor Farm. Old Major, a pig, describes his dream about a world where all animals live free from the tyranny of their human masters, and the pigs Snowball and Napoleon take command to stage a revolt.
Bethany Reid may well be inspired by Orwell’s ‘fairy story’ as her artistic practice also questions the complexities of human-animal relationships in When You’re Big. It envisages sweet wee piglets running free in the farmyard, with no knowledge of being sent to the abattoir when they grow up, comparing an innocent, childlike perspective with the adult’s awareness of meat production. Bethany uses recycled textiles to craft a tapestry screen juxtaposing gleeful and grisly pictures to reflect on the ethics of animal welfare. ‘Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough. Yet he is lord of all the animals.‘ George Orwell, Animal Farm
Admission to the exhibition is £8 / £5 (free on Mondays) and a supporting programme of events and tours can be viewed at the RSA’s web page (see left).
With thanks to Vivien Devlin for contributing this review.
