Our love is Like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea and the Hours

Last Wednesday we travelled up to Edinburgh to attend the Generation exhibit at the National Gallery on Princes Street. Although I had visited twice before earlier in the year I still felt there were things to see and take in.

The piece I gave more attention to this time around was the installation in the largest room. I hadn't heard of Martin Boyce previous to the Generation exhibit but very much enjoyed interacting and viewing 'Our Love is Like...'

As I walked around the dimly lit room illuminated by the light strips hovering over me, I was thinking about why Boyce had created this. I thought 'Why these colours?' and 'What does this part mean?' and 'This reminds me of something...'. Of course it wasn't until I read the accompanying summary of the installation and artist responsible that it became clearer to me Boyce's intentions. Instillations in general excite me. For me, the more there is to get your head around - the better!

Symptom of a potential typo-maniac? Maybe...

So I was flicking aimlessly through my Facebook news feed earlier and couldn't help but notice this picture below... It was the most annoyed I've felt in a while, it irritated me so much that I just stared at it for a good 5 minutes. The absolute nerve someone had to post this without thinking of others!

...so is it just me that thinks the 'u' in 'Shut' looks a LOT like and upside down 'n'? Surely I can't be the only one! It's grammatical errors like this that make me question peoples judgement, NOT their political standpoint...

Generation: 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland

I, along with 3 friends were fortunate enough to visit Auschwitz last month during our holiday in Poland. We were in Krakow for 3 days and had booked our visit to the camp for the last day, in hindsight this was a sensible idea since the visit was like nothing I have experienced. I still struggle to put into words how it made me feel and think.

Once I arrived back in Scotland I visited the National Gallery in Edinburgh with my mum and sister. We were waiting on my brother who had been visiting friends, so we thought we'd pop into the Gallery for a wee nose! We weren't in there very long, but I moved from room to room taking in as much as I could. I didn't have my notebook with me to take down details of the artists and their work so I had to rely on memory alone. The one artist that stuck out for me was Christine Borland. 'L'Homme Double' is made up of 6 clay portrait busts. Borland contacted 6 sculptors and instructed them to create these busts based on the Nazi war criminal Josef Mengel. They were all given the same information - 2 grainy photographs of the man and a selection of quotes and statements made by survivors of the Auschwitz death camp. The quotes were mostly attempts at describing Mengels physical appearance. 

The psychological aspect of the work astounds me. Borland has conveyed the uncertainty of this mans identity using actual memories from the people who witnessed him first hand. I love the individuality of each bust, how the perspective of each chosen sculptor is combined with the recollections of Auschwitz survivors.

Yesterday, I revisited the Gallery with my friend Flora and took 2 to 3 hours exploring the exhibit. David Shrigley was another artist who stuck out for me. His work that was on display was very impressive. Various selections of woodcut prints and a collection of ceramic/clay boots of all different shapes and sizes.

As we entered the gift shop I picked up one of his books and found myself laughing hysterically. I wasn't expecting a book like this from the work I had already seen from Shrigley - but I was pleasantly surprised! 

I enjoyed these visits to the gallery and have taken on many things from each artist and their work. I continue to be inspired by doing things like this and I love discovering people who's work I can take things from.