Against the backdrop of Edinburgh in high summer (think festival, tourists, doubled population, general fringey-ness) Edinburgh College of Art is once again going through the Degree Show motions, this time in the form of its Masters show. The School of Art offers 11 students graduating from the ‘Contemporary Art Practice’ course. There is less of the sprawling, chaotic, ‘run of the building’ feeling that the earlier summer degree show offers. Instead, a smaller more concise offering allows this year’s Contemporary Art Practice class to present a thoughtful show. Spread across 5 rooms, there is a sense that the Masters students have approached the show with sensitivity to the curatorial process.

Phoebe Mitchell by Gareth Easton Photography

Upon entering the first room on the ground floor there is an immediate sense of refinement and a call and response between the spaces of the artists involved. In particular the work of Kirsty Macleod and Phoebe Mitchell sit well alongside each other. Mitchell’s paintings appear to be exercises in erasure that seem to question the very nature of painting itself. Thirty-one paintings in total, it is an impressive effort from the artist, upon reading about Mitchell’s ‘ritualistic routine’ the amount of work, alongside the intuitive mark-making (and more specifically ‘un-mark making’ if there is such a word), call to mind the obsessive nature of what it means to paint, or to be someone who makes things in already over-saturated circumstances.

This pre-occupation with making sits well alongside the work of Macleod, this time it is the medium of sculpture that questions the processes of making. Parts of instruction manuals are laser cut into perspex and lie strewn around an array of plinth type structures. In a nod to traditional materials the back wall of the space is clad entirely in wood, a striking relationship to the 3D printed elements that sit in front of it. There is a playful humour in this work, Macleod doesn’t give the audience this on a plate, but on further inspection there is an absurdity to the foam plinths, and the placement of individual elements is done with a wry eye for detail.

Work by Kirsty Macleod, image by Steve Fuller

Kirsty Macleod by Gareth Easton Photography

Alongside this, there are two other offerings in this room, Tom Rodgers and Abigail Smith, both working in Black and White, but with distinct differences. One working firmly with the camera (Rodgers), and the other adamantly without (Smith). Rodgers presents a quiet body of work, surrounding themes of home through traditional means of black and white photography. Whilst Smith rounds off the room’s pre-occupation with making. The processes of traditional film come to the fore in her room of slide projectors, complete with nostalgic mechanical clunking.

Moving upstairs, the first room encountered is an airy one, with the work of Malcolm O’Connell and Danny Lamb. O’Connell’s work is striking upon entry, filling the floor space with large framework structures of wood and glass. There is a sense of the work bringing the outside in, from the echoed reflections through ECA’s vast windows, to the green behind his work ‘Storholmen’ which I am told echoes the green of the doors in the building seen through said windows (a nice geographical touch). There is an honesty to materials within the work, and the effect against Lamb’s garish perspex and spray paint offering is jarring. Old meets new in this room. The quiet material strengths of O’Connell’s sculptures are offset by the frenetic Photoshop style brushstrokes of Lamb’s paintings. The room brings the mind back to the processes of making that were so apparent downstairs. There is a preoccupation with the precariousness of traditional processes, and this room serves to highlight the juxtaposition of traditional art and design values versus digital processes.

Work by Malcolm O’Connell, image by Steve Fuller

Next door there is an immersive environment by Fu-Le Chao which is at first confusing with a large woven hammock or platform hanging heavily in the middle of the room. The look is that of a stage set, rendered out of materials such as paper and card. It is only the addition of a small unassuming screen behind the door that points you to the subject matter, a panda clambers languorously from a bamboo strewn platform, it is a live feed of the webcam footage from Edinburgh Zoo. It is hard not to be sucked into this viewing material, and after a few minutes in the mirroring environment I leave with thoughts of voyeurism and otherness swirling uncomfortably through my mind.

This feeling is soon quashed by the in-your-face messages of Cat Meighan’s sculpture, her giant dazzle painted ‘£7K’ (roughly the amount the students have paid for this particular course) alongside a large set of scales shout at you. Cynical yet playful, it is a bold piece that commands the space well, balancing a large room. The large scale paintings of Gezi Yao take up an entire wall, my first impression is that they are hung strangely high, perhaps demanding to be revered. The high hang is echoed by Yin Xuerong’s photographic work, but on this occasion it has the opposite effect, the images seeming to try and remain out of sight of the viewer.

The final room on my travels reveals one last surprise: Martian Law. Emma Potterill’s offering to the show comes in the form of a live performance, and if caught during the act, rounds the show off in a cacophonic way. Complete with darkened space, live band and hand-made boiler suits, Potterill’s performance is buzzing with crude intensity, and serves well as the final piece in an eclectic but overall well-polished show.

Edinburgh College of Art Masters show continues until Monday 24 August, 11am-5pm daily.

See more about 2|1|4|1 Collective on Central Station here.

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See more Degree Show reviews on Central Station here.

The build up to the degree show is always an exciting time at any art school; there is a palpable mix of nervous tension and creative energy flying around the corridors. There are always tears during install week, but these are soon brushed aside as the young artists knuckle down to finish what needs to be done.

The opening night acts as an orgasmic release to the weeks of tension. Results are in, awards are given and the newest crop of emerging artists take to their favourite drinking holes and clubs to celebrate the last four years of hard graft.

Daniel Dowling’s (fine art) sculptural work on show comprises a delicate balance of a keen aesthetic eye and a mature material sensibility. Dowling’s use of ceramics, casting and delicate pigment powder evoke natural textures and forms. Strange twisting forms bring to mind branches or antlers and sheets of textured plaster scales conjure up the rough surface of pine bark. Dowling’s work manages that intangible quality of drawing inspiration from an idea or form but not seemingly being “about” that thing, leaving space for personal interpretation and room for thought.

Struan Teague

Struan Teague’s* (fine art) dynamic range of works takes this to the next level, his combination of monumentally large paintings, smaller prints and artist books are a more than competent exercise in pure abstraction and beautiful, gestural mark making. Really great painting is hard to find these days but Teague has seemed to nail it. Flicking through his various books and publications it is easy to see why, this young man is incredibly prolific in his field and his range of experimentation with his work bodes well for the future of his practice.

This example of masterful handling in a chosen medium is continued in the short film Solium by Michael Hunter and Robbie Gray (Time based art and Digital Film). Solium consists of several short vignettes linked together by a man and his bathtub. Odd as it may sound, the rich, all encompassing soundscape and beautifully directed shots combine into a magic and surreal journey through various landscapes including a fantastical mist filled forest, a lonely beach and a hilltop in the grips of late winter.

Lewis Bissett

Another from the Time Based Art crop is Lewis Bissett’s tongue in cheek ode to the freemasons by way of the Scottish young team subculture. Bissetts’s work consists of an abstracted shrine setting with plaster cast footballs painted in popping primary colours, a strange eye at the top of a pole, conjuring images of the all seeing eye of the freemasons, alongside three stained glass windows and a banner depicting the insignia of the “New Young Masons”. On the ground are strange marks reminiscent of football pitch markings. Bissett’s work seems on one hand to build up the glory of his invented narrative but on the other highlights the faded grandeur of Masonic Lodges with faux-marble decorations and reclaimed church pews.

David Mackay

One of the standout sculptural pieces on display is David Mackay’s Standing Reserve. This formidable sculptural work consists of a monumental electricity pylon fabricated in wood, its form twisted and drooping in a state of impotency. The structure is accompanied by a twisting rope protruding from one of its arms with a wax-cast insulator attached to the end. In the background a soundscape plays, an electrical distortion and low hum building up over the ten or so minutes it lasts to a crescendo of bleeps and buzzing, it evokes imagery of this structure twisting, bending and creaking. The ambition in this piece and its command of the space it inhabits is what makes it stand out in the show and will no doubt make an impact in the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition next year for which it was selected.

Another of this year’s crop selected for the New Contemporaries, alongside Teague, Hunter and Gray is Fine Art’s Koren Dumbleton**. Her macabre installation Lavinia consists of an atmospherically lit space inhabited by a number of abstract torsos suspended from two sets of monkey bars. The grim spectacle brings to mind both an abattoir and a children’s playground and the result is unsettling.

Koren Dumbleton

Lotte Fisher

Amongst the other awards and opportunities up for grabs at the degree show is the Scottish Sculpture Workshop’s Graduate Residency award and this year it was granted to Fine Art’s Lotte Fisher. Stepping into Fisher’s space you are confronted by a narrow corridor flanked by wooden panels, the low ceiling forces you to stoop slightly as you emerge into a bright space occupied by miniature houses and the small figures who seem to occupy them. As you turn around to observe your entrance to this fantastically whimsical world the bulk of Fisher’s work is revealed in what appears to be a hillside growing out of the gallery wall. Dotted with more small scale structures, sculpted animals and mounds of moss this work was definitely a crowd favourite on the opening night.

There are many and more works on display which are worthy of their own reviews and these are but a small selection from them. The show is on until the 31 May and I would urge you to go along and take in all the hard work these talented bunch have put in over their four years. For more information, visit here.

For more about Kieran Milne, view his website here.

*See more work by Struan on Central Station here.
**Koren wrote last year’s DJCAD Degree Show review which you can view here.

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For more events, see our Weekly Bulletin here.

I recall the first installation day of Michael Stumpf’s exhibition; This song belongs to those who sing it. A small section of lemon yellow appeared on one of the walls, rather like a patch of mould in the corner of the gallery. I strolled through as the install team pondered over the best way to fulfil their next task: to cover the entire wall in tin foil. I watched as the initial length was applied in the corner butting up to the yellow growth. An assortment of rags and cloths were used to rub the strip of foil onto the pre-glued wall. Over the next week, the full width of the wall was meticulously embellished with silver foil.

The gallery must have been a hive of activity over the weekend as, on Monday morning I was greeted by two glowing walls of colour – one of lemon yellow, and the other of yellow and pink, creating a coral colour, both layered with coloured washes, highlighting the layers of history in the walls.

Tuesday was a traditionally dull grey morning in Glasgow. I battled against the wind as I approached the, soon to be opened, Reid building, from the East. Looking up, I was surprised to notice the words “NOW SING” peering down at me as they confidently marked their place on the balcony, and emitted a vibrant energy.

Returning to the Mackintosh Museum, the gallery display cabinets usually hidden behind faux walls were being revealed. The copper pillars of the cabinets faced the silver wall, their shiny surfaces reflecting me, you, us, in them.

The next few components seemed to appear in a flurry.

a gold stalactite form hanging from an overhead beam,

a carved sandstone rock with a cast bronze twig sticking out of it on which a glass band hung,

a giant pink rock suspended from the ceiling by a long narrow band of denim, rather like a conker on a string.

The works that hang are grounded by the positioning of a heavy acrylic resin O (one violet and one red) under each. As the movement of people through the space causes a gentle swaying of the cords, the cast rings sit ready and waiting to catch what hovers above.

‘Endless long bowed phrases’ (2014), denim, plywood, steel, tube clamps.

Three other acrylic resin rings are rooted to the floor, their weightiness contrasting with the triangular frame that hangs at the other side of the museum, acting as another prompt to gaze up, and be reminded once again of the Mackintosh gallery in which we are standing, with all its history and peculiarities.

‘Perplexed’, paper, calico, aerosol paint, denim, acrylic resin, steel, tube clamps (2014)

This attention to context brings me back to the display cabinets that have been stripped back to their original state and one lovingly clad with denim. An assortment of small delicate objects are placed inside, like relics from an architectural dig. That famous saying “the context is half the work” plays in my mind. In this case, the context has been used as a material, an important element in the exhibition.

Such consideration has also been given to the audience. Regular tours circulate the prestigious Mackintosh Building, congregating in the gallery and inspecting the architectural features. In a studio next door, a critique is in progress, the work being rigorously examined. In the gallery, the two text works on facing walls, “Looking at you” and “Looking at me” encourage us, the audience, to investigate our own relationship to what we see.

Several days later at its official opening, all eyes are on the Reid Building. In the words of Liz Lochhead, who was commissioned to write a song to mark the momentous occasion, the Reid is

“the bonny new building,
the new kid on the block”.

As I gaze at its glass paneled walls, I notice in the reflection, a familiar vibrant pink ring hanging from the Directors office, drawing my attention back to the Mackintosh Building and inevitably upstairs into the museum.

‘Ring’, cast acrylic resin (2014). Mackintosh building, Director’s Balcony.

So, just as the students at the Art School gradually move through their studies and emerge as graduates, and in a similar way to how in Benjamin Britten’s, The Young Persons Guide to Orchestra, the orchestra is broken down into constituent parts only to be brought together to form a full orchestra, my understanding and appreciation of the exhibition developed with each new encounter.

Perhaps I reached the chorus when I attended the final event programmed alongside the exhibition. A tap dancer conversed with the objects in the gallery, offering a new perspective on the installation. The atmosphere in the gallery was one of anticipation and excitement as the gathering scrutinised each other’s footwear, calculating who would be the one to burst into dance. A young man, dressed in tight jeans and a Michael Stumpf customised jumper climbed the stairs and we all watched in silence as he ‘eyed up’ the gold suspended sculpture, Perplexed.

Tap dancer Greg Robertson performing in Mackintosh Museum, Photo: Michael Stumpf

It was as he stood, hands folded across his chest, gaze moving up and down the work, that I considered the scale of the hanging form, its relation to the human body and I was reminded of the image of the rock in jeans that featured on the exhibition invitation. His foot began to tap on the wooden floor, producing a rhythm that shifted in pace; from steady contemplation to excited energy, albeit without any ‘jazz hands’. He travelled effortlessly around the space, activating and animating the work as he moved up close to it, naturally returning to the gold sculpture before finishing.

The enthusiastic applause that filled the gallery as he disappeared down the stairs was, for me, a fitting response to this joyous exhibition that celebrates materiality, embraces colour and generously considers the context and audience.

Michael Stumpf talks about his GI 2014 exhibition at GSA

Michael Stumpf: This Song Belongs to Those who Sing It runs until 4 May at the Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Museum . For more information see the GSA website.

For more about Glasgow based artist Helen Shaddock, see her My Process article on Central Station here.

All images unless otherwise stated by Janet Wilson. 

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Knife Edge Press: The Complete Works (so far) & Invisible Residency installation detail

Below are excerpts from some of the responses, recollections and reviews of Knife Edge Press: The Complete Works (so far) & Invisible Residency received so far:

I previously worked with Bruce in 2011, as part of the Exhibitions DJCAD team, on a large-scale project ‘a comic opera in three-parts’ entitled ‘A Cut A Scratch A Score’ and was intrigued to discover another facet to Bruce’s creative repertoire in a partnership which has spanned nearly three decades.
Holly Knox Yeoman

What struck me about this exhibition was how the idea of a book can be adapted to fit whatever is its purpose, in this case an artwork. The exhibition is largely made up of books, which is not normally what you would expect from an art exhibition.
Katy Christopher

This year’s Cooper Summer Residency is an Invisible Residency, where both Bruce and Mel converse, daily, via email which is then displayed each day at the exhibition. Conversations are really fun and down to earth as they bounce ideas off one another.
Lauren Howat

But there is something unmistakably unique in Bruce and Mel’s collaborations, a colourful element of humour and playfulness in their work that provides a very humane context for a variety of investigations, ranging from the pragmatic (Ladder: ordinary object; humble; necessary) and laudatory (Potato: Peru’s greatest legacy to the world; an object of contemplation), to the metaphorical and ecstatic (Scone: No scone without fire. Potato: Skull-like / memento mori. Ladder: Breughel’s ladders are the tongues of Babel.)
Lucas Battich

Continue reading the exhibition responses online here.

Knife Edge Press: The Complete Works (so far) & Invisible Residency, showcasing the artists’ books of Bruce McLean and Mel Gooding can be visited in Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee until 21 Sept 2013.

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Also opening this week:
Cut and Paste: Investigating the materiality of information – Student Curatorial Team

Katy Christopher, Lucas Battich and Dan Shay are members of Exhibitions Student Curatorial Team and will present Cut and Paste: Investigating the materiality of information, an exhibition that investigates the materiality of information today curated in response to Knife Edge Press: The Complete Works (so far) and Invisible Residency.

Preview: Thursday 12 September 5-7:30pm
Exhibition continues until 28 September
Cooper Gallery Project Space is based in Crawford Building, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design.

Stephen Thorpe, who recently won the Saatchi “Places and Spaces” competition, creates colourful, precisely executed paintings with rough edges that make them look like they have been ripped out of the wall. He usually works in oil, canvas and expanding foam, but this exhibition is the first time he’s worked on neon. His paintings have also taken a new direction and a deliberate shift away from his older work of dreamlike and surreal interiors that are sometimes described as claustrophobic.

It’s hard to place Thorpe in a category. His paintings create a sense of displacement, and their compositions challenge the rules of physics and trick your sense of perception. They are almost like optical illusions. Even when Thorpe’s working process is organic and his approach towards this exhibition has been more experimental, there is preciseness and purposefulness to his technique. The way Thorpe prepares his canvases creates random imperfections in the surface, which are only revealed upon closer inspection. According to the artist, his work is about “tension between surface and subject, and literal and conceptual.”

Quantum physics is the running theme in the exhibition and the titles of the paintings reflect this. Three of the paintings are titled after particles: Lepton, Boson and Fermion. The paintings appear very geometric and architectural and feature bright blocks and drips of colour. Two other paintings, Deviant Higgs and Event Horizon have a more organic feel ¬– almost like theatrical sets in surreal, natural outdoor environments.  Reflections and blurring the boundaries of space are all apparent.

The exhibition includes two neon works, both created as collaboration. First of them, a work called “22” is a play on contrasting materials: fragile glass and broken rubble. It also represents the collaboration, two individuals working together.

Although at first glance the neon work doesn’t quite belong with the paintings, they are joined together by the largest painting, Untitled (Gala) 2012, which includes a painted red neon sign. Also, the exhibition takes its title from one of the neon works: the words “Once It’s In You It Never Goes Away” situated high up on the wall. As the artist wants to leave the interpretation of the sentence to the viewers, it’s hard to know how it relates to Quantum Physics.

Once It’s In You It Never Goes Away is an exhibition that will make you challenge how you view your surroundings. It’ll definitely make you wonder what remains with you forever.

The exhibition continues at Summerhall, Edinburgh until 22 February 2013.

By Heidi Kuisma

Find out more: Website

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Browse through our event bulletin to find more events. To write a review of an exhibition or event, please e-mail hello@thisiscentralstation.com.

I’m sitting here wondering what to write about ‘tribe’ – and how events have overtaken us. It’s just 3 months since we hit the online world, and only 5 months since it was a twinkle in Mark Doyle’s eye , not long after he was made redundant. The thinking and ethos behind tribe was, and is quite simple … to produce an international creative art magazine that is free of clutter – and lets the art speak for itself.

More importantly – we see it as a resource for artists at whatever stage of their development – and wherever they are from, working in any medium , alone or collaboratively.  For emerging artists it is a rare opportunity to appear alongside established artists in the same publication. Over the next 3 issues (for example ) we have Carlos Ezquerra ( creator of Judge Dredd ), Jamie Reid ( Sex Pistols artwork) and the legendary Ralph Steadman – a result of a bit of front, brass-neckery and old fashioned cheek.

The upshot – 3 months in – is we are approaching 10,000 online readers a month (from 76 countries)  as this is being written . Most amazing and gratifying for us is that people are spending  about  45 minutes reading  each edition.

We have plans – creative writing , photo-documentary, multi-media are all looming – so, at the moment we are intending to, as the song says , “keep on keeping on “.

So our message to artists out there is simple – we want your work. The potential exposure is massive. Head over to our website first and check out the magazines  and then head to the contact page to find out how to submit work and ideas.

Grace Jones picture by Antonio, as featured in tribe

Woman in red eating by Helen Gillam, as featured in tribe

Collage of St Andrews Church by Yvonne Turner, as featured in tribe

We can be liked on Facebook.
And of course we’re on Twitter.

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Find more zines we’ve featured here.

What started as a blog by the same name has grown into a website with the aim of helping generate talk and writing about art – and encouraging the visiting of exhibitions.

John says about EyeContact:
“There is a lot of promotional writing in Aotearoa New Zealand to help sell art, but not much evaluation or banter over related issues – with participants willing to be identified. That area is admittedly a notoriously difficult undertaking, for reasons both philosophical and social, but it is ultimately at least worth attempting if the intellectual climate of this country’s art community is to become more sophisticated.”

Whether you are just interested in what is happening in the art world globally or are interested in art criticism and review, it’s worth taking a look at EyeContact.

Visit the EyeContact website.
Follow EyeContact on Twitter.

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

4D Building Projection? 3D Building Projections you’ve seen before of course. Structures mapped and then projected onto to look like they’re made of rotating cubes, spilling generative neon globules from the windows, and almost always, the pièce de défaillance structurale – the classic apocalyptic disintegration of said building.

In search of a ‘first’ to add to this most zeitgeisty of mediums – for the world launch of the new Peugot 208 –  the added dimension we were invited to see is really an interactive element. Real-time rendered sequences being pulled about by a contemporary dance performer (via a Microsoft Kinect motion sensor) in a square in downtown Rio de Janeiro.

Yeah… Brazil. Contemporary Dance. Kinect Motion Sensors. Extra Dimensions. These, to keep you in the loop, are the constituent parts of the marketing messages ‘Let Your Body Drive’ and ‘Motion & Emotion’. Y’know. Brazilians  all have great bodies… and um, well I think you can gauge the subtleties  of everything else for yourself, although there’s strictly none of that ‘shakin’ that ass’ booty recall stuff – this is Peugot remember, not Renault. So anyway here’s a teaser video of the building projection, which might make more sense of things than I can.

And some Brazilian chap who’s got excited about it and filmed the entire thing:

And here’s a very short video of us and a predominantly French group of bloggers being briefed by the agencies and Peugot.

The production itself is led by BD (who originated in Glasgow but are now based in London) and Projection Advertising. As chance would have it I’d worked with both these companies before (the project details had been kept secret to us until we arrived) and it was genuinely good to see this international scale of work come from two homegrown stables. Although 3D projection is now prevalent, it’s still a huge undertaking to convince big brands that it can deliver. In turn, whilst most projection mapping seems to have its roots in an aesthetically driven VJ culture – and what you always have to term loosely as ‘guerilla’ tactics – to be pushed as a medium will always require a commercial level of financial input.

From a design and production point of view it was also striking to see how many people were involved to bring this activity to fruition. With so much on the line regarding new car models, a whole supporting cast of Peugot representatives were working very closely alongside agencies, specialist partners, not to mention the production side of things in Brazil. And don’t forget Mr E. Motion in the white jumpsuit.

The official video is due to be released on YouTube tomorrow (13th December), I’ll post that up via the usual Facebook and Twitter channels.

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Going to a preview or have a review you want to share on Central Station? Get in touch and let us know.

Cameo 1It was probably the most surreal experience I’ve had at the Edinburgh International Film Festival so far.

Vworp. Vuh vuh vuh vwwwwooooorrrrrrrrp.

I stepped tentatively into the Cameo cinema’s main screen. I was five minutes early, but the noise seemed to suggest that the film had already started. Indeed, as I emerged into the screening room’s dark expanse, the audience of film critics and industry professionals sat transfixed. The film had started, but the sound was a bleak electronic tone, like a corrupted MP3 at the end of the universe. Could this really be what I had come to see? Was Romanian cinema more avant-garde than I had anticipated?

I contemplated leaving again. It was half past nine in the morning and I was pre-coffee, after all.

Vuhvuhvuhvuh vworrrrp.

The sound gave through to recognizable human sounds and all at once the picture vanished, the lights came on and someone hit the reset button. Saved; deus ex cinema.

@WeAreDN: If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle was a great start to my final morning. One more screening & then it’s home time. Shame. (@albaztks) #EIFF ~ June 23, 2010

If I want to Whistle, I Whistle came out of workshops with young offenders at actual Romanian prisons, and is based on Andreea Valean’s stage play of the same name. It’s bleak stuff, obviously rooted in reality, and the line is further blurred by the film’s documentary stylings. George Pistereanu pulls off an impressively naturalistic, nuanced performance as the film’s protagonist, Silviu, and the supporting cast does nothing to spoil the illusion.

The trouble is, it’s perhaps too bleak; there’s precious little hope or light here. After four years, Silviu is within days of release, but it soon becomes clear that it’s not going to be a painless ride. Indeed, for most of the film we’re forced to watch his slow emotional breakdown due to the reappearance of his negligent mother, who wants to regain custody of his little brother, who he’s raised since she left. At the same time, he develops a crush on Ada, a student training to be a social worker in the prison – and ultimately ends up holding her hostage when he unravels a step too far.

There’s a story to be told here, but while the acting is undoubtedly incredible, I found myself wishing there was more humanity on display. I’ve seen films this Festival about the tragic aftermath of bloody wars that had more light and hope. Romania has been part of the European Union since 2007; it’s jarring to think that somewhere as bleak as is portrayed here is in our political block.

Whereas Silviu is imprisoned against his will, Robert Duvall’s protagonist in Get Low has willfully sequestered himself away for forty years. Hiding away in the Tennessee woods, he’s become the stuff of legend – or rather, half-whispered stories passed on between children, and spun-out tales in the local bar. Did he kill someone? Why does he hide himself away? The inhabitants fear him, and he does nothing to dissuade them – until one day, he rides his mule and cart into town and asks for a funeral party. The catch: he wants to be alive to see it.

Incredibly, Get Low is based on a true story. Duvall’s character, Felix Bush, really did have a living funeral. In order to encourage people to come, he raffled off his land, and come they did: up to twelve thousand “mourners” in all. In the end, Felix wants to tell his story, and explain the real reason why he’s hidden himself away.

It should go without saying that Duvall is excellent, transforming completely into the reclusive, bitter hermit with one last story to tell. It’s director Aaron Schneider’s first film – he was cinematographer on the groundbreaking television legal drama Murder One - but he handles the direction, pace and tone expertly, sparsely punctuating the camerawork with the odd close-up that showcases his technical background.

The supporting players are equally perfectly cast: Bill Murray in particular continues his trend away from pure comedy, delivering a well-rounded performance as the town’s struggling funeral director that hints at a dark, sad backstory of his own (although he is still allotted his fair share of one-liners). Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black – as Felix’s love interest from long ago and the funeral assistant respectively – get less room to sparkle, but can’t be faulted.

The film lands on a satisfying – if tragic – conclusion that cleverly plays with expectations and turns Felix’s self-confinement on its head. It certainly left this reporter blubbing uncontrollably in his seat – a welcome catharsis from the loss and helplessness that we’ve seen so much of during the Festival.

Edited to add (June 28): Get Low was the recipient of the Standard Life Audience Award, and I think deservedly so. It was probably my pick of the festival too, and deserves to find a wide audience.

Anyway back to the work and graduates that grabbed my attention.

Colin Wilson

More of Colin’s work can be seen here at his website.

Lyndsey Redford

Unfortunately I couldn’t find links to more of her work which is a shame as this scanned image of her postcard does not do it justice. She is one of the artists mentioned in The Skinny review.

Naomi Archibald

Once again I can’t find links to Naomi’s work, but she is mentioned in the Scotsman review.

Sinéad Bracken

I particularly liked Sinéad’s animated artwork – which you can enjoy by visiting her website although you won’t get the same scale as you did at the exhibition.

By visiting the Dundee Degree Show 2010 website you can see the work of some students whose work is being showcased and who have also been reviewed in the two linked articles I have mentioned.

Please visit the links and post or blog your comments regards the student’s work on display.