This exhibition, the second phase of "A Sense Of Place", in which four artists represent the Society of Scottish Artists over Stirling, at the Cowane Gallery, shows a more intimate sensibility than the larger group at the Smith.
The S.S.A. is dedicated to the adventurous spirit in Scottish Art, and Stirling District are to be complimented for hosting a challenging and impressive body of work.
Upon entering the gallery, the first impression is created by Karen Strang's installation "Wound Strap, Watch, Table (Ricky 1963)", with its blackboards, school desk, books and writing materials evoking the Cowane Centre's former incarnation as a primary school. Karen, who lives in Stirling, has created a disturbing image of Scottish education's pressure towards conformity and stereotype, leaving the question of present-day relevance beguilingly open. The sound-track accompanying the visual attack mixes lesson and recollection to chilling effect.
Next to Karen's work, Fiona Danskin shows faux-naif paintings that are autobiographical and dreamlike in images both childlike and funny. "Give Me Your Answer, Do" is a panel placed on artificial grass showing an Ermintrude-like cow covered in daisies,and "Rose Bed" depicts roses springing from a slashed hot water bottle (like the mouth in Karen Strang's blackboard) on a fibrous moss bed that keeps the verbal and visual play going..
Fiona's brilliant colours contrast with the austerity of Alison Newman's work which uses etching to richly-textured effect, as in "Morbihan System". The free splatter of the top black layered gestures recalls the giant prints of Tapies, in their Pictish, runic and almost mathematical symbolism. Both the photo-etchings of "Fragments" and the collographs of "Twelve Transmissions" show technical mastery and rich expression.
Finally, the work of SSA stalwart Liz Murray has a more specifically feminine delicacy and biographical suggestion in the quietly poetic "Shore Quilt Secrets". Handmade paper, embedded materials, stitched-in grasses, watercoloured sketches of shells and collaged texts form a vocabulary that unites all works presented here.
This is a stimulating exhibition, making the most of the Cowane Gallery's restrictions. The scale and richness of work ensures no chance of gallery fatigue and the SSA is a playful child rather than wrinkled centurion.
Peter Russell March 1996
Link to 1995 S.S.A. Exhibition in Edinburgh.