Jan Patience Art Critic Glasgow Herald writes .......
"If they are being honest, all artists build the force and form of memories into every single thing they create, be it in music, on canvas, in print, on screen or on the stage. We’re all made up of bundles of memories, which seem to start crowding as we grow older, until there isn’t room for any more. Memories are an open secret which belong to an individual yet can be interpreted in so many ways. That they are meat and drink to all artists has been proved by the response to Compass Gallery director Jill Gerber’s call to create work for The Force And Form Of Memory, a touring art exhibition she has put together in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, a charity that supports people with dementia and their carers and families. In this exhibition, which has grown arms and legs since it was first envisaged nine months ago, there are now 76 participating artists at all stages of their careers, from new graduates such as Roland Fraser and Hew Morrison, through to stellar names such as Alan Davie and Ken Currie. Artists working at the top of their game have been drawn to this inspiring brief like moths to a flame.
“I was originally approached by Alzheimer Scotland to help organise an auction to raise funds for them,” says Gerber, who now runs the gallery her father, Cyril Gerber, started in 1969. “I suggested it would be better for everyone if I put together an exhibition which responded to the theme of memory and then Compass and Alzheimer Scotland shared the commission while supporting the artists, which is what the Compass has been about since my father started it up.
“I approached artists and the response has been overwhelming. It’s almost as though the artists -- and the gallery -- have been reinvigorated by examining such elemental subject matter. The energy surrounding this whole project is incredible.”
On the day I dropped into the gallery to have a preview of the work, much of it was still being unwrapped from boxes and bubble wrap was being peeled off eagerly to see what lay beneath, with much ooh-ing and aah-ing as items were revealed. There appear to be recurring themes in much of this work, such as birds, chairs, faces, old photographs and many, many unlikely, yet fitting, materials. I particularly like the small “oil on hut” paintings by Owen Boyle, who has literally used parts of an old hut from Cardross where he played as a boy, the thick green industrial paint of which can be seen on the back. Recent graduate David Woods has a couple of interesting works, one of which is a charred and blackened carved oak head with its gaping hole at the top. Another new graduate, Elliot Burns, has created two works on old church floorboards. The 3D work in this exhibition (which will tour for the next year to Stirling, Wick, Thurso, Greenock and Banchory) is particularly strong. Long thin sticks made with gesso, paint, ink, graphite and collage on yew, they beg to be held, as does Cameron Ross’s Vestige/Virtus (For Thomas Behan), a found spade with a ceramic plane floating on the shovel. part
There are some bravura painting acts, including Donald Clark’s exquisite Glass Of Milk With Jaffa Cakes, which summons up a childhood memory of his grandparents’ house, and in Ken Currie’s stunning self-portrait, which is the polar opposite of a vanity project. Alasdair Wallace has played a blinder with his Headless Forward, which brings a new meaning to the footballing cliche of a player losing his head, while Peter Thomson has moved into another strange, yet beautiful phase of his painting career. By the nature of the subject matter, people will be drawn to works for very personal reasons. Henry Kondracki’s little acrylic painting, My Mum’s Chair, brought a lump to my throat. In a short statement, he says, “The total absence of a memory has left just this object. This has a poignancy for me but hopefully also holds meaning for the viewer.”
If the past is another country, then book your passage to this exhibition now.
