I went to see Cut & Paste at Modern Two (Scottish National Galleries) and Audrey Grant (Scottish Portrait Gallery).
Cut & Paste was ok, but not as good as I had hoped. Collage exhibitions are rare, and this made me make the journey north. The history of the technique was excellent, with very diverse items on display, from etchings that were sectioned with pasted amendments, to heavily layered fabric collages. Apparently the first collage made from travel tickets, was made from the railway tickets retrieved from the victims of the Tay Bridge disaster! There were also elaborate valentine cards dating from the start of the postage stamp (c1840) made from up to 200(!) pasted collaged pieces made from printed kits. And the breadth of interpretation of collage included botanical specimens books where the adhesive qualities of seaweed meant they stuck themselves to the pages of documentation.
However the modern section was a total disappointment. Far too much stuff of large pieces of crumpled brown paper just stuck as a lump to a support paper.
Then I went on to the Scottish Portrait Gallery and looked at Audrey Grant's The Long Look. This is repeated drawings of Val McDermid and Norman McBeath. She had drawn in charcoal. I love charcoal drawings, and they are rarely shown in this type of venue. Repeated sittings (up to 36) had resulted in her drawing on the same sheet of paper, setting aside for a week, then erasing this drawing and creating another on top. Each drawing was photographed, leading to a succession of digital images, but only one remaining charcoal drawing. The drawings varied in their tonal value, and the variation was intriguing.
AND ...! I met the artist! Audrey Grant was at the gallery with a companion and they were debating the drawing process. I overheard Audrey saying the difficult part was the mouth and chin. Not the eyes. Once she had the mouth and chin right, the rest of each drawing followed.
A thoroughly enjoyable morning.
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