Call to Organise! Colossal!
Until December 9; Travelling Gallery

Art is inspired by many things. Some of these things – pretty countryside, lofty ideals, epic mythologies – are inspiring to all of us. Others don’t exactly fall into the general category of “inspirational”.

Anne-Marie Copestake and Sophie Macpherson, collaborating for the first time, are inspired by both of the above. They’re drawn to monuments, structures and gestures made by human beings as various kinds of statement, large and small. Soviet statues are an obvious example, a sign outside a village hall is less so.

The two artists have created an A to Z of their favourites for the Travelling Gallery, compiled in a DVD and a booklet full of pictures. There’s no attempt to interpret this odd pick and mix; it’s just there, take it or leave it. Bus stops from Poland and Perthshire sit side by side with images of a Mosque door in Istanbul and a winding election queue in Soweto.

The interior of the Travelling Gallery bus is decked out in an ingenious arrangement of plywood, shaped and mounted to create low relief patterns. The overall effect is that of a Suprematist sculpture, quite at home with the Soviet sculptures in the A to Z. In places, the bold squares give way to Islamic-style clusters of turquoise and gold triangles, or to a line of hexagons marching up a bench like a garden path gone AWOL.

A wooden screen is a jumble of mixed cultural metaphors, pointing towards 19th Century Japonisme, but with geometric panels more akin to Art Deco. The back of the screen is undressed wood, its wooden wedges and screws there for all to see. There is an overall honesty in the presentation of this exhibition, using cheap materials without compromising on time and effort.

A handful of drawings by both artists decorate the seated section of the gallery bus. Although the wooden screen is echoed in one of Macpherson’s drawings, there is no obvious continuation of the theme. In Copestake’s golden drawings, anonymous human figures adopt unremarkable poses – perhaps as a sideways response to the Everyman so often featured in war memorials and workers’ tributes.

Despite the cornucopia of statements in the A to Z, Copestake and Macpherson don’t convey any coherent message of their own. While our TV schedules are drowning in top tens, an exhibition along the same lines is surely a cop out. Identifying the things which excite you is phase one. Only then does the hard work start.

Catrìona Black, Sunday Herald 18.09.05