Sea
Until November 20; RSA, Edinburgh

In Scotland, you’re never more than 40 miles away from the sea, and it shows in our art. Alexander Nasmyth, William McTaggart, and Will Maclean are just some of the many Scottish artists who have been inspired by the sea, their interests ranging from maritime battles to the fishing industry along with stories of emigration and loss.

Twelve years ago Edinburgh’s City Art Centre put together an exhibition of Scottish works inspired by the sea, and now it’s the turn of the Royal Scottish Academy. The RSA’s show is restricted largely to works by its own Academicians, which makes it less experimental than is customary in these lower galleries.

However, there are two non-members who were invited to contribute: Annie Cattrell’s sculpture, Currents, is shown in Scotland for the first time, and French artist Philippe Bazin’s video, Une Heure Staffin, was inspired by a residency at Glenfiddich in 2002.

Cattrell has loaded a large, low table with 3 metres square of plastic ocean; the 64 tiles are a representation in miniature of choppy waves as far as the eye can see. This is no shore-bound, romantic view of the ocean, but a cross-section of infinity, as it would be seen by a sailor, miles away from safety.

Bazin is a photographer, and during his stay at Glenfiddich he developed “one hour photos”. One of these, Une Heure Staffin, is a video of a ship at anchor in Staffin Bay. The sea ripples and seabirds swoop in and out of the frame. Watching it is like sitting on a pier without suffering the discomfort of the salty wind and splashing sea spray. It seems like the most natural form of landscape art for the 21st century.

Arthur Watson’s installation and George Wyllie’s sculpture are both keen elegies to lost industries; fishing in Watson’s case and ship-building in Wyllie’s. Watson’s beautifully crafted accessories to the fishing trade are immaculate, never used, reminding us that we’re the generation where tradition stops.

Wyllie’s Lest We Forget is a beautifully concise piece of visual shorthand; the tall, slender prow of an ocean-liner, streamlined like an art-deco poster, rises up from the ground. A champagne bottle, mid-way up the prow, is frozen at the moment of impact. This is a moment which can only live as a memory along the banks of the Clyde.

Catrìona Black, Sunday Herald 06.11.05