The Aberdeen Artists Society Annual Exhibition is now in its 76th year and since 1934 there has been a fast, varied and diverse series of seismic shifts in the process of making art, showing art, thinking about art and the perception of the actual function of art.  The role of the artist has changed significantly, as has the notion of what art is, however in this time the Aberdeen Artist Society Annual Exhibition has remained largely the same.

This exhibition is not one which is hung, it is simply filled.  There is no theme, no brief for submissions, no curatorial message, no critical standpoint in the selection. The works are chosen by being marched, in a style more akin to the X-Factor than serious artistic critique, before a selection panel (not unlike that of Messrs. Cowell, Walsh and Co.) and judged according to an unrealistic and outdated series of subjective criteria based on the self-imposed authority of the panel.

Photo: Pammy May

The result is a mostly incoherent collection of works of varying critical value and aesthetic quality. Careful, considered works are shown alongside tired harbour scenes, naive portraiture and obscenely-glazed ceramic animals to the detriment of any coherent voice an individual piece may have.  Gallery Two resembles a seaside bric-a-brac shop, with paintings often hung  three-high in order to cram as much stuff in as possible. A large desk occupies the centre of the room selling catalogues, the only way of attributing an artist to their work.  Even on the broadest level, as an exposition of the nature of work produced by the “Aberdeen Artist”, this exhibition is a spectacular failure.

Each year, the exhibition manages to overlook the diverse and exciting range of contemporary practice utilised by Aberdeen’s growing population of 21st Century Artists, both at grassroots and more established levels, in favour of producing an exhibition which aspires to be almost identical, if not less inspired, to the previous show.  Contemporary artists working in Aberdeen are no less critically aware and culturally attuned to their counterparts across the world, working in a wide range of current media such as installation, performance, interactive work, social engagement, video, sound and much more, none of which are represented in the exhibition.

Even the title and its apparent mandate to suggest “We Are Aberdeen Artists” is contentious to say the least due to its extremely limited scope in its attempt to highlight the range of practice in Aberdeen. With the exhibition commanding a similar prestige to the RSA Annual in Edinburgh, there is little wonder that there’s a negative perception of artistic and cultural endeavour in the Granite City, which does nothing to ease the struggle for recognition that Aberdeen is a vibrant place for new and exciting Artists to live and work.

Ouch.

All pics by Neil Henderson

[slideshow]

Take A Worm…seemed to win a few folk over with their new material which shifts away from their full-on hardcore past while The Twilight Sad, despite a couple of sound issues, were great when they hit their stride.  There’s a whole lot going on in their music behind all that distortion and reverb and needless to say, they were Louder Than Bombs too…

Stay tuned for some shots of the Gerry Loves Records launch night which went down later that night at Snafu…

[slideshow]

]]> http://thekiosque.com/2010/04/05/music-in-photos-the-twilight-sad-take-a-worm-for-a-walk-week/feed/ 0 http://thekiosque.com/2010/03/17/music-deathpodal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=music-deathpodal http://thekiosque.com/2010/03/17/music-deathpodal/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:53:38 +0000 admin http://thekiosque.com/?p=1286 Deathpodal is the moniker of multi-instrumentalist Alastair J Chivers, and his forthcoming debut EP ‘Exu_Wow’ on Glasgow’s Electropapknit Records (their first release too as it goes) doesn’t make for easy pigeonholing:  Ethereal melodies and vocals sit happily alongside bursts of full-on guttural Fugazi-esque punk, strings, synths, weird percussion and, quite frankly, god knows what else.  It works though.

So, why are we featuring this?  Well, the EP was partly recorded in Aberdeen (as well as a Portacabin in Stonehaven, the University of Glasgow, Edinburgh and the streets of Prague we’re reliably informed) and features members of Copy Haho, PVH and local cellist Rachel Lind.  We’re promised some live dates in the summer too.  Should be quite something…

Check out a track from the EP after the pic:

Deathpodal – Squirrel and the Fox

[audio http://thekiosque.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/deathpodal-exu__wow-02-squirrel-and-the-fox.mp3]

‘Exu_Wow’ will be released on 29 March by Electropapknit Records

No competition this time but fret not cheapskates (sorry, dear readers, ahem), the giveaways will return…

This week’s big release is THE LOVELY BONES. Director Peter Jackson brings Alice Sebold’s novel to the big screen in this tale of a murdered girl caught between Earth and Heaven who tries to help her grieving family bring her killer to justice. It features BAFTA-nominated performances from Saiorse Ronan and Stanley Tucci.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikUWKi0W5_g]

Read on for this week’s competition…

This week The Belmont is ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’ for the release of THE WOLFMAN starring Benicio Del Toro as the man cursed to turn into a monster at full moon.  Features strong support from Sir Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt plus fantastic special effects and make up by the multi-Oscar winning Rick Baker, who has previous for this kind of thing through his work on American Werewolf in London…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS02xaTIdRI]

Also this week we have A SINGLE MAN (trailer).  A fabulous looking film, as you would expect being directed by fashion designer Tom Ford, featuring an Oscar-nominated turn by Colin Firth as a man conflicted by the grief felt by the death of his lover, a man, and the need to keep his sexuality a secret in 1960’s America.

As Sunday 14th February is Valentine’s Day we’ve got a special screening of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S at 6.30pm for all the lovers out there.

Other films screening this week include PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE, UP which is favourite to win Best Animated Film at the Oscars, and a one-off screening of Oscar-nominated documentary FOOD INC. on Mon 15th February at 6.30pm.

Anyway, it looked fantastic, cheers Jon!  Thanks to the organisers, the bands & the many punters too, the Beach Ballroom (a bit tatty round the edges but with a refurb on the way) is a pretty cool venue. Let’s hope it’s the first of many shows like this…

Review by Dallas King

I will attempt to get through this review without using the “F” word, as that would be very lazy and far too easy, suffice to say that F… MR FOX is one of the most purely enjoyable film experiences of the year.

Wes Anderson has taken Roald Dahl’s source material (a reformed thief, tired of the quiet life, coming out of retirement for one last job) and adapted it into a story that could almost be classified as The Royal Tenenbaums 2:  Charismatic patriarch, check.   Family dysfunction, check.   All the lead characters are animals, check…no, wait a minute, although  if you actually close your eyes while in the cinema it could pass as a regular Anderson film.

The cast are all on top form, with the likes of Clooney, Streep and Gambon gelling well with the Anderson regulars Schwartzman and Murray.  The decision to use stop-motion animation is perfect, and just like Wallace & Gromit,  it adds to the overall quirkiness, charm and British-ness of the story.  I honestly don’t think it would have worked as well with Pixar-style CG.

As with all the best animated films, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Children will be captivated by the action set pieces of Fox’s raids on the farms or the daring rescue mission while adults will warm to the characters and surprisingly touching storyline.

It is also absurd and laugh out loud funny at times (“you wrote a bad song Petey” being a highlight) and there are more cuss words in this film that any other PG-rated film in history but the trick here is that all the swear words have been replaced with the word “cuss” e.g. when Bean declares the latest attempt to capture Fox has been a “complete clustercuss”.

Get down to The Belmont for 87 minutes of pure cinematic entertainment which I guarantee you’ll think is fantastic… oh cuss it!

(Also, look out for Picturehouses’ very own Little Theatre Cinema in Bath making a cameo appearance during the final rescue mission!)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2igjYFojUo]

Review by Dallas King

This musical mockumentary is obviously going to bring up comparisons with Spinal Tap, but probably has a lot more in common with the work of Armando Iannucci and Ricky Gervais’s The Office.

Paddy Considine is often referred to as the British DeNiro, and if he is, then his ‘Scor-Zay-Zee’ is definitely Shane Meadows.  One of the UK’s most prolific filmmakers, Meadows plays himself as his documentary crew follows Le Donk (a washed up roadie whose ex-girlfriend is about to give birth to their baby) as he tries to get his protege Scor-zay-zee (imagine a fat, Northern Eminem) a gig supporting the ‘Article Monkeys’.

Paddy Considine is normally associated with playing slightly unhinged psychopaths (none more so than in Dead Man’s Shoes) but did display a talent for comedy in Hot Fuzz, and with Le Donk, in an almost entirely improvised performance, he has created a comedy character in the same vein as Alan Partridge, simultaneously eliciting cringe-worthy embarrassment, sympathy and laughs.

Warning: Trailer contains sweary words

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-hmSRgZHc8]

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine