Fraser Denholm’s blog on the Union Terrace Gardens debacle (check it out if you haven’t already) has been incredibly important in uncovering some of the downright lies, nay shite, surrounding the ‘project’.  Aye, shooting from the hip is what he does best.   As a bit of a departure, here’s his take on the ongoing Aberdeen Artists Society exhibition. Hud on to yer chapeaux folks…

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 Cowell, Walsh and Co.) and judged according to an unrealistic and outdated series of subjective criteria based on the self-imposed authority of the panel.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.