Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

Icaro Menippus [x2]

2 – 30 August 2014

Faith was an important concern for the artist Paul Carter, who was a key figure in the Scottish art scene and an influential teacher at Edinburgh College of Art. Being agnostic, or undecided about the existence of god, drove Carter to question faith and belief systems in general, including politics and our assumptions about the role of art. Paul Carter’s speculative machines and environments reflected the tension between rapid social change and the pull of tradition. In particular, his lo-fi, high-tech constructions provoked meditations on basic questions about existence, the afterlife, and the rationality of relying on mechanical instruments to search for answers to such open-ended issues.

The works on show at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop have been drawn from two key exhibitions: Icaro Menippus at Chapter Gallery, Cardiff (2002) and Edge of Darkness at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2003). Both dealt with questions of pioneering. 

Light and dark were strong features of Carter’s exhibitions, both in practical terms and in their themes. In the work 13 (2002), set in a darkened gallery, light flooding out through a punctured wall gives peephole access to an ominous abandoned room; the scene of a crime or terrible accident. Stepping back from the work the pattern of light coalesces into the image of a face, which might be that of Jesus or Che Guevara, as though created by the splatter effect of gunshot. Carter’s interest in such figures was an examination of the power and economy of their images in popular culture.

In addition to Icaro Menippus, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop will also host a series of performances and installations in the TANK Project Space by artist Adam Knight, based on his script The Canetti Reading Group.

Part of GENERATION, a landmark series of exhibitions celebrating 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland.

Tue-Sat, 10am - 5pm

Free admission