Curated by Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in partnership with the British Council, CURRENT|不合时宜: Contemporary Art from Scotland considers how different experiences of the contemporary are constituted in time through the work of two leading contemporary artists: Bruce McLean and Ross Sinclair.
Sinclair’s exhibition, entitled Real Life Is Dead/Long Live Real Life, marks a new phase in his on-going critique of the ‘real’ to explore the complexity and tensions that exist around ‘being in the world’. A leading figure in contemporary art in Scotland, Sinclair began the Real Life project in 1994 by having the phrase tattooed on his back and following up with exhibitions, performances and installations.
Ahead of the exhibition, Sinclair has been working with local musicians, artists, singers and publics to create The Chinese-Scottish Real Life Orchestra, a musical dialogue between Chinese audiences and his Real Life project, as part of a two-week residency supported by the British Council.
As McLean’s first major exhibition in China, I Want My Crown captures the artist’s characteristic and subversive wit. His works move sculpture from the physical realm onto the flat spaces of the screen and the photograph to confront the institutional pretensions of the art world. Spanning over forty years of work, McLean’s exhibition presents the artist as a performer, dining and dancing with chest freezers and ladders in an allusive critique of contemporary times.
Follow the links below to find out more about the exhibition and the artists involved.