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We use the walls of our office to showcase work by Scottish artists. Our office in the Tun in Edinburgh is visited by colleagues and contacts from all over the world who enjoy the opportunity to see Scottish work.
We have recently installed a new selection of work from the British Council Collection. The Collection was started in the late 1930s and has now grown to include over 8,000 works.
Works currently on display in our office include:
Richard Wright
Born in London, 1960
Lives and works in Glasgow
Untitled 2002, 2004
Silkscreen on paper
Primarily known for his work painted directly onto walls, Wright also produces editions of posters, his designs often drawing on the language of street culture. The posters are intended to be placed in such a way as to interrupt a space, often hung unexpectedly above or behind an entrance, or high on a wall close to the ceiling. The unusual positioning of the posters forcers the viewer to re-read the space, often from an uncomfortable angle or distance.
Douglas Gordon
Born in Glasgow, 1966
Lives and works in Glasgow
List of Names (completed January 1992), 1992
Typeset (Courier) on paper
Gordon works in a varied selection of media. He has used performance, painting, installation, text and in particular, film, both original and appropriated from other sources, for his investigation into perception, memory and amnesia.
List of Names (1990 to present), began as an attempt by the artist to bring to mind all the people he has met in his life. In its incarnation at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the name of each remembered person is inscribed on the wall, an acknowledgment of thei existence and continuing relevance in Gordon's life.
Every time the work is remade, as in the case of this edition printed on sheets of A4 paper, the task of remembering and recording is begun again, so each list differs from its predecessor and is inevitably incomplete. This particular installation at the British Council office in Edinburgh further erodes the idea of the list, displaying only 29 sheets of paper selected by members of staff according to their own personal criteria, and arranged at random on the wall.
Gareth McConnell
Born in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, 1972
Lives and works in London
Night Flower No 44I, 2005
C-type photograph
Much of McConnell's recent work concentrates on empty, abandoned spaces, redolent of recent intimacy or social function. His series Meditations (2004-5) elevates empty beds and rumpled sheets to the sublime, suggesting cloud formations or icebergs in place of interrupted sleep or human contact. While Community Meeting Rooms (2003-4) offers up standard community halls, like stage sets for the human dramas played out by various troupes from Mothers and Toddlers to Alcoholics Anonymous. Night Flowers (2005) also reveal something beyond their simple appearance. Here flowers blooming unexpectedly, unassumingly in the urban jungle are captured at night, by streetlight, in apparent defiance of their precarious existence in a hostile environment.
Carol Rhodes
Born in Glasgow, 1959
Lives and works in Glasgow
Picnic Site, 1997
Oil on MDF
Rhodes is drawn to painting areas of landscape which are familiar but commonly disregarded, such as service stations, car parks and airports. Her source material includes geography textbooks and aerial photographs. Rhodes paints the scenes on smooth boards, giving her paintings a detailed, enamel-like quality this is reminiscent of early Netherlandish pictures. She uses muted colours and an even light, which serve to emphasise the the effects of any shadows or strong colour added. Rhodes makes a deliberate contrast between the small scale, on which she works, and the often huge area she depicts.
David Batchelor
Born in Dundee, 1955
Lives and works in London
One wheel on my monochromobile (Green version), 1998 and One wheel on my monochromobile (Red version), 1998
Metal, perspex and paint
The monochrome has been many things over many years, from revolutionary event to corporate decoration, but rarely has its value as a form of transport been seriously considered. A Monochromobile is a found object - a discarded, dirty and often broken warehouse trolley - and a bright, shiny, panel of intense colour. Launched at the same time as the A Class Mercedes, these works, unlike the Merc, were not recalled because of safety defects. The One Wheel Monochromobile is a compact, entry level, monochrome.
On previous occasions we have collaborated with Scottish galleries to showcase artwork in our office. Most recently we exhibited work by Moyna Flannigan, Katy Dove and Graeme Todd in partnership with Edinburgh Printmakers.
We have also had the opportunity to show work by Nathan Coley in collaboration with the Fruitmarket Gallery. Ten prints from his work The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh 2004 were on display for our visitors.
To find out more about how British Council Scotland supports the arts contact art.scotland@britishcouncil.org or telephone +44 (0)131 524 5713.
Audiences around the world can also view the entire British Council art collection at any time through our online resource. Find out more.
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