New Work Scotland at Collective

(originally published by The Student)

     It's hard to see the links between the gold-fronted screenplay, the video of a tapdancer and the severed arm in one corner, but this is all part of the art. Catherine Payton's one-room exhibition at Collective is focused on the relationships between seemingly ordinary objects and the possibility of warping these to create strange new situations.

     Nestled halfway down Cockburn street, Edinburgh, the Collective gallery provides a space for new forms of visual art from new and international artists. As part of its New Work Scotland Programme, both Payton and Swiss-born Nicolas Party have a room to play with for the month.

     Party's work makes the most of Collective's streetside windows with his Teapots and Sausages- an indistinct still-life which plays with shade and texture and is applied directly onto the wall. Party recently told The Skinny that his new drawings were designed to 'challenge the eye', and it's with the use of space that this is attempted- the huge, frameless Teapots and Sausages is surrounded by spraycan colours in simple lines on the walls, which distract from the actual drawing itself.

     The tiny, artist-run gallery goes some way to 'challenge the eye' of its visitors, too, though mainly by not giving explanations of any of its pieces. Short biographies and press cuttings are presented on a coffee table in the foyer, but aside from this savvy visitors are left to be challenged and newcomers dumbfounded. Even the space itself, with open-plan entrance and a mezzanine full of silent employees tapping away on Apple Macs seems to be part of the art.

     If anything the most engaging and by far the most accessible piece is Payton's semi-autobiographical screenplay- the story of a stranger who claimed to be the reincarnation of Payton's uncle should not be hiding away in a dark room under the light of a single lamp.