Elisabeth Mahoney 

Confident of success

If I Ruled the World CCA, Glasgow ****
  
  


Over in Edinburgh, the British Art Show is raising vexing questions about art and life. Already the organisers have stated that the "British" bit of the title is anachronistic and will not be used again. Wandering round the eight galleries, it can indeed be hard to see what yokes together artists such as David Hockney and the young Glaswegian Jim Lambie. Place, history, culture, humour? Do any of these now hold up as nationally shared attributes?

Maybe not for the giant British Art Show, but in Glasgow there is a group exhibition all about place and identity - rootedness wherever you might be from.

If I Ruled the World is a kind of Summer Holiday of an exhibition, except that artists-turned-curators Ross Sinclair and Bryndis Snaebjornsdottir are driving the bus, instead of Cliff Richard.

Commissioned by the CCA, a group of Glasgow-based artists travelled to Reykjavik last year for an exhibition at the Living Art Museum. They soaked up the Icelandic vibes and made work shaped and inspired by the country. Then they came home and made more work, influenced as much by their travels as by their homecoming.

The result is a sharp, engaging show which provides us with more evidence of the flourishing Scottish art scene. There are names from the Becks Futures show at the ICA and BA5 - including Roddy Buchanan, Simon Starling and Martin Boyce - but there are others too.

The others include Claire Barclay and Clara Ursitti. Their joint project is informed by their research into women and salmon fishing, which was prompted by the fact that a woman, Georgina Ballantine, still holds the British salmon fishing record. This might not sound like the most promising of starting points, but the result - a lush, watery installation featuring a floor-level waterbed from which you can watch glossy, green, underwater film - gorgeously makes its point about how women's achievements get lost in the shadows of history.

Two noisy show-stealers give the exhibition its mighty confidence. These are Roddy Buchanan's Brazil v Italy (a way-too-loud burst of brass band national anthems without explanation or context) and Ross Sinclair's Real Life installation, a makeshift cardboard structure in sharp contrast to the high-ceilinged refinement of the galleries. Neon-lit and with a pulpit we can all take turns in speaking from, Real Life pumps out the crooning joy of Tony Bennett, with the song that lends its title to the show. "My world would wear a smile on its face", he sings.

While in Edinburgh brows are furrowed about Britishness, in Glasgow they are smiling and feeling uncomplicatedly at home.
Until 20 May. Details: 0141-332 7521.

 

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