More Surprises

I find it fairly awkward to write about art, but must just tell you that there were more marvellous surprises at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. For one, it is a very lovely building with a wonderfully converted interior with lots of wood (stairs, floors), and a calm and inviting atmosphere, that made us want to stay and stay. Also a great cafe (always important) with a nice terrace overlooking a garden, with lavender. An exemplary brownie and decaf latte made a wonderful gastro-interlude, sitting under rather a lot of cloud, but just warm enough, despite a few tentative drops of rain (the only ones that day), which sent others scurrying inside while we sat it out, and watched the clouds blow along...

First we enjoyed Scottish Colourists, especially Peploe of whom I had not even heard, but whose small intimate oils were a delight. There were some utterly wonderful, small 'on-the-spot' oils of the sea - just the sea, the movement of the waves. I think they were by Peploe but I cannot find out for certain now... Robert Therrien's giant stack of plates towered over us, and looked in danger of toppling over, giving me an uneasy sensation in my stomach, while his giant table you could walk beneath, and four chairs made us feel like the Borrowers. Most exciting of all was a video piece by the Boyle Family. Shown on a large screen that lay flat like a table or perhaps a big shallow box was a piece of film of the sea. Waves moving, swirling and lapping. The position of the screen gives the illusion that the water is real, contained somehow in the 'box', yet the pixels are visible, and one has an uneasy awareness of the artifice all the while experiencing some of the same mesmerising, soothing sensations as when watching the sea in reality. Beautiful, unsettling, and resonating on all sorts of levels questions about the relationship between 'art' and 'reality'.