cover
mastheadback to article archive     www.variant.org.uk 

Click on the links below the individual articles to download / view as either a PDF or text file.

 

Variant 4 Autumn 1997
text     pdf

Painted Words - Peter Suchin
A short but insightful review of Shane Cullen's large text paintings which use the diaries and letters of IRA hunger strikers.
text     pdf

People in a landscape - Marshall Anderson
An analysis of the festival 'People in a Landscape', and the associated publication. Anderson investigates the background to the festival revealing a litany of compromise, financial peculiarities, bad planning and inadequacy. He also offers strong evidence on a number of points concerning the representation of Scottish (particularly Highland) identity which are critical of the festival.
text     pdf

Maclovio Rojas - David Harding
A report back from Harding's extended visit to the Mexican American Border and the public art project he became heavily involved in. The report also charts the cultural struggle of Chicano people and how direct action interpenetrates with the construction of the art works.
text     pdf

Three Steps in the Demise of Deconstruction - Ewan Morrison
Using the examples of artists: Christine Borland, Jeremy Deller and Kerri Scharlin and their work exhibited in London, Glasgow and New York. Morrison outlines the increasing use of deconstruction in contemporary artworks.
text     pdf

Me, Myself and I - Leigh French
A review of 'Stop Stop' - a Glasgow based artists' publication.
text     pdf

Tales of the Great Unwashed - Ian Brotherhood
Bringing the narrator to the fore this contribution descends into a strange hallucinatory vision of Glasgow.
text     pdf

The Musa Anter Peace Train - William Clark
With photographs from Julia Guest of Peace News this is an extensive report of the international protest efforts towards the situation in Kurdistan. Clark was the only British journalist on the convoy which itself was attacked by the Turkish military and paramilitary forces as it aimed to attend a Peace Festival. The article went on to form the basis of the report which was sent to the European Union and contributed to representations which stopped Turkey's entry into the EU. The article is a highly personal account but brings out the feel of what it is like to experience oppression at first-hand.
text     pdf

When figures become facts - Leigh French
A straight-forward report on the Dearing report's white paper on Higher education and its implications on education. The article also concisely draws together comments from several departmental heads from various universities and art schools.
text     pdf

Divine Facades - Michelle McGuire
A highly descriptive review of York's Impressions Gallery's exhibition of photography of Indian architecture.
text     pdf

Stephen Willats - Jane Kelly
Willats was a leading light in promoting a radical perspective on community and/or community-based art works. Kelly charts the development of his methodology and its relationship to ethnography and cultural theory.
text     pdf

Limited Axis - Marshall Anderson
Anderson's research into Axis (a supposed 'visual information service') is a damning indictment of not only the profligacy of the organisation but its organisational misrepresentation. It provoked a response from Axis director which was published, but which avoided any of the issues raised by the piece.
text     pdf

The Birthplace of British Democracy - Stefan Szczelkun
A well researched and illuminating account of the social and political history of Kennington Common - which has an extraordinary history including the birth of Chartism.
text     pdf

Why is there only one Monopoly Commission? - Neil Mulholland
Mulholland takes an in-depth look at the attitudes which informed curatorial outlooks in the 70s and early 80s - well sourced and informative while remaining a highly readable account of behind the scenes complicity of political manipulation of the arts as a political football.
text     pdf

Assuming Positions - David Burrows
Burrows semi-fictionalises the ICA summer show and curatorial indulgence 'Assuming Positions'.
text     pdf

Soundscape - Robert H King
King provides contact information and short engaging reviews of a number of experimental releases.
text     pdf

back to top
previous issue
next issue