cotland’s award-winning Travelling Gallery went on the road again this week, its latest exhibition installed in a brand new vehicle costing more than Pounds 250,000 and built to replace the first custom-built bus that toured the mainland and islands for almost 25 years.
The new vehicle is slightly bigger and is fitted with solar panels and the latest IT and audio-visual equipment, as well as pavement-level entrance, making it more accessible to people with disabilities. The original concept of the Travelling Gallery - to allow more remote schools and communities to experience the best of contemporary art - remains the same.
The new exhibition, Build It and They Will Come, features the work of six artists, all of whom have a special interest in architecture and the built environment. Touring until the end of June, it is the most challenging show to date.
There are no conventional paintings on canvas. Donna Conlon and Will Duke, for instance, make their art through the medium of computers, creating animations that show, in Conlon’s case, the high-rise buildings of Panama City (where she lives) being replaced by towers of brightly coloured rubbish. Duke, who is based in Glasgow, shows an abandoned urban play park appearing and disappearing on a continuous loop, to a soundtrack of motorway noise and squeaky swings.
Matthew Houlding uses found objects and other materials to build doll-size fantasy environments, while Cath Campbell, Toby Paterson and Susi Wright create 3D effects with digital prints, architectural drawings and clever use of colour.
The Travelling Gallery will be touring to Angus, Dum-fries and Galloway, Inverness, South Lanarkshire, Aberdeen-shire, Perth and Kinross and Mid-lothian. Guided tours and educational materials will be available to schools.
* www.travellinggallery.com
T 0131 529 3930
