Garlands information, Janie Nicoll

by Janie Nicoll, 24 Jul 2008

Garlands Exhibition, The Park Gallery, Callendar Park, Falkirk, FK1 1YR
Exhibition runs 9th August – 8th September 2008
Gallery opening hours Monday-Saturday 10am–5pm; Sunday 2pm-5pm

Opening Reception – Friday 8th August, 6pm- 8pm. All welcome.

“life, imitating art, imitating life, imitating art, imitating life, imitating art, imitating life, imitating art, imitating life, imitating art, imitating life….”
Comment by Robin Guthrie, formerly of the Cocteau Twins.

The exhibition “Garlands” showcases new installations and video works by Janie Nicoll made for the Park Gallery, as a result of a year long residency at Callendar House and in collaboration with residents from the High Flats at Callendar Park. These works combine the use of old and new technology and imagery sourced from Callendar Park, Callendar Woods, and from the Tower Blocks themselves. These new works are derived from ideas that resulted from conversations with the residents, about their relationship with the buildings themselves, and the communal spaces such as the stairwells and the rooftop areas. Nicoll is interested in using these unique buildings and spaces to make artworks that hint at universal themes such as life and death; mortality and immortality; the class system past and present, and as a way to explore the dystopian affiliations associated with High Rise living.

Nicoll’s work often seems quite literal or straightforward, using text within an artwork to spell out familiar phrases or lines from songs, although this interpretation can sometimes be deliberately ironic, allowing for multiple meanings of the work.

“Daisy Chain” is an installation that uses projected slides of vibrant floral imagery to dominate the space. As well as being aware of the subjective nature of colour, Nicoll deliberately uses old technology and redundant equipment to quite literally step back in time. This is mirrored by the action of taking the photographs in the artist’s own garden, in Callendar Park, her parents’ garden, and the onetime garden of her grandmother. These works attempt to link the generations while connecting the artist to her surroundings.

In one video-work, letters that spell out “Carpe Diem”* flutter on washing lines; while another video “Upstairs Downstairs” alludes to the history of Callendar House, but could similarly refer to more everyday drudgery and physical struggles. “Forget-Me-Not” is an installation that uses floral displays to deal with the idea of memory, longevity, love and loss.

“Nicoll’s work is involved in the process of translation and conversion – of scale and of materials – to make new stories from old. Her work involves small acts of scrutiny and transformation that uncover beauty, banality and anxiety in the overlooked details of the everyday. Small things, maybe, but not insignificant“ Moira Jeffrey

Janie Nicoll originally trained in Painting at Edinburgh College of Art and graduated from the Master of Fine Art course at Glasgow School of Art in 1997. She has exhibited regularly in Scotland and internationally, most recently in Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop; the Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh; Intermedia Gallery, CCA, Glasgow; the Deviant Arts Festival, Trollhättan, Sweden; Red Wire Gallery, Liverpool; Generator Projects, Dundee; Chapter Gallery, Cardiff; Lowsalt Gallery and EmergeD VSF Gallery Glasgow; The Waygood Gallery, Newcastle; The Changing Room, Stirling; and the Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany. Video works have been shown internationally including South America and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

She has undertaken previous residencies at Self Help Graphics, Los Angeles, USA; Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Neonatal Department; Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Kids, Glasgow; Chatelherault Country Park, Hamilton; Shining Cliff International Residency for My House Projects, Nottingham; and Generator Projects, Dundee.

*“Seize The Day”