SOCIETY OF BONDAGE
An exhibition by Mr Jonathan Scott at the Glasgow Art Club.
11th to 27th April, 2008. Monday to Saturday, 12 noon until 5pm. Preview: Thursday 10th April, 8-10pm
Imagine a grand, lavish room, peeling apart at the seams. Inside, three large steel cages. Inside them, figures kick, crouch and throw stones from their glided-edged panels. On one side an intimate drawing; on the other, a spray-painted epitaph.
This is Society of Bondage, the latest provocative exhibition from Glasgow artist Jonathan Scott. Combining the immediacy of drawing with the coldness of industrial fencing, these caged structures reflect on our complex, antagonistic society.
Much of Scott’s work explores the relationship between people and place; how we adapt to our environment; how man-made structures define our social spaces. He questions the perception and value of antagonistic actions; asks how the structures around us enable or hinder these acts. Think individual action versus institutional barriers. Scott responds to the inner-city landscape as both a physical entity and ideological space, exposing narratives within our everyday urban detritus. He takes his cue from literary descriptions of the city – think JG Ballard or Iain Sinclair. Within this large-scale installation – combining drawing and sculpture – Scott forms his own, deeply powerful narrative.
And where better to have these monumental sculptures than the Glasgow Art Club, one of the city’s best-kept secrets? The club – just round the corner from the CCA and Glasgow Art School – is steeped in the history of Scottish art, design and architecture. It was formed in 1867, and has been in its present home at 185 Bath Street since 1892. Now it’s undergoing a period of modernisation. Scott’s exhibition (the first of its kind at the club; a precursor of things to come) will allow a new and diverse audience to enjoy the A-listed building. Society of Bondage, therefore, offers you an exclusive peek behind the doors of an age-old Glasgow institution, rarely seen by the public.
Jonathan Scott graduated from the Master of Fine Art course at Glasgow School of Art in 2005. He has exhibited internationally and received a number of scholarships and awards.
Exhibitions include: Your Words and My Mouth (Hospitalfields, Arbroath); Jonathan Scott & Dawn Youll (exhibition by Washington Garcia, Glasgow); Dead Planetarium (Coleman Project Space, London); Demo (Transmission Gallery, Glasgow); Face of an Angel, Voice of a Demon (commissioned by EmergeD for Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art, 2006); New Ruins (Melbourne, Australia); Exit Strategy (CAFA, Beijing); Syncopations: Art from Great Britain Now (Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm); Prospect Drawing Prize (Tea Buildings, London).
Awards include: Henry Moore Foundation; Scottish Arts Council; Glasgow Visual Artists Grants Scheme; Glasgow Sculpture Studios Graduate Scholarship; and Glasgow and West of Scotland Postgraduate Scholarship.
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