Model Citizen
Calum Stirling
31 July – 28 August 1999
Model Citizen was a solo exhibition of audio/visual artworks, developed from a project at art.tm, Inverness and a residency at Grizedale Forest, Cumbria.
Combining aspects of new media technology and traditional sculpture practice, Stirling’s work examined the connections and contradictions in the relationship between high and low technology. His work shown from a recent exhibition at art.tm, Inverness focused on the potential on sound as a visual medium. During a subsequent residency at Grizedale Forest he used the time and unique location to further develop these ideas, creating new work that examined the relationship between urban and rural contemporary visual arts, culture and practice.
Le Freak by Chic, provided a visual panorama of sound across the long gallery wall. This 1978 camp classic disco hit, through use of computer software, was translated into a gentle pastoral scene of unfolding cliffscape from original digitised recordings.
Long Player is a prototype record player. The acrylic record it plays is as large as the period of time that the sound was continuously recorded for. The record is 4 hours long, made using the old way of wax and needle. However, the resulting sound that is recorded has been made from noise from modern technology of mixing desk, radio, TV, video recorder, computer and record deck.
The video piece, The Grizedale Experience, is an eight-minute video that documents projects undertaken by Stirling in his recent artist’s residency at The Grizedale Forest in Cumbria. Projects shown range from Local, an artists multiple T-shirt and statement of position as an itinerant art worker to Dodd, a performance for Helebore and Gerbera plants layered with vinyl recordings made by the entertainer Ken Dodd.
After being surrounded by the natural world of the forest in Grizedale, 12 Tones, a new work by Calum transports live greenery into the gallery space. Sitting in amongst these 6ft planters normally hired to recreate the natural world for the stark office environment, the gallery go-er can put on the headphones and listen to the electrical activity produced by the plants surrounding them.
Installation View
Installation View
Installation View
Installation View
