Inefficient Solutions

Ganghut Project Space #1

Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden, Aberdeenshire

Fraser MacDonald

Winter Two Thousand and Eight.

Up north, a wind is blowing. This wind poses a problem for the stability of Euan Taylor’s new work,?.  Taylor utilises it as a natural ‘intervention’, admitting that his insatiable need to arm wrestle with gravities prerogative is intensified the further north he exhibits.  The piece is constructed from his material fascination with the ‘scrounged object’– Taylor also drawing on his boyhood football fascination Dundee United, local farmyard devices, but particularly steps, and in referencing his earlier work, the catalogue favourite Cloud Catcher (there’s one, got it!), has built a fully functional hut on top of another hut.

Confusion and apprehension are tensions that Taylor insists his audience must indulge in order to begin to comprehend his motive.  Faux-adaptations of structurally sound cabins, scaffolding and any such buildings made every day by builders all contribute to Taylor’s aesthetic of Sketchbook Sculpture:  an investigative approach to skill-based joinery.  The structure is laced with Taylor’s sentimental appreciation of the degree of incline negotiated on the terracing of Tannadice Park, yet at time of opening was still partially painted – an indirect nod towards the way paint flakes a bit over the years in similar locations.  How it can seem either half-finished or over-used, depending on motivational disposition. 

A series of five horns emitting an east-affronting pre-meditated factory drone is homage to Taylor’s admitted purchasing practice of sculpturally ‘painting straight from the tube’.  There’s an array of LED lights illuminating constructional discrepancies upon the huts operational dashboard, in varying hues, and also many screws.

Taylor it seems has neglected to “check his studs”1, and therefore skiffs the crossbar of contemporary art2.  Though as is the nature of Ganghut, the opening of his show is a brisk, northerly, fresh draw of breath, exploiting the recently constructed full-capacity international Squennitorium3 and featuring fire, work, and fireworks. 

Having helped with its construction, Euan Taylor, Chief Director of Inefficient Solutions, is the first artist to exhibit in the Ganghut Project Space at SSW in Lumsden.  It’s the first purpose built contemporary exhibition space in Aberdeenshire, furthering the utopian ideologies and social work ethic of the Ganghut collective and offering a unique space that will be host to a series of exhibitions and events.  

famacdonald@hotmail.co.uk

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