Spin Events
Ed Ruscha
Me (1999) by Ed Ruscha (c) Courtesy of the artist Ed Ruscha
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
25 November 2004
Some of you may have heard Ed Ruscha speak with his old friend Janet Street Porter earlier in the month about his artistic practice and life in LA. We now have a chance to look at selected works in more depth, in the company of Glasgow-based artist, Ross Birrell.
Ruscha is a (anti-)hero of American art, and the exhibition at the SNGMA is a thrillingly comprehensive survey, starting with his very early pieces from 1961-2, and going right the way through to some great new works from this year. He was one of the first artists to combine word and image, popular material and philosophical concerns. Less widely known than the East coast Pop artists, Ruscha’s profile has been slow-burning, but his influence has been huge amongst designers, artists and filmmakers. Ruscha is the original and quintessential recorder of roadside signs and highway petrol stations – the current fad for books of Boring Postcards would not exist without him – but he is far from glib. With sustained viewing, elements of lyricism and compassion emerge from underneath his wryly observed phrases.
Like Ruscha, Ross Birrell explores, re-uses (and sometimes abuses) texts. His sources are more overtly literary and theoretical, but he nevertheless navigates the weirdness of human culture and experience in similar ways to Ruscha. He makes films, photographs, and text pieces based on his travels around the globe. He was co-editor of Justified Sinners, a survey of Scottish counter-culture. Ross won the Absolut Open at Inverleith House in 1999 and has shown recently in Amsterdam and Graz.