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Deep in the heart of your Brain - The Open College of the Arts

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Deep in the heart of your Brain

jacqdonachie pic
Due to having a man on the inside I managed to inveigle myself into a private view last night that was a significant notch up beverage wise to my usual fare. Apart from an incident a couple of years ago when I found myself in a group show in Mayfair and the doors were held open for us by two men in lovely black top hats, my experience of private views is much more a chance to meet up with friends and keep myself connected to my own community of practitioners. This is a vital role for private views in my corner of the art world. They are not about buyers getting a chance of a sneak preview on their potential investments, but rather a chance for the artist’s colleagues to pay tribute to their perseverance and ingenuity at getting to the point of having a show. It’s the worst time to see the work as so many people are in the way, but it’s a great time to be an artist and for a very precarious and intangible profession to reach a kind of observable critical mass.
The Show is Jacqueline Donachie’s ‘Deep in the Heart of your Brain’ at Glasgow Museum of Modern Art (GOMA).  The show is made up of sculpture, video and drawing and it runs until November.
The sculptural elements are made of scaffolding and safety flooring. There are ramps and poles and high vis paint. The overall sensation is of a more glamorously stylish Phyllida Barlow installation. There is a sleekness here but still that lovely sense of arranging colour and form that Barlow has which makes you feel she is painting with objects.  Without knowing anything about the dominant theme of the show, on seeing the sculptures I did get a feeling of disability ramps or urban obstructions and systems for organising movement, both bodily and civic. This turned out to be prescient.
In a purpose built dark room, a video installation was running which had an explanation on the wall outside (although arguably the concept could have been picked up without that which is always nice).  The artist has a sister who has inherited the Myotonic Dystrophy Gene. She contacted the Myotonic Dystrophy register and through them made contact with other pairs of sisters, one with and one without the condition. On one wall a shadowy image of walking legs emerged as the artist’s sister spoke at the beginning of the loop. On the other wall, two screens ran alongside each other and as the legs faded these screens came to life. On one the unaffected sister sat in silence whilst on the other the affected sister talked about her life with the condition. Differences and similarities brought about by genetics, both sibling similarities and the genetically based condition were clearly visible as part of the make up of the women alongside the multitude of environmental and personal factors which made them who they were. At the end the shadowy legs solidified into the two sisters walking away.
The exhibition and the artist’s research has been supported by the Wellcome Foundation and there will be a seminar with academics, artist and patients as part of this show ‘to take forward the themes and ambitions of the show’ which raises interesting questions about the role of the artist and how we might contribute through a socially engaged practice.  To find out more about Donachie’s work, please click on the highlighted links within the body of this text.


Posted by author: Emma Drye

One thought on “Deep in the heart of your Brain

  • I was very pleased to see this article. I have just visited this exhibition over the bank holiday weekend and found it difficult to relate the art work to the topic of myotonic distrophy. What you said made it much clearer to me – urban obstruction and organising movement in an urban environment. The video installation was moving and interesting about the different effects the condition has on different people. What a great place – GoMA.

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