The curious but evocative title of this exhibition from Ian Kane and Highland artist-run initiative Circus Artspace is the life of one Angus who, as a child, so they say, was often to be found knee-deep in a midden, a fan of delving for treasure in the cast-off peelings and domestic waste of other households in his village. Middens are the stuff of history, the past re-presented to a future date, as archaeological excavations piece together, like a jigsaw with missing bits, the way we were from what we threw out. Ian Kane, too, appreciates a midden, using the character of the late Angus Johnstone and his recollections of life in his village as the basis of the immersive Timepiece installation.
Kane graduated in Sculpture from Edinburgh College of Art in the 1970s and won a Scottish Young Contemporaries award in 1984. Now based in Dalcross, from where he has long taught at the University of Highlands and Islands, he exhibits both around the UK and abroad. This exhibition, which brings together works which have previously been shown separately in exhibitions in London and Glasgow, is the first complete showing for this installation view of Highland life and community, and the notion of Time, running from past to future through the ever fertile prism of the midden.
Kane's sculptural works have been created over time, derived in part from a historic midden in various states of decay. There is photography, too, from June Bryson, textiles from June Hyndman, and essays responding to the work from artists Jamie Kane and Dr Norman Shaw.
Timepiece - for Angus Johnstone who as a child was a connoisseur of middens, Inverness Creative Academy, Midmills Building, Stephen’s Street, Inverness, www.circus.scot Until 4 July, Daily 12-4pm; 6pm on Thurs. Unticketed drop-in. Closing Event with Ian Kane, Sun 4 July, 2-4pm, Free, booking via www.circus.scot
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