Alex Gross and Sandy Smith spent the months prior to the exhibition travelling together through the west of North America, taking on the mantle of pioneers. They examined the alien status of the human, and more specifically the artist, in relation to the monumentality of landscape and optimistic ideology in America. This idea grew from the artists’ shared interest in the ideals of modernist sculpture, architecture and design. This trip proposes the insignificance of the artists in the enormity of the landscape, as a metaphor for the alienating tenets of modernism. The work they made revolved around an intrusion or injection of humanity into the landscape and took the form of a video. This was the first time the two artists exhibited collaboratively. The new video work was combined with sculptural installation for the gallery exhibition.
Download the exhibition information here
Read about Alex Gross & Sandy Smith in The Scotsman and The Skinny
New Work Scotland Programme was an initiative launched by Collective in 2000. Through an open call, New Work Scotland Programme identified and supported some of the most promising new artists working in Scotland - providing them with the opportunity to create new work and bring it to the attention of a wider public. The 2008 participants were Lila de Magalhaes, Alex Gross & Sandy Smith and Alex Dordoy.
New Writing Scotland grew out of New Work Scotland Programme and was initiated in 2004 in collaboration with Edinburgh College of Art's Centre for Visual and Cultural Studies, to promote creative writing about the visual arts coupled with targeted support to the exhibiting artists - providing them with them with their first artists text.
This is an archived programme entry.
