The Arts Diary: ‘Deller sure to make a striking entrance’

TURNER Prize winner Jeremy Deller has joined the line-up of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, kicking off in April. Deller won the Turner in 2004 with Texas Memory Bucket, a video travelogue of a journey through Texas, the home state of George W Bush.

He will present Sacrilege, a “major new interactive public artwork”, on Glasgow Green. No word yesterday on exactly what that promises, but Deller’s previous work has included recreating a miners’ strike battle between police and demonstrators. The work will head to London during the Olympics.

Also on the bill in Glasgow is German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans’s first solo show in Scotland since 1995, along with already announced shows by the estimable Scottish Turner Prize winner Richard Wright and recent nominee Karla Black.

Divided nation

The North-South divide is getting worse, and not just in terms of job prospects. A poll of 6,000 film fans by Vue cinemas to find the moviegoers’ film of 2011, reveals that while The King’s Speech was the year’s clear favourite in the south of England, fans in the North, perhaps less enamoured of its plummy accents, opted en masse for Harry Potter: the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Their preferences just tipped the balance in favour of the Harry Potter film, which was the overall UK winner.

Rabbit forming

Animal art has an easy attraction. Which may explain why amid the myriad of offerings at the Scottish art societies’ shows at the Royal Scottish Academy, I have a half red-dot down on a work entitled White Cloud which is best described as a dancing papier-mâché rabbit by the children’s illustrator Vanessa Cabban. The Berwick artist, I have since learned, took best picture book prize for Pig’s Knickers at the Sheffield Children’s Book Awards in December, and recently turned to sculpture. Said rabbit has a white ruff and holds a cloud on a string. “Very popular and rightly so,” breathes a well-placed RSA source.

The Society of Scottish Artists (SSA), the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) and Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) are together showing hundreds of works in the RSA building until 1 March. Plenty of quality, from installations and furniture to fine art, but as of last weekend, dismayingly few red dots. Hopefully the picture has improved.

Bargains galore

For the real bargain hunter, a good few years ago ten Scottish artists produced a series of 60 limited edition, signed prints for the Scottish Child Psychotherapy Trust. Over the years most have sold, but with the trust now being wound up, a last few editions are up for grabs for half price, at £50-90.

Artists include Barbara Rae and Paul Furneaux (with striking pieces by both currently in the RSA show) and Ian Howard, as well as the late John Houston, though the prints by Dame Elizabeth Blackadder have, sadly, sold out. For details email [email protected].

Dedicated show

PITLOCHRY Festival Theatre is hosting a celebration of the life of actor Martyn James on Sunday, aiming to capture the spirit of his 43 years on stage and screen. The Ardnamurchan-born actor featured in television productions from Dr Finlay’s Casebook to Still Game and on stages round the UK. But he made his home in Perthshire for 30 years and appeared on the Pitlochry stage more often than any other actor in its history. The theatre’s 2012 summer season will also be dedicated to the actor.