Abstract
Exhibition dates 19/09/2008 – 31/10/2008
For his exhibition at Meyer Riegger, Scott Myles makes reference to Karlsruhe and the surrounding region, simultaneously observing links to his hometown of Glasgow. In connecting places and events within his artistic practice seven new works were created, which relate from individual positions, but voice a polyphonic commentary.
The twenty-four part photo series ‘STABILA’ comprises the reproduction of court production evidence, which Myles obtained from a lawyer in Glasgow. The photographs have been printed in a tonal range of grey scale ranging from white through to black. They document a series of injuries to a man’s body inflicted by another man wielding a spirit level, during an argument on a construction site in Glasgow. Tagged with an alphabetical index, these images fragmentarily depict the traces of the assault. Myles’ interest is in the conversion of a tool designed for achieving balance, to a weapon, thereby negating its ascribed function. The tool used in the crime was a ‘Stabila’ brand spirit level, produced in Annweiler by Trifels near Karlsruhe. By coincidence the man depicted in Myles’ artwork had also lived in Karlsruhe for six months as an intinerant labourer in 1981 working as a bricklayer while building the architecturally postmodern Heinrich-Hübsch-School. Twenty-seven years on, he now returns to Karlsruhe, as a phantom, within the framework of a photodocumentary portrait study. That Karlsruhe is known as the German seat of law is also relevant (the City is the location of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice). As an interface between these events and their portrayal in our gallery, the location Karlsruhe and the action as it were prevail, manifested in Myles’ work through the captured shadow of this anonymous man.
For his exhibition at Meyer Riegger, Scott Myles makes reference to Karlsruhe and the surrounding region, simultaneously observing links to his hometown of Glasgow. In connecting places and events within his artistic practice seven new works were created, which relate from individual positions, but voice a polyphonic commentary.
The twenty-four part photo series ‘STABILA’ comprises the reproduction of court production evidence, which Myles obtained from a lawyer in Glasgow. The photographs have been printed in a tonal range of grey scale ranging from white through to black. They document a series of injuries to a man’s body inflicted by another man wielding a spirit level, during an argument on a construction site in Glasgow. Tagged with an alphabetical index, these images fragmentarily depict the traces of the assault. Myles’ interest is in the conversion of a tool designed for achieving balance, to a weapon, thereby negating its ascribed function. The tool used in the crime was a ‘Stabila’ brand spirit level, produced in Annweiler by Trifels near Karlsruhe. By coincidence the man depicted in Myles’ artwork had also lived in Karlsruhe for six months as an intinerant labourer in 1981 working as a bricklayer while building the architecturally postmodern Heinrich-Hübsch-School. Twenty-seven years on, he now returns to Karlsruhe, as a phantom, within the framework of a photodocumentary portrait study. That Karlsruhe is known as the German seat of law is also relevant (the City is the location of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice). As an interface between these events and their portrayal in our gallery, the location Karlsruhe and the action as it were prevail, manifested in Myles’ work through the captured shadow of this anonymous man.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Karlsruhe |
| Publisher | Meyer Riegger |
| Media of output | Other |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |
