Scott Myles

‘HUO I want to know everything!’, June 4th — July 9th

"On top of the wonderful sense of elation, freedom, which comes from being high up, the panoramic view confers also an incomparable power of intellection: bird-flight, which every visitor to the Tower can momentarily experience for himself, allows the world to be read and not merely perceived, which is why it corresponds to a new sensibility of vision; hitherto, to travel was to be buried, sunk, in sensation, to apprehend nothing but a kind of welter or tide-race of things; bird-flight, in contrast, represented by our Romantic writers as though they had a premonition both of the building of the Tower and the birth of aviation, allows one to go beyond sensation and see things in their structure." (Barthes, ‘La Tour Eiffel’, 1964, trans. David McAllister. Excerpt taken from emails between Scott Myles and David McAllister).

The title of Scott Myles’ exhibition; ‘HUO I want to know everything!’ is taken from an interview between a curator and artist that Myles read (online) in the period running up to his exhibition. The title is a direct quote as stated by the curator whose initials open the phrase. Removed from its original context, the quote which simultaneously solicits and resists interpretation becomes less a specific comment upon the author, but rather sets an expectation or tone for Myles’ installation.

Myles employs a variety of methods, materials and ideas in his work, involving an intentionally idiosyncratic approach to his practice. Previous works have involved him re-presenting posters by the late artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres in schematic metal and Perspex display cases, and casting ice cream scoops to produce functional sculpture in the form of bronze ice cream paperweights. In 2001 he employed a person to carry out cigarette ‘breaks’ as paid ‘work’ over the course of one day, and in 2002 led a group of children abroad from Dundee, after placing a bottle into the sea that was later washed up and found in Sweden after three years.

For this, his second solo exhibition at The Modern Institute he will exhibit a bus shelter transferred from a Glasgow street into the gallery. The light structure functions as a kind of lo-tech pavilion activated socially by viewers moving around or through it. The aluminium and Perspex structure has been starkly painted with black and white paint, mimicking light and shadow upon its transparent three-dimensional surface. This action produces an opaque memory of the object, as it appears to move into the realm of photography or two-dimensional painting and away from a naturalistic readymade. ‘Converse All Stars’ presented upon the roof of the shelter, further develop a scene that the artist has described as a picture or still life.

For the gallery, Myles has produced a site-specific version of the ‘Screens’ series he has been producing over the past eight months. ‘After the Mountains, more Mountains’ consists of four steel frames and dyed fabric, stretched onto a face of each frame, employing the industrial method used to make silkscreen frames. Myles’ screens function as freestanding sculpture visible in a series of framed Polaroid photographs, and as custom-made screens sited in each window. This action closes off the outside, further locating the works inside the gallery as specific sites of meaning. A formal relationship exists between actual silkscreen prints exhibited in the gallery and quite literally the ‘silk screens’ presented in the windows. Two prints depict a man sitting and standing on the same bus shelter as in the gallery. ‘Double Exit’ is a handmade version of mass produced instructional signage. An ‘Untitled’ sculpture takes as a starting point an object used for retail display. Myles copied and enlarged its form, remaking it as a kind of system or repeat pattern. It appears to quite literally signpost, potentially spreading out in all directions making infinite, although quite deliberate connections.

Scott Myles was born in 1975 in Dundee. He lives and works in Glasgow: Recent exhibitions include ‘Genesis Sculpture’, Domaine Pommery, Reims 2004; ‘Synth’, Kunstraum B/2, Leipzig, Germany 2004; Jack hanley, San Francisco 2004 (solo), Galeria Sonia Rosso, Turin, Italy, 2003 (solo); ‘Context, Form, Troja (Young Scene 03)’ Secession, Vienna; ‘Presence’ Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh 2002.

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