UK-wide project ARTIST ROOMS features works of prominent modern artists through a series of solo shows. National Galleries of Scotland’s Modern One is currently host to three of the aforementioned artists: photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and multimedia artists Louise Bourgeois and Helen Chadwick.
Although presented as solo exhibitions, it’s hard to ignore the connections between the featured artists’ work. Mapplethorpe’s self-portraits of each of his hands, the left that of an everyday office worker and the other clad in leather, outline the double life the artist lived as a gay man in the 1970s. Similarly, Bourgeois depicts her mother as a character governed by opposites in her ‘Spider’ sculpture: one part an imposing figure of wrought iron and the other a delicate, spindly insect. Bourgeois’ sculpture is an incredibly striking piece of work.
Mapplethorpe and Chadwick are also bound by the fact of their untimely deaths, and both their exhibits make sure to communicate this. Chadwick’s ‘Ruin’ incorporates her previous work ‘Carcass’ in an unsettling memento mori that’s only become more foreboding after her passing. Perhaps less ominous but far more heartbreaking is Mapplethorpe’s 1988 self-portrait, taken the year before his death. Mapplethorpe poses with a cane topped by a death’s head, his face fading out of focus, mirroring the deterioration he faced after his HIV/AIDS diagnosis.
Each room is filled with a variety of works, all balancing a multitude of themes and ideas. Those belonging to Bourgeois and Chadwick are especially eclectic, bringing together decades of work and trying to distill them into a few square meters. This can, at times, be a little overwhelming, especially to someone unfamiliar with the artists’ work. Mapplethorpe’s exhibition sticks exclusively to his self-portraiture and whilst it is the smallest, it is by far the most focused.
ARTIST ROOMS is on now at National Galleries of Scotland, Modern One, Edinburgh. Exhibition end date to be confirmed.
nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/about-artist-rooms
