Mark McLaughlin tells it as he sees it at this intriguing exhibition in the Scottish capital.
In Scotland, the notion of the clan has many romantic and historical connotations, but seems to have little relevance in today’s increasingly individualistic society. However, Clan: 21st Century Clans in Focus aims to redress that view.
This touring exhibition is now on show at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, where it will stay until April 12.
The exhibition features the work of two artists, photographer Fin Macrae and photo-collage designer Gordon Davidson.
Their work explores six strands – art, language, heritage, sport, science and environment – that tie Scottish people together into 'new clans', now that the old blood relationships of the ancient clans have all but disappeared.
Each of these strands feature two specific communities that best represent the new clans, and each photograph is in-turn accompanied by a word that sums up the inspiration behind the image.
This rather complicated premise provides the backdrop for this fairly small photographic exhibition that is inadequately realised and littered with contradictions.
While Fin Macrae’s portraits are emotive and expertly conceived, most of them lack the thought-provoking artistic merit required in good art photography.
Trust, for example, looks like a publicity shot for a camping brochure, while Brotherhood wouldn’t look out of place in an army recruitment centre.
In addition to this, all of the portraits are shot in black-and-white and his subjects look rather glum. While this may have been done to give them a certain degree of emotional gravitas, it doesn’t seem appropriate for an exhibition celebrating the 'positive ideological concept' of the clan.
Gordon Davidson’s collages, meanwhile, also suffer from a lack of any real artistic direction. Rather than suggesting a natural connection, a central theme in the notion of the new clans, many of his collages look like a lumped together scrapbook.
Tribe, his exploration of the highland surfing community, has same positive impact as a brisk swim in the North Sea, and conjures up images of grim summer drives to some godforesaken heap of shingle that passes for a Scottish beach.
There are a number of revelatory exceptions though. Macrae’s shot of father-and-son fishermen, Blood, is notable for both its composition and subject matter.
A man stands in the foreground, with a glum expression that, in this case, is very appropriate, while his father stands behind him, blurred beyond recognition.
The recent government restrictions placed on fishing to preserve stocks has blighted fishermen all over the UK. The father’s lack of focus suggests the fading of an ancient tradition, while his hand on the son’s shoulder suggests he’s bestowing little more than a faint hope of its survival.
Davidson’s Ideology stands out as the clearest realisation of the aims of the exhibition, and is the most visually satisfying collage in the collection.
It is the study of Highland youth culture featuring Goth teens standing in communal groups, or alone in a various 'rock-on' poses.
The central theme is, of course, black – although whether this is by design or inevitability is unknown (black being the Goth 'uniform').
Nevertheless, the common colour scheme gives the collage its necessary cohesion, while the sense of identity between its subjects conveys the required notion of Goths as a new clan.
The failure of this exhibition to fully realise its noble aims is a shame, as it is definitely an area worth examining.
Its lack of scale and confused images disguise the potential for an excellent exploration into the decline of family life and the new connections we make in its absence.
