Here was elsewhere

Cooper Gallery, Dundee, Until February 17

A prominent project that took place in Shanghai in 2016 and 2017 is being restaged at Dundee University’s Cooper Gallery. For the many Scottish artists that took part in residencies Current: Contemporary Art From Scotland (Phase Two), it will be a chance to bring their work to their homeland.

“Just being in China itself was phenomenal,” says Glasgow-based Anne-marie Copestake, one of the visual artists who visited China and whose work will be featured in the restaging, Here Was Elsewhere:>>ffwd.

The exhibition has been brought to the Cooper Gallery, which originally organised and programmed Current.

“We had our ears and eyes opened to everyday life in China,” she continues.

“What I really enjoyed was doing my residency in a country village, so I got to see the contrast with the huge, historic city of Shanghai and its tall, shiny buildings, and the very down-to-earth way of life in this village.

“I was looked after by the team in the village museum where I was staying, and what I found was a real sense of openness to trying to find ways of doing things, without any one person having to be in charge,” she continues.

“I learned a lot from working there. There was only one drum kit which people knew of, which was in the local rock pub, and they allowed us to use that as a rehearsal space. But the bar was open and full of locals and tourists.

“My collaborators’ ethos was to turn off the bar music and get on with it, there was a really nice sense of just getting something done,” she adds.

For Here Was Elsewhere: >>FFWD, Copestake is showing a previous film piece of hers alongside a selection of works by a number of Scotland’s most acclaimed video artists.

In fact, there were too many in the original show to occupy the Cooper Gallery at once, so each of the event’s four weeks will feature a different line-up.

The second week begins today with six new artists including Dundee’s Duncan Marquiss and the late Katy Dove, from next Friday the roster will include Corin Sworn and Ross Sinclair, and in the final week Copestake’s Back As Front, Outside As In, Part One (from 2015) will appear alongside work by Rosalind Nashashibi, Lucy Skaer and Sarah Forrest.

“My film explores the creativity of the artist Margaret Benyon, who sadly passed away last year,” says Copestake, who also works with the collectives Poster Club and Muscles of Joy.

“She was a pioneer in the use of laser technology in the 1960s, although I haven’t chosen to create a straight biography, it’s more of an experimental piece.”

Luna by Katie Dove.