DON’T MISS

Last chance to catch this winningly shonky exchibition from London’s Hayward Gallery courtesy of artist curator John Walter. Finding joy and enlightenment in the unpolished and unexpected, this is a show in which poetry, sculpture, architecture and installation conspire, from the tree-infested Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna to Walter’s own Shonky Bar that greets visitors.

Shonky: The Aesthetics of Awkwardness. DCA, 152 Nethergate, Dundee, 01382 432 444, www.dca.org.uk, until 27 May, daily 10am-6pm, Thurs until 8pm

dominant force, is Portuguese artist Vasconcelos, whose vibrant sculpture uses and displaces traditional skills from her “factory” in Lisbon. With more than 50 makers employed on her works, she could be credited with singlehandedly keeping alive traditional skills, from lacework to ceramics, knitting to crochet.

On a screen in the miniature Dovecot, five women of different ages sit and knit or crochet in a variety of locations around Portugal, in an affecting work made this year (Hand-Made, 2018). They sit, concentrating, laughing sometimes, skilled or otherwise, among some of Portugal’s fine baroque architecture in grand palaces, or old monuments, or on the battlements of a fortification with tourists wandering around them. Outside, a giant stiletto (Carmen Miranda) made of pots, pans and lids towers in front of the steps, a melding of stereotypes in a single conflicting mesh of form and material.

In the Ballroom, Vasconcelos’ Coracao Independente Vermelho (2005), a giant, brilliant red sculpture in the shape of a heart, hangs, gently rotating, made entirely of plastic spoons. In the Steadings Gallery, a large stuffed crochet form, part animal, part internal organ, part crazed crochet project, as cosily monumental in knitting terms as Barlow’s looming columns in the woods. Here, too, is Volupta, a ceramic tower of fishy gargoyles, tassels and more crochet, clashingly coloured, both the embodiment and antithesis of historic public square sculpture.

All in, a series of new works very much worth the entry fee.

Jupiter Artland: Phyllida Barlow/Joana Vasconcelos, Bonnington House Steadings, Wilkieston, Edinburgh, 01506 889900, www.jupiterartland.org, until Sep 30, daily 10am-5pm, £8.50/£4.50, concessions available. Phyllida Barlow in conversation, Jun 23, 2pm, £12/£4.50, members free