SSA 130 YEARS | CutLog

The SSA was delighted to work with CutLog for the third time, to present a series of works entitled ‘Re-Imagining Wonderland’ for the SSA 130 Year | Annual Exhibition which took place at the Royal Scottish Academy from 17 December 2022 – 10 January 2023.

These works are now available to view online from 24 January – 24 February 2023.

Exhibiting Artists: Jessica Ashman | Chris Avis with Vicky Hawkins | Zillah Bowes | Finn Rabbitt Dove | Tanatsei Gambura | Luis Grane & Thomas Basile | Jane Houston Green | Beverley Hood | Matt Hulse | Chak Hin Leung | Olana Light | Pernille Spence with Zoë Irvine, Corinne Jola | Kialy Tihngang | Making Routes | Eldarin Yeong

CutLog is a group of artists in Scotland who have come together to create new opportunities for moving-image artists. 

Artists based anywhere in the world were invited to submit moving-image works under 10 minutes long in response to the theme Re-imagining Wonderland, exploring ideas around issues of change and adaptation in today’s world. Selected works are being screened within a new installation by artist Mike Inglis, made entirely from recycled materials. Inglis’ practice explores the creative possibilities of transitional spaces between public art and outsider art.

The selected 15 works were shown in three distinct screenings on monitors located within the installation. The works range in length from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. The artists, including four collaborations and one research group, come from locations in Scotland, Wales, England and Los Angeles, as well as two artists who work partly in Hong Kong and Harare.

We challenged artists to think widely in their response to our theme of Re-imagining Wonderland, and we were not disappointed. The works range from re-thinking solitude through walking, to the rules that make life work in an apparently chaotic Indian city. From the depths of deep time and vanished species, to the interaction of humans and other species explored through animation, and the interaction of children with captive polar bears. Belonging and unbelonging, useless machines and the wonderland of the mind are explored, along with performative and screendance works and alternative worlds, and the newly allowed landscape of urban plants that developed during the pandemic.

Image: Mike Inglis, WONDER { LAND } , CutLog installation. Credit: Julie Howden