28 Oct 2008

GOOD TEETH - Beagles & Ramsay at Glasgow Sculpture Studios

Glasgow Sculpture Studios launches a new gallery with Beagles & Ramsay's GOOD TEETH

'The world belongs to those with teeth.'
Pasolini's 'Accatone' (1959)

GOOD TEETH is a new, large-scale sculptural installation created by Beagles & Ramsay during their three-month Production Residency at GSS and marks the beginning of the new exhibition programme at GSS.

Two key interweaving currents of interest drive the work of Beagles & Ramsay: the reoccurring use of fictionalised self-portraiture and, in broad terms, a critical examination of aspects of contemporary consumer culture. To date their presence within the work has largely been a performed presence - using doppelgangers as a means of speaking in alternate voices or drawing upon multiple personae. Inhabiting these shifting personae has allowed them the conceptual space to explore aspects of contemporary culture, such as consumerism, political disenfranchisement, and the cult of celebrity - without the restrictions of a singular, authoritative voice.

The duo's practice also owes a great deal to earlier, pre-modernist traditions within art, specifically the counter tradition of the carnivalesque. 'Artists, from Bruegel, Tiepolo and Goya, to more acerbic satirists such as Daumier and Hogarth (as well as novelists such as Swift, Rabelais and Chaucer) have had a profound influence on our work.' Say the artists, 'An influential aspect of these artists work has been their ability to synthesise their visual aesthetic with political allegories and satirical content.'

Beagles & Ramsay have worked together collaboratively since 1996. Based in Glasgow they have exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as the Migros Museum, Zurich, PS1 MoMA, New York, the ICA, London, Tramway, Glasgow and CAPC Museum, Portugal and are developing new work for an exhibition in Melbourne in 2009.

In 2003 Beagles & Ramsay were selected to take part in Zenomap, Scotland's first presentation at the Venice Biennale. Recent projects and exhibitions include a new edition of their curatorial publication Uncle Chop Chop launched as part of the Glasgow International Festival 2008, Art Futures at the Bloomberg Space, London and the touring exhibition Among the Living (ICA, London, MIMA, Middlesborough, Milton Keynes Gallery and Chapter Cardiff), 2007. Their work has been presented in numerous publications including Scotland and Venice 2003 - 2007, Divided Selves - The Self-Portrait in Scottish Art 17th Century to the present, Beagles & Ramsay, Tramway publication, 2006 and When Humour Becomes Painful, 2005.

www.beaglesramsay.co.uk

In conjunction with their exhibition, Beagles & Ramsay will curate a film programme at GSS, weekly throughout the month of November.

For full details visit our website www.glasgowsculpturestudios.org