Even by, say, post-Jessica Stockholder standards, Samara Scott has a catholic notion of what ‘painting’ might be. Yogurt, carpet, plaster, food colouring and, yes, paint, to reel off the constituents of a glowing semiabstract wall work for Turner Contemporary last year; or fabric softener, wine glasses, oil, costume jewellery and much more in the rainbow-toned liquid suspension she created in a steel container on the floor of the Frieze London art fair in 2015. The work, such descriptions might already suggest, balances consumerist stuff, often to be literally consumed, on a knife-edge between seduction and disgust. At Tramway, apparently inspired by the gallery’s resemblance to open-air street markets, arcades, glasshouses, etc, the artist is creating another horizontal suspension, likely a big one given the space’s dimensions, that aims to bring audiences close to what she calls the ‘glitching grit’ of contemporary culture. Last year Scott expressed doubts about the artworld to The Guardian and suggested she might become a stuntman instead; a cynic might suggest that her art has stunt qualities already, but they’re effective ones.
Samara Scott is at Tramway, Glasgow, through 28 October
From the Summer 2018 issue of ArtReview
