VANESSA BILLY: 'SUSTAIN, SUSTAIN'

REVIEWED BY RHYS FULLERTON 

After Ross Sinclair’s full-on and very loud exhibition 20 Years of Real Life, Collective’s curators have toned things down with a more thought-provoking and minimalist exhibition.

Vanessa Billy’s Sustain, Sustain, her first solo showing in Scotland, features new and existing works. She has exhibited nationally and internationally before, and as a Zurich-based artist this show has support from the Embassy of Switzerland in the United Kingdom.  

What’s surprising about this exhibition is how much empty wall space there is. Only six sculptural works are displayed, and although the City Dome is a small contained space, the works seem to get lost in it. But that is part of its charm. The art seems a natural fit, as if it was designed with this place in mind. 

There is a serious environmental theme running through Billy’s works: sustainability will lose out and it’s because of us. ‘No Place to Fall’ (2012) is a glass ladder with straw threaded through its rungs. The straw appears to be encased or preserved – it is no longer useful. The ladder is made out of glass which makes it look striking but oddly ineffective. Glass makes the ladder almost useless, aesthetically pleasing but impractical. 

In ‘Sustain’ (2014) we see lightbulbs appearing out of a rock – as if to show that we’ve run out of places to build and now we’re going underground and will carve our houses from it (right). Directly below it is ‘Spill’ (2014), in which batteries and vitamin pills are encased in a resin puddle resembling some leak into the environment. Are we the cause of this? With 'Sustain' positioned directly above, it creates a two-pronged attack: the cause and effect of relying too much on things that we shouldn’t.

‘Empty the Earth to Fill the Sky’ (2013) is a powerful piece which permeates the entire space (pictured top-right). An oil barrel fills the room with smoke, creating a hazy atmosphere. This is a simple piece of art but one that reminds us that our reliance on oil as an energy source has gone too far. Oil has been mentioned a lot recently. Scotland’s supply featured prominently in the Referendum debate, and with fighter planes returning to the Middle East, conspiracy theorists can’t help but join up the dots. Our reliance on oil could all go up in smoke at any moment and then what would we do? 

‘Above and Below’ (2014) is a surrealist piece which moves away from the more provocative works. It is a bronze sculpture resembling a branch fallen from a tree, with two polished pointing fingers at either end. This work leans against the wall as if it’s been left there by accident. You could imagine one end sticking out of the ground and the other appearing under the surface, pointing down into the unknown below. 

Billy’s work is intriguing but it comes with a warning. War, global warming, our treatment of the environment and our constant draining of its resources all come at a cost. If we don’t take notice, who knows what will happen? As 'Above and Below' shows us, the finger will be pointed at everyone.

Sustain, Sustain continues at the Collective Gallery, City Observatory, Calton Hill until 21 December.

Image credits: Vanessa Billy, Sustain, Sustain (installation view) 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Collective, Edinburgh. Photo: Tom Nolan.