Glasgow artist Torsten Lauschmann’s solo exhibition, ‘War of the Corners’, takes as points of reference everything from Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet (1922), children’s soft play cubes and an obscure 18th century critical spat about high and low culture in opera. Combining digital technology and almost William Heath Robinson-like making, there’s something both playful and a little bit creepy about Lauschmann’s close-to-life-size toy figure that attempts but always fails to climb the steps in front of it. Spotlit as you enter the first of three spaces in the exhibition, there’s more automatons around the corner, this time a series of musical instruments ranging from a collapsing crutch with bells on to a one-string sitar plucked by a deer bone that resembles a human finger. Backdropped by digital projections onto gaping ‘holes’ in the mock brick (wallpapered) walls, this theatrical, digitally choreographed show evokes notions of time and artifice – and of new and old technology’s grasp on our lives and imaginations.
- Chris Sharratt