Tim Rollins and K.O.S. / The Black Spot
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Showing for the first time in Scotland, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. present an exhibition surveying highlights from a remarkable 30 year career. They also lead a series of Art and Knowledge Workshops enabling young people from Edinburgh to participate in making new work with the collective.
Pages from famous works of literature actually and figuratively form the backdrop for Tim Rollins and K.O.S.’ mixed-media paintings. Reviewing their work at the first Frieze New York this year, Simon Schama commented that, “combining instruction in reading and writing with collaborative art-making has resulted in some work of spectacular radiance as well as social energy”.
Stevenson’s Treasure Island is the inspiration for one of the new works, the classic adventure story also providing the title The Black Spot. The War of the Worlds¸ Animal Farm, X-Men and A Midsummer Night's Dream also feature, their themes and messages re-interpreted through bold visual designs.
Supported by Year of Creative Scotland 2012.
Exhibition Guide
Published on the occasion of 'Tim Rollins and K.O.S. / The Black Spot' at Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh.
Texts are available to view below or download.
“Tim Rollins is a born teacher… He understands what it means to feel underdeveloped and yearning, and he fashions methods to counter those conditions. His buoyant attention draws forth latent capacities. He propels people to grow, and to learn to trust themselves. He nourishes by example. He catalyses. He prods. He cajoles. And he continually signposts potential paths for discovery, action, and agency.” Julie Ault, artist.
Tim Rollins was born on 10 June 1955 and spent his childhood in Pittsfield, a working-class town in rural Maine, where he received a strong religious education. In 1975 Rollins arrived in New York eager to enrol at the School of Visual Arts to study with Joseph Kosuth, a leading conceptual artist. In 1981 Rollins started as a teacher at the Intermediate School 52 in South Bronx, New York. There he developed, together with his students, a collaborative strategy allowing them to study literature and produce works of art as a response to the learning process. Sometimes he or one of the students would read aloud while the others would responsively sketch. Rollins would record books on tape during the night to help the students with learning disabilities to access literary content. It was the student Carlos Rivera who first came up with the idea of drawing on the pages of one of Rollins’ books. With these acts of appropriation, reaction, and figurative creation an artistic practice was born, an aesthetic solution that met the collective’s needs.
Before the opening of the current exhibition, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. led a series of Art and Knowledge workshops with young people (aged 13-18) from across the Lothian region. These workshops resulted in the production of a new work inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island along with other images that are displayed in the Upper White Gallery. Prior to the exhibition opening, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. led an ArtWorks Scotland seminar, where Scottish artists and educators explored the work, impact and legacy of the collective, focussing on how the artists' methodology could apply across disciplines and in other settings. Work generated in these workshops is on display in the upper White Gallery, with a film of the process featuring in the Round Room, upstairs. From September onwards online resources created from this seminar will be made available on the Talbot Rice Gallery website.
