Ossian - Fragments of Ancient Poetry (April 2004)

Now Scotland has its own parliament and an increasingly expensive new building on its way to symbolise the nation’s rebirth, the question of Scottish identity and what it means to be Scottish has never been so hotly debated. Edinburgh artist Calum Colvin has tapped into the zeitgeist with a thought-provoking exhibition which puts myths and half-truths under the microscope, challenging our perceptions about identity and history and how we perceive things through art.

Investigating themes of history, time, memory and myth, Ossian has been inspired by James Macpherson’s largely forgotten, but once hugely influential (and controversial) ‘translations’ of ancient epic poetry.

Colvin, born in Glasgow in 1961, studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, where he is now also a professor, before concentrating on photography, which he studied at the Royal College of Art in London.

The methods Colvin uses are designed to make us think twice about what we are seeing. First he constructs a set out of carefully-placed objects, many of which are carved or painted to give a three-dimensional effect, then they are captured photographically. These images are then digitised, printed on to canvas and nailed on boards to give the impression these are paintings rather than photographs. In Colvin’s world where nothing is what it seems, these intriguing images haunt the imagination, demanding further thought and consideration.