Derek Sutherland & Gordon Schmidt: Due Process

Due Process is an exhibition of new work by Edinburgh based artist Derek Sutherland and Glasgow based artist Gordon Schmidt.

Gordon Schmidt
Recent works made from found objects and discarded construction materials from various local art institutions and theatres (often venues where the artist has been employed) consider Hermann Rorschach’s Inkblot tests alongside the pre-presidential life of John F. Kennedy and the proliferation of the Military Industrial Complex.

Schmidt’s practice is largely informed by the cultural and political events in the West that occurred after the end of World War II. His works examine the latent potencies of material intelligence and the historical relationships between painting and the military industrial complex.

Despite the historical grounding of Schmidt’s work the pieces themselves are subtle treatments of found objects and images cut from books, an approach which reflects a subjective relationship with the events and times that he draws from.

Derek Sutherland
The main interest in Sutherlands work is an attempt to find out what the bare minimum requirements for a work of art or art space might be.

Hallmarks of his works are the use of standardised materials and sizes combined with the embracing of a ‘no-frills’ craftsmanship that often involves elements of shameless appropriation and an undemonstrative use of the space.

The objects he makes appear raw, scant, effortless, even improvised and are more akin to remnants than fully formed things. These works contain and communicate the process of their own making and their temporality.

The works Sutherland will be exhibiting in ‘Due Process’ explore relationships between sexual repression, violence and willful obedience.