This sixth Street Level ‘Open’ included over 60 works by 39 artists and photographers which drew parallels and juxtapositions between conceptual, lyrical and polemically driven themes.

Three dramatic photographs by Vanessa Wenwieser show industrial plants in their futuristic sheen by day and volcanic allure at night; two panoramas by Nikki Leadbetter embrace the classical coastal landscape; Victoria Clare Bernie’s ambient work ‘Welcome to the Sound Garden’ presents a ‘microsphere’ as an imagined landscape; Alexander & Susan Maris present three photographic works from ARBOS, a symbolic reforestation project for Rannoch Moor; Shauna McMullan’s prints on sandblasted glass highlight the border signs between Scotland and England; Kate Burton’s film poems with improvised soundtracks present both urban and rural scenes through the prism of the timelessness of S8; Leanne Blair’s triptych are equally introspective and reflect on memory; Barbara Wilson’s works from the ‘Waiting for a Western’ series explore the cinematic experience; whilst Euan Sutherland’s digital montages present a critique of western parliamentary politics as represented by the spectacle of the UK/USA alliance; and Margaret Diamond’s crafted installation examines issues of social injustice by an asbestos company and the bureaucratization of suffering.

Other artists included:
Susan Baker
Paul Buchanan
Anne Bulmer
Sally Chapman
Paul Farquharson
Gareth Harper
David Henderson
Philip Hunt
Suzanne Hutton
Christina Reenberg Jensen
Johan Kildal
Frances McCourt
Ruth Maxwell
Claire Munro
Sinclair Neeson
Lindsay Neil
Janie Nicoll
Kate V. Robertson
Louise Rowley
Inch High Samurai
Laura + Allison Seaton
Iain Simpson
Melanie Sims
Shelley Tavendale
Mairi Taylor
Norma - Louise Thallon
Christine Webster
Colin White
Michael Wurstbauer

Over the course of the six Open exhibitions since 1996, over 200 artists have been represented with work that has originated within Scotland. It was initiated with an aim to include an impartial cross-section of current approaches in photo-based practice and lens-based media, reinforcing the centrality of the photographic image in recent art, and has been inclusive of wall-based work, mixed media, installation and video. ‘Emerging artists’ (a term that covers most from those recognized widely to those attempting to embark on a long-term commitment to gallery practice) whose work represents ideas in current art sit alongside those less content with that categorization and the results are all the more stimulating for it. The unpredictability of the outcome has ensured that the open format adopted here is consistently refreshing and repeatedly exciting.

The 2004 exhibition presented a case for photography’s high presence as an artform and its intersection with other media, like most art, it holds your attention and provokes thought. In the context of challenges between the chemical and the digital, it also demonstrates the continued if not growing interest in the medium for emerging generations.