Effigies and Elginisms

An exhibition of new work by artist Renee So, entitled ‘Effigies and Elginisms’, which opened on Saturday 2 April 2022. The first solo presentation of Renee’s work in Scotland.

Comprising 18 new works in stoneware, glazed ceramic and textile, Renee’s exhibition draws on a wide range of references, from an archaic Parisian by-law to pre-dynastic Egyptian female figurines (Effigies), and items looted from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860, during the Second Opium War, by French and British Troops under the direction of James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, who was High Commissioner to China and son of Thomas Bruce, 7th Lord Elgin (Elginisms).

The exhibition is accompanied by a new short text written by Jennifer Higgie. Of Renee’s work, Jennifer has said: ‘In her sculptures, tiles, paintings and textiles, borders dissolve, animals and objects merge with humans: logic is upended in a dreamlike affinity. So – whose own story traverses the globe, from Hong Kong to Melbourne and London – is fascinated by history but less by its victories than its distortions and lies, its thefts, its vagaries and its strange wonders. Hers is an art of transformation – across time and space.’