David Bellingham: Monument at The Changing Rooms, Stirling: 13 September – 4 October 2008

Monument at The Changing Rooms was funded by the Scottish Arts Council New Work fund.

‘Monument’ is the second exhibition in The Changing Room’s new location at Tolbooth, launching a season exploring the unique architectural and civic history of the new gallery space through the work of contemporary artists. David Bellingham’s work is rooted in ideas and language. He uses familiar objects to make concise, humorous and poetic works, often inverting our pre-conceptions of things so that we see them anew.

‘Monument’ consists of bound copies of the Stirling Journal and Advertiser running from 1852 to 1968, representing over 100 years of continuous publishing. This bulk of newsprint, stacked in piles, is presented as testament to the endeavour of local publishing and a measure of time.

2008 marks the 500th year since Walter Chepman, an Edinburgh merchant and Androw Myllar, a bookseller, produced the fi rst printed book in Scotland.

Another work in the exhibition, Licence to Print/Licence to Read, refers directly to this event making the link between the first licence to print issued to Chepman and Myllar by King James IV and the resulting access to information that this allowed.

James IV was a progressive and successful ruler who spent much of his life at Stirling Castle from his birth in 1473. After he issued the first royal license, printing spread gradually in Scotland, with a press established in St Andrews in 1552, a short-lived one in Stirling in 1571, in Aberdeen in 1622 and other major towns such as Glasgow later in the seventeenth century.

‘Monument’ comes as an oblique commemoration to this long history of publishing. In the exhibition, Bellingham also presents a group of related works using photography, sculpture and text that reflect his concerns with the ways we measure, quantify and categorise things.

‘Monument’ coincides with the launch of FRESH FRUIT + TABLES, a new book by David Bellingham published by The Changing Room and distributed through selected UK libraries in September 2008 for Off The Page Stirling book festival..

artist talk - 13 September
David Bellingham in conversation with Jim Hamlyn
Saturday 13 September 3pm at Tolbooth, Stirling
Admission Free - please book in advance. Tolbooth box office: 01786 274000
The talk will be followed by refreshments and a private view of ‘Monument’, in the company of the artist, from 5–7 pm

David Bellingham (b.1966) is an artist based in Scotland who has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, and is a Research Fellow at Glasgow School of Art. His work takes many forms: from sculptures shown in galleries; visual poetry on swimming pool floats and café mugs for a recent public art commission at The Bridge in Easterhouse; to books, pamphlets, cards and other printed material published by his imprint Wax366. With Wax366 he has also collaborated with artists including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Jim Hamlyn and David Connearn.

For further information; opening times, how to get there etc, please visit The Changing Rooms website.