1. “Christine Borland and the Young British Artists: a substantial gap”- Delphine LOPEZ, essay
submission for the course Scottish Art in the Age of Change, University of Edinburgh, October
2012 [Extract]
In the 1990s, a new generation of artists, gathered under the appellation “Young British artists” (YBAs)
asserted its rupture with previous art. Searching for practices more suited to the times, they assume the
postmodern idea of a collapse of distinction between high and low art. Therefore, these artists turn to mass
culture imagery as the main source of their new aesthetic. Provocation and show seem to sum up YBAs’ new
stakes.
However, this group is far from being homogeneous: Christine Borland (b. 1965, Scotland) is a telling example.
A broad consideration of her previous works highlights lots of shared interests with them. But in her more
recent works, the unfolding of an ethereal aesthetic takes clear distance from the exuberant production of the
YBAs. This essay discusses the extent to which Christine Borland is representative of the Young British Artists
movement in the 1990s, and how she manages to develop her own poetics while reacting to the stake of the
times. Extract:
In her text Curious connections: a modern study of anatomy and botany, Ulla
Angkjaer Jorgensen established a difference between the “curious gaze” and the
“modern enlightened and classifying” one. “The curious gaze is a gaze that has not
yet seen but is hungrily to find the yet undiscovered connections between the visible
and the invisible”
1
. With the modern gaze, empirical observation becomes a
touchstone for analyzed and classified visions. Consequently, it is defined as a
“superficial one”. This distinct approach is useful to understand the gap between
Christine Borland and most of the YBAs. Indeed, their practice relates them to the
modern gaze: based on lived experience, it comes within the obvious mass culture
system and directly works with it. On the contrary, Christine Borland establishes
connections between knowledge and aesthetics which leads her to what Katrina M.
Brown called “the areas of grey”
2
; spaces of subtlety, far from the excessiveness of
mass media spectacle.
The YBAs take mass media concerns as the very material of their work:
death, sex or violence occupy privileged seats. Thus, a resort to spectacular
aesthetics is necessary for art to be able to compete with mass entertainment.
Christine Borland’s work is more subtle: in Phantom Twins, 1997, [plate 1] the
dimension of invisible is a key concept. Two leather dolls are set on a table, each of
them containing replica fetal skulls. The leather, fitting the shape of the skull,
renders the invisible visible. To notice it, the viewer has to watch carefully: the
mundane- a rough child doll, is turned into the exceptional- a metaphorical
container for childish fantasy. In Christine Borland poetics, it is no longer simply a
case of changing form alone: art can change the status and perception of an object.
Here, the artist uses a low strategy, resorting to a “deceptively minimalist
presentation”
3
to create a greater dramatic effect on our perception against the too
obvious spectacle of the YBAs’ nihilistic strategy.”
Figure 1: Phantom Twins, Christine Borland, 1997- two hand-sewn
leather dolls, stuffed with sawdust, containing replica fetal skulls
1
U.Angkjaer Jorgensen, 2002 in Christine Borland : Preserves, (Edinburgh, Fruitmarket Gallery, 2006) p.103
2
K. M. Brown, 2001 in Christine Borland : Preserves, p.119
3
C. Richardson 2001 “Interview with Christine Borland” in Christine Borland : Preserves, p.146