The University’s Talbot Rice Gallery will this summer launch its first Patrons Programme, offering supporters the unique opportunity to contribute to new artistic talent and community outreach, to take contemporary art into classrooms and prisons, and invite groups dealing with homelessness into the Gallery for every exhibition. Philanthropic support has helped the Talbot Rice Gallery bring the work of world-renowned artists like Jenny Holzer, John Akomfrah, Alice Neel and David Claerbout to Edinburgh, and commission new work by the likes of Lucy Skaer, Jesse Jones and Samson Young. With a 19th century former natural history museum and a contemporary white cube to fuel its engine, Talbot Rice Gallery is committed to exploring what the University of Edinburgh can contribute to contemporary art practice today and into the future. The Patrons Programme will enable artists to make their most ambitious work and enable the Gallery to bring that work to new audiences. Find out more about the Talbot Rice Gallery Patrons Programme Real Music Samson Young’s first solo exhibition in the UK, 'Real Music' will be on view at Talbot Rice Gallery through until 5 October. Critically acclaimed and a highlight of the Edinburgh Art Festival programme, it has been created through close collaboration with the University's Next Generation Sound Synthesis research group - an exploratory project group concerned entirely with synthetic sound, and made up of of twelve engineers and numerical methods specialists. This exhibition of work by the Hong Kong artist and composer Samson Young focuses on the creation of entirely synthetic sounds, and challenges fixed notions of authenticity in music, sculpture and society by looking at how virtual instruments might sound in imagined environments. We are very excited to be expanding our supporter opportunities through the launch of the Patrons Programme, which will help us to further develop our exhibition programme and ground-breaking commissions. We’re looking forward to building a vibrant community as we endeavour to bring ever-more ambitious exhibitions to the city. Samson Young’s work is exemplary of our mission - we’re trying to discover what this wonderful 16th century University can contribute to contemporary art production today that simply wouldn’t otherwise exist. Tessa GiblinDirector, Talbot Rice Gallery In pictures The following images give a taste of the innovative nature of the exhibition. Image Multi-disciplinary artist Samson Young was trained as a composer, and graduated with a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton University in 2013. Image Real Music is a provocation to unfix notions of authenticity in music, sculpture and society. Image: 'Possible Music # 2', 2019. Installation view 'Samson Young / Real Music', Talbot Rice Gallery, 2019. Courtesy Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh. Image A video performance-lecture by Young entitled 'The world falls apart into facts' derives from the artist’s extensive research into ‘Molihua’ (Jasmine Flower). This well-known Chinese folk song was transcribed for Western audiences in the late eighteenth century, though it is believed to have originated much earlier. Tracing its different versions and their claims to authenticity, this work is a genealogical telling of the song’s story, with the artist adopting an ironic ethnographic gaze and examining the root and effect of ‘echoic mimicry’ through the story of the ‘Molihua’. Image: Samson Young, 'The world falls apart into facts', 2019. Two channel video installation, 25 mins. Installation view 'Samson Young / Real Music', Talbot Rice Gallery, 2019. Courtesy Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh. Image Accompanying this two-channel video are a number of items that derive from Young’s exploration of the University of Edinburgh’s collections, including a class of musical instruments often described as ‘tourist instruments’ held at St Cecilia’s Hall. Typically created for a foreign market, these instruments manifest a cultural dissonance, being markedly different from the originals they are modelled. University of Edinburgh Collections selected by Samson Young. Installation view 'Samson Young / Real Music', Talbot Rice Gallery, 2019. Courtesy Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh. Image In addition to Young’s new artworks, the exhibition will include Muted Situation #22: Muted Tchaikovsky’s 5th, 2018 (commissioned by Sydney Biennale in 2017) – a 12-channel sound installation - in which an orchestra performs the work on muted instruments. The orchestra’s sound is replaced with the physical exertion of bodies, as musicians energetically perform. Image: Samson Young, 'Muted Situation #22: Muted Tchaikovsky’s 5th', 2018. Video and 12 channels sound installation, 45 mins. Installation view 'Samson Young / Real Music', Talbot Rice Gallery, 2019. Courtesy Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh. Related links Talbot Rice Gallery The Talbot Rice Gallery Patrons Programme The NESS Project This article was published on 2023-11-10
