Art Constellation July 7, 2011 Constellation: a group or cluster of related things. Stars forming a recognisable pattern. In Cornerhouse’s Constellation exhibition, a cluster of four artists’ work impose an idea of transience, ephemerality and the impermanency of movement.

Enter a place of instability, continually experiencing a kind of artwork that offers no fixed continuum but an evolution of chaos and pure chance. Things seem to progress, develop and even diminish from the time the exhibition space opens to when the doors close, offering an organic encounter with each visit.

Tread carefully around the puddles of Kitty Kraus’ Untitled, a hauntingly beautiful work in which ice infused with black ink gradually melts away on the gallery floor, leaving behind pools of shadowy liquid in which you fear to tread.

Cautiously weave your way towards Katie Paterson’s 100 Billion Suns, a special confetti cannon which fires once-a-day, scattering 3216 teeny-tiny pieces of colourful paper. Paterson’s explosions of vivid Gamma-Ray-esque bursts recreate the idea of an expanding universe. Bits of paper move further and further from their origin as the day unfolds.

You can’t escape altering the meditative works of Takahiro Iwarsaki. His cloth, tape and wooden structures move at the slightest change of air, continually shifting as you pass by and disrupt the air.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres continues to carry the constellations fluid, flux and flow in his stacks of takeaway posters depicting the sea. His work invites you to move his boxes to reveal the next, causing the pile to change and disintegrate from its original form.

Nothing in this exhibition seems to stay the same. The quadrangle of artists featured may form a collection of ideas yet their work is in constant flux, changed by visitors, time and natural circumstance. Art which dissipates, altered inch-by-inch, ultimately leaving no final trace.

Visit this free metamorphic exhibition from Sat 25 Jun 2011 – Sun 11 Sep 2011

Isla Badenoch