Sorcha Dallas

Named after the inimitable Dundee pop group formed by Alan Rankine and Billy Mackenzie in the late 1970s, The Associates marks the tenth annivesary of the opening of Dundee Contemporary Arts and includes work by 17 artists who studied in the city.

Given the late Billy Mackenzie’s penchant for audacious dramatics, a good place to start is Stephen Sutcliffe’s We’ll Let You Know, a hilarious video that brilliantly knocks the stuffing out of a young and extremely pretentious Ian McKellen in under a minute. As McKellen waffles on at an RSC workshop. a posh voice dubbed over the top irritatedly puts the thespian firmly in his place.

Other highlights include Raydale Dower’s Untitled (Reoccurence) and Untitled (Wheel): works that make highly effective use of old picture frames and used roach papers, respectively; a series of small but arresting works by Kevin Hutcheson, who uses cuttings from newspapers and magazines to produce biting reflections on daily life; and animations by Katy Dove that have a childlike, Miro-esque charm. All of the artists included in the exhibition studied at Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and emerged over the past decade. As The Associates shows, it’s an institution that obviously dies a lot right. Either that, or there’s something special in the water in Dundee…