Tessa Lynch - Collective Gallery Edinburgh

"My work can always be seen in two formats, 2D and 3D; this constant push and pull of different dimensions directly references my interests in reality and fantasy", writes Tessa Lynch in her artist biography. This fascination with duality is clearly expressed throughout the body of work on show at Lynch’s latest solo showAlexandrite at the Collective. The exhibition name confirms this, derived from a precious gemstone revered for its ability to change colour from green to red when viewed in different lights.

Through its exploration of a wide range of media from installation to video, performance and prints, the exhibition is ambitious, remaining loosely coherent through the sometimes forced theme of duality. Although there are aspects of the exhibition that are visually enticing and encourage viewer interaction with the work, the overriding theme of ‘duality’ and Lynch’s wish to experiment with such a diverse range of media results in a lack of focus.

In works like the installation that explores the theatrical trickery of Dr Pepper’s ghost, an illusory technique successfully marries together Lynch’s interest in the use of multiple dimensions with a challenge to the viewer’s perception of reality and fantasy. Conversely, the accompanying anthropological video by Clemens von Wedemeyer and the prints that explore the contrast in colour and position of geometrical shapes yearn for further explanation. A video consisting of a series of interviews of people at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena offers the viewer a running narrative comprised of the interviewee’s responses to questions asked by the artist. The elimination of the questions requires the viewer’s interaction with the work allowing for varied interpretation and response, thus achieving multiple realities.

Although Alexandrite offers the viewer a wide range of work which testifies to Lynch’s confidence with varied media it is this, along with an overbearing central theme, that results in a lack of coherence. Whilst there are highlights in the show which express Lynch’s primary concept, they are accompanied by an array of works consisting of disparate media which are only forcibly held together by this theme. Rather than developing this concept through a consistent vocabulary, Lynch’s insistence on variety results in an exhibition where meaning remains only skin-deep.