Review of They Are The We of Me by Jane Topping at Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow

Review by Sarah Smith of solo exhibition "They Are the We of Me" by Jane Topping. Jane Topping’s solo show at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art is permeated by an almost disquieting degree of self-reflexiveness, as her recollected impressions of the life and work of American novelist Carson McCullers (1917-1967) activate an investigation of the creative process. The exhibition is a three-room installation, better described as two rooms both separated and linked by a short corridor. Topping’s studio is represented by one room and McCullers’ by the other, their separation emphasising the solitary activity of much art making, while elements common to both spaces promote a sense of shared endeavour. Indeed emotional isolation coupled with a need to belong and the co-dependence of both feelings forms the crux of McCullers’ writing and is evinced in the show’s title, a line from her novel The Member of the Wedding.