Damp squib, but good Lux anyway

flopped: a damp squib in a dark winter night.

Costs are huge, it is said, because of the mechanics of lighting. The

price ''only a third of a Pink Floyd event.'' But the lights are not

nearly as exciting as those at a rock concert. Would that they were.

Choose between arty minimalism, ironic text (Let's Talk about Art --

Maybe? on the Royal Mile's Bank Hotel), or pure decoration. With very

few exceptions there is little artistically memorable here.

Expectations have been badly disappointed by Edinburgh's wimpish

attempt to illuminate the capital. Indeed it's likely that many of the

light sculptures are so minimal that people will miss them: fleeting,

narrow shafts in Great King Street; red squares dotted round the New

Town; ghostly geometrics on Salisbury Crags. What light relief to spot

George Wyllie's witty, robust Fringe installation of Bouncing Cuckoos

outside the Assembly Rooms. Officially it's got nothing to do with the

EC extravaganza, but Wyllie cheekily wishes them Good Lux anyway.

Lux Europae began as a winter sculpture show and only gathered

momentum with the advent of Britain's EC presidency and the Edinburgh

December summit. The Prime Minister allocated #5m for a UK European

Festival (Lux got #135,000). Scotland did well out of it because, says

festival director John Drummond, Scots put forward so many good

proposals.

Lux incorporates 25 sculptures by 38 sculptors from the 12 EC member

States. Some countries contributed funding; some did not. The Greeks

were a law unto themselves and sent a ready-made piece (at the Sheraton)

rather than an artist to make site-specific work. The Netherlands paid

generously, a fact reflected in Titus Nolte's impressive neon medallions

on Calton Hill's Observatory. Nolte has taken advantage of a terrific

site. Not so Viera Collaro's uninspired steel cubes under Charlotte

Square's fairylit trees or Bill Culbert's tipper truck by the RSA. And

what about other prominent sites like the Botanic Garden (which gets a

new Henry Moore sculpture next week) or the National Gallery roof which

flaunted a vast illuminated Crown in 1986? ''I was never asked,'' says

director Tim Clifford.

Others were asked and declined -- like Scottish Widows who cancelled

Bernhard Prinz's piece at the last minute. Problems of siting and

planning permission afflicted both Prinz and Ron Haseldon. Prinz's Three

Allegories ended up on the 369 Gallery roof, but not without a tussle.

I did enjoy the Crawford/Gueneau's collaboration of train/plane film

at 18 High Street; also Portugal's Leonel Moura's fluorescent

installation on Haymarket Station which consists of 10 writers'

portraits and two panels of clocks.

Not all works are in place. Some are reserved for the December summit

-- so there's still a chance. Lux is accompanied by outreach education

and lecture programmes, tel 031 225 2383. Works are illuminated late

afternoon till midnight.

I WONDER what Ayr's Maclaurin Gallery/Rozelle House could do with

#750,000? They work miracles on a small budget, presenting a wide range

of shows both major and local, an excellent collecting policy, plus

workshops and painting classes -- even a good cafe. Now district council

cuts have shut the Rozelle half for the winter. Short-sighted.

Meanwhile, you can see Prestwick Arts Guild and an impressive show of

paintings by June Redfern.

Redfern goes from strength to strength. Edinburgh-trained;

London-based; she was put on the map by her 1985 London National Gallery

residency plus the Vigorous Imagination exhibition (Edinburgh). A slight

hiatus in her work followed, soon resolved into the current

magnificence. Succulent, seductive sweeps of colour-saturated oil caress

timeless classical figures reclining under a velvet blue night sky.

Nostalgic, romantic yet modern, these figures in a landscape are

captured in brave, broad blocks and pulsing planes of turquoise,

terracotta, and gold: abrupt, aggressive gestures which paradoxically

evoke a peaceful harmony.

Horse and rider, bather and stream, are at one with the world. A

single word -- sensuous -- describes memorable paintings such as Night

Swell, Early Morning Mist, Wicca Zennor, Cornish Dusk, and the beautiful

1992 Bartok series.

At Edinburgh's Scottish Gallery Jila Peacock also uses saturated

colour in her simple outline compositions of youthful flautist

Cocteau-esque cherubs. Hints of India appear in gold-leaf decoration and

textured surfaces but there's an unfortunate unevenness. David McClure

is equally uneven. Mundane landscapes and messy Drumbeg harbour scenes

sit cheek by jowl with vibrant baskets of pears, delectable still lifes,

birds, and gorgeous bouquets.

The Scottish Gallery also features The Art of Lettering which sounds

dry as dust; the stuff you get on memorial brass plaques and

gravestones. Wrong. Here 10 inspired artist-calligraphers display wit,

skill, and innovation. John Skelton impresses with his colourful Los

Martillos; so, too, David Kindersly who engraves wood and slate. Both

were apprenticed to Eric Gill.

The #3.65m spent on Edinburgh City Art Centre, now reopened after a

long closure, bought three extra floors and three escalators: ''the

first in any UK gallery,'' it is claimed. But do we need escalators when

there's a perfectly good lift? Moreover, the best of Spirit of the

Ukraine: 500 Years of Painting are the fifteenth-century icons in the

basement.

So ignore the flashy technology and head downstairs for fabulous

Byzantine-style embossed gold images from Kiev. Here be dragons slain by

brave St George and other Ukrainian heroes plus Christ in Majesty from

Malniv; smiling angels of the Holy Trinity tucking into fish and wine; a

triumphal Entrance to Jerusalem; plus nineteenth-century flamboyant folk

art in the form of moustachioed Cossack bandura players.

Edinburgh's show ends in 1947. London's Ukrainian Club in Holland Park

brings us up to date with the first major UK showing of contemporary Art

of Free Ukraine presented by the BBC World Service to celebrate its new

Ukrainian broadcasts.

A catchy title always helps. Eager Hearts (formerly the Greatest Show

on Earth) at Glasgow's Kelly Gallery features a trio including Susan

Murphy, ex-Edinburgh, who exhibits controlled but evocative images of

Barony Pit: ''a man-made roaring monster, now derelict and silent.''

Helen McLean prefers dramatic landscapes and vibrant, if

over-decorative, portraits. Sculptor Andrea Gregson is rather

heavy-handed. The three also show at Irvine's Harbour Gallery from

November 1.

On Wednesday Glasgow's Tina Addison won the Prince's Trust new

European Vision Award. Today the post of Scottish Arts Council art

director is re-advertised with increased salary: #24,000/#29,000, still

lower than museum keepers on #26,000/#41,000. Any offers?