Like poetic language, the language of dance is neither the language of authority nor of social theory, and therein lies the key to our understanding the work of Casper White. It evades the norms of the academy and the understanding of academicians, and particularly the authoritarianism of the establishment. What White has amassed in his current body of work offers a sense of those dancers that he paints as mere ghosts of both themselves and the experience that eludes the many and confuses still more.

As a group exhibition perhaps intended to get the gallery into its stride for 2019, ‘Botanical’ at An Talla Solais Gallery does what it is supposed to, and it is clear that they have done their utmost to make the best of the work on loan from the Royal Scottish Academy with some obvious thought given to hanging a sympathetic collection of hugely diverse work of variable quality. Diverse it may be, but the question remains, is the exhibition any good? In the case of ‘Botanical’ it may be that one should concentrate most on the best of the bunch; and that really comes down to a question of taste.

This Saturday, 6 April 2019, sees the opening of Monique Sliedrecht’s exhibition ‘Where Tideways Run’ at the Northlight Gallery, Stromness. Sliedrecht’s exhibition is the first of the season for Northlight, and the show’s title is taken from a poem by the Orcadian poet Robert Rendall. “This is very exciting for me,” says the artist, “because Orkney has been a special place to me for so many years.”

Call me contrary if you like, but when I receive an email about an exhibition from a gallery that isn’t really a gallery, doesn’t have a website, and refuses to bombard me with screeds of marketing materials and media releases, it rather piques my interest. Zembla is what I am referring to here, but what is Zembla and who is behind the ‘project’?