Exhibition: Brank and Heckle – Ruth Ewan, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, until October 9 2011

One of the UK's most social-minded young artists has her first major solo show at one of our most far-flung galleries. So perhaps it is as well that many Ruth Ewan projects work almost as well as urban fables.

The first decade of the Scottish artist’s career have been eventful to say the least. She has taught political slogans to parrots, filled a jukebox with 1,500 protest songs and reset a coastal town's clocks to decimal time from post-revolutionary France.

Ewan also has a habit of turning up historical facts that travel just as well, and her latest show draws attention to the origins of a pair of local words. A brank was a scold's bridle; heckling was once a job in Dundee jute mills.

Although the background information may be enjoyed by anyone, there are 14 works in this survey clearly worth a visit. Tomatoes being grown in memory of singer, actor, lawyer and activist Paul Robeson, for example, have a living presence here.

The interesting times we live in can only seem more interesting for a show like this. Ewan’s methods of bringing the past to life surely have a bright future.

• Admission free. Open Tuesday to Sunday 11am-6pm (8pm Thursday; Sunday from 12pm).
  
  

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