Art on Your Doorstep: Unveiling Southside’s Creative Spaces During Glasgow International
The 10th iteration of Glasgow International commenced on June 7th and continues through Sunday, June 23rd, 2024. As customary, the festival unfolds across the city, encompassing Glasgow's Southside. Resident and photographer Laura reflects on her experience exploring three lively exhibitions at Tramway, Queen’s Park Glasshouse and Celine on Victoria Road.
Words and Photos by Laura Vroomen
Glasgow International is Scotland's biennial celebration of contemporary art. Every two years, the festival showcases a variety of artists' works across Glasgow, enhancing the city's reputation as a lively and unique hub for artistic creation, exhibition, and cultural activity. With numerous events happening in the Southside, I seized the opportunity to explore the local art scene, beginning with an exhibition at the Glasshouse.
Maybe you’ve been there. You’re out for a walk in Queen’s Park and busting to go. Time for a quick detour to the toilets at the Glasshouse. For the duration of Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art, a trip to the loos will take you on a journey past an earth-filled cradle, ceramic pickles, a carved tree and much more. The public setting of this show means that it draws in not just seasoned gallerygoers but also casual passers-by, something that’s welcomed by Clay AD, the maker of the wooden pieces.
Since a spell working as a gallery attendant, I’ve been just as interested in the spaces in which art is displayed as the art itself. Including , in the interplay between the room and the works on show, in the way both may be changed by the process and – perhaps more importantly – in how our relationship with both evolves as we interact with the space and the pieces within it. So when I heard that the conservatory in the park was one of the venues for GIF, I was pretty excited.
Unnatural* Urges brings together artists Laura Lulika, Hang Linton, Jack Murphy and Clay AD in a site-specific installation that asks questions about what is and isn’t natural, using mixed media, including recycled materials.
Queen’s Park Glasshouse
Lulika’s pieces marry soft, organic textures with startling, discordant imagery, while Murphy’s gnome-like pickles blend humour with something more unsettling and AD’s charming tree isn’t quite so innocuous on closer inspection. The whole is brought together by Linton’s sound installation, which mingles with the trickle of water in and around the sculptures and the bird song outside to create a kind of secondary soundtrack. Make yourself comfortable on the dolphin bench (which isn’t part of the exhibition) and give yourself over to it. Go for the loos, stay for the art. I for one will experience the Glasshouse differently when it’s back to its ‘natural’ state.
Down the hill, we have Sarah Cameron’s Black Socks, No Panties! / The Stone Bouquet from Cologne. Cameron is an abstract artist known for creating paintings over varied periods and in particular settings and intertwining paintings with a blend of crafted and discovered objects. In her debut solo exhibition in Glasgow, she unveils new paintings alongside an object, showcasing a series from 2015 never before exhibited together. Additionally, the exhibition features photographs from her ongoing 'body' series.
One thing that’s been hugely exciting to me as a relative newcomer to Govanhill is the discovery of exhibition spaces and cultural organisations that I’d been unaware of until the start of the festival. Among them, Celine on Victoria Road stood out, especially when I realised that it’s on the top floor of a tenement that has the Crosshill-Queen’s Park railway line running underneath it. The gallery space is part of a private home, and with its distressed walls and faded elegance, it’s so characterful that I’d be happy to visit even when empty. But luckily, a small selection of paintings and photographs by Sarah Cameron adds a sense of mystery to the room and enhances its intimacy.
It's much harder to make the cavernous space of Tramway’s main gallery feel intimate, and with its strong statements and scene-stealing sculptural pieces Delainia 17071965 Unfolding is quite an overwhelming experience at first. But ultimately, the small, intricately crafted details were what drew me in, made me linger and enabled me to engage more fully with Delaine le Bas’ exploration of Roma discrimination. I’m kind of curious to know what effect it’s having on the stewards, who will be living in the Turner Prize nominee’s world for long stretches of time.
Throughout June, we are taking part in the 'No News is Bad News’ campaign – which is founded on the belief that a well-informed community is more able to act together to shape its own future, that local news is fundamental to a healthy democratic society and invaluable in helping to create strong communities. As part of this campaign, any money we raise for the project during June will be doubled by an Indie News Fund.