Art in unusual spaces film screening

as part of art in unusual spaces there was a film screening on Saturday 1st of May in the old tkmax unit, previously used for floppalgangers and sliceland.

The screening was fantastic aided by the atmosphere of an art lock in. sat on the floor in front of the projection split into three simultaneously playing films accompanied by live music and readings from TS Elliot's waste land. when the event came to an end we wee hustled out of a back door and down the fire escape with samples of film real to take as souvenirs.

Marvellous!

Tramway Douglas Gordon

Visiting the Tramway in Glasgow was a real experience what a fantastic venue!

The work I saw was predominately video based which worked incredibly well in this industrial converted space

Douglas Gordon 24hr psycho back and forth to and fro,

A piece originally commissioned for the tramway was playing on a loop in one of the spaces, having the work in such a dark vast space really played along with Gordon's themes of memory and time emerging from the darkness.

Follow link for tramway visual arts podcasts feed://tramway.jellycast.com/podcast/feed/2

CCA pocket theatre-experience the magic

The CCA was actually one of the first places that we stumbled across in Glasgow, a small hub with a bookshop full of specialist literature, a large gallery space and cafe bar, there was also behind one of the doors a small theatre with old school raked seating and the film pocket theatre 12min playing on constant loop. having the film playing in this small devoted theatre really addend to the magic of the experience, very apt for a film inspired by the magician Arthur Lloyd's thumb card index.

One of the real successes of Sliceland was that despite its low budget those involved really made it a great experience, with the huge workable robots and live music playing, they really made the atmosphere a successes. I am loosing focus so shall leave this particular post going back to the pocket theatre film which if you can find it online you should really have a look at it is really very good.

Extract from CCA Website

A magician pulls seemingly random images from his pocket, including family photographs, playing cards and film stills, arranging and rearranging them in mid air. Inspired by the 1930’s magician Arthur Lloyd, the so-called Human Card Index, Froment plays with illusion and the authority of visual communication.

Vestages Park!

By far I think a Highlight for all those on the Glasgow trip

Vestages park situated in what could be called an area of wasteland just outside of the Glasgow sculpture studios was a project conceived and initiated by Lowsalt. the park was produced by 16 artists. The park itself was a fantastic experience humours and surreal. it really showed how you can make something truly great and inspired a collective when you pull together, Lowsalt said that they appropriated the the public land from the local council and after clearing the land up for the park there is interest for other projects to go on in the once abandoned space. This reminded me of what gary had said about the art in unusual spaces project and how Artists/the creative community are there ready to fill in the cracks and opportunities to produce and show wherever possible. Personally given the choice I would much rather put on a show/display work in a piece of scrap land than in a shopping centre or a gallery for that matter.

extract from promotional material

"A Collective Intervention into a Forgotten Landscape"

Vestiges Park does not exist, cannot exist, will not exist. The artists involved deny all knowledge of the project and the authorities are mute. In some cases these artists may not actually exist – they split, double, multiply, evaporate, condense, dissolve and merge until truth and fiction, science and magic become indistinguishable. Vestiges Park is a chimera – there and not there – dare to find us, dare to enter and let us take you to the edgelands, the rotting places where nothing is as it seems...

...and if you cannot find us it is because we have fallen off your maps. - Lady Ada Lovelace

JACK WRIGLEY ~ CLARA URSITTI ~ ROBBIE THOMSON ~ ANDREW SUNLEY SMITH
JEN SYKES ~ JONATHAN SCOTT ~ SHELLY NADASHI ~ ROB MULHOLLAND ~ PHIL LEE ZUZANNA KALINOWSKA ~ ALEX GROSS ~ CHERYL FIELD ~ ACD FERGUSON
BEN DEMBROSKI ~ JIM COLQUHOUN ~ JUDD BRUCKE

VESTIGES PARK PREVIEW Saturday April 17th 2- 6pm
Open From Twelve until Five Daily
Open Thursday Evenings 5- 8pm
145 Kelvinhaugh Street - Glasgow G3 8PX

Vestiges Park is inspired by the 1844 anonymous publication of ‘Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation’'. The book, written by Scottish journalist Robert Chambers, exposed a cosmic theory of transmutation which pre-dated Darwin's 'Origin of the Species' by 15 years.

The story of this work, its author, and its reception remains one of the most intriguing tales in the history of science. In it we can see foreshadows of many debates that still occur to this day - among scientists and public alike - including those about the validity of evolutionary theories, the demarcation of science from pseudoscience, and the effect of popularization upon scientific ideas. The publication of the first edition would see the birth of one of the greatest controversies of the nineteenth century, one that would result in the sale of over 23,000 copies over a sixteen year period and the publication of a further eleven editions. (Secord 1994, xxvi)

Adam’s Sedgwick (Darwin’s geology professor) described it as “philosophy out of moonshine”

David Noonan

David Noonan

The first of our visits to the Michell Library introduced us for the first time to the work of David Noonan The work itself consisted of several large scale 2d wood elements with silk screen images printed directly onto the supports the images on the pieces where of protests, children playing and sinister looking characters.

The work holds references to stage props and carry s a strong impression of performance and the curator of the work said of Noonan that he uses a large imagery archive in order to leave the images ambiguous the fantastically grand lofty space that the work occupied in the michelle library added to the sence of movement.

An extract from exhibition literature read

'Noonan blends myth fact and fiction in his creation'

Art in unusual spaces wander 16/04

several art in usual spaces openings happened on the 16th of April, mainly in the leeds shopping plaza.
downstairs in the units we will occupy there were several pieces of artwork on display in the units running down the left hand side (facing old zavi) these works were displayed in a mixture of ways on, plinth's, on boards erected in the window and also suspended from the ceiling. the suspended pieces I personally felt worked really well as they seemed to negate the problem of making the exhibition carry the feeling of a static art society display, which I thought was a slight problem with the selling exhibition that had happened in the opposite units a few weeks prior-not that it was the work in that exhibition evoked this impression it was rather the board displays which it was mounted on.
In the unit which previously had the selling exhibition (to the right of zavi) there was a collection of video pieces, one large projection being projected onto one of the freestanding boards previously used for the selling exhibition (this use of the boards did not offend me) and three monitors placed on floor level almost flush with the window.
Those involved with the exhibition had also used a window marker to write and draw on the window text relating to the exhibition. This worked extremely well as it made use of the huge window space without detracting from the video display as laminate lettering might (it was also probably far more economic than laminate lettering as well) .
Overall the space felt really quite dynamic also the booze table was out in the main public area outside old zavi making it known to the general public that something was afoot!

Floppalgangers
upstairs in the old tkmax space which previously held sliceland, there was a group exhibition displaying really very different work dispersed quite far in the space. this distance between pieces worked far better than I would have imagined it might. the work didn't just turn into follies in the vast space, rather the space around them gave them room to be appreciated, I doubt we will have the opportunity to have such space as there are 44 of us but it was nice to see how there is no need to be afraid of work standing alone.
on the downside I am not in any way wanting to be a spoil sport but the health and safety aspect of so many suspect exposed wires did concern me slightly, especially with the possibility of little inquisitive bodies exploring the space; by this I mean children not vermin.

There was also an art in unusual event in the cornexchange, of site specific posters created for the external shop faces running around the balcony. Was not impressed with this, it looked like something that might be there anyway just to fill the space, perhaps this was the concept in which case it was lost on me.

It's been a while!