On Saturday night the planets were obviously in alignment for the art world – four gallery openings within a 500 m radius beckoned. In the end it was lucky that there were multiple shows as each on its own was a little thin – it also helped to increase the availability and selection of free beer.
The galleries were all situated in Trongate, a slightly hip slightly seedy up & coming area between the Merchant City and the East End. After a few drinks at Mono – our hang-out of choice (and would-be regular if it wasn’t for the fact that we neither work nor live anywhere near it) we sauntered into our first show; ROR:POWERTRIP at Transmission Gallery. Produced by a Helsinki based collective (we were disappointed they weren’t around to network with for our trip to Finland later this year) the crew that badge themselves Revolutions on Request and look very rock on their web page had produced some fairly tame art. Highlights included a Donald Duck skull and a pile of foam police cars representing the pile up at the end of the Blues Brothers??? Personally I wanted to insert a personal revolution and dive head first into the pile to really stir up some debate.
Next on the list was our reason for being part of the circuit (the same faces popped up at each gallery we visited). After Human, was produced by young Glasgow based artists one of whom we have met. The work was set up in a funky shop front, and the ideas behind the individual pieces were interesting but with a total of only 7 exhibits (3 paintings, 3 video art installations and a sculpture) again there seemed to be a lack of content. The level of workmanship was a little below par – leading to many debates about the relative merits of craft based vs conceptual art – certainly the blurb provided enough examples of post-rationalisation to warm the heart of any architecture school graduate;
“…make work that explores metaphorically the production of artwork itself.â€
“…this work objectively examines how our surroundings mediate perception, and how this mediation in turn effects (sic) the contemporary art object.â€
Our friends work was some of the strongest there in my opinion (although I am difficult to impress when it come to video art so am probably biased) but my favourite work was the sculpture, a mdf replica of the table saw that was used to create the object. It lead me to J.G Ballardesque thoughts of power tools replicating and taking over the world one tool shed at a time, armies of drop saws and lathes wielding drills and nail guns.
Our third exhibition took us to the top of an old warehouse to the Project Rooms for Tronjan Horse by Grier Edmundson & Luke Collins. In a room painted black with blues painted stripes creating a Tron-like effect stood a gigantic white horse. This was the most professional show of the evening and also it seemed the most popular. Unfortunately this meant that the exhibit couldn’t be appreciated properly as it took over the entire room but was packed with beer swilling punters (including a few Franz Ferdinand members spotted by an eagle-eyed Chhay). It is one that I will definitely try and get back to this week.
The final stop on our art roundabout was the highlight for me, an exhibition by local musician Rob Churm. His work is more widely known in a more urban sense as he regularly produces fliers for events and his own band Park Attack, as well as designing album covers (shown above) and the stand alone pieces that were on display. The fliers that were contained in a small folder were by far and away the most impressive part of the collection and it was a pity that a more innovative method of presenting them hadn’t been employed – it would have been great to seem the plastered up bill poster style – or even harvested after some weeks on the street complete with graffiti and rival posters over and under layed.