Sacrificial Materials

Naming the Walkway

2012-02-13T20:45:00.001Z

Through my research period in Govan I met Ethel-May Abel, she is the River Planner for Glasgow (see notes from my first meeting with Ethel-May - here). When looking at maps of the area it became clear that there is no official name for the section of walkway along the Clyde adjacent to the Riverside housing estate. Ethel-May made enquiries and was able to get permission for Riverside Residents to choose a new name for this walkway.....this process is fully underway just now:

Young people from Riverside marching down the 'walkway to be named' with the carving they repatriated from the new Riverside Museum during The Govan Raid

This invitation and supporting document was delivered to every household in Govan Riverside in December 2011:

By the end of January 8 different suggestions had been put forward and the letter below was delivered to residents inviting them to now vote for their favourite name:

Voting has been brisk and we hope to be able to announce the final result on February 29th

FirstFoot @ TheStove

2012-02-01T19:53:00.000Z

A pretty momentous weekend - one way and another...that saw the first public outing of the new arts-collective The Stove in Dumfries. I have been involved in other blogs about the event itself - so if you want to cut to chase and see the event itself - click here

This post is a chance to reflect on the one years journey that brought me to last weekend.

On January 21st 2011 fellow artist Lizzie Farey and myself hosted an evening attended by more than 60 members of the creative community in SouthWest Scotland. We enjoyed presentations by 4 artists and went on to discuss issues of the day - notably a) the withdrawal of support by our local authority for artists and makers and b) the boorach made by the 'powers that be' over a plan to make a cultural centre from an empty shop.

Following this evening a group of 10 people met again from this group became the nucleus of two new movements for the arts in the SouthWest....The Commonty - a open-access network for sharing information and ideas that operates through a free Blog.

The Commonty has in excess of 200 members who each receive weekly email - on average 2.5 new posts are added each day and approx 5000 unique pageviews per month

Secondly The Stove was born; this is a collective of artists working in disciplines from poetry to glassmaking, from sculpture to filmmaking and from music to metalwork. This group has morphed in size and shape and currently operates with a core curatorial group and a wider creative membership. The Stove has two arena's of operation at present - a) to support the creative community to take a leading role in the debate about the contemporary identity of Dumfries and b) to establish a headquarters for this project in premises 96-102 High Street Dumfries DG1 2BJ.

You can read the ongoing story of The Stove's coming to life - here

The Stove - 96-102 High Street, Dumfries

The Stove Curatorial Group 2012 - (from left) Colin Tennant, Matt Baker, Mark MacLachlan, Linda Mallett and Will Levi Marshall

Following the insightful advice of our friend Karen Ward-Boyd - we decided not to wait for the 'finer points' of the building agreements to be resolved but rather to embark on a programme for three public events around the building. This to begin to establish the agenda and track record of the group in readiness for our new home when it was fully ours to occupy. We are very grateful for the financial support of Creative Scotland and Holywood Trust and the support of individuals too numerous to mention in helping us to reach the point of putting on our first event:

FIRSTFOOT@THESTOVE

(There is a real time story of the event on The Stove website ). First Foot was presented as part of the inaugural Big Burns Supper contemporary arts festival. The Curatorial group put out a call to artists to respond to the theme of First Foot (Scots tradition of crossing the threshold at the start of the new year) as this was our first crossing of the threshold into the public domain in Dumfries.

A week before the event cryptic chalked graffiti appeared around the town centre - this caused 'something of a controversy'

This was followed by the distribution of e-flyers and postcards:

First Foot ran over two nights in the central square in Dumfries - we estimate that more than 1200 witnessed the project over the weekend:

Photographs by Colin Tennant

'Windows on Burns Night' was an international mail-art project curated by Dave Borthwick and Hugh Bryden - poets work was displayed in windows around the town and projected onto The Stove as part of First Foot

Curtains - by Jo Hodges

The Stove's own Bill O'Hara introduces the evening

Cam Pagan's 'Frazer McCubbing'

Florencie Garcia Chafuen 'Salmon Dance'

Mark Zygadlo, Oceanallover and Mischief La Bas ' Lost Supper'

The work was beautiful and very well received - but, for me, the greatest pleasure of the project was the way that a group of creative people came together and worked in a common cause without money or egos getting in the way. I believe that we surprised ourselves with what we were able to achieve and the energy between and around us is now crackling with new ideas and possibilities....we have begun!

The Marks of Time IV

2011-10-25T23:29:00.001+01:00

Anyone familiar with my work will know that The Three Virtues project in Inverness was a very important project for me. Particularly in the way the process see-sawed between my control and that of the momentums at work in the Highland Capital. The original stimulus for the work was the City's loss of three Victorian statues 'Faith, Hope and Charity' and the quest to return them to Inverness.

Faith,Hope and Charity in their original position atop Grants Tartan and Tweed Warehouse, High St, Inverness. The building was demolished in the early 1950s and the statues sold to a private collector on Orkney.

My work took the form of a large scale public discussion of the role of Virtue in a city and the selection of three contemporary virtues to serve Inverness in the 21st Century - these were made manifest as a new public space formed by 3 'outcrops' each named for one of the new virtues (Perseverance, Open-Heartedness and Insight) and planted with a Birch tree.

There is documentation on this project on my website (open 'urban' menu and select 'Three Virtues')

Just as my work was being completed in Inverness and opportunity arose for the City to buy back the original statues - the sale was concluded and, following a consultation process over a new site, Faith Hope and Charity were returned to their former home after an absence of more than 50 years!

An interesting example of how even 'permanent' artworks can be part of a continuing momentum and process of change in a place...

The following pictures are from the unveiling ceremony held on 22nd October:

The three 'speakers' were reprising a performance inspired by the "Three Graces" (as the statues were known locally) - a performance piece written by Sophie McCook and originally presented as part of the 'Imagining the Centre' artwork in 2006

Rev Fiona Smith of Ness Bank Church


Artist John McGeoch of Arts in Motion - John also worked on the opening for my Three Virtues as well as both 'Imagining the Centre' and 'Re-Imagining the Centre'

Put me in mind of the opening event for The Three Virtues:

Rev Peter Nimmo blessing 'perseverance' March 2008

The Three Virtues

All photos courtesy of Ewen Weatherspoon

Completion for Stranraer project

2011-10-25T22:56:00.004+01:00

I was shocked and delighted last week to be awarded the Saltire Society Award for Art in Architecture for the Stranraer Castle Square project. The award was given jointly with my good friend and fellow artist David Ralston who also worked on the project - the judges noting that the whole square worked as integrated whole with my work together with David's and the architect Smith, Scott, Mullan Associates and we were joined at the ceremony by the excellent project architect Rachel Simmonds.

This award is only presented biannually and is Scotland's only award for art in public.


photo from my phone (!)

There is more info about the award on PublicArtScotland and TheCommonty

As part of the press follow up to the award I was sent these finished photos of the project by photographer Zvonko Kracun

Aerial view from Castle of St John - artwork Wiel in the centre

Detail of one end of the artwork 'Greywacke' which comprises a low wall that rises into a boulder outcrop

Detail of the lettering of Mary Smith's poem 'Ocean' which is inscribed into the top of Greywacke

For completions sake this photo (not by Zvonko) shows two of the 29 bronze Bubble Bosses that were the final part of my overall artwork for Stranraer - these were not installed until after the judging process for the Saltire Award

Govan Raid - Film online...

2011-10-06T19:02:00.001+01:00

Jamie Dempster's excellent (and funny) short film of the Govan Raid is now online. The Raid was carried out on the new Riverside Museum on the Clyde by members of the Govan Riverside community on 29th July 2011 - it was the first public artwork carried as part of my commission to work with local people in Govan during a period of change in the area.

watch the film here

Jamie is a first class film maker, cameraman and editor - he came up through Govan's Plantation Productions and has recently returned from a month long masterclass at the Sundance film festival. He can be contacted here

Film Day in Govan

2011-10-06T18:45:00.001+01:00

September 16th saw another wonderfully moving day in Govan Riverside - this was the programme for the day:

As it was such a long programme I was expecting that folk would likely come and go over the day, but as it was the vast majority of the 40-50 people who attended stayed through the whole day. Seen as a whole it was a hypnotic progression through Govan's 'Two periods of greatness (thats two more than most places)' (Prof. Steve Driscoll) and then into the Govan Banners - which underpinned everything with the solidarity and ambition of working people. The whole day was rounded of with the premiere of Jamie Dempster's film of the Govan Raid which gave a contemporary twist on all the themes raised over the day - and also raised a chuckle.

By the end of the day we all felt as is we had been on a long and important voyage through time and place together - thanks to the Riverside Halls for their excellent hospitality and to the community of Govan for once again rising to the occasion with perfect pitch.

The Govan Ferry decked out with the flags from the Govan Raid for the day - photo Tom Manley


Soprano Fiona Wilkie (from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) singing 'Ae Fond Kiss' for passengers on the Govan Ferry


Ingrid Shearer speaking about Govan during the time that it was home to the Kings of Strathclyde

A break between films - the flags from the Govan Raid hung around the Riverside Halls. Tam McGarvey of the GalGael Trust in foreground

Inverness Recognised

2011-09-21T18:22:00.000+01:00

Today's Scotsman newspaper carries a feature by Susan Mansfield that declares Inverness 'home to some of the most interesting Public Art projects in Scotland'. This is just brilliant to see colleagues and friends getting due recognition for their work....often working outside the Central Belt of Scotland it is easy to feel that you are invisible, but you just keep your head down and keep telling yourself that the 'here and now' is what is important. And so it is - but it is still very welcome to have some light shone on projects from afar.

Click on the image for larger version

It is particularly good to see Susan Christie getting credit for the work she has done in Inverness. 4 years ago Susan and I created the organisation IOTA (which is the subject of the article) and ran it together as Lead Artist and Director until my role in Inverness came to an end in mid 2010. IOTA has been successful in getting 3 years core funding from the Highland Council and Susan is now really hitting her stride as an innovative contemporary curator with a City as her canvas.

Information about IOTA can be found here

Film Day in Govan

2011-08-31T21:36:00.000+01:00

The next public event as part of my work with Govan is an afternoon of films, talks and discussion about area. Includes: world premiere of the film of the 'Govan Raid', a rare screening of the first Scottish film to win an Oscar and a live Soprano in a boat- you'd be most welcome to come along:

Rushes from the Raid

2011-07-30T13:29:00.002+01:00

These are a few quick camera-phone impressions from what turned out to b a memorable day on both sides of the water in Govan. A more considered record of the event will follow soon.
Some of these photos are courtesy of artist t s Beall who joined us on the raid. Tara was part of the group behind 'A stones throw away' in 2010 - this project included the Govan Beacon which sent messages via morse code and Twitter....the Beacon came back to life for the Raid yesterday and is a part of the longer-term artworks plan for the area.


Declaration in a Govan window

Vikings march down Govan Road


Vikings, Pirates and others congregate at the top of Water Row

Marching on the ferry

in negotiation with the ferry - community activist Helen Kyle and myself

Vikings load their children on the ferry

Boarding the ferry

The GalGael Trust joined us in the crossing rowing one of the traditional Birlinn boats that they build as part of their work

Nearing the Riverside Museum

Our flags proudly raised at the new Museum (for imagery on the flags see here)

Last minute briefings before entering the museum

Raiders in the Museum

Repatriating the disputed 'model of Govan Ferry' from the Riverside Museum

Weary Raiders homeward bound having won the day

The end of the day - our flags flying on both side of the river....a small piece in the re-unification of Govan....such a shame that you cannot hear the church bells ringing from Govan Kirk at the moment this photo was taken - it was emotional

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic day....I'm looking forward to what grows from this and what we can achieve next.

The Govan Raid - announced

2011-07-27T21:56:00.000+01:00

For obvious reasons there has been a pretty tight security cordon around information about the first public action in my role as artist to Govan Riverside....but enough is now secure in the planning to widen the circle beyond Govan.

This Friday will see The Govan Raid:

Approximately 100 local children and adults will be taking part in the raid - they will plant four flags on the Govan side of the river and then make their way over the river via the new ferry - in this they will be accompanied by the GalGael Trust who will be rowing one of the boats built in their workshop and by the Strthclyde Fire Brigade in their river boat. The four flags that the raiding party will use to claim back the territory occupied by the new Museum will show images of the contemporary Govan that is invisible from the new Museum.

If you are in Glasgow on Friday you'd be most welcome to join us - be at Govan Cross (opposite the Subway Station) at 11.40am on Friday 29th July

The total of eight flags (each 1.5 metres x 1 metre) are shown below - the first group four are the flags that will be carried over the Clyde to the site of the Museum:

The four flags to be planted on the Govan side of the river before the crossing are:

Bridging the gap?

2011-06-29T22:57:00.001+01:00

The new ferry between Govan and the Riverside Museum

The new Riverside/Transport museum opened to the public on 21^st June…to coincide with this event the new ferry crossing from Govan to Partick was re-established. This is the first public crossing on his stretch of the Clyde since the last ferry closed in the 1960s. When I spoke to Glasgow’s river planner Ethel-May Abel (LINK) she spoke with great passion about the importance of publically accessible entrance launching points to the river.


The former public slipway in Govan - where previous ferries have operated from...this slip way is now buried under the carpark in Water Row

Old Govan Ferries (vehicular and passenger) leaving from Partick

Unfortunately I’m guessing that Ethel May might be disappointed by the new ferry crossing arrangements….access to the landing pontoon is via a steel security gate which is padlocked by the ferry operator as each ferry leaves – the crossing is a highly controlled private enterprise. However on the positive side there is for at least now infrastructure in place that allows a boat to land at Govan (if permission can be negotiated with the relevant authorities).

People heading for the access to the new ferry pontoon in Govan - the red triangle indicates the locked security gate above the pontoon

It is amazing to see how the opening of the new Museum has instantly created a new atmosphere along the waterfront at Govan….suddenly there is the sound of people talking, laughing audible across the river and the new sound of the ships bell on the tallship Glenlee being constantly rung by excited children. There is a double effect here: a magnification of the sense that this new palace of fun is close but tantalising out of reach…but at the same time some of its positive energy reaches across the river and there is a palpable sense of relief that there is something ‘going on’ -something ‘alive’. I so remember my first years in Glasgow getting accustomed to the basic rule of life in the city that there must be noise and activity at all times….silence and stillness is not an option in Glasgow….people are hypnotically drawn to the noisiest and brightest part of any room/street etc.

The Riverside Museum and the tallship Glenlee - viewed from Govan side of the Clyde

I watched carefully the people using the ferry and can be fairly sure that the vast majority were Govan people….this based on the fact that they knew exactly where to go when they got off the ferry. I think anyone unfamiliar with the place would struggle with the current layout (though this will be improved by the Council landscaping/signage arrangements). I suspect that when the English school holidays start (always later than Scotland) then we will start to see if any museum visitors will be tempted across the river to experience this exotic place of so many legends – Govan. It will be interesting to see if the new Museum is ‘promoting’ Govan in any way….I have heard rumours of fibreglass replica of the Hogback stones on display.

And the word in Govan? – some discussion of the price of the ferry (£3 return trip) and the suspicion that this is a ‘Ned tax’ ie a deliberate policy to discourage ‘undesirables’ from visiting the museum (which itself is free to enter). Also the members of the Govan Reminiscence group (which I visited today…more on this in another entry) reported that people were wandering around the centre of Govan ‘looking for the ferry’ and that the walk down Water Row to the ferry was ‘muddy and filthy’…..not exactly the best start for Govan’s new role as ‘public transport gateway to the Riverside Museum’ – but hey…it is early days yet.

People heading back to Govan Cross from the ferry - across the 'muddy' carpark

As I looked about I noticed a new sign which seemed to be directing people into the Riverside Housing ‘To the Riverside Museum’ I checked that the sign had not been tampered with and then saw anther one…sure enough the official pedestrian route that avoids the ‘mud and filth’ is through the Riverside Housing Scheme. Another sign of the community being drawn into new public ‘visibilty’.

Pedestrian route from Govan Cross to the Riverside Museum - signed through Govan Riverside Housing scheme

I also spent a delightful 2 hours today with Glasgow artist T S Beall – Tara has a studio next to Govan Riverside and has made two pieces of public work there Govan Beacon and Govan Armada. We immediately found a wealth of common ground and passion for the paradoxes of Govan…hopefully it will be possible to work together in Riverside in the future.

Govan Beacon - T S Beall and Ben Rush

Thinking about Landmarks - and Gretna

2011-06-25T13:57:00.003+01:00

A major public art project is underway in South West Scotland at the moment - it is exciting to be so close to something which is potentially so significant at a regional and national level. The project is sited on the Scottish side of one of the major border crossings with England and aims to explore ideas of identity and boundaries. The process undertaken to date has now resulted in three proposals - there is a link to the BBC report and a PDF of the proposals themselves here

A student from Edinburgh College of Art sent me a copy of a paper he had written about identity and 'Scottishness' in public art - in it Mike McCallum argues that collective action is at the root of much of contemporary public art practice in Scotland. This is something which I also feel passionately about and set me thinking about the Gretna project in the context of 'national identity':

For good or for bad[i] the prevalent national mythology in Scotland is that of the determined/canny underdog triumphing against the odds. Admittedly a cliché ..but like all clichés there is a vein of truth here. The self-depreciatory trait of the scots runs very deep – never do we see ourselves as the natural favourite in any contest, rather we would prefer the ‘moral victory’ and look for the ‘true essence’ or ‘hidden depths’ of someone rather than impressive display. Much of this is rooted deep in the culture – but, one suspects that, much is also directly attributable to the fact that our lives have been controlled from afar for so long…be that in the form of absentee landlords of massive estates or political control from Westminster.

The things we have control over are the small things…the mobile and easily concealed things…stories, songs and objects which have great meaning for us, but which display none of the usual trappings of power.

My thinking here is that these national characteristics are reflected in the way we produce and view cultural events and objects…hence the ‘monument’ in Scotland is one of two things:

A display of power placed in public by the ruling elite (eg Duke Of Sutherland monument in Golspie - 1833)

Monument to the First Duke of Sutherland (notorious for his role in the Highland Clearances) - history records that the monument was paid for by his tenants...though contemporary reports question the 'voluntary' nature of their contribution

Something created out of genuine feeling and significant action/generosity by a community (eg Burns monument in Auchinleck - 1823)

Local people organised a vast public collection to raise a monument to the national poet (who spent much of his early life in the town) - so much money was raised that it also paid for a row of cottages that were rented to the elderly of the town

A large object being raised in a public place is a peculiarly loaded act in a country such as ours…the processes of consent, negotiation and ownership are vitally important. We need to know who is doing such a thing and why.

Anthony Gormley 'Angel of the North' Gateshead, England 1998

One of the most remarkable things about the oft-cited ‘Angel of the North’ was the process that the team and the artist went through to gain the consent of their public. My recollection is that one of the most significant parts of that process was Anthony Gormley staging his ‘Field’ project in Gateshead – in this, members of the public create very simple clay ‘people’ by squeezing clay between their palms and pressing two ‘eyes’ with their fingers – literally hundreds of these tiny figures complete the final installation. I remember being genuinely moved by a version of field that I saw in London. This simple act of ‘feeling part of a process’ is vital to a new work arriving in a public space.

Anthony Gormley 'Field for the British Isles'

Detail of 'Field'

Particularly in Scotland, it is not possible to rely on respect being paid to a famous artist…the public suspicion being that famous artists to be the playthings of the rich and powerful rather than agents of the people.

Once the proposal for the Gretna Landmark has been decided by the core team – there is still a lot of work to be done by the artists in including local people in their vision in order to turn the monument into something ‘of the place’ rather than a symbol of external power. I hope the team will be up for this challenge...it will be worth it in the long run and I'm sure the final work will benefit from the process

[i] There is a bigger discussion to be had about whether we should be attempting to change this in order for Scotland to begin to believe in itself again as independent and strong….ie to begin the process of recovery required for a country following a period of colonial rule. However, this is manifestly not part of the stated remit of the Gretna Landmark.

Graving Docks

2011-06-02T21:46:00.000+01:00

The Graving Docks are an abandoned series of dry docks alongside the Govan Riverside housing scheme and opposite the new Riverside Museum

between 4.30pm amd 5.10 pm 31.05.11

A Mother, A Gardener, An Archaeologist and a Landscape Architect

2011-05-20T11:54:00.000+01:00

My day today began with Gillian who a year ago began a mothers and toddlers group at the Riverside Halls. Gillian is one of those amazing people in the world who exudes positivity and ‘can do’. She told me about the great sense of community she experiences in Govan (Gillian lives across Govan Road from Riverside) – she told me about her teenage daughter who is a very keen artist and about the very active youth club at Riverside….her husband works in the shipyard (as her father did all his life) – Gillian and I hatched plans about how the Mothers and Toddlers could be involved in a community picnic to celebrate the opening of the new Museum.

Community BBQ organised as part of 'Oatlands Needs Pakora' - Glasgow 1999

Gillian tells me that local people are very excited about the Museum and can’t wait to see it. We discuss ways that the youth club could play a part in the projects we are planning – Gillian suggests that the young people would like to be involved in helping the speakers present their talks and maybe could help me interview local people about their recollections of the area…this could feed into something graphic to go with the picnic event? I will return another week to talk to more mothers in the group.


When you see images like this one from 1930s, it is not hard to see why there is a deep folk memory of the River Clyde as something dark and dirty. This shows the river being used entirely as an industrial space.

Betty's garden photographed last week

On my way back to the subway I see that a lady is working in the tiny garden that I first noticed a week ago – I meet Betty the Gardener. We talk about the land around the houses and I learn that people are not allowed to put their washing outside (Betty complains that she is too old to climb the stair to the communal drying room). She tells me that no one disturbs her garden – but that she would love a little more privacy around her house.

Betty and her garden

In contrast to the scheme that Gillian lives in Betty says there is very little sense of community in Riverside – because of he lack of private space around her house she says that she feels ‘like a prisoner’……she talks about ‘them’ in the Halls and says she’ll not go there…but she promises to come to a talk about the history of the area.

Traditional Glasgow road surface of whinstone cobbles - showing wear and different jointing materials

Steve Driscoll is a professor of Archaeology at Glasgow University – he has been interested in Govan for many years and has co-written the recent book “Historic Govan” and carried out many of the archaeological digs in the area (including trying to locate Doomster Hill). I met Steve six years ago on a previous project and knew that he was not just an expert in ancient Govan but also had an active interest in the future of the burgh – he showed me proposed development plans for Water Row and the Old Parish church and spoke passionately about plans to make the Govan Stones part of the ‘visitor offer’ associated with the new Museum.

Hogback stone in Govan burial ground (before removal inside the church)

Steve thinks there is great potential for interpreting the burial ground at the church and told me of the way the different styles of gravestone tell a fascinating story about changing attitudes to ancestral land from families who appropriated the Norse Hogback stones as ancient family Lairs to the 17/18^th Century skilled workers who adopted an Enlightenment ‘rational’ stance to burial –reflected in the iconography of their memorials. Steve gave me a detailed version of the history and use of Doomster Hill and showed me how he had altered his estimation of its position since we met last. Steve kindly agreed to be make a presentation about ancient Govan to local people at the Riverside Halls.

Natural landscape 'design' caused by weeds growing unchecked between paving stones - Govan

Pete Miller is a Landscape Architect who works for Glasgow City Council and worked on the recently completed works along the Clyde and adjacent to Riverside. Pete is also very knowledgeable about the history of Govan and loves the river. He explained how they had attempted to simplify the layout along Clyde and ‘give the river back to the people in the scheme’. Pete is very enthusiastic about walking along the river and showed me maps with proposed works to join up the lengths of walkway that currently end in dead ends.

Riverside dead end- Canting Basin, Govan

Riverside dead end - Graving Docks, Govan

We talked about shapes and markers for temporary routes that will allow people to continue river walks – Pete is keen on marking Doomster Hill and offered me useful guidance about recycling the whinstone cobbles on the site. Pete would like to come and be part of any seminar event at the Riverside Halls, gave me some amazing archive photos and offered to help with advice on landscaping when the time is right.

Top of the Ferry Slipway - Water Row....note how long the slipway is - Ethel-May Abel says this entire structure is still buried under the current temporary carpark

A good day in Govan.

A Riverside Story

2011-05-19T22:51:00.001+01:00

After my meeting with Ethel-May Abel, I received a very informative email from her – I felt it was well worth adding sections from this to this blog:

“You will recall that I said the yard was previously called the smith and something yard- well I was wrong (wrong spelling and wrong location). The yard was Stephen and Linthouse which became the Fairfield’s yard.

Although latterly Harland and Wolf did encompass this space and Govan and Partick Burgh extended from Sheildhall to the Canting Basin(Princess Dock) from west to east.

The documents show this area being occupied by a yard for shipbuilding firm 1839 and under the operation of Robert Napier from1841 and Randolph and Elder by 1860-1863 Napier is the father of shipbuilding (note – all of the streets in the Riverside Housing Scheme are named for Napier). Napier expanded into Govan East yard until Napier’s death when it passed to Dr A C Kirk. Lying between the Old Yard and east yard was Middleton yard (1842) which expanded in 1864. Together these yards were developed by the early 20th century operated as Harland and Wolf until the closure in 1962.

Prior to this period Govan centre was common land used for drying, grazing and bleaching. Bleaching was very common. The weaving industry was a main employer through the 18th and early 19th century. The first silk works in Scotland was founded in Govan. Undoubtedly it was also the location for dye works- which used water from the top of Doomster Hill- founded by Alexander Reid.

Until the river was re-engineered in the early 19th Century the crossing point at Govan was very important to trade with brewing and ale houses on either side of the river. The common lands extended back from the river and the road pattern today often reflects the location of these common lands thus the long roads leading south as goods would go by land to Gourock and Greenock. The crossing of the Clyde as a ford therefore is the reason for the growth of both places and the importance of transport even now- the Govan underground depot and Partick – is the largest regional station in Scotland handling more people than other City stations.”

next blogpost in this series

planning for the long-term

2011-05-19T22:23:00.001+01:00

My day today began with Ethel –May Abel, Ethel-May is ‘something’ that I have never met before – a ‘River Planner’. She has the enviable task of looking afrter the River Clyde in Glasgow’s City Planning system. Ethel-May also redefined ‘planner’ for me – she thinks of her role as being someone who ‘looks to the future’ often setting in train long-term strategy that may not seem immediately useful in the short-term.

Tram tracks in original cobbled road - Water Row

There is an a view of the current downturn in development as a boomtime for long-term thinking – without developers queuing to buy any land that could contain a building – there is potential for the city to make land –swap deals to acquire bits of the ‘long-term jigsaw’ for the sustainable future of Glasgow. For Ethel-May this means fighting for the rights of things like public slipways, joining up areas of riverside walkway and protecting long buried pieces of river infrastructure from destruction by new underground pipes etc.

this is how the former Govan ferry slipway looks today

This view from the late 19th Century shows just how far the slipway extends up Water Row...all of this structure is intact and currently buried under carpark. Ethel-May Abel is making it her business to stop this valuable infrastructure being destroyed by development

Ethel- May looks at the city from the river and hopes for a return to the time when buildings were designed out from the river a time when streets were were things that happened behind buildings on the river. The Riverside Museum is an example of this current attitude, even though it is called Riverside the staff are trained to refer to the river frontage as the back of the building and the Tall Ship as being moored behind the building. The Govan Riverside housing that I am working with is certainly a case in point with most of the houses ‘turning their backs’ to the river – Davy Patterson (manager of Riverside Community Halls) told me that many of the residents “had not been down to the river in years” (even though none of the houses is more than 50 metres from the Clyde).


New Museum to the right (with Glenlee in front of it) Govan Riverside housing to the far left


Evidence that people at Riverside are beginning to 'face' the river again

Strange angle onto looking over the Graving Docks to the Clyde....the new Museum appears to have crossed the river to amke a sandwich of the Glenlee with Govan as the other piece of bread

Ethel-May was very supportive of the approach that we are taking at Riverside and made the amazing offer that local people could come up with an official name for the stretch of waterfront adjacent to the housing….currently this section of land has no name on maps etc. Today I became more convinced of a threefold strategy to support the Riverside community in asserting their public identity:

1. a programme of talks by experts in local history and culture at the Community Halls and a visit to the new Museum (before it officially opens) by a group of local people

2. a celebratory meal (with an ‘artistic slant’) to be held in the open air on the day of the public opening of the new Museum

3. using the events above as a means of arriving at a name for the riverside walkway adjacent to the housing (this name to be launched at the outdoor meal)

My next visit was to the inspirational Galgael project. I worked with the Galgael six years ago on the Kintra Street project (‘lead artist’ menu) – there primary focus is in supporting the overall health of their community by passing on practical skills to people and getting involved in projects that bring to the surface the latent culture and identity of Govan. In practical terms the Galgael are best known for supporting groups of local people to build traditional oak boats and then learning to sail them.

One of the early Galgael boats - in the workshop for repairs

In addition they will get involved in anything they see as helping their community to help itself. Tam Garvie updated me on current activity including a community garden in Elder Park, the Govan Folk University and their plan to erect a 16 foot granite obelisk opposite the Riverside Museum. Tam was enthusiastic about ways in which we could work together at Riverside and introduced me to Rosie who lives at Riverside and has volunteered at Galgael for 4 years.

The Galgael workshop

Today, I also called in on a group of artists who work in part of a former shipyard adjacent to Riverside and met with Lesley McGregor who introduced me to more people from the Southside team at Glasgow Housing Association. I am beginning to understand at what ‘level’ I am interacting with the process of delivering ‘environmentals’ for Riverside……I am working with the people who shape the brief that is then handed down to ‘designers’. Until now I have asked to speak with ‘designers’ – as I am used to them being one of the key people that I ‘answer to’ when working on ideas for a place…..I keep being told that ‘designers are not part of the picture yet’ ….maybe this is really the holy grail of public art ‘being involved at an early stage’?! Thank you very much GHA and Peter McCaughey (no pressure then!).

Broomloan School has been derelict for years - I like the way the security grille makes space for the capitals of the stone columns

Owning the space

next blogpost in this series

Designing in the here and now

2011-05-16T19:31:00.003+01:00

The layers of history in Govan are uppermost in my thoughts just now – it is making me look at my surroundings with different eyes….thinking about who made things and why…what is design and how is it valued in historical terms....how are shapes and themes repeated and re-interpreted?

inscription on the Pearce Institute - ending '...time present is the only time for thee'

Govan's Subway Station ….a designed present in the 1970’s

The new Riverside Museum - a contemporary designed present

The Aitken Fountain ....Victorian design re-imagined for now (this fountain has a fascinating history - it was erected by public subscription in honour of a local doctor - the sculpted baby went missing at some point in the past and its absence was celebrated in a public art project by Colin Begg in 2009 ('Wheres Baby?') the fountain has recently been restored and a replica of the Baby created. The fountain is the centrepiece of the new Govan Cross square that will be opened to the public on June 1st 2011

30 year old Graffiti……what is the difference between this and a spray can ‘tag’?….so hard to imagine someone heading out of a night with a brush and a tin of gloss paint….retro graffiti anyone?

Govan war memorial – I find the niaivety of these figures incredibly moving……not difficult to imagine this being created by workers in the shipyards rather than ‘professional artists’

obviously the word ‘designer’ has gone through some changes too….

next blogpost in this series

Just past No-Mans Land

2011-05-15T18:35:00.000+01:00

Today I started my day in Govan in Orkney Street. This is Govan famous former police station and jail which has now been converted into a home for various enterprise initiatives in the area. One of the jails most famous former residents was the Nazi Rudolph Hess who flew to Britain on some kind of ‘peace’ mission during the latter stages of WW2 – he landed in the Highlands and was initially taken to Orkney St – wouldn’t you have loved to have heard the talk in the jail that night!

image from a project (Journeymen-urban menu) I worked on in Orkney St Jail before it was redeveloped as an Enterprise Centre

I met with Susan Hanlin at Orkney St, Susan heads up the Central Govan Action Plan (CGAP) who have been responsible for many of the improvements to the public spaces around the Subway and the Shopping Centre. CGAP are part of the large group of agencies that are interested in the future of Water Row. Water Row is one of the iconic places from Govan’s past and connects the centre of the town to the Clyde. Currently Water Row is a temporary carpark (home to a large weekly market) bounded on one side by the Showpeople’s settlement and Riverside housing on the other. The carpark is mostly used by commuters who park there and take the subway into Glasgow city centre. Part of the public transport strategy for the new Museum is that people will take the subway to Govan and then cross the Clyde by the new ferry to the museum…….hence Water Row is very much on everyone’s minds as a key part of the overall picture for Govan and tourism in wider Glasgow.

Susan Hanlin is very interested in the way that the history of Govan can be interpreted in the way that Water Row is developed ….she talked about the group that has formed around Govan Old church and the plans to bring the famous Govan Stones more into the public eye – these stones are housed in the church and are central to Govan’s position as one of the ‘cradles of Scottish Christianity’ alongside Iona and Whithorn. I also learnt a little more about the settlement of Showpeople along Water Row – Susan told me that the settlement had been there for at least 20 years and that many of the people there had long family trees based in Govan. I now have a couple of contacts for this community and hopefully will be able visit soon.

Entrance to the Showpeople community

At one point in our conversation Susan referred to the area at the bottom of Water Row as ‘no mans land’ – the Riverside housing is therefore set between No Mans Land and the derelict Graving Docks……I wonder once again what it is like to live just beyond No Mans Land? The new museum and the plans for water Row represent a huge shift for Riverside…an opportunity….or an unwelcome intrusion? Suddenly this community which has been on the ‘edge’ will be reconnected to ‘the centre’ on two sides.

View of the new Museum and further up the Clyde to the City Centre - Govan Ferry pontoon visible on right hand bank

My next appointment was with Carol Grant who is the Local Housing Officer (LHO) responsible for Riverside. Carol looks after everything from rent arrears to maintenance to liaising with the police, this conversation was a radical shift in a different direction from speculating about mediaeval Govan with Susan! Carol has to deal directly with the day-to-day issues of the community – key amongst her concerns is that the spaces around Riverside have become a centre for drinking, drug taking and evading the police. This means that the priority for Carol is to reduce the number of ‘places’ locally that are attractive for people to gather to drink etc…ie places where they do not feel overlooked or viewable by CCTV. Carol would like to see the landscaping levelled flat to educe hiding places and many trees taken out so that CCTV cameras are unobstructed. This seemed quite an extreme viewpoint until Carol gave examples of activity at Riverside….the layout of the housing is an interlocked pattern which means that there are no direct routes….rather than going around a building groups of youths will regularly kick in the doors of a building pass through the shared lobby and then kick in the door at the other side – they take a short cut through peoples houses rather than walk around the outside! My jaw hit the table…

Layout of housing at Riverside (blue)

Carol also explained that while Riverside is a stable community with along waiting list for accommodation the majority of the tenants do not have jobs – in fact most have never worked but brought up families on benefits and now those families also live in Riverside. The unique challenges of this situation have never seemed starker to me.

I spent the rest of the day walking in the area an looking for clues to the way things work here and the specific qualities of the environment.


Tree growing out of chimney pots

Glimpses of shipyard cranes

Old graffiti about Orkney Street (when it was a Police Station I'm guessing...)

I'm very interested in the spaces immediately outside the housing at Riverside - ref earlier blogs

I looked for other examples locally of 'defensible space' around housing - railings around a tenement

A combination of wall and bushes cushions the change from public to private space

I also called in on the lovely Helen Kyle (Scotland in Europe) and Moya Crowley (Plantation Productions) who I have worked with in the past…..it was nice to catch up and very quickly the talk turned to Riverside and more potential leads for me to explore and possible people and organisations to work with…….the landscape expands again….

The new Museum visible beyond the Riverside housing

Seeing this put me in mind of iconic Govan photos I have seen of ships being built behind tenement streets.

This is NOT Govan (it is Barrow in Furness)....I know I have seen similar images from Govan but was unable to find one just now

This set me off on a theme of archetypal shapes and situations repeating themselves in a place....to be picked up in the next blog

Govan - crossing the threshold

2011-05-09T21:52:00.003+01:00

Last Wednesday saw my first invited venture into the community that lives by the Clyde at Govan - I first met with Lesley McGregor who works for Govan Housing Association and has the enviable brief of 'being the person that helps support good things in communities' Lesley explained a about how she develops projects and also that the official name of the area of housing that I am working is Clydeview - but that the specific group of housing is called Riverside. Together we then visited Riverside Halls where we met the manager Davy Patterson, neighbourhood chairperson Deirdre Gaughan and GHA project manager Drew Glaister (Drew is responsible for overseeing the overall environmental improvements package at Riverside)

We talked about the activities in the Halls – which has a full programme every day. I was there during the older peoples Wednesday Lunch club – more that 50 people were eating mince and tatties (Lesley and I got a plate too) before their bingo session. Davy warned me that, if I wanted to talk to this group, I should avoid the bingo session…..I looked in as we left – the concentration was awesome.

People leaving Riverside halls after the Wednesday lunch club and Bingo

We talked about the history of the housing – Deirdre has lived at Riverside since it was first built, she estimated that this was 34 years ago. Knowledge of the history of the site before the housing was pretty sketchy, though people were sure that a shipyard had been here previously and everyone knew the story of a crane driver whose crane had overbalanced, fallen into the river and the driver had drowned.

This was really just a first introduction - but I immediately struck by how active the Halls are in the community and the resilience of the community in difficult circumstances. One of the first issues that is mentioned with regard to landscaping proposals is the 'rat run' - there is no through route for vehicles through the housing and people running from the police often duck into the housing to evade officers who are giving chase in patrol cars.


Rat Run route in red

We made plans to meet up again and I left to spend more time walking in the area. Drew was also walking around checking on the progress of work in progress – we had several more chats….he mentioned the issue that I’d wondered about in my first visits ie the apparent lack of ‘ownership’ of the areas immediately out with the entrances to the flats. Drew defined this as a lack of ‘defensible space’ (adding that this was probably an old-fashioned concept!) …what I understood him to mean was that there was no defined change from totally ‘public’ territory to the ‘private’ territory behind the front door of the flats. It seemed to me that there could definitely be a case for new additions that could signal a boundary in advance of the front doors. Though obviously anything that blurs boundaries could become be open to misuse…but, on the other hand, the current situation leads to a feeling that this is a community under siege who are only secure behind their front doors.

When I lived in a squat in East London in the early 1990s we had a house cat and a cat flap. The area was home to innumerable feral cats who quickly discovered the cat flap – poor Bess’s territory quickly shrank until she was effectively restricted to the sofa in the living room. The cat flap had to go.

I spent some time looking at the entrances to the housing…in particular the bottom of Water Row, this is where people coming to see the new Museum will arrive – what will be the messages that the environment will give them? What message do the residents want to give to these new visitors? The waterside walk is very much a public space, there are interesting places in the distance (eg the tower beside the Science Museum) – people will be intrigued to walk along the Clyde…..but the fences at the end of the housing prevent further access along the river and to continue their journey people will have to navigate through the estate. There may be a case for establishing a public route through Riverside to link the path along the Clyde to the Graving Docks and to the Media Quarter beyond.


'Entrance to the New Museum' - this is the bottom of Water Row...to the left is the settlement of Showpeople and to the right is Riverside housng...in the centre is the new museum

The waterside walk is very much a public space, there are interesting places in the distance (eg the tower beside the Science Museum) – people will be intrigued to walk along the Clyde…..but the fences at the end of the housing prevent further access along the river and to continue their journey people will have to navigate through the estate. There may be a case for establishing a public route through Riverside to link the path along the Clyde to the Graving Docks and to the Media Quarter beyond.

Riverside walk - Millenium Tower in distance just to right of closet tree

It becomes clearer and clearer to me that the housing at Riverside has always been effectively a secluded ‘cul de sac’ ie not on a route anywhere and hidden from view from all sides. This makes it the natural place for people to ‘disappear’ into when they need to hide and is why the public areas have been gradually stripped of anything that could be used to hide behind. One aspect of this secluded status is about to change as the new public spaces around Water Row turn re-define Riverside as one edge of public ‘frontline’ of Govan.


Blank gable walls face the river

Looking from this perspective it is also noticeable how the flats ‘turn their backs’ on the Clyde – with no windows looking over the river.

Today was a really hot day and the lack of any semi-private spaces out with the flats was further emphasized by people looking for somewhere to enjoy the sun:

sitting in the sun outside your house 1

sitting in the sun outside your house 2

Returning home I start to look into some of the Govan that is now hidden - this is an image based on an 18th century sketch from the north side of the river - the earth mound to the left is Doomster Hill a remnant from Govan's past as the court of the kings of Strathclyde in the 7th and 8th centuries AD.

The Riverside housing is on the site of Doomster Hill - compare with the contemporary view:

Govan Riverside from the North bank of the Clyde


Motte of Urr - a similar earthwork to Doomster Hill, near Castle Douglas SW Scotland

I also found this picture of a 'hogback' tombstone in Govan kirkyard. I have visited these world-famous stone carvings many times, but had not seen this picture of one in-situ before it was removed to inside the church (where it can be seen today)

I love how incongruous the hogback looks next to the later tombstones - it has a presence akin to a submarine surfacing in alien waters. There is also an echo here of iconic Govan images of ships in the shipyards seen at the end of a street of tenements....for sure these will figure later on in this adventure

next blogpost in this series

Govan Riverside - from the outside

2011-04-14T22:11:00.001+01:00

This is something I have never done before and I am feeling more exposed than usual as a result. I had a very exciting and interesting talk this morning with Andrew Henderson of Glasgow Housing Association and their 'Resident Artist' Peter McCaughey (the lead artist for commissions with GHA of which Govan Riverside is one). Peter is a very experienced and skilled public artist, one of his private aims in his work is to further understanding and recognition of public art practice....Peter was very complimentary about the way I write about my own practice and asked if I would keep a form of journal of my work with Govan Riverside. This is the first (and very possibly last!) entry....

There is a very precise moment when I enter a project - it is when I talk to the first person who is personally connected with the place I am working....at that point I become 'known' and from then on, my relationship to my outsider status becomes fluid. Until that moment I am looking in from the outside - it is a very useful experience and I return to these observations regularly.

What follows are some outside observations from today...anyone reading this from Govan please, please note that nothing here is a criticism - it is just me looking from the outside and knowing nothing of the reality that lies within. Today has whetted my appetite to find out more and I cannot wait to step across the threshold now

Walking down Water Row to the River


These are part of the remains of the former ferry crossing gear


Dredging the river for the foundations for the pontoon that will be part of the new ferry crossing

The new 'Riverside Museum' designed by architect Zaha Hadid that is being built directly opposite Govan Riverside on the North bank of the Clyde

Following the path along the river you arrive at the edge of the group of houses that makes up Govan Riverside


I am very bad at reading graffiti tags - but usually anything with a YT is related to a gang. There is very little graffiti amongst the houses themselves...just a bit at the edges of the estate


One of the houses facing the river - the materials are the same throughout the estate, but most of the houses are part of bigger blocks. The brick cross motif is one of the only bits of decoration built into the housing estate

My first impression of the place is that this feels like a settled and proud community - it feels like a place that people really live in (as opposed to passing through) - but I am struck by how little is visible no one has any ornament or 'front garden' outside their houses. The outside spaces are well looked after and clean - but seem strangely empty and quiet. I am used to wandering around in very small villages - but I am unsure about how welcome I feel here. This feeling takes on a significance after conversations with Andrew and Peter about how there is likely to be an influx of tourists coming here to take photographs of the new museum from across the river.


The brick surface of the river bank - there are contrasting materials here - some old and some new (as above) a possible reason for this becomes clear when I cross the river...see below


I start to notice how much interesting decoration is in peoples windows - this appears to me to like the equivalent of what might otherwise be placed in a front garden or on a front step. There is a fascinating array of different styles and interests, but all beautifully presented


This ingenious Doocot (pigeon coop) is behind a high-walled garden

There are several of these strange cobble-edged spaces between the houses

Reaching the edges of the housing estate again I notice that suddenly there is much more noise and activity - I am standing outside the Riverside Hall. I've been told about this place and how utterly central it is to life here. I feel very intrusive again and hurry past...but try to take in as much as I can of the atmosphere...this looks a brilliant place. When I pass again later there is a children's workshop happening in the street and football practice taking place on the the basketball court. There are obviously seriously committed and brilliant people running this place - I suddenly feel utterly useless and a total fraud - I hope they will be patient with my madness.

The Riverside Hall (photo from the web - I did not want to take photographs until I had met with people here)

A graffiti mural beside the Riverside Hall

Moving past the Riverside Hall I headed for the area of wasteland alongside the housing estate....this was a place that I had known well in the late 1990's - the deserted Graving (Dry) Docks.

I've always loved the feeling of being in wilderness in the city


A fireplace by the Clyde overlooking the new museum - I wonder if Zaha Hadid has been here....


View from the Graving Docks - Govan Riverside to the left


A clever solution to swinging around from a doorway to the ladder on the wall

I made my way across the river to try and see what the view of Govan Riverside would be like from the Museum

Backs of advertising hoardings on the Expressway

Granite kerbs from the old docks - I have used these once before in a previous artwork

This last panorama is a s close as I got to the museum. The view of Govan Riverside is really striking as being a definite group of houses that stand out as different in style to what is around them - this gives them a sense of belonging somehow. The rivers edge is very dominant in the view too - now the difference in materials that I had seen close-up on the other side makes a bit more sense....it looks as if the spaces between old dockside structures have been filled in to create the land that the houses are built on. I need to look into the story of the the changing use of the land....also the shape and rhythm of the river edge looks like something that would be useful to work with.

All this focus on 'looking', 'views', 'visibility' is bringing to mind the giant earthwork known as Doomster Hill that used to sit beside the site of Govan Riverside. Current archaeological thinking is such that earthworks like this were used for by people with power to 'be visible' as the places where justice etc was carried out. Doomster Hill was the seat of the kings of Strathclyde in the Dark Ages (7-8 centuries AD) after the Vikings drove them from their previous seat at Dumbarton. I must go and look up Professor Stephen Driscoll who did has excavated around Doomster Hill.

In the meantime it is definitely time to meet some people from Govan Riverside...time to find a new view

next blog in this series

Govan Riverside

2011-04-01T11:52:00.001+01:00

I was really chuffed this morning to be offered a new commission to work with Glasgow Housing Association to research and make new work in relation to the Govan community along the south of the Clyde and directly opposite the new Riverside Museum that is currently in construction.

Riverside Museum from across the river

The museum project effectively casts a spotlight on the other side of the river and makes visible a place that has not been in public view before. I am really interested to see how this new art project might explore that circumstance and, hopefully, use it to the advantage of the people that live there.

This project has been developed through artist Peter McCaughey long-term commission to work with Glasgow Housing Association - Peter is working in partnership with arts consultant Ben Spencer on the overall project to involve artists in the work of GHA.

The Commonty, Anonymity and being At Home

2011-03-26T20:44:00.001Z

Since the end of January I have been involved in helping to set up an new network for people involved in the creatives arts in the region where I live...SouthWest Scotland. This has been on an entirely voluntary basis and does not come under any recognisable/justifiable category such as 'marketing' (I've actually tried to be as anonymous as possible)....so why am I doing this I keep asking myself?

http://thecommonty.blogspot.com/

Last week I was talking to the lady who runs our village shop - we talked about different types of places to live and the subject of 'anonymity' came up ie different types of people either like to be anonymous or not and certain types of place naturally lend themselves to one or the other state of being. When I work on a public art project I become very visible in a place...I put myself 'in the line of fire' in the hope that my very public actions will somehow be to the benefit of the place that I am working.

I have always said that I would not work 'close to home' because I needed a place that I could absent myself from that public exposure. But the benefit of being public somewhere is that I move around a place with a sense of being a real part of what is happening there. The flipside of this bargain is that I have always felt curiously apart from where I am living.

Just this last couple of weeks I have noticed myself looking at places and people locally in a different way...in a way that I recognise from places that I have worked in. Is The Commonty teaching me that I need to feel I am creatively investing something in the common experience of a place in order to feel truly at home? (and the safest way to do that at home is for free)

Art, land reform and a culture of relevant regional productivity

2011-03-10T20:05:00.000Z

I feel connected to Dumfries and Galloway in my work and through extended family and friends across the region where I live. I often question why this place should feel so special to me- so complete. I work all over Scotland and have many familiar routes, but there is a logic and sense to crossing the land of the South West:

from the flatlands of Gretna

....to the pasture of Nithsdale and Dumfries

....gradually finding Castle Douglas – the market at the edge of the granite and heather

....onto the lumpy wilds of Gatehouse and Cairnsmore

....before passing the quarries of Creetown

...and the water of Newton Stewart

.....then pushing on into longer horizons at the start of the Southern Uplands past the Abbey lands of Glen Luce

....and finally the edge of the world at Stranraer and Portpatrick

….and yes (for any locals reading) I realise that this is just the A75 and that the best bits are off to the sides…but this is the spine of our country and passing along it I have a sense of feeling connected to the rhythm of the landscape unlike anywhere else I know.

So what is the binding thread, and is it of any relevance in thinking about the future?….my first answer would be the stones

– there is a lovely quote from Neal Acherson (about Scotland generally) ‘…human experience in this difficult Northern place has been built so intimately into the geology and the post-glacial ecology of Scotland that a people and its stones form a single cultural landscape’

the ‘spine’ of the region that I spoke of before is paralleled by the literal spine of the Southern Uplands (that run just to the North of the A75).

Southern Uplands (Dalveen Pass)

This band of hills that runs from Portpatrick in the West, right across to Berwickshire in the East of Scotland was formed 400 million years ago when the then separate land masses of England and Wales crashed into Scotland and the sea bed of the Iapetus Ocean between them was squashed like a concertina and pushed up into the light. The grey, hard and brittle local Whinstone (properly Greywacke) makes up the Southern Uplands and was formerly the seabed of the Iapetus Ocean.

greywacke used as building stone

I was born in the South West of England and I make a connection between the energy of that South West with the South West of Scotland….people often say ‘sleepy’ or even ‘hippy’ ….but it is not that, I sense a comfort with time….and I mean long slow time as opposed to short fast time – a sense that things take as long as they take and that there is no sense in forcing the issue because you will probably end up using twice the energy for the same result. This corresponding lack of pressure on land has led to the marks that the old people made in (and with) the stones still being very much in evidence ‘Cup and Rings’ ‘Circles’ and ‘Cairns’ are everywhere as are old roads, dykes and the stone infrastructure of subsistence living on the land.

Cup and Ring markings - High Banks, near Kirkcudbright

Abandoned sheep pens - Newton Stewart

Much is spoken today of the breakdown of communal life and the modern phenomenons of ‘de-centred community’ etc – for sure, things have changed here too, but I think that there is always one eye on the past, and the rush for the future is not so final, so all-embracing…..we question the purpose of villages and towns in the modern age when they have been so fundamentally stripped of their former necessity by mechanization and modern communications….but, there is still that South Western eye on the past that suddenly becomes an important beacon by which to navigate into the future.

I am not talking about a flabby and pointless nostalgia, serious and important innovation has happened in the South West and continues to be a vital spark in our midst, rather I mean the confidence to recognize the value in both the future and the past….a quality of innovation that does not need to burn all its bridges in order to prove its worth.

This brings me full circle back to the stones and the land – the big challenge facing us is the future use, management and ‘ownership’ of the land. The culture of farming subsidy that began with the end of the Second World War (and the understandable desire to ensure that Britain was always capable of feeding itself) has led to the current situation whereby farmers are forced to decide the way they steward their land according to subsidies handed out by a central government. We are arriving at a moment in history when this centralized control will no longer be sustainable…things will fracture and break apart meaning that the land will once again come under more localized control through the logic of local market forces rather than beginning with large amounts of cash being entrusted to the few who claim ownership of the land. I feel that D+G is ready in its own unique way to take on the challenge of again confronting the genuine reality of ‘productivity with purpose’ as opposed to the crazy game that we have been asked to literally ‘buy’ into whereby if we all bought enough stuff all the time then we could rely on the clever folk in the City to make a big enough margin on the transfers of money that we’d always still have enough money to keep buying.

And as for an art scene, a cultural scene whatever you choose to call it – we are one of the vital communication threads that binds the region together. We keep pointing at things that others might have forgotten to see for a while – wondering if an innovation is worth throwing something away for or nagging about something that should have been consigned to the attic for long term storage. We are passionate about the quality of the light moving across a hillside and keep telling people to stop and watch – we live and work here because when people value the old stones they also respect people who can put that worth into words, songs, pictures or form.

We live in a difficult and temporary historical moment when we are coming off money ‘cold turkey’ – for the next wee while the cry will keep going up that ‘there is no money for art’ …..but deep down art, culture, heritage, belonging is worth much, much more than money and I believe that creative people can give a lead in kicking ‘dependency culture’ and in doing so prove their worth in this region that still remembers what worth is.

Castle Square - open

2011-03-07T19:38:00.000Z

Tuesday 22nd Feb saw the public opening on the new public space around the Castle of St John in Stranraer. Scottish Government Minister for Housing and Communities Alex Neil MSP did the honours.

It was a proper SW Scotland occasion, with a cheery determination to wish the project and the town well, despite the grey, damp and cold weather.

Stranraer Youth Theatre performing on my artwork Bubbles after the speeches

The Castle itself was also being formally opened after renovation and interpretation work - it is an amazing thing to have in a small town affording incredible views over the rooftops and out along Loch Ryan

View of the Castle - after renovation work, but before work started on the new public square

View from the Castle over Loch Ryan

View from the Castle on the day of the Opening - marquee for speakers and an aerial view of Bubbles

The night time illumination of the town centre is spectacular:

This is part of a panorama image taken by local photographer David Rowley

You can see the full and interactive panorama of the square here

Everyone connected with the project was really pleased with the public reaction to the work in the square and the castle - we even got a good write-up in the local paper....

Thanks to everyone involved for a memorable project....I've not quite completed my work here though - there are still some small bronze casts that are to be set into the paving now that everything is in solidly in place.

Gorbals - project archive now online

2011-02-14T18:25:00.000Z

From 1999 - 2005 I worked on the project to involve artists in the wholesale reconstruction of the Gorbals neighbourhood of Glasgow. From 1999-2001 I was part of the Heisenberg partnership that conceived the vision for the project and then stayed with the project as Lead Artist till 2005. We aimed to interact with the physical and social momentums of change in the area and produced projects with more that 30 artists. This was the third time in 150 years that this iconic scottish community had been razed to the ground and completely rebuilt - each successive rebuilding has been presented as a new 'model' for housing development - creative response to this utopian ideal seen alongside the entrenched mythology of the Gorbals was the overall theme of the artworks project.

The workings of the Artworks Programme: Gorbals was recorded as a web diary. After being offline for sometime this web diary has now been restored and is now available in an archive form - HERE

With thanks to - Maja Bulatovic (web design), Juliet Sebley (AWP) and Barbara Irwin (TTPM for Scottish Enterprise)

Bogie, the Bucket and the Bubbles

2011-02-08T19:09:00.000Z

The good people of Stranraer have been puzzling over the hole-filled metal plate in the midst of their town since mid November - this is how it has looked since then

Or from the top of the Castle:

The next stage for this work was to fill the mould with a coloured concrete - just until the holes were filled flush with the steel. There has been a lot of head scratching about just how to do this...the weather enforced hiatus since November (too cold to cure concrete properly)has merely given us all more time to scratch heads and generally get anxious about all the potential pitfalls inherent in the operation.

Last Wednesday finally heralded a window of +3 degrees centrigade for more than 48 hours. This is the story of the three days that followed:

Concrete poured into the holes in the steel from a readymix lorry (Luce Bay)

Bogie and Colin floating off the biggest of the 'bubbles'

Bogie doing the final finishing to the surface of the concrete from the bucket of the JCB -it was important that no one stepped on the steelwork during the pour as their weight was likely to bend the steel out of shape and create dips in the final surface

Halfway there - this is the beginning of the second half of the pour. The white pigment on the completed half is a sprayed on concrete retarder. This additive soaks into the top few millimetres of the concrete and slows down the setting time of this top section. The specified surface for the work was an 'exposed aggregate finish' meaning that after approx 24 hours the surface of the concrete would be pressure washed to remove the retarded layer of cement leaving the stone chips in the mix exposed.

Final bubble being filled

Alistair checking that the concrete has run consistently under the steelwork

The surface after pouring and floating - we decided to leave it 'proud' of the steel so that it might finish up 'flush' when the top surface was washed away.

The JCB bucket came in handy again for spraying the retarder onto the floated surface

This is how the work looked the next morning after a first powerwashing to expose the aggregate in surface of the concrete. One of the great imponderables throughout was how to prevent concrete from sticking to the surface of the steel in the end we applied copious quantities of shuttering oil to the steel before pouring the concrete....as it turned out this was not very effective...we were now faced with cleaning back the whole steel surface.

A few experiments revealed that scrubbing the surface with kitchen scourers and a weak solution of acid was the most effective method - this is the first patch we cleaned. Colin, Bogie and I spent many hours (and countless kitchen scrubbers) carefully removing the concrete from the steel.

This is how the work looked after the first 'wash-down' after a days scrubbing

Close up

Another detail (the marking on the steel are areas of recent shotblasting to remove welding marks - in time these will oxidise to the same tone as the surrounding steel)

It is fairly normal for artists to be pushing techniques and trying something new - this whole work was an untried experiment on a giant scale. I am really interested and pleased with the result - but once again, in this odd public art world, the thing that I am carrying away from the experience at the moment is the way that skilled people can rise to the challenge of doing something they have never tried before and we can all work together as a team to get a result.

Big respect to Davie Topping and his team - thanks all!

The marks of time III

2011-01-28T15:37:00.000Z

Shinglehook (2006)

In an earlier post I reported that my artwork for St Marys Loch Shinglehook had been damaged by fire.

Shinglehook was conceived as a 'place to wait for a deep time event' (the arrival of an alluvial bridge that is growing across the loch - a process that will take more than 10,000 years)

The work was constructed with the best means at my disposal to withstand the rigours of a very tough environment and give itself the best chance of surviving into the future

I wanted the work to have the character of a being a 'scientific experiment' rather than a 'precious' artwork...I was committed to idea that it needed to take its chances in the environment and, as I wrote previously, to bear the scars of time.

As such Shinglehook is reliant on the 'kindness of strangers' for its survival (Dr Bean who put out the fire was one such kind stranger). I was then very surprised (and delighted) to get an email from Keith Robeson of Scottish Borders Council offering to help repair the artwork.

I thought long and hard about how to approach this and worked with my good friend and colleague Alex Rigg. In the end I decided that we should not try to restore the work in the manner of an art conservator but rather do what was necessary to maintain the integrity of the experiment ie stop the structure deteriorating further and make it safe for the public. For me this was an committment to remaining true to the idea that Shinglehook would need to be maintained by others if it were to survive any distance into the future....as such my aesthetic judgement must be replaced by a more collective vision. Alex and I discussed the principles of the repair and then he carried them out in detail (ably assisted by the maritime skills of Mark Zygadlo)

The damage (caused by a cooking fire that had got out of control)

The repaired version

I really like the way that this is now an object that has clearly been repaired - but in the process has acquired new character (and narrative)

Close-up - showing new brackets

I also asked Mark and Alex to check on the condition of the bronze floats and their anchor cables. I was delighted to discover that these have been weathering very well:


The cabling and structure under the bronze floats


The bronze floats are cast from precise moulds taken from the furthest tip of the growing alluvial bridge

voices of experience

2011-01-23T22:55:00.000Z

The D+G Artists Gathering 2011 was a memorable affair almost 60 artists from around the region packed into a tiny village hall to talk about art and about what part we might play in this new chapter of society that seems characterized by uncertainty and aversion to risk.


Sculptor Iain Cant giving a talk about his recent practice at Artists Gathering 2011

The evening was shaped by presentations by glass artist Amanda Simmons sculptor Iain Cant and ceramicist Hannah McAndrew.

Our region has been fortunate to have considerable support available for the creative sector over the past 15 years, which has helped to build a mature, professional and diverse group of practitioners. This was the experience that spoke in Rhonehouse on Friday night as we considered how to respond to the cutting of the support that we had grown accustomed to.

We decided to form a new body for ourselves that would primarily function as a communication, information and lobbying network. We also discussed the opportunity that could be presenting itself to play a key part in the regeneration of our regional capital - Dumfries.

An empty shop has been bought for the benefit of the town and we are in negotiation with the town council to use this shop as form of agit-prop cultural 'hub'. We propose an artist cafe, project space and 4 incubator units for creative industries. There are several other cultural/heritage projects emerging in the town and we believe that 'The Stove' could produce a programme of temporary public art projects and events that might foster collaborations across these diverse interests and help lock local people into a movement in support of a compelling new future for Dumfries as a centre of contemporary culture/heritage/environment.

The empty shop in the centre of Dumfries that has been bought for the benefit of the town

Artists Gathering 2011- Dumfries and Galloway

2011-01-19T12:20:00.000Z

This promises to be a significant occasion for the arts scene in D+G on several fronts. There are big changes afoot in the way our sector is supported by local government, this will be a chance for us to consider afresh the kind of 'cultural sector' that we want to a part of and then organise ourselves to work towards our own vision. We all believe in the power of art as a positive force for good in society, hence the decision to frame this event first and foremost as a chance to discuss art - we have confidence that this will create the right context for productive discussions about wider objectives (ie rather than call a ' public meeting'). See you there....

a breathing place

2011-01-07T16:48:00.000Z

St Brigid cross - Ireland

I have collected the images in this post over the last year or so - I would have liked them to appear randomly throughout the text, but I am not technically clever enough to do that...you'll have to imagine

Russian Crowd 1953 - by one of the first western photographers allowed into USSR since 1917 revolution

The end quarter of last year was a blur of constant motion with no time to really think – just lots of doing.

Alluvial fan - Egypt

My long-term experience as an artist is that I am constantly trying to make time – time to think, time to make, time to experiment. But, the little patch of breathing space that I now find myself in has come as a surprise…it is as if I have woken from a dream and I really have no idea how I have got here.

Brick in peat burn - SW Scotland

This blog was always intended to be a way of my trying to understand the disparate ways that I operate in the world as an artist. If not bringing them together as a comprehensible whole then at least making it easier for myself to accept the diversity.

Carved granite head, discovered after many centuries underwater - Egypt

My question to myself at this moment is like that of a school child faced with a blank sheet of paper ‘how shall I start?’ – rather than trying to solve this riddle I am concentrating on trying to understand a little about how I got to this place where I seem to have a blank sheet of paper in front of me.

Bonfire - Scotland

That my work is about place seems pretty solid still – that is, I need a context to create work around - and that work grows my direct involvement with that context.

Spit closing fjord - Iceland

I used to say that I brought no pre-conceived agenda or working methodology to bear on a context…..one of the things this blog is making clear to me is that this is not wholly the case. It is obvious to me that my overwhelming interest is in the underlying momentums or inner-narrative of a place. More often than not these momentums or narratives are very long term and slowly evolving.

Church emerging from dry reservoir - Venezuela

I like to say that my work is useful but I believe strongly that art is essentially useless and therein lies its power and potency. I believe that art in public can touch deep narrative of place and in doing so make a ‘non-directive insertion’ into that narrative, that is, something that other people can use as a foothold or doorway into the narrative and allows them opportunity to become an active part of the momentum of the place.

Vegetation reclaiming Chernobyl

So far, so good. I can live with idea of my work being about underlying narrative of place - with the specific realisation of that idea being shaped by a local context. My problem, as I sit in this new breathing space, is the actual formal qualities of the objects that I have been making. I am a visual artist – I am shocked by my ability to flick through the pictures of an art book and decide whether I ‘like’ a particular artist or not. If I apply this test to my own work I am really not sure how I would feel about the things that I am making should they appear as images flicked through in a book.

Castlerigg, Cumbria - England

It is difficult to talk about the intent of work when I have already categorised it as non-directive and useless – but I have been finding the healing metaphor of a technique like acupunture useful in this regard. I think of the therapist’s intent as opening channels that allow the body to heal itself (rather than thinking of a treatment as being a type of ‘mechanical’ repair where a predictable result will ensue without the patient required to take any responsibility in the process). Working with this metaphor then, I am wondering about seeing my physical objects like the acupunturist’s needles – inserted in the body of a place. I have talked a lot previously about the culture of consent that I need to generate around a project, and this specifically, for the precise placement of physical artworks.

Covenant - carved 1997 - photo 2009

This is useful to me at the moment in thinking about the characteristics and qualities of my physical artworks – if they have equivalent status to the physical needle of the acupunturist then they have little status as autonomous objects – rather they are tools within a complex action founded on research and a shared responsibility for any outcome. I have always had a difficult relationship with beauty – this discussion is helping me understand that relationship a little better – things that are intended as beautiful often seem autonomous to me ie somewhat separate from their context – I realise that I do like things which are somewhat awkward in themselves but set up interesting relationships with their surroundings – the aesthetic is relational rather than absolute.

Gatepost - SW Scotland

In some ways it would be easier if there were no physical objects at all – but there is a strong drive inside me to work with physical material – to shape, to join, to speculate on the long-term consequences of placing material in an environment. This also has been one of the insights that has come into my breathing space – when I am conceiving of a physical artwork I am thinking about that work in 20,30,50,100 years time not 6 months or a year. With a permanent artwork the effect I am after involves a relationship with time ranging from the potential for imminent catastrophe (eg a suspended work) or gradual erosion/deposition. This relationship with time is part of the engagement with the narrative of place and the consent/responsibility of the people who inhabit the place.

Paris flooding 1910

Coast to Coast - progress

2010-12-23T11:56:00.000Z

Most of my energies of late have been directed at the Way of the Roses project - I haven't put anything on this blog about progress with the project for a while, but over the last month or so I have been presenting concepts to the various partners involved in the cycle route....here is an outline of the overall concept:

The route of the Way of the Roses across Lancashire and Yorkshire - showing the sites for proposed artworks: two Terminus works and 10 Passing Places (small diversions from the main route)

‘Travelling Histories’

• A Coast to Coast artwork to accompany the Way of the Roses

• Two Terminus works - one at either end of the route (Bridlington and Morecambe)

• Main theme established in the contrast between the Terminus works

• A series of artworks along the route called Passing Places – marking places where
movements of people or phenomena have coincided with the route in the past

Each Passing Place comprises:

• a destination (historical/cultural - of local significance)

• a constituency (local group or individuals to steer project)

• an artist

• an overall creative direction (from lead artist)

• an artwork (permanently sited in landscape)

• an orientation point within the nearest local community

Main Conceptual Theme - Transformation through Movement

This overall theme is developed across the route through the smaller Passing Places projects, but the foundations of the theme are established in the Terminus artworks. The theme grows from consideration of the contrasting landscape dynamics at work at either end of the route.

The landscape at both ends of the Way of the Roses the landscape takes shapes immediately recognisable as those made by running water. At one end this is an ongoing process that makes newly shaped land every day, at the other, the land retains the memory of movement that occurred at a very precise moment in the past.

Montaged geosatellite image of Morecambe Bay showing the moving path of the River Kent around the ‘Sands’.

Every low tide at Morecambe reveals a newly carved landscape of ‘gulleys’, ‘gutters’ and ‘dykes’ (cf Cedric Robinson).

Schematic diagram of the ‘Dry Valleys’

of the Yorkshire Wolds (Bridlington is at the easterly edge of the Wolds)

The Wolds is an outcrop of chalk that disappears under the sea at Bridlington. Chalk allows water to soak through it, therefore there is NO water running over the surface of the land as rivers or streams.

During the most recent Ice Age (10,000 years ago) the land of the Wolds was ‘permanently’ frozen hard and in this state was temporarily IMpermeable to water. When water periodically flooded over the Wolds from nearby glaciers, deep river valleys were very quickly cut into the frozen chalk.

As the climate warmed all water once agin disappeared under the chalk leaving the characteristic ‘alluvial’ pattern of Dry Valleys that we experience today.

(For more on these phenomena see also)

Transformation :
active (in the land)
vs memory (retained by the land)

Typical Dry Valley - Yorkshire Wolds

View from the Morecambe Promenade at low tide

Passing Places

The second part of the overall artwork proposed for Way of the Roses is called Passing Places.

Marker on old monastic route near Fountains Abbey

• There are approximately 10 Passing Places planned along the route between the two Terminus artworks

• Each Passing Place is a short diversion from the main route

Building on the research finding that Way of the Roses is remarkable for the number of visible traces of human activity in transforming the landscape - Passing Places is themed around places where traditional routes and historical events have either crossed or passed near the Way of the Roses route.

Former Quarry Incline - Pately Bridge. Used to slide stone down from the quarry to the railway below

One of the clear aims of the artwork project was to stimulate connections between local communities and the cycle route. Passing Places is built around the idea that if a local person met a traveller, they might well show their visitor something special in their locality.

Each Passing place will be developed by a local steering group and the physical artwork commissioned by the steering group from a locally based artist or artist of local origin

Lead Artist (of the overall project) to work with the local steering group and commissioned artist to ensure high quality and relevance in each individual work and cohesion with the overall project ‘Travelling Histories’

an erratic arrival in Stranraer

2010-12-17T13:28:00.000Z

There are many strange ways that art happens - previously in the square around the Castle of St John in Stranraer was a mock 'wishing well' that was built as a charity collection 'box' in the 1980s. At an early stage of the project to re-design the public spaces around the castle it was proposed that the wishing well be removed, The Rotary Club objected to this because the well did collect significant funds. So the idea of an 'artist designed charity collection box' was born....my good friend David Ralston was chosen for the commission. I have been working on the overall scheme with architect Rachel Simmonds and David was involved in discussions about the themes that Rachel and I were working with.

Yesterday David's version of a charity collection box arrived on site


The obligatory 'discussions and speculations' about the new arrival

Positioning 3 tonnes of granite boulder

David Ralston - far right (in natty orange hi-vis)

The artwork was conceived as an erratic, as such it needs to sit somewhat randomly in relation to other features in the Square. David was also working with ideas of magical or significant stones and came up with the brass rings as a reference to the 'sword in the stone' etc.


The coin collector - coins drop through metal resonators and make a pleasing sound falling through the rock...hopefully children will enjoy this


I'm hopeful about the way the rock sits in relationship with the castle

Nice one David..

a new chapter in the Highlands

2010-12-13T15:58:00.000Z

Wonderful news that last week the Highland Council voted to award core funding[i] to IOTA for 3 years. IOTA is an artist-led public art organisation….support for an experimental contemporary arts programme in the current climate of cuts in public expenditure appears an incredibly brave political decision. Indeed it is (and huge respect to the Council!) but, this decision comes in the context of 5 years of activity convincing Councillors that IOTA was not a ‘luxury’ but an essential part of the machinery that is building Inverness as a unique regional capital ‘on its own terms and from within’.

The team who have worked with Highland Council on this funding bid were IOTA Creative Director – Susan Christie and public art expert Sorcha Carey. Great job both!

On a personal level it is great to have 5 years of work recognised in this way and feel that there is a solid foundation for others to build upon, as my time in Inverness comes to an end.

IOTA is an independent public art organisation created by Susan Christie and myself – it grew, as a natural evolution, from public art projects delivered in Inverness from Jan 2006 when I began as Lead Artist for the Old Town district (with creative assistance from the much missed Evi Westmore – Public Art Officer).

Some brief notes on the story of IOTA

1. an invitation

Abseilers lower the banner that declared the start of the 'One Day Revolution' 11am 09.09.06

As a first response (2006) to the planned improvements to the traditional centre of the city I wanted to make an opportunity for the creative community and a more general public to take a part in the way the Old Town district was being re-invented.

Evi and I gathered a diverse group of creative practitioners from the Highlands (inc playwright, graffiti artists, musicians, aural historian, video artists, sculptors, painters etc) we placed them in partnerships and commissioned each partnership to create a temporary installation on Church St at some point between 11am and 11pm on Saturday 9^th September 2006.

This project was called Imagining the Centre. Susan Christie joined us for the first time as project manager for the event. Marie Mackintosh was the client for Imagining the Centre and given the context at that time – hers was a contribution of very genuine bravery.

'Cape Reality' Jeep Solid and Graeme Roger. Old High Churchyard 9pm 09.09.06

Video footage and info from the day can been seen here

Imagining the Centre was a success beyond anyone’s expectation and seemed to confirm an appetite for, and confidence in, continuing in the same vein.

2. going deeper

Philosophers Salon - a discussion about Virtue. 'Three Virtues' project 2007

We followed through with 2 projects stitched into the newly laid streets of the Old Town – my own Three Virtues (see IOTA and my website – urban menu).......

View of 'Three Virtues' installation - a new public space

.....and Streettexts by DUFI. DUFI comprises Fin Macrae and Alister MacInnes – two young Street Artists who made such an impact in Imagining the Centre and were subsequently able to incubate a career with IOTA. DUFI are now working in public art nationally.

One of 25 'Streettexts' by DUFI - under each stone is a subtext that forms an additional narrative to the project

3. a bigger picture

Susan and I recognised the need and desire for the momentum to continue and approached the Scottish Arts Council with an idea for a mixture of temporary and permanent public projects that had support from a bewildering array of partners in the city. We were successful in attracting funding and created the organisation IOTA as a means of delivering projects and (hopefully) a recognisable figurehead for this type of work in Inverness

The latin 'Jus Satis' translates as 'Right enough' something you will often hear in conversation in Inverness...

4. new partnerships

Two of the ongoing IOTA projects for permanent artwork interventions in the city are working with major buildings and businesses.

-The Victorian Market is an indoor market with a variety of independent retailers. IOTA has been working with the market for 3 years on different ways of ‘making visible' the character of the market in the wider cityscape. Currently 'on site' are 3 new artist designed entranceways for the Victorian Market

Tea Party in the Victorian Market staged by artists BWCart

The original Caledonian Hotel was replaced in the 1960s- this hard geometric facade creates an uncompromising block at the end of the vista of Union Street (the River Ness and Highland landscape are visible behind the building)

- The ‘Caley’ hotel is currently part of the Ramada Jarvis chain – we identified the building at a very early stage as having a crucial role in the way the Old Town is perceived. The Ramada group is working with IOTA and artists Haque Design on a radical proposal to clothe the façade in an interactive artwork that engages people in a dialogue about energy consumption.

early design images for the Ramada hotel artwork - Haque

5. inviting in the outside

Live projection installation by Ablab - Re-Imagining the Centre 2009

In 2009 Susan and I co-curated Re-Imagining the Centre – this was a re-working of the original Imagining the Centre concept (a series of linked temporary interventions). This time we invited half of the commissioned artists from outside the Highlands – we wanted to establish the streets of Inverness as a new venue ‘on the art map’ and give both locally based and outside artists the chance to share practice and experience.

'In Honour of September' DUFI, Mike Inglis, Kirsty Whiten, Martin McGuiness, Richy Cumming (painting Kirsty Whiten)

'Yarnbomb' by Sundogs

Part of Re-Imagining was the Invernessian Clanjamfrey an interactive discussion event held over two days – this was curated by Matthew Hearn and held in association with PAR-RS and Intersections..

'Invernessian Clanjamfrey' - 10th + 11th September 2009

6. the next chapter..

IOTA is now ‘known’ locally and is now being approached by organisations as diverse as Inverness Caledonian Thistle football Club, the Culloden Battlefield, a multi-storey carpark and the University of the Highlands and Islands. People seem to understand the approach we take and value IOTA’s ability to carry people with them through a project. Hopefully this new funding award will allow Susan and her team to continue to be ambitious and push the boundaries!

IOTA - new work in progress

Working in Inverness has been a wonderful experience that I believe will prove very important in the development of my working practice – big thanks to in excess of 60 artists that I have had the privilege of working with over the last 5 years and also the team of people in the background who revolve around IOTA projects but do not often get seen…Cathy Shankland, Marie Mackintosh, Annie Marrs, Niall Ferguson, Milla McIntosh, Georgia Macleod, Sarah Grant, Lindsay Dunbar, Libby Daye and the IOTA Steering Group.

Members of IOTA steering group in action

[i] The Inverness City Committee of Highland Council has control over the Common Good Fund (a trust that benefits the city) – this is the source of the award to IOTA.

Susan Phillipsz – public or private art?

2010-12-07T13:19:00.000Z

Big congratulations to Susan Phillipsz on being awarded the 2010 Turner Prize, I hope she will get many fantastic opportunities to make new work as a result. It is also great for Scotland that another of our artists is getting this recognition.

The popular media is making much of the fact that Phillipsz is a ‘sound artist’ – which seems pretty irrelevant and just an attempt to keep the ‘controversial’ Turner Prize story alive. I am more interested in the type of spaces that the artist uses: for those unfamiliar with her work; typically she places a recording of her singing in a public space. Here is an excerpt of the work ‘Lowlands’ for which she was nominated.

The site for 'Lowlands' was under three bridges on the Clyde in Glasgow

The reason for this blog post is that according to many definitions of public art then Susan Phillipsz must be considered a public artist, because she makes work out with ‘traditional art spaces’ (SAC). I have been writing recently about my own definitions of, and criteria for, criticism for public art and I feel very intrigued to try out these criteria on the example of Susan Phillipsz and her practice.

The recurring theme of Phillpsz’s practice is the combination of a very private recording with a consciously public space. She records herself singing (much is made of the fact hers is an ‘untrained voice’) and the atmosphere of the recording is that of a private moment – there is no ‘polish’ to the acoustic, this could be someone singing in the bath or rocking a baby to sleep. The SENSE (or intent) behind the work is in the act of playing that recording in a public space. Private person/moment is made public and given added resonance by the character of the particular space.

In terms of my proposition for public art to be defined according to the intent of the artist, I would argue that Susan Phillipsz’s practice is not public but rather ‘private’ in intent. My reasoning is this: Phillpsz has an a priori idea that is central to her practice (placing private sound in public space) therefore when she is making a new artwork she is simply looking for places in which this idea will work well. The body of work she is building is around the evolution of this central idea – not a concern for particular contexts.

It may be stretching things a bit….but framing these thoughts put me in mind of Henry Moore and the ‘modern’ tradition of public art. Moore believed that the function of a public space was to form a appropriate setting for his work, he was a formal sculptor at heart and saw the world as a succession of masses and planes which would either be in harmony with his piece of sculpture or not. It is very obviously part of Susan Phillipsz’s practice that the ‘setting’ for the sound work is fully part of the overall work rather than just a backdrop – but I find the comparison interesting in my quest to place this work relative to my definition of public art.

audience at 'Lowlands' Susan Phillipsz (Glasgow International)

Having visited the Lowlands work in Glasgow and seen film from the same soundtrack installed in the gallery in Tate Britain, I was positive that this was a work who’s intent was to have an impact on a gallery (private) audience. Next to the Clyde there was no gesture whatsoever towards engaging any audience other than those visiting the Glasgow International festival – no sense that anyone who worked on the river had any part in the artwork process or that the place was addressed in any meaningful way (other than lending a certain natural pathos). The mere fact that the work could be re-sited in a gallery and that this was equally valid as another public context for the singing, confirms for me that this work is ‘about’ an ‘art idea’ ....it is not art made ‘for’ a place. This in no way devalues the work (I do find Susan Phillipsz an interesting artist) – it is just, for me, this is gallery art not public art in any sense of that I understand.

'Procession' Jeremy Deller

In the context of the Turner Prize I think it is interesting to cite the example of another winner of the award. Jeremy Deller won in 2004 – he is someone that I would show as an example of an artist making public art in the terms I am defining (this is not true of the entirety of Deller’s practice but as I have said elsewhere artists do move between genres).

In 2001 Deller staged ‘Battle of Orgreave’ a reconstruction of one of the pivotal confrontations in the 1984 national miners strike. The work was created with the assistance of societies involved in re-staging historical battles (eg Civil war etc), was performed in the same spaces as the original event and many of the original miners and policemen took part.

'Battle of Orgreave' Jeremy Deller 2001

Watching the film (extract here) that Mike Figgis made of the event I wept – my tears were not solely for the emotions contained in the event, but because this was just such a GOOD bit of work.

‘The Battle of Orgreave ‘ is an example of an artist having an idea about a place/situation and then committing to the dynamic created between the idea and the place ....that dynamic ultimately became the work. An artist putting his art at the service of a situation.

I recently came across Deller’s work as an war artist in Iraq – he acquired a taxi that had been used in a suicide bombing and took it on tour for three months around the US. Deller was accompanied by two experts on the Iraq conflict and a writer, a public meeting was held around the taxi in each stop on the tour for US citizens to talk about the Iraq conflict. The Taxi and the documentation from the project are now part of the collection of the Imperial War Museum.

'It Is What It Is- Conversations about Iraq' Jeremy Deller

Turning Myself in Knots

2010-11-29T19:46:00.000Z

My efforts at picking my way through the minefield of ‘what is public art?’ (and the continuing debates elsewhere) have been causing me major angst in reflecting on what I am doing at the moment – I guess like many other folk I do try to cultivate a public face – the way I would like the world to see me.

I’ve been really enjoying working on the project for Stranraer – but I have had my doubts about how well it fitted into my ideal for how I would like to carry out my practice. I am not sure whether this is ‘art’ at all....but it feels good to put any skills, that I may have learnt, to the service of a very worthwhile endeavour.

From the very outset it was clear that there would be little or no time for in-depth research and meaningful working with local people. The architect's design for the space was complete and costed - ready to start on site. I was shown 3 possible places within the design which I could effect (in a purely physical way).

As I state elsewhere I was drawn to the project because of my family’s intimate connection with Stranraer and I guess that I was intrigued by the challenge of working within such a limited brief….the way that artists are ‘supposed’ to work in public?

What has been has been the privilege of working on this building site – pretty much everyone involved is local to Stranraer – yet usually they work away unseen on farm buildings, bridges or sea defences etc. In Castle Square there is almost a carnival atmosphere as passersby recognise folk on the site and everyone working there is committed to showing what they can do ‘for their town’.

The excellent architects are from Edinburgh and they have been completely overwhelmed by the standard of craftsmanship that is being produced on the site from start to finish.

So heres to you Dave Mc, Johnny B, Davie T, Rod Mc, Scooby, Gus, Colin, Alistair and all the rest of the crew.

This was the scene one day in the site dinner room – for anyone unfamiliar with Scottish culture, the orange liquid in the bottles is Irn Bru (google it…)

Early excavation works – compare to ‘before’

The model I made for one of my interventions on site – this retaining wall was always to be made of the local whinstone (or properly –Greywacke). I am fascinated by this rock as it started life as the seabed of the ocean that used to separate Scotland and England when they were originally different land masses (Paleozoic era 400 million years ago). When the two land masses were pushed together the seabed was pushed up out of the water and turned into the hard grey rock that forms the Southern uplands of Scotland – Stranraer is at one end of the Southern Uplands and Berwickshire the other.

The idea of the wall is that it changes in feel from ‘ocean’ at one end to ‘hill’ at the other and this is reflected in the form of the whinstone along its length – changing from its slate-like form to large boulders.

On a previous project (Cairnsmore landscape menu) I worked with poet Mary Smith, Mary wrote a poem about the sea becoming the hills. She gave me permission to cut the poem into the top of the wall.

Whinstone boulders arriving on site – this was a literally gigantic exercise in ‘making it up as you go along’ – thanks to Scooby, Colin , Gus and Rod in particular for saving my bahookie with this one!

Rising ‘hill’ begins to take shape

The Slatey whinstone ‘ocean’ end – Davie Topping and his father knew a place where this form of whinstone was lying on the surface and collected a van load for me.

The end point of the watery end of the wall – large stainless steel chains will be fixed through the holes and then disappear into the ground.

The sandblasted lettering of Mary’s poem on site – I love how the bottom of the letters have the texture of sand on the shore. Thanks to Galloway Granite for their work on this.

The other place I am working with on site is the ‘Burn Feature’ and ‘Performance Space’. The Stranaer town burn used to run through Castle Square, the architects decided to reflect this with a serpentine line of white granite running through the otherwise black paving. I was asked to make a design for the circular performance area at the centre of the square – a circle that was formed by the curving granite line.

I fell very much in love with the rivers around Stranraer during my New Luce project, one of their characteristics was the way patches of bubbles formed around rock and other disturbances – this phenomenon inspired my idea for the performance area.

Bubble pattern design

Current state of play on site – thanks to Burnhouse Engineering for the steelwork. The final stage is to pump the area full of coloured and textured concrete…..we wait for a break in the cold weather…

A serious attempt to unravel public art (deep breath)

2010-11-22T23:12:00.000Z

When I make an artwork I often talk about the importance of having a ‘door’ in the work ie something which will have a connection to (or be recognisable by) a general public. Choosing to ‘enter’ that door offers the audience the opportunity to delve deeper into the themes of the work….but what is of paramount importance to me is that the presence of the ‘door’ issues an invitation – in other words people feel included rather than excluded . I would consider a work to be a failure if people were to feel that they were denied access because the work exuded a coded message of artworld exclusivity.

I set out to make the Sacrificial Materials Blog a place with the same ethos…however, please accept my apologies – I need to unpack some thoughts that have been fermenting for a while. I want to look a bit deeper at the idea of audience and intention within public art…….it could well get a bit geeky as I try to unpick some of the paradoxes, jargon and vested interests within this strange world…..apologies I hope there might be a doorway and some light by the end.

I have lost count of the conferences. seminars and symposia that I have attended which have identified the ‘problem’ with public art as being the term ‘public art’ itself. The artworld is a strange place if it were a person it would what Scots call a nippy sweety ie someone who is sweetness and light to your face and then vicious when your back is turned. There is an laudable code amongst artists that everyone has the absolute right to make the art that they want to make – but this code is what paralyses useful discussion at public art gatherings – as long as we make no differentiation between different forms of practice in public space then key terms of critical reference will remain impossible to define. My contention is that a critical forum is vital to the long-term development and vitality of any practice and currently it is lacking in the kind of public art that I choose to practice

The lines that I am currently thinking along suggest 3 distinct strands of practice in public[i]. Here the earlier analogy of the door becomes useful again. Please note that what I am talking about here is the intent behind the work ie that any categorisation would be begin with what artist/commissioner set out to do rather than begin from the ‘visible’ product of their endeavours.

Category 1 – All Door (and nothing beyond the door)

'Eric' statue - Morecambe, Lancashire, UK

The type of work that is effectively ‘urban entertainment or decoration’ eg Eric Morecambe statue (Morecambe) or Desperate Dan (Dundee). Problematically - this is the kind of work that the general public typically expect to see under the label –public art. I do not propose discussing this area of practice much further…generally those that are involved in it’s production have no illusion that they are involved in a contemporary art debate. Absolutely, there is a place for this kind of work – but for the purposes of this discussion it is important to make a distinction between ‘All Door’ work and work in public space that aims to engage an audience in more than a ‘one liner of recognition’ or a ‘pleasing aesthetic sensation of colour or texture).

Category 2 – Door with something behind

'Cabot Circus Cantata' Neville Gabie was artist in residence to a major retail development in Bristol for 3 years

This would be the kind of work that is made for a public situation or context and is developed with a belief in, and understanding of the potential of contemporary art practice to become part of the real and active momentum of that context or place.

Category 3 – No Door just lots of ‘behind’

'How Not to Cookbook' Aleksandra Mir - Collective Gallery, Edinburgh

Work that is primarily conceived for ‘artworld’ consumption but has a ‘public’ element. Typically this would be a project undertaken through the agency of a gallery that involves working, in part, outwith the gallery eg gathering a public response to a proposition or inviting the public to partake in a staged meal. The primary aim in such projects is to use the public context as part of the artwork rather than to conceive the artwork for the public context.[ii]

What I am NOT trying to do is make any form of value judgement about the different types of practice above…..I believe that each has an absolute right to exist and a valuable place in the world. Rather, what I am seeking to do is establish a different quality of intent that is inherent in each typology ie what the artist/agency set out to do. I believe that if we can agree that the intent is different, then that intent becomes a crucial foundation of critical discussion about any project or work. In the field of ‘public art’ (or what I describe above as Door with something behind) I believe that practice is suffering from the lack of a proper critical forum because there is no lingua franca ie so many bases need to be covered in framing the terms of reference of “Public Art’ that any useful debate becomes lost in the fog of generality.

Watershed+ (Calgary and its Water) Sans façon - lead artists

I was recently given the following definition of public art by Lucy Lippard (thanks Mike McCallum)

'My own short definition of public art: accessible art of any species that cares about, challenges, involves and consults the audience for or with whom it is made, respecting community and environment. The other stuff-most of what fuels public controversy and the mass media's rhetoric on public art is still private art; no matter how big and exposed and intrusive or hyped it may be. Permanent or ephemeral, object and performance, preferably interdisciplinary,

democratic, sometimes functional or didactic, a public art exists in the hearts, minds, ideologies and education of its audience as well in their physical, sensuous experience.'

I find this a wonderfully clear and visceral statement of what is different about public art – but there is still a problem in usage of the terms ‘private’ and ‘audience’ when referring to a ‘non’ public art. A problem in as much as surely the audience for gallery art is a ‘public’ too?

By contrast the Scottish Arts Council’s[iii] definition of public art could not be more stark in the way that it does not even seem to have the slightest self-awareness of its contribution to the choking fog of generality that I feel is preventing public art (particularly in Scotland) becoming the best it possibly could be:

‘We regard public art as creative activity that takes place or is situated in a public space that is not a traditional art space (for example, not a gallery or theatre etc)'.

I have even heard this stated more simply as ‘anything that does not happen in a gallery’

The hidden meta-narrative here is the primacy of the ‘artist’ – according to the Scottish Arts Council, artists ‘traditionally’ work in Galleries[iv] - and when they venture out of galleries they make something different – they make ‘public’ art. This is nonsense – in most cases they make the same thing ie ‘art for a gallery audience’. The difference comes when the artist becomes something different –a public artist. The public artist makes the kind of work described by Lucy Lippard above.

Being charitable, I would surmise that the Scottish Arts Council’s definition is based on their willingness to support gallery initiatives that ‘extend the audience’ for visual art by venturing into ‘non-traditional spaces’. Whilst this is laudable – by lumping this type of practice together with art made by public artists, the problem of critical reference points within the field is exacerbated.

This failure to grasp the nettle, by Scottish Arts Council, is disastrous for the public artist. By refusing to distinguish between the public artist and the artist who sometimes shows work in ‘non traditional spaces’ the key agency for visual art in the country is perpetuating the old myth about the primacy of ‘pure’ studio practice (the kind that makes work shown in galleries) and condemns the practice of the public artist as the kind of work that ‘real artists’ have to do occasionally to pay the bills.

There are artists (I am one) who view the gallery not as the ‘holy grail’ but rather as only one of an infinite number of possible contexts for which to make our work. The use of the word for is crucial – this is fundamentally about making work that regards the context/situation as paramount and carries a responsibility towards that situation[v]

I enjoy galleries and have had some of the most fundamentally spiritual experiences of my life with art in galleries – but I can say the same of music. film literature and even fishing – but as with these others, galleries and ‘artworld art’ are not my primary fields of operation.

'Home Ornaments' Daphne Wright- new housing Gorbals, Glasgow

I would argue that a radical split in artists began around such diverse trajectories as the later practice of Joseph Beuys, the theoretical position of the Situationists, the Green movement and Punk rock. This is the line of descent that has bred the contemporary public artist – whose primary concern is not ‘art making’ but rather to use art practice as an ‘openspace’ within which can coexist insight, creativity and connectivity with other disciplines and movements all connected with a specific context (and through integrity in that specificity a connection to the larger movement of ideas).

It is the intent of the public artist to get involved at first hand with place and people that differs radically from another artist who places their work in public or uses the public as a form of additional ‘medium’ in their work. It is this intent that I believe offers the key to an effective critical forum and developmental strategy for public art – to look first at what the artist intended and their means of acting on that intent – rather than to start with the art ‘product’ and work backwards from the ‘effect’ of the product.

'7000 Oaks' Joseph Beuys

I believe that we need to be brave and stake out the territory for public art as something that stands apart from ‘urban decoration’ at one extreme and ‘gallery art outside the gallery” at the other. Only then will we create the conditions for a useful and productive critical language.

[i] When I was developing this terms of this discussion I had a chat with old friends and outstanding public artists Sans façon – while they stopped short of trying to make a critical distinction between different areas of practice they recognised the 3 categories that I describe – but they refer to them as ‘all public and no art (but maybe a bit of craft)’, ‘public art’ and ‘all art and no real public’

[ii] Of course, it can be argued that all art is conceived for the ultimate benefit of humankind….however, the point I am making is that this necessarily abstract notion of affecting consciousness through aesthetic appreciation and critical debate is different from the aim of using art to directly engage with and have an effect on an actual context.

[iii] The Scottish Arts Council merged with Scottish Screen at the beginning of 2010 to become Creative Scotland – the new organisation has not, as yet, published an update of the old SAC definition of Public Art.

[iv] my discussion here is primarily about visual art rather than the performing arts

[v] NB – taking a stance critical of a context can be equally valid in this regard…this is not about ‘doing good’ in the patronising sense but in the holistic creative sense of fully engaging with place and people as an artist.

moving valleys and valleys frozen in time

2010-10-21T18:29:00.000+01:00

As I am making my way across England following the new trail the 'Way of the Roses' I am thinking about the qualities of the two ends of the route. At the East side there are very ancient water features frozen in chalk while to the West the landscape is newly shaped by water everyday.
The story of the West is that of Morecambe Bay and was told to me by two people: Dr Suzana Ilic of Lancaster University and Cedric Robinson - Queens Guide to the Sands.

Suzana told me a story of a process so random and active that scientists are unable to model it in any useful way - the rivers entering Morecambe Bay carve valleys, dykes and gutters (Cedric's terminology) that are partially erased by each high tide and then cut anew in a slightly different location


Plan of the Sands - drawn by Olive Robinson


Geo-Satellite image of Morecambe Bay


One days landscape at lowtide

Crossing the Sands of Morecambe Bay has historically been so dangerous, because of this shifting geography, that a post of Royal Guide to the Sands was created in the era of Henry VIII. This post has been held by Cedric Robinson since 1963

Cedric Robinson has written 8 books about the culture and landscape of the Sands

Guides Farm. Grange-over- Sands

I had the enormous privilege of spending an afternoon with Cedric and his wife Olive at Guides Farm and hearing about the way they understand the landscape of the Sands. Cedric has guided thousands of people across from Morecambe to Grange - he marks each new route with branches of laurel, markers that will be erased by each big tide, heralding a new topography.

The Yorkshire Wolds, at the Easterly extreme of the route are made of Chalk. Chalk is the layer that was formed at the bottom of long forgotten oceans as the shells and skeletons of countless sea creatures fell to the bottom of the sea and were crushed together over millions of years.

The impressive Flanborough Head is an outcrop of the chalk of the Wolds slowly sculpted by the sea. But the landscape that you travel over just inland is a mysterious land of 'lost water'. The chalk of the rolling Wolds is porous and retains no water (instead it passes down until it reaches clay or hard rock and retained as underground reservoirs).
However this land did have rivers for one (relatively) brief period, the glaciers of the last Ice Age did not reach this far South, but temperatures were so low that the earth was permanently frozen and consequently impermeable to water, this meant that when there were periodic thaws in the glaciers the melt water formed rivers that ran over the Chalk and quickly cut down through the soft stone. When the temperature rose again the chalk thawed out and became porous again leaving the atmospheric 'Dry Valleys' of the Wolds:


Dry Valley at Millington

I have a mental image of the Wolds as an ancient 3D 'photograph' of the what us happening today in chaotically active landscape of Morecambe Bay. Whether this 'sticks' and become a significant part of an art project is uncertain as every twist and turn of this 180 mile trip reveals a new potential direction.

Contemporary active landscape at the end of the Wolds

Passion and Collaboration

2010-10-20T15:48:00.000+01:00

A while ago I was introduced to ‘Coca-Cola Economics’ – this theory suggests that big multi-national concerns are likely to be at the forefront of eco-thinking because their first instinct is survival ie ‘if the planet dies then so does Coca-Cola’.

I’m reminded of this notion as the future of Art is debated at the moment –the near future is a very gloomy prospect for public funding for the arts, once again Art faces the near impossible situation of fighting its corner alongside education, health, defence etc.

We are an ingenious crew in the arts and inevitably contingency plans are being discussed – typically these involve looking for folk/departments/agendas (with money) who could conceivably benefit from a bit of our creativity in pursuing their own aims. The argument that comes with this camp is that we have to adapt to survive and that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’……as long as we are alive then Art is alive within us.

On the other side of the wire is the ‘the Real Thing or No Thing ‘ team. Their position is that the Art we have has been hard won through the politics of no compromise. Art is important because it is Art and if we join in with any form of agenda that aims for anything other than Art then we will be trampled on and what is produced will not be Art but window dressing for the real commercial/political/criminal motive behind the ‘collaboration’.

I have no solution here – but I have learnt that there are two pre-requisites for Art to exist 1) it must be produced by someone who is an ‘outsider’(in the emotional/political rather than geographical sense) and 2) it must be useless - by this I mean it must not have an ‘intent’ in the same way that a design aims to solve a problem.

The question, for me, then is ‘Is it possible to get the money for your art from a ‘non-art’ source, remain an Outsider and make work that is Useless’. I believe that the answer can be (but not always is) yes. As usual, the reality of this comes down to individual relationships – fleeting moments when two disparate energies collide to the benefit of both.

I have been writing and thinking about the importance of 'fools' of late – I was interested in relationships like Lear and the Fool wherein the truth and wisdom more often than not comes from the Fool – yet both parties are aware of this and mutually dependent on the other for survival. The important thing for both the king and the fool is the truth; and it requires both of them. When talking to fellow artists about this idea they take issue with the idea of the ‘king’…..’why must we be subject to anyone?’. It is a good point, but only if you look from the outside and try to generalise (or legislate) the situation….the whole point is that these situations rely on a deep inner trust within a key relationship – a mutual understanding of what is important and what is not. They are not marriages – they are not meant to last, rather they are like Kerouac’s ‘fabulous Roman Candles’ burning bright and fast.

Such relationships can equally exist within the world of State funded ‘Art for Arts sake’ as within worlds beyond ‘Art’ just as both systems are equally capable of creating work that is bloated and corrupt.

It is the passion that is the key – not ‘artist and patron’, not ‘king and fool’ but rather two people with recognition of their difference and belief in what they can achieve together. Now, more than ever, we have to look for the passion and be brave enough to find it in unlikely places.

Wondering about Iconic Art

2010-10-19T18:46:00.000+01:00

I have had reason to ponder the idea of ‘Iconic Art’ of late – by Iconic I mean art that has achieved what, in a human being, would be called celebrity status.

This question has been on my mind whilst thinking about the advertised intent to create a new Iconic Artwork on the Scottish/English border at Gretna

From what I understand, the aim of the project is to create something that becomes an attraction in it is own right; the kind of thing that people will be inspired to be photographed next to.

I am beginning to question if, in achieving this ‘iconic’ status, an artwork ceases to be ‘real’ – rather it starts to stand for something other than itself and its relationship to it's context (often it's own fame or celebrity). I wonder if this shift in meaning is what is unsettling me about the often stated ambition to create something iconic from the outset of a project?

I was in Paris at the weekend with my family and we paid a visit to the Louvre – I was expecting the surreality of the crowds around the Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’

Crowd around Mona Lisa 16.10.10

– but I was then shocked to be asked to move away from another (moderately well-known) painting because a couple wanted to be photographed beside it. As I looked around it was obvious that this was now a common phenomenon in the gallery – something that was utterly new to me.

It was as if the very ‘idea’ of art had become something to be photographed next to.

The last time I experienced something like this was in Madame Tussauds waxworks museum in London.

Beyonce and partner March 2010

The previous time I was there (admittedly approx 35 years ago) I do not remember being able to touch the waxworks – rather they were strange otherworldly things that made a strong visceral impression upon me. On this recent trip people were climbing over each other to be photographed with their arms around their favourite celebrities – it was an exquisite form of hell….one which eventually I could not resist

A wax model of Pablo Picasso and me

This odd mixture of simulated celebrity/icon was something that I remembered Umberto Eco writing about in the 1980’s:

‘Between San Francisco and Los Angeles I was able to visit seven wax versions of Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’. Some are crude and unwittingly caricatural; others are more accurate though no less unhappy in their violent colours, their chilling demolition of what had been Leonardo’s vibrance…..the philosophy is not “:We are giving you the reproduction so that you will want the original,” but rather, “We are giving you the reproduction so you will no longer feel the need for the original.”

Travels in Hyperreality (1986)

This is the concern for me with respect to attitudes to Art in Public Space.... ie that there is an attitude amongst some people commissioning this work that first and foremost the work will be an ‘attraction’ and will become an attraction because it is ART.

I was in the Roman section of York museum last week (researching for a new project) when I came across this life-size stone head.

unknown god or 'genius loci' (Roman - Northern English)

I did not find it especially appealing as a sculpture in the gallery sense, but the text next to it was intriguing. It explained that this was an ‘unknown god’ rather it was a ‘genius loci’- a spirit of a place. The text went on to explain that sometimes ‘famous’ gods were attached to specific places but that it was also common to find a figure that was made simply to represent a particular place and was not a 'named god'.

This seemed very relevant to my unease concerning the desire for Iconic Art (aka ‘Angel Envy’….after the ‘Angel of the North’ in Gateshead). It is as if ART itself has become one of the pantheon of big gods……a god that is big enough make their site secondary and thus become a reason to visit a place on their own (an attraction)…..the only criteria for success in this enterprise seems to be being BIG enough and having enough volume behind the cry of ‘I AM ART’.

Of course there is still the other alternative – the alternative of starting with a place and honestly seeking it’s spirit to make an ‘unknown god’ that quietly does it’s job of bringing forth something of the ‘genius loci’. This is not a shortcut to celebrity but it is actually art in my book.