Photo: Alan Dimmick.
‘In the open’ is a series of audio works that have been conceived during lockdown conditions and devised for listening to during our daily walks and time outdoors. Prompted by the restrictions necessitated by Covid-19, and the way these continue to affect our public and social lives, ‘In the open’ has been created as a way of connecting, at a time when we are separated.
The project comprises seven new works by Glasgow-based artists Luke Fowler, Lauren Gault, Ashanti Harris, Sulaïman Majali, Duncan Marquiss, and Margaret Salmon, each working from different points of reference and experience to explore geographies, histories and globally linked emotions, with Glasgow’s parks, green spaces, and other walking routes of the city in mind.
The works take various forms – experimental sound, field recordings, readings, performance and conversation – with each reflecting different rhythms and altered soundscapes in the city. They offer forms of intimacy, emotional trajectories, diaristic journeys and touch without touching; suggest a redefinition of our relationship to nature and the city as a strategy for living; propose new understandings of time and location; or else provide a record of the unseen forces and invisible labour that supports society.
Designed for headphones, the works are imagined as being listened to outdoors but can of course be listened to anywhere and will exist beyond this particular place and present moment in time.
‘In the open’ allows us to continue our commitment to supporting artists and developing new works. Each audio work has been released between July and September 2020 on The Common Guild website and Bandcamp and is now available as a Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.
Lauren Gault, ‘Mèduse’ (2020). Courtesy of the artist.
Artist Biographies
Scottish artist, filmmaker and musician Luke Fowler has developed a practice that is, at the same time, singular and collaborative, poetic and political, structural and documentary, archival and deeply human. With an emphasis on communities of people, outward thinkers and the history of the left, his 16mm films tell the stories of alternative movements in Britain, from psychiatry to photography to music to education. Whilst some of his early films dealt with music and musicians as subjects, in later works sound itself becomes a key concern. (Maria Palacios Cruz)
Lauren Gault is an artist born in Belfast and based in Glasgow and Magheramourne, Northern Ireland. She graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, and works in sculpture, installation and writing.
Selected solo exhibitions include: ‘C I T H R A’, Gasworks, London (2020); ‘forgets in knots’, Kantine, Brussels, ‘drye eyes’, Grand Union, Birmingham, ‘O-n’, curated by David Dale Gallery at The Workbench, Milan (all 2019); ‘present cOmpany’, CCA Derry-Londonderry; ‘sequins’, (with Sarah Rose), Glasgow International, (all 2018); ‘lumpers and splitters’, Prairie Underground, Seattle (2017); he was there when I first smelled the smell, and now he is the smell, (with Zoe Claire Miller) Rinomina, Paris, (2016); ‘lipstick-NASA’, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh (2015); ‘fugue states’ (with Allison Gibbs), CCA, Glasgow (2015). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Baltic39 (2017); Frutta, Rome, (2016); and SALTS, Basel (2014). Upcoming projects include ‘Some Triangular Thoughts’, a publication with SLOWGLASS, 2020 and a solo exhibition at The Tetley, Leeds in 2021.
Ashanti Harris is a multi-disciplinary visual artist and researcher working with dance, film, performance and sculpture. With a focus on re-contextualising historical narratives, her work dissects the movement of people, ideas and things, together with the wider social implications of these movements. She is co-director of Project X, a creative education programme platforming dance and performance from the African and Caribbean diaspora; and works collaboratively as part of the arts collective Glasgow Open Dance School (G.O.D.S), facilitating experimental movement workshops and research groups.
Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘The Skeleton of a Name’, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, and‘Second Site’, Civic Room, Glasgow (both 2019). Group shows and performances include: ‘Pre-Ramble’, David Dale, Glasgow (2020); ‘Walking Through the Shadows Eyes Open’, SUBSOLO Laboratório de Arte, Sao Paolo; ‘BLIP!’ Annuale Edinburgh; ‘As of Yet’, Many Studios, Glasgow; ‘Just Start Here’, The Anatomy Rooms, Aberdeen; and ‘Festival of the Not’, Circa Projects, Newcastle (all 2019).
Sulaïman Majali is a Glasgow-based artist born in London. Recent exhibitions include: ‘WHAT’S AHEAD, WHAT’S KNOWN’, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (2020); ‘saracen go home’ (solo exhibition), Collective Gallery Edinburgh (2020); ‘Pixelated Peripheries // مساحات مبكسلة’, ACC, Haifa, Palestine (2019); ‘something vague and irrational’, Celine, Glasgow, (2019); and ‘Mene Mene Tekel Parsin’ (curated by Jesse Darling), Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2017). Screenings and events include the International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany (2020); EARTH HOLD, Qalandiya International Biennial, Serpentine Galleries, London (2018); and the 8th Cairo Video Festival, Egypt (2017).
Majali was shortlisted for the Margaret Tait Award 2020/21 and is currently participating in a two-year artist/researcher-in-residence programme at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh College of Art. Majali will present the solo exhibition, ‘false dawn’ at Studio Pavilion as part of the postponed Glasgow International in 2021.
Duncan Marquiss is an artist based in Glasgow who works with video, drawing and music. His work explores analogies, patterns and connections between the natural and the artificial, considering the fuzzy edges of these categories. He is currently developing a documentary film looking at animal behaviour and AI.
Marquiss graduated from the MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2005, and undertook the LUX Associate Artist Programme in 2009. He received the Margaret Tait Award in 2015. Recent exhibitions and screenings include; ‘Artists In The Cinema’, Projections, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle (2020); ‘Stalking The Image’, GoMA, Glasgow (2019); ‘Texture Map’ (solo exhibition) Platform, Easterhouse (2019); ‘We Would Be Lost Without You’, Experimenta, London International Film Festival (2018); and ‘Copying Errors’ (solo exhibition), Dundee Contemporary Arts (2016).
Margaret Salmon is a Glasgow-based artist, born in New York. Concerned with a shifting constellation of relations, such as those between camera and subject, human and animal, or autobiography and ethnography, Salmon’s films often examine the gendered, emotive dynamics of social interactions and representational forms.
Selected solo exhibitions have been held at institutions including Dundee Contemporary Arts (2018/19), Tramway (2018) Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (2015); Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, USA (2011); Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2007); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2007) and Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (2006). Her work has been featured in film festivals and major international survey exhibitions, including the Berlin Biennale (2010), Venice Biennale (2007) and London Film Festival (2018, 2016, 2014). Salmon won the inaugural MaxMara Art Prize for Women in 2006, was shortlisted for the Jarman Award 2018 and the 2019 Margaret Tait Award. A new 35mm film and photographic works will be featured in Glasgow International 2021.
Further Info
Documents
Transcript: Ashanti Harris – 'History Haunts the Body'
Transcript: Lauren Gault – 'Méduse'
Transcript: Margaret Salmon – 'Clouded'
Read the review by Chris Sharratt in Frieze
Read the review by Adam Benmakhlouf in The Skinny
Read the review by Neil Cooper in The Drouth
Additional Links
Luke Fowler – 'The Pitches' | 31'50"
Lauren Gault – ‘Méduse’| 23'32"
Duncan Marquiss – 'Contact Call' | 30'45"
Margaret Salmon – 'Clouded' | 13'08"
Ashanti Harris – 'History Haunts the Body' | 23’ 36”
Sulaïman Majali – 'strange winds' | 18'18"
Luke Fowler – ‘A walk through a different city’ | 35'56"
Project Details
‘In the open’ was available for a limited time during 2020 to listen to on Bandcamp and Podcast platforms. Each work was mastered for listening on headphones whilst walking and spending time outdoors.
