Library at Florence Street
The Common Guild’s reference library and public reading space is now located at 5 Florence Street.
Our expansive and growing collection includes over 1000 artist books, monographs, and catalogues, with subjects from art writing and curation to theory and public art.
The library collection has been shaped by the artists we have worked with and the many artists living and working in Glasgow. This includes our special collection ‘Room for Reading’, books recommended by the artists we work with. Our catalogues from international biennials, and books on theory and criticism reflect the most urgent discussions and pressing concerns addressed by contemporary art in recent years. Art magazines include the latest copies of Afterall, Art Monthly, Artforum and frieze. Further reading and resources relating to the current exhibition can be found in our library space.
Our collection is catalogued and available to search online here. Publications are organised in the following categories.
1 artists
1.1 monographs
1.2 catalogues
2 artist books
3 group shows
4 biennials
5 theory / criticism
6 art writing
7 curation
8 history of art
9 collections / surveys
10 public art
11 architecture
Our collection is continually updated as we acquire new publications. It is a unique and valuable resource that can be utilised by visitors.
The Common Guild bookstore is also available during library opening hours, including titles published by The Common Guild and a selection of artist monographs relating to our projects and exhibitions.
The latest writing from our Commentaries series, commissioned texts responding to our exhibitions and projects, are available from the library and free to take away.
Details
The Library can be found in The Common Guild’s new home at 5 Florence Street.
There is quiet space to ready, study and browse, and free tea and coffee available.
Browse Online
Our library catalogue is hosted by Libib. Browse our collection here.
Visit
Thursday – Saturday, 12–5pm, during exhibitions only.
Drop-in – no need to book.
Access
5 Florence Street has step free access.
Accessible toilets are available.
The nearest subway station is Bridge Street, a 14 minute walk away.
Location
Thanks
With thanks to Caterina Caulfield de Andres who digitised and catalogued the library as part of the University of Glasgow’s Internship scheme.
Related
Friday Event / Tarik Kiswanson
‘A Century’ installation view, Portikus, Frankfurt. Courtesy of the artist, carlier | gebauer, Berlin/Madrid, and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg. Photo: Wolfgang Günzel.
The Common Guild is collaborating with The Glasgow School of Art to present artist Tarik Kiswanson for a Friday Event as part of the School of Fine Art’s long-running lecture series.
In October, The Common Guild presents Tarik Kiswanson, ‘The Rupture’, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the UK. ‘The Rupture’ is a significant exhibition of newly commissioned and recently conceived artworks, as well as the first exhibition to take place in our new permanent premises at 5 Florence Street, a former school building in Glasgow.
Tarik Kiswanson (b. 1986, Halmstad) is a visual artist and poet based in Paris. His work has been the subject of several solo exhibitions, most recently Portikus, Frankfurt, Oakville Galleries, Ontario (both 2024), Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2023), Salzburger Kunstverein (2023), Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2023), M HKA-Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (2022), Hallands Konstmuseum, Halmstad (2022) and Carré d’Art-Musée d’art contemporain, Nîmes (2021).
In 2023, Kiswanson was awarded the Prix Marcel Duchamp, and has recently been awarded the 2024 Fondazione Henraux International Sculpture Prize. Kiswanson’s current exhibition, ‘A Century’ is presented at Portikus, Frankfurt until September 2024. .
The Friday Event is a visiting speaker series presented by the School of Fine Art (SoFA) at The Glasgow School of Art. With a long illustrious past and a bright future, the series hosts artists, writers, curators, academics, students and other cultural figures, welcoming and broadening dialogue and knowledge of local and international fields. Happening on campus and online, the Friday Event is always open to all.
Event Details
11am - 12.30pm, Friday 1 November 2024.
Free to attend. No booking required.
Location
Reid Building, Glasgow School of Art,164 Renfrew Street Glasgow G3 6RQ
Related
Lawrence Abu Hamdan – ‘Live Audio Essays’
Design: Tom Joyes.
Audio investigator Lawrence Abu Hamdan weaves together urgent political narratives that pivot around acoustic experience and sonic memory. ‘Live Audio Essays’ presents three key live performance works by Abu Hamdan in which sound and politics intersect. Two of the three performances have never previously been performed in the UK.
‘Air Pressure’ (2021), ‘A Thousand White Plastic Chairs’ (2020), and ‘After SFX’ (2018), will each be performed for one night only, each in a different music venue. These performances, delivered by the artist in the form of a monologue or “live audio essay”, present Abu Hamdan’s practice of research and investigative analysis, which is centred around “forensic listening”, auditory evidence and the “ear-witness” as political and legal testimony. Performances feature live percussion and guitar, filmed footage and sound design, with audio conditions enhanced to support careful listening: a conceptual and political tool for the artist.
Performances present narratives and testimonies that detail violence, oppression and aggression, offering strategies for political critique and action. ‘Air Pressure’ draws on research, conducted between May 2020–21, into the aerial soundscape of Lebanon, documenting 22,111 instances of Israeli fighter jets and drones in Lebanese airspace. ‘A Thousand White Plastic Chairs’ draws its scenography from translation techniques deployed during the Nuremberg trials (1945–46) with Abu Hamdan re-performing the asymmetry between technological prowess and the limits of cognitive processing. ‘After SFX’ is prompted by Abu Hamdan’s investigations into crimes that are heard but not seen.
‘Air Pressure’ (2021), the first of the performances, is a diaristic analysis written between May 2020 and May 2021 into the aerial soundscape of Lebanon where, from 2006–2021, there had been over 22,111 instances of Israeli fighter jet and drone violations in Lebanese airspace. Deploying publicly accessible information uploaded to the UN Digital Library, Abu Hamdan’s research and analysis brings this data together for the first time, making clear the scale and intensity of these incursions, and the consistent atmosphere of violence brought to bear across the territory.
Residents of Lebanon live in a state of precarity with the constant background noise of hostile jets and drones overhead. The potential of full-scale aerial bombardment is a daily possibility. Whether they are actively ignoring the noise from above or determined to document the violent aerial machines conspicuously hovering in the near distance, residents have developed modes of resistance.
Abu Hamdan’s account unfolds with live audio processing and countless videos of the rumbling sky, both pulled from open source content and captured by the artist and his team. Abu Hamdan employs the 'atmospheric' both aesthetically and conceptually to explore the ways in which violence is made manifest, reading Lebanon's air as a high pressure nexus in a global weather system.
'Air Pressure' is performed by Lawrence Abu Hamdan with live sound design by Moe Choucair. It has never previously been performed in the UK. With thanks to SWG3.
‘A Thousand White Plastic Chairs’ (2020) is performed by Abu Hamdan with electric guitar accompaniments by Fabio Cervi. The scenography for this work – flashing red and yellow lights – is inspired by the system of simultaneous translation deployed during the Nuremberg trials in the aftermath of World War II in 1945–6. This newly developed electronic audio technology enabled simultaneous translation of the trial proceedings from their spoken languages into Russian, French, German, and English.
During the performance Abu Hamdan is illuminated by these lights alone, which command and direct the artist’s speech. The performance departs from this apparatus to examine the inextricable relation between testimony and the technologies by which it is disseminated and distorted. Here, Abu Hamdan re-performs the asymmetry between the speed of the technology – which allowed words to travel through copper cables at 4,600 metres per second – and the speed of the human mind to process what it sees and stores of a given event. ‘A Thousand White Plastic Chairs’ serves as a proposition that the true capacity to bear witness is measured not through acts of coherent testimony and seamless speech but rather through its interruptions and breaking points.
'A Thousand White Plastic Chairs' has never previously been performed in the UK.
‘After SFX’ (2018) is prompted by sonic evidence, acoustic memories, and Abu Hamdan’s investigations into crimes that had been heard but not seen. The performance explores a series of sounds deriving variously from legal cases and trial transcripts, transhistorical testimonies, and interviews conducted by the artist with earwitnesses. The artist’s earwitnesses include prisoners held in Saydnaya, a brutal prison operated by the Syrian government.
In order to facilitate their testimonies and determine what they heard, Abu Hamdan experimented with pre-existing cinematic sound effects libraries, before developing his ‘Earwitness Inventory’ (2018–ongoing) a self-constructed sound effects library specific to the witnesses’ acoustic memories. The inventory includes everyday objects like a car door, popcorn maker, coins and loaves of bread. These objects operate as sonic analogies, conjuring sounds but also referencing psychological states of mind. A number of objects from the Earwitness Inventory will be activated during the performance.
‘After SFX’ explores sonic recall, and the question of a shared experience of sound. The performance points towards the difficulty of translation and the limits of language, offering a new acoustic vocabulary to articulate witness experience.
‘After SFX’ is performed by Lawrence Abu Hamdan with live sound design by Adam Laschinger and percussion by Iain Stewart. It is presented for the first time in Scotland in a new iteration developed in 2023.
About the artist /
Lawrence Abu Hamdan is an award winning artist, audio investigator and the founder of Earshot, the world’s first not-for-profit organisation producing audio investigations for human rights and environmental advocacy.
Abu Hamdan's work on sound and listening has been presented in the form of forensic reports, lectures and live performances, films, publications, and exhibitions all over the world. He received his PhD in 2017 and has held fellowships and professorships at the University of Chicago, the New School, New York and the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where he developed his research AirPressure.info.
Project Details
Part of Glasgow International 2024 Open Programme.
‘Air Pressure’ was performed at SWG3 on the opening night of Glasgow International, ‘A Thousand White Plastic Chairs’ was performed at Audio, and ‘After SFX’ was performed at Barrowlands at the closing night of GI.
Read the Commentary by Neil Clements —
Thanks
With thanks to Fabio Cervi, Moe Choucair, Adam Laschinger, Ambroise Leclerc, Jonny Lyons, Iain Stewart, Duncan Young.
Thanks to Audio, the Barrowlands, SWG3 and Inhouse.
Access
Barrowlands
The venue is accessible by stairs only.
Performance is seated.
Age restrictions - 14 to 16 year olds accompanied by a parent or guardian (no under 14s).
Venue staff have disability training, including operating a stair climber.
A raised accessible viewing platform is available at the rear of the hall.
Live captions are provided during this performance.
The nearest train stations are High Street (10 minute walk) and Argyle Street (14 min walk).
Audio
The venue has step free access from street level.
Performance is seated.
Age restriction: 16+.
Due to the nature of the performance, this event will not be captioned. A transcript will be available.
The nearest train station is Glasgow Central (3 minute walk).
Galvanizers, SWG3
Galvanizers is fully accessible.
Performance is seated with limited standing capacity.
A raised accessible viewing platform is available for concerts. This room can be accessed via 5 stairs, a platform lift or via a ramp.
Live captions are provided during this performance.
Accessible toilets are available in all ground floor level bar spaces servicing this area.
The nearest train station is Exhibition Centre (20 minute walk).
Related
Roundtable Conversation / Elke Finkenauer, Sabrina Henry, Caitlin Merrett King
Nicole Wermers, ‘Day Care’ (2024). Installation view, The Common Guild at 60 York Street, Glasgow. Courtesy the artist; Herald St, London; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and Los Angeles; Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; and Produzentengalerie Hamburg. Photo: Ruth Clark.
Join visual artist Elke Finkenauer, curator and textile artist Sabrina Henry, and writer and programmer Caitlin Merrett King for a roundtable conversation focusing on our current exhibition, Nicole Wermers’ ‘Day Care’.
Roundtable Conversations are intended to offer space for dialogue and the opportunity to develop ideas prompted by our exhibitions and projects. Each invited participant will share a provocation intended for wider discussion with a group of up to ten people. We encourage all participants to join in the discussion; come prepared with thoughts, critiques and questions.
Elke Finkenauer is a visual artist working in sculpture and drawing. She has an MFA from Glasgow School of Art (2015). Recent project ‘BitParts’ (2020–23), was a durational drawing project based on an analogue dataset developed in parallel with research undertaken at Creative Informatics, University of Edinburgh. In 2022 she was awarded the Glasgow Visual Artist and Craft Maker Bursary. She sits on the LUX board of trustees.
Sabrina Henry is a curator, costume, and textile artist. Her curatorial work creates spaces to think through questions related to diasporic presence in Scotland, contributing to the wider discourse around the legacies of colonialism, power, and modernity. Her costume and textile practice focuses on geographies of the Atlantic, using handcraft techniques to create contemporary artefacts that connect pre-colonial traditions with the contemporary British experience. She is Head of Programme at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow.
Caitlin Merrett King studied MLitt Art Writing at Glasgow School of Art (2022). She is Programme Coordinator at David Dale Gallery, coordinates Glasgow Art Map, runs Lunchtime Gallery and is a Director of Good Press. ‘Always Open Always Closed’ (2023), Merrett King’s novella, is published by JOAN.
Event Details
Places are limited and booking is required.
All participants are encouraged join in the discussion.
Location
Capella Building
60 York Street Glasgow, G2 8JX
The Common Guild is on the 7th Floor.
Transport Links: Glasgow Central Station is a five minute walk away.
Access
There is ramped access from the street to the ground floor reception.
The 7th floor is accessible by lift from the reception area.
There are double doors in the lift lobby on the 7th floor. Please ring the doorbell for assistance.
Related
Artists’ Talk / Martin Boyce & Nicole Wermers with Fatoş Üstek
Nicole Wermers, ‘Day Care’ (2024). Installation view, The Common Guild at 60 York Street, Glasgow. Courtesy the artist; Herald St, London; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and Los Angeles; Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; and Produzentengalerie Hamburg. Photo: Ruth Clark.
As part of Nicole Wermers’ exhibition ‘Day Care’, and in parallel with Martin Boyce's exhibition ‘Before Behind Between Above Below’ currently at the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, the artists will be in conversation with the curator and writer Fatoş Üstek.
The artists will discuss their sculptural practice through their respective current exhibitions as well as their shared interest in architecture, the built environment, and the materiality of the everyday.
Fatoş Üstek is an independent curator and writer. She is the author of The Art Institution of Tomorrow, Reinventing the Model (2024), curator of Frieze Sculpture, London and Co-Founder & Managing Director for FRANK Fair Artist Pay. She was previously Director of the Liverpool Biennial, Director of the Roberts Institute of Art, Curator of Art Night, 2017, London and Associate Curator of the 10th Gwangju Biennial, South Korea. In 2015 she was the Art Fund Curator at fig-2, a ground-breaking project which presented 50 projects in 50 weeks at the ICA, London.
Event Details
Listen to Nicole Wermers and Martin Boyce in conversation –
Location
Capella Building
60 York Street Glasgow, G2 8JX
The Common Guild is on the 7th Floor.
Transport Links: Glasgow Central Station is a five minute walk away.
Access
There is ramped access from the street to the ground floor reception.
The 7th floor is accessible by lift from the reception area. Visitors can check in at reception.
There are double doors in the lift lobby on the 7th floor. Please ring the doorbell for assistance.
Live captions will be available on a screen generated by Microsoft Speech Services.
Related
Friday Event / Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Lawrence Abu Hamdan will present The Glasgow School of Art's next Friday Event, as part of their long-running lecture series. Delivered in collaboration with The Common Guild, Abu Hamdan’s lecture will take place on Zoom.
Abu Hamdan will discuss his artistic practice as a 'Private Ear'; listening to, with, and on behalf of people affected by corporate, state, and environmental violence. His work has been presented in the form of forensic reports, lectures and live performances, films, publications, and exhibitions all over the world.
His audio investigations have been used as evidence at the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and been a key part of advocacy campaigns for organisations such as Amnesty International, Defence for Children International and Forensic Architecture.
In June 2024, Abu Hamdan will present 'Live Audio Essays' with The Common Guild as part of Glasgow International.
The Friday Event is a visiting speaker series presented by the School of Fine Art (SoFA) at The Glasgow School of Art. With a long illustrious past and a bright future, the series hosts artists, writers, curators, academics, students and other cultural figures, welcoming and broadening dialogue and knowledge of local and international fields. Happening on campus and online, the Friday Event is always open to all.
Event Details
The Friday Event will be streamed online on Friday 22 March from 11am – 12.30pm.
Attend Online
Related
Publication Launch / ‘anywhere in the universe’
Design: Tom Joyes.
Join us, with authors Claire-Louise Bennett and Aurelia Guo, to celebrate the launch of our new publication 'anywhere in the universe'.
The book brings together five artist's commissions by Rabiya Choudhry, Kate Davis, Sean Edwards, Onyeka Igwe and Yuri Pattison, with writing by five authors: Claire-Louise Bennett, Aurelia Guo, Charlotte Higgins, Lola Olufemi, and Chitra Ramaswamy whose texts were created in parallel with the artist's work. The book also includes a new essay on the project by TCG Curator, Chloe Reith and is designed by Tom Joyes.
During the launch, there will be readings from contributing authors Bennett and Guo. The book will be available for purchase with a special launch bundle discount for those attending. During the event there will be the chance to see part of Sean Edwards' 'FOR WHAT WE HAVE' and to pick up Kate Davis' Natural History' commissioned as part of 'anywhere in the universe'.
Event Details
Location
Capella Building
60 York Street Glasgow, G2 8JX
The Common Guild is on the 7th Floor.
Transport Links: Glasgow Central Station is a five minute walk.
Access
There is ramped access from the street to the ground floor reception.
The 7th floor is accessible by lift from the reception area. Visitors can check in at reception.
There are double doors in the lift lobby on the 7th floor. Please ring the doorbell for assistance.
Shop / Buy ‘anywhere in the universe’
Related
Behind-the-scenes tours at The Mitchell Library
Design: Tom Joyes
Dawn Vallance, Principal Librarian at the Mitchell Library, will lead a tour of the vast back stacks of the Mitchell, not usually accessible to the public. Spanning twelve floors and three distinct architectural periods, the tour will give a rare insight into the history and operations of Glasgow’s largest public library.
Event Details
Tickets
Free, booking essential (places are limited).
Thursday 22nd June 6pm – 7pm
Saturday 24th June 11am – 12pm
Access
The tour involves stairs and walking.
Tours will begin promptly at the allocated times.
Meet at ground floor reception desk at the Granville Street entrance to the library.
View Map
Related
‘anywhere in the universe’ – Artists Discussion
Design: Tom Joyes
Join Rabiya Choudhry, Kate Davis, Sean Edwards, Onyeka Igwe, and Yuri Pattison for a discussion on 'anywhere in the universe' our project looking at the present, past and future of the public library.
Artists will discuss the focus and inspiration for their individual commissions: from community empowerment and representation to pedagogical plays, the reclaiming of words and the privatisation of knowledge. They will reflect on their own experiences of libraries and speculate on what the future of libraries might look like.
Artists will be in discussion with Dr Karen Di Franco. Di Franco is a curator and writer and currently Programme Leader, MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) at Glasgow School of Art and Programme Curator at Chelsea Space, Chelsea College of Arts. She is currently working on a solo exhibition of American artist Constance DeJong.
Event Details
This event took place in the Baillie’s Reading Room of The Mitchell Library from 1–3pm.
Location
The Baillie’s room is located on the 2nd floor of the Mitchell Library.
The best entrance is Granville Street entrance to the library.
View Map
Access
The Mitchell Library is wheelchair accessible. Accessible toilets are available.
Related
Reading Event / Chitra Ramaswamy
Design: Tom Joyes
As part of ‘anywhere in the universe’, we have invited the award-winning journalist and author Chitra Ramaswamy to read excerpts from recent writing, including her newly commissioned text written in parallel with the work of Rabiya Choudhry at Glasgow Women’s Library.
Ramaswamy is the first of five writers commissioned to write alongside artists’ works during ‘anywhere in the universe’. Her fragment of narrative non-fiction accompanying Rabiya Choudhry’s illuminated artworks, ‘Give light and people will find the way (Ella Baker)’ will be available to pick up from Glasgow Women’s Library as well as Dennistoun Library, Shettleston Library for the duration of the project.
Rabiya Choudhry, ‘Give light and people will find the way (Ella Baker)’ (2022) installation view Glasgow Women’s Library 2023. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Isobel Lutz-Smith.
Chitra Ramaswamy is an author and journalist. Her latest book,‘Homelands: The History of a Friendship’(Canongate) is a work of creative non-fiction exploring her friendship with a 98-year-old German Jewish refugee called Henry Wuga and winner of the 2022 Saltire Non-Fiction Book of the Year. Her first book, ‘Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy’ (2016) won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Polari Prize. She has contributed essays to Antlers of Water, Nasty Women, The Freedom Papers, The Bi:ble, and Message From The Skies. She writes for The Guardian, is the restaurant critic for The Times Scotland, and broadcasts for BBC radio.
Project Details
This event takes place at Glasgow Women’s Library.
Refreshments will be available from 1.30pm.
The event starts at 2pm.
Tickets
Location
Glasgow Women’s Library
23 Landressy Street, G40 1BP
Transport links: Bridgeton Station
Access
Glasgow Women’s Library is wheelchair accessible. Accessible toilets are available.
Further details from womenslibrary.org.uk
A piece of narrative non-fiction by Chitra Ramaswamy was an accompanying text to Rabiya Choudhry’s commission for Glasgow Women’s Library, Dennistoun Library and Shettleston Library.
Related
Onyeka Igwe – ‘The Last Librarian in Glasgow’
Design: Tom Joyes
Onyeka Igwe’s play for libraries is informed by socialist-realist participatory theatre and educational plays to think through ways meaning is made collectively and how we tend to look upon the institutions we interact with in everyday life.
‘The Last Librarian in Glasgow’ is a short play set in the near future. The play follows two individuals who join forces in an attempt to resurrect the now-lost tradition of the public lending library. Working through their own indistinct, hazy childhood memories, and instructions from a zine, they start to assemble what they think might be the essentials of a community library, in an old, empty warehouse building.
Onyeka Igwe, ‘The Last Librarian in Glasgow’, Hillhead Library, 2023. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Alan Dimmick.
Through dialogue and interaction with their new library visitors, the characters work through the assumptions, ideologies and complications of institutional formation. In enacting their new roles as librarians and custodians of an organisation, they call into question the ways institutions have developed and the structures and systems we have inherited in our own public spaces. Through a process of trial and error, they propose ways in which things might be different, and in turn speculate what is needed in society now and in an unknown future.
‘The Last Librarian in Glasgow’ points towards cycles of knowledge loss and reformation, and explores what is valued, inherited and saved for public use. The play highlights how information is accessed and exchanged, as well as changing notions of the civic, and habits of sharing in present times.
Igwe’s play was accompanied by a short piece of writing by the writer and researcher Lola Olufemi. Olufemi’s writing was available from Hillhead Library, Langside Library and Woodside Library, for the duration of the project.
Onyeka Igwe is an artist and researcher working between cinema and installation, living and working in London, UK. Her work is animated by the question “how do we live together?” with a particular interest in sensorial, spatial, and non-canonical ways of knowing. She uses embodiment, voice, archives, narration and text to create structural “figure-of-eights”, a format that exposes a multiplicity of narratives.
Solo exhibitions and commissions include ‘A Repertoire of Protest (No Dance, No Palaver)’, MoMA PS1, New York (2023) ; ‘The Miracle on George Green’, Highline, New York (2022); ‘a so-called archive’, LUX, London; ‘THE REAL STORY IS WHAT’S IN THAT ROOM’, Mercer Union, Toronto, Canada, (both 2021), ‘There Were Two Brothers’, Jerwood Arts, (2019), and ‘Corrections’ with Aliya Pabani, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada (2018).
In 2022 Igwe was nominated for the Jarman Award and shortlisted for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women 2022–2024. She was awarded the 2021 Foundwork Artist Prize; the 2020 Arts Foundation Futures Award for Experimental Short Film; and was the 2019 recipient of the Berwick New Cinema Award in 2019.
Lola Olufemi is a black feminist writer and Stuart Hall foundation researcher from London based in the Centre for Research and Education in Art and Media at the University of Westminster. Her work focuses on the uses of the feminist imagination and its relationship to cultural production, political demands and futurity. She is author of ‘Feminism Interrupted: Disrupting Power’ (Pluto Press, 2020), ‘Experiments in Imagining Otherwise’ (Hajar Press, 2021) and a member of 'bare minimum', an interdisciplinary anti-work arts collective.
About the Libraries
Located in Battlefield in the southside of Glasgow, Langside Library was opened in 1915, the last of the Carnegie libraries to be built in the city. Built on the principle of open access, the library was designed by architect George Simpson. The library features a mural of the Battle of Langside, which was painted by staff and students at the Glasgow School of Art and completed in 1921.
One of the largest Carnegie libraries in Glasgow, Woodside Library was designed by J R Rhind and opened in 1905. A large, glazed dome on the roof is a distinctive feature, and sculpture on the front of the building is attributed to William Kellock Brown. After a refurbishment, the library reopened in 2022, and is now home to a flexible community space, new study areas and a colourful woodland-themed children’s area stocked with books chosen by pupils from local primary schools.
The most used branch library in Glasgow, Hillhead Library has been a fixture of Glasgow’s West End since opening in 1975. The building was designed in Modernist architectural style by architects Rogerson & Spence, and the library’s interior open plan arrangement with spiral staircases represents a shift towards fully open access libraries.
Project Details
‘The Last Librarian in Glasgow’ was performed in Langside Library, Woodside Library and Hillhead Library across three days.
Performed by Elicia Daly, Pauline Goldsmith and Louis Pearson.
It is now available as an audio play - listen below.
Listen to ‘The Last Librarian in Glasgow’ –
Thanks
With thanks to staff at Glasgow Life.
Onyeka Igwe would like to thank Gordon Douglas; David Allan; Elly Goodman and Neil Packham at the Citizens Theatre; the Citizens Theatre Community Collective Group; February Workshop participants; and the Red Sunday School.
Thanks to the performers, Elicia Daly, Pauline Goldsmith and Louis Pearson, and to Chizu Anucha for the sound mix.
Related
Primer / Onyeka Igwe
Onyeka Igwe, ‘The Miracle on George Green’, (2022). Film still. Courtesy of the artist.
‘Primers’ offer an opportunity to hear from artists during the development of new projects with The Common Guild. As part of the upcoming project ‘anywhere in the universe’, this event presents commissioned artist Onyeka Igwe. Igwe will screen her film ‘The Miracle on George Green’ (2022) and discuss her practice to date.
Onyeka Igwe, ‘No Archive Can Restore You’, (2020). Film still. Courtesy of the artist.
Onyeka Igwe is an artist and researcher working between cinema and installation. She is born and based in London, UK. Through her work Onyeka is animated by the question “how do we live together?” with a particular interest in sensorial, spatial, and non-canonical ways of knowing. She uses embodiment, voice, archives, narration and text to create structural “figure-of-eights”, a format that exposes a multiplicity of narratives.
‘The Miracle on George Green’ tells a collective social history of the UK tradition of the commons – land collectively owned and used to gather, play, and debate. The film centres around the George Green treehouse in East London. In the early 1990s, when the old sweet chestnut tree that housed the treehouse was threatened, people across the world wrote letters to the treehouse as part of a campaign to save it.
Solo exhibitions and commissions include ‘A Repertoire of Protest (No Dance, No Palaver)’, MoMA PS1, New York (2023) ; ‘The Miracle on George Green’, Highline, New York (2022); ‘a so-called archive’, LUX, London; ‘THE REAL STORY IS WHAT’S IN THAT ROOM’, Mercer Union, Toronto, Canada, (both 2021), ‘There Were Two Brothers’, Jerwood Arts, (2019), and ‘Corrections’ with Aliya Pabani, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada (2018).
In 2022 Igwe was nominated for the Jarman Award and shortlisted for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women 2022–2024. She was awarded the 2021 Foundwork Artist Prize; the 2020 Arts Foundation Futures Award for Experimental Short Film; and was the 2019 recipient of the Berwick New Cinema Award in 2019.
Further Info
Additional Links
Onyeka Igwe, ‘A Repertoire of Protest (No Dance, No Palaver)’, MoMA PS1.
Event Details
This in-person event takes place on Thursday 16th April from 6–8pm at the Kelvin Hall Lecture Theatre.
'Primers' are presented in collaboration with Dr. Dominic Paterson at the University of Glasgow.
Tickets
Free. Book in advance here.
Location
Kelvin Hall Lecture Theatre, 1445 Argyle St, G3 8AW
Access
Kelvin Hall Lecture Theatre is on the ground floor of Kelvin Hall. The venue is wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets.
Films will be screened with subtitles and captions where available. ‘The Miracle on George Green’ is twelve minutes long,
Related
Friday Event / Corin Sworn
Corin Sworn, 'This Harmonic Chamber' (performance still) (2022), from the series 'Moving in Relation' (2021-22). Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Alan Dimmick.
The Common Guild is collaborating with The Glasgow School of Art to present a Friday Event with artist Corin Sworn as part of the School of Fine Art’s long-running lecture series.
Corin Sworn works with performance, video, distributed narrative, and installation, using storytelling, material encounters and interactive technologies as tools of enquiry. Sworn is interested in the art gallery as a communicative apparatus, and as a site for opening investigation into technological devices. In her installations, apparently nascent technologies, from robot ‘vision’ systems to cloud computing, become framing devices through which to think, reflect and imagine.
Previous projects have employed “to-do” lists and artificial sweeteners; depicted chemical interactions as colour fields; and have explored the history of the camera as a technology that separated knowledge from the body.
Sworn is currently working with The Common Guild on the investigative performance series ‘Moving in Relation’ (2021-present). This series brings together collaborators working in movement, sound and academic thought to research material encounters with algorithmic thought, datafication and its influence on physical bodies.
Corin Sworn & nussatari, 'eco-co-location' (2021). Photo: George Hampton Wale.
Corin Sworn’s exhibitions include: Cumulo with URRA Buenos Aires (2022); OCAT Shenzhen (2021) Edinburgh Art Festival (2019); Gallery Arsenal, Poland (2016); Toronto Film Festival (2016); Collezione Maramotti, Italy (2015); Whitechapel Gallery, UK (2015); Langen Foundation, Germany (2015); Sydney Biennial, Australia (2014); Scotland+Venice at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013); Art Now, Tate Britain (2011).
Sworn was awarded the Max Mara Art Prize for Women in 2014 and a Leverhulme Prize in 2016. She is Professor of Contemporary Art at Northumbria University and works with Kendall Koppe Gallery.
The Friday Event is a visiting speaker series presented by the School of Fine Art (SoFA) at The Glasgow School of Art. With a long illustrious past and a bright future, the series hosts artists, writers, curators, academics, students and other cultural figures, welcoming and broadening dialogue and knowledge of local and international fields. Happening on campus and online, the Friday Event is always open to all.
Project Details
The Friday Event takes place on Friday 10 March at 11am – 12.30pm in person at the Reid Lecture Theatre and online.
Location
Reid Building, 164 Renfrew Street Glasgow G3 6RQ
Tickets
Friday Events are open to all. Non-GSA attendees should book a free ticket below.
Attend Online
The Friday Event will be streamed online.
Related
Primer / Kate Davis
Kate Davis, ‘Charity’ (2017), installation view, ‘Nudes Never Wear Glasses’, Stills, Edinburgh, 2017. Photo: Ruth Clark. Courtesy of the artist.
‘Primers’ offer an opportunity to hear from artists during the development of new projects with The Common Guild. As part of the upcoming project ‘anywhere in the universe’, this 'Primers' event presents Glasgow-based artist Kate Davis to discuss her practice to date.
Davis works across film/video, drawing, printmaking, installation and bookworks. Questioning how to bear witness to the complexities of the past, her artwork is an attempt to reconsider what certain histories could look, sound and feel like. This has often involved responding to the aesthetic and political ambiguities of historical artworks and their reception.
Kate Davis, ‘Phantom’ (2021). Installation view, ‘Flaw’, A-M-G5, 20 Albert Rd, Glasgow, 2021. Photo: Keith Hunter. Courtesy of the artist.
Kate Davis was born in New Zealand and lives and works in Glasgow. Solo exhibitions include: Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen; A-M-G5 at 20 Albert Road, Glasgow; LUX, London; Stills, Edinburgh; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand; The Drawing Room, London; Temporary Gallery, Cologne; GoMA, Glasgow; Galerie Kamm, Berlin; Museo de la Ciudad and La Galeria de Comercio, Mexico; Tate Britain, London; and Kunsthalle Basel amongst others.
Recent group exhibitions and screenings awards include: ‘Termite Tapeworm Fungus Moss’, CCA Glasgow; ‘Chips and Egg’, The Sunday Painter, London; 35th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival; ‘Class Reunion’, MUMOK, Vienna; ‘A Slice Through the World: Contemporary Artists’ Drawings’, Modern Art Oxford; ‘The Driver’s Seat’, Cubitt Gallery, London; The Margaret Tait Award 2016/17; Cinenova Presents ‘Now Showing’, LUX Cornwall; LUX/ BBC Artists and Archive commission; ‘GENERATION’, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; ‘HOUSE WORK CASTLE MILK WOMAN HOUSE’, Glasgow Women’s Library; ‘Art Under Attack’, Tate Britain; ‘The End of the Line: Attitudes in Drawing’, Hayward Touring Exhibition; ‘Art Sheffield 10’ (collaborative commission with Jimmy Robert); and ‘Das Gespinst’, Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg, Monchengladbach.
Event Details
This in-person event takes place on Thursday 2nd March from 6 – 8pm at the University of Glasgow’s Yudowitz Lecture Theatre.
'Primers' are presented in collaboration with Dr. Dominic Paterson at the University of Glasgow.
Tickets
Free. Book in advance here.
Location
The Yudowitz Lecture Theatre is located within the Wolfson Medical Building on University Avenue.
Access
The Lecture Theatre is on the ground floor. The venue is wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets
Related
Friday Event / Onyeka Igwe
Onyeka Igwe, ‘a so-called archive’ (2020). Film still. Courtesy of the artist.
CANCELLED: Unfortunately the Friday event has been cancelled due to UCU strike action planned for Friday 10 February.
The Common Guild is collaborating with The Glasgow School of Art to present artist Onyeka Igwe for the first Friday Event of 2023 as part of the School of Fine Art’s long-running lecture series.
Onyeka Igwe is an artist and researcher working between cinema and installation. She is born and based in London, UK. Through her work Onyeka is animated by the question “how do we live together?” with a particular interest in sensorial, spatial, and non-canonical ways of knowing can provide answers. She uses embodiment, voice, archives, narration and text to create structural “figure-of-eights”, a format that exposes a multiplicity of narratives.
Igwe is currently working with The Common Guild on a new commission as part of ‘anywhere in the universe’, a project looking at the present, past and future of the public library, which will be presented in Glasgow in Spring 2023.
Onyeka Igwe, ‘No Archive Can Restore You’, (2020). Film still. Courtesy of the artist.
Onyeka Igwe’s solo exhibitions and commissions include ‘Ungentle’ (with Huw Lemmey), Studio Voltaire, London; ‘The Miracle on George Green’, Highline, New York (both 2022); ‘a so-called archive’, LUX, London; ‘THE REAL STORY IS WHAT’S IN THAT ROOM’, Mercer Union, Toronto, Canada, (both 2021), ‘There Were Two Brothers’, Jerwood Arts, (2019), and ‘Corrections’ with Aliya Pabani, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada (2018).
In 2022 Igwe was nominated for the Jarman Award and shortlisted for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women 2022–2024. She was awarded the 2021 Foundwork Artist Prize; the 2020 Arts Foundation Futures Award for Experimental Short Film; and was the 2019 recipient of the Berwick New Cinema Award in 2019.
An upcoming solo exhibition, ‘A Repertoire of Protest (No Dance, No Palaver)’ will open at MoMA PS1, New York in March 2023.
The Friday Event is a visiting speaker series presented by the School of Fine Art (SoFA) at The Glasgow School of Art. With a long illustrious past and a bright future, the series hosts artists, writers, curators, academics, students and other cultural figures, welcoming and broadening dialogue and knowledge of local and international fields. Happening on campus and online, the Friday Event is always open to all.
Further Info
Additional Links
Onyeka Igwe, ‘A Repertoire of Protest (No Dance, No Palaver)’, MoMA PS1.
Event Details
CANCELLED: Unfortunately the Friday event has been cancelled due to UCU strike action on Friday 10 February.
Location
Reid Building, 164 Renfrew Street Glasgow G3 6RQ
Related
Primer / Sean Edwards
Sean Edwards, ‘chased losses’, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Installation View, 2022. Photo: Kate-Bowe O’Brien. Courtesy of the artist and Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin.
‘Primers’ offer an opportunity to hear from artists during the development of new projects with The Common Guild. As part of the upcoming project ‘anywhere in the universe’, this first 'Primers' event of the new year brings Sean Edwards to Glasgow to talk about his artistic practice to date.
Sean Edwards’ work investigates the sculptural and political potential of the everyday, often using remnants and fragments of previous activities as a starting point. In many of the works there is a sense of objects being in-progress, indeterminate and open to change. The work intertwines simple sculptural objects, mixed media installations and audio-visual components with personal family and political histories.
Sean Edwards, ‘chased losses’, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Installation View, 2022. Photo: Kate-Bowe O’Brien. Courtesy of the artist and Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin.
Sean Edwards (b. Cardiff 1980), graduated with an MA from the Slade School of Art in 2005, and is currently Programme Director for Fine Art & Photography at Cardiff School of Art and Design.
Edwards represented Wales at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019) and was awarded the Turner Prize Bursary in 2020 for the installation ‘Undo Things Done’.
Recent solo exhibitions include 'chased losses', Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (2022); ‘distant borrowing’, Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2021); ‘Undo Things Done’, Tŷ Pawb, Wrexham, Senedd, National Assembly for Wales and Bluecoat, Liverpool (both 2020); ‘Drawn in Cursive’, MOSTYN, Llandudno and Network, Aalst, Belgium; ‘Putting Right’ Limoncello, London (both 2014); ‘Resting Through’ Kunstverein Freiburg (2012); and ‘Maelfa’ Spike Island, Bristol (2011). Group shows include ‘British Art Show 9’, Hayward Touring and ‘The World We Live In’, Southbank Art Centre, London (both 2022); ‘Olaph the Oxman’, Copperfield Gallery, London (2019); ‘49a’, Limoncello, Woodbridge (2016); ‘This is Your Replacement’, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf (2016); ‘Un Nouveau Festival 2015’ Centre Pompidou, Paris; and ‘Finite Project Altered When Open’, David Dale Gallery & Studios, Glasgow (both 2015), amongst others.
Event Details
This in-person event takes place on Thursday 2nd February from 6 – 8pm at the University of Glasgow’s Yudowitz Lecture Theatre.
'Primers' are presented in collaboration with Dr. Dominic Paterson at the University of Glasgow.
Tickets
Free. Book in advance here.
Location
The Yudowitz Lecture Theatre is located within the Wolfson Medical Building on University Avenue.
Access
The Lecture Theatre is on the ground floor. The venue is wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets
Related
Moving in Relation 3. Louise Amoore interviewed by Corin Sworn
Corin Sworn & Claricia Parinussa, 'eco-co-location' (2021). Photo: George Hampton Wale.
The third instalment in Corin Sworn's research series 'Moving in relation' takes the form of a conversation between Corin Sworn and political philosopher Louise Amoore, now available to listen online.
Louise Amoore is author of 'Cloud Ethics: Algorithms and the Attributes of Ourselves and Others' (2020) and lecturer at Durham University whose research has informed Sworn’s current investigative performance practice.
Sworn and Amoore discuss understanding algorithms, AI ethics, and the intimacy that connects together human and algorithmic relations. With reference to Sworn’s performances ‘eco-co-location’ and ‘This Harmonic Chamber’ they consider what place these technologies occupy in the world.
Touching on different histories of science and the prioritisation of rationality over embodied knowledge, algorithms are understood as an arrangement of propositions which are often used to model likelihood. Algorithms shape and are shaped by their porous engagement with the world; they participate in generative algorithm-to-algorithm relationships and demonstrate fallibility through enacting logics of misrecognition or ‘algorithmic madness’. Sworn and Amoore’s conversation reflects on the ways algorithms inform our everyday perception and impact how we interact with one another from an interpersonal to a judicial level.
Event Details
Listen –
With thanks to Louise Amoore.
Sound Editing: Corin Sworn
Additional Sound Editing: Duncan Marquiss
Related
‘anywhere in the universe’ – a preamble
Ayo Akingbade, ‘Claudette’s Star’ (2019), film still. Courtesy of the artist.
To launch 'anywhere in the universe' our next project and incremental series of artist commissions addressing the past, present and future of the public library, this event looks closely at artists' enduring fascination with public libraries.
Contributions will span a selection of film and video works from 1950s to the present, including Ayo Akingbade, Alain Resnais, Rosalind Nashashibi, Jeremy Millar, and more to be announced.
The event is co-organised with Dr Dominic Paterson (University of Glasgow) as part of the events programme of the School of Culture and Creative Arts.
Still from ‘Daphne’, Jeremy Millar (2013).
Screening Programme
Claudette’s Star (2019), Ayo Akingbade, 6 mins
Ayo Akingbade's film ‘Claudette’s Star’ explores her own and her fellow Royal Academy Schools students' encounters with art and literature. Much of the film is set amongst artworks from the RA Collection and filmed on site in and around the galleries of Burlington House and within the RA Library: the oldest institutional fine arts library in the United Kingdom. The film’s subjects talk about their literary inspirations and responses to different art works, situating them as active, vocal agents of cultural institutions with a history of exclusion. Akingbade interrogates the notion of the artistic canon and who is and is not included within this.
Ayo Akingbade is an artist, writer and director who lives and works in London. Akingbade works predominantly with moving image, addressing notions of power, urbanism and stance. Interested in the fluid boundaries between the self and the other, she gathers local and cultural experiences in intimate and playful interpretations.
University Library (2004), Rosalind Nashashibi, 7 mins
Rosalind Nashashibi’s ‘University Library’ (2004) explores how individuals use a communal space. Shot in Glasgow University library, it contrasts deserted aisles and close-ups of shelves of books with shots of students engrossed in studying and using library facilities including computers, keyboards and lifts. By unobtrusively filming students and editing the film rhythmically like a piece of music, Nashashibi highlights the routines and patterns behind our everyday activities, which would usually go unnoticed.
Rosalind Nashashibi is an artist based in London. Nashashibi works mainly with 16 mm film but also makes paintings and prints. Her work often deals with everyday observations merged with mythological elements, considering the relationships and moments between community and extended family.
Daphne (2013), Jeremy Millar, 18 mins
Jeremy Millar’s film ‘Daphne’ (2013) examines the organisation and logic of a collection of photographs by taking up elements of the study of the mythological figure of Daphne and her transformation into a laurel tree. The work was made in the Photographic Collection of the Warburg Institute, London, the former private library of German art historian and cultural theorist Aby Warburg.
Jeremy Millar is an artist based in London. He is currently Head of Programme, Writing,
at the Royal College of Art, London.
All the World’s Memories (Tout la mémoire du monde) (1956), Alain Resnais, 22 mins
'Tout la mémoire du monde' (1956) by French New Wave director Alain Resnais pays homage to the National Library of France. For centuries, the library has served as a repository for all the country’s publications, and more. Maps, prints, comic books, priceless manuscripts, gems, and medals all form part of the collection.
Alain Resnais was an internationally acclaimed film director, associated with both the Left Bank Group and the Nouvelle Vague whose unforgettable images have become part of the fabric of film history. His preoccupation with the themes of time, memory and history, and his dazzling exploration of cinematographic technique, made him one of France’s most distinctive and influential filmmakers for over 60 years.
Event Details
This event takes place at Kelvin Hall Lecture Theatre, Kelvin Hall.
Access
Kelvin Hall Lecture Theatre is on the ground floor of Kelvin Hall. The venue is wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets.
Films will be screened with subtitles and captions where available.
Tickets
Free, Drop-ins welcome or book in advance here
Related
Roundtable Conversation / Hannan Jones, Hussein Mitha and Myriam Mouflih
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, ‘May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth: Only sounds that tremble through us’(2020–2022). Digital still. Courtesy of the artists.
Roundtable Conversations offer space for dialogue and the opportunity to develop ideas prompted by exhibitions and projects.
Artist Hannan Jones, writer and researcher Hussein Mitha, and film programmer Myriam Mouflih offer their reflections and provocations on the work of Abbas and Abou-Rahme, in an informal group discussion related to our current project ‘May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth’.
Event Details
Places are limited and booking is required.
All participants are encouraged join in the discussion.
Refreshments will be provided.
Related
A Brief History of Glasgow’s Public School Buildings
Image: Isobel Lutz-Smith
Jenny Brownrigg, writer, curator and Exhibitions Director at The Glasgow School of Art, offers an introduction to and opportunity to visit the former Adelphi Terrace Public school building, opened in 1894, as well as discussing the broader context of Glasgow’s public school buildings.
Image credit: Isobel Lutz-Smith
The former Adelphi Terrace Public School was designed by Thomas Lennox Watson (1850–1920), and opened in 1894. It is a Category B listed building, located on the south bank of the Clyde, opposite Glasgow Green. Originally opened in 1894 following the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872, which made schooling free and compulsory for five to thirteen year olds, the building was used as a site of education for children and young adults until 2010. Latterly, 5 Florence Street was an annex for the Glasgow College of Printing. The building is now owned and being restored by Urban Office, who will hire rooms out as work spaces and studios.
Further Info
This event is presented as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2022.
Event Details
Saturday 17th September, 3pm.
Event duration: 1 hour
Location –
Related
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme – ‘an echo buried, buried, but calling still’
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, ‘an echo buried, buried, but calling still’(performance still) (2022). Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Alan Dimmick
As a part of ‘May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth’ (2020–ongoing), Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme will complement their multi-channel sound and video installation with the immersive audio-visual performance ‘an echo buried, buried, but calling still’ (2022).
This live work will draw upon sound, video, and text from the artist’s larger archive of found and self-authored performances. Through live vocals, electronics, sound sampling and projection, this new work examines the significance of voice and embodiment through song as a testimony to the resilience of communities under threat.
In performance, the body becomes a medium, ushering in a collective voice to echo for posterity through song.
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, ‘an echo buried, buried, but calling still’(performance still) (2022). Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Alan Dimmick
Basel Abbas (b. Nicosia, Cyprus, 1983) and Ruanne Abou-Rahme (b. Boston, USA, 1983) have had solo exhibitions at, among others, the Art Institute of Chicago (2021); Kunstverein in Hamburg (2018); Art Jameel Project Space Dubai (2017); Alt Bomontiada, Istanbul (2017); and Carroll / Fletcher, London (2016).
Their work has been included in major international biennials such as the 12th Sharjah Biennial (2015), the 10th Gwangju Biennale, the 31st São Paulo Biennial (both 2014), the 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013), and the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). They are currently participating in the 12th Berlin Biennale (2022).
‘May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth’ (2020 - ongoing) has been commissioned and presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the DIA Art Foundation, New York City (2020–2022), and presented at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2022).
Project Details
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme ‘an echo buried, buried, but calling still’ Saturday 10 September, 7pm
Performance time: c. 50 minutes
Tickets
Free, but limited availability
Access
Intertitles are in Arabic and English.
Seating is available.
The performance will take place on the ground floor.
5 Florence Street has step free access.
Accessible toilets are available.
Related
Primer / Yuri Pattison
Yuri Pattison, ‘sun_set pro_vision’ (2020—2021). OpenGL software, modified Dell PowerEdge R420, GeForce GTX 1650 GPUs, uRADMonitor MODEL A3 atmospheric monitor, HD digital signage monitors, Dexion slotted angle, aluminium EUR pallets, Dell PowerEdge R420 server chassis, “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World” (London: Benj. Motte,1726) book, decapped GPU chip, cables, ethernet switch, padlock. Courtesy of the artist and mother's tankstation, Dublin & London. Photo: Louis Haugh. Co-produced by The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin and the 11th Seoul Mediacity Biennale. Commissioned by The Douglas Hyde Gallery.
Our ‘Primers’ are artists’ talks offering an opportunity to hear from artists during the development of new projects with The Common Guild. As part of the upcoming project ‘anywhere in the universe’, this first event in a new series brings Yuri Pattison to Glasgow to talk about his artistic practice to date.
The practice of Yuri Pattison connects and materialises the intangible spaces between the virtual and physical through video, sculpture, installation, and online platforms. It explores how new technologies such as the digital economy and online communication have shifted and impacted the systemic frameworks of the built environment, daily life, and our perceptions of time, space, and nature.
Yuri Pattison, ‘True Time Master’ (2019-20). Microsemi Chip Scale Atomic Clock, counterfeit McIntosh MC275 amplifier (Foshan, Guangdong Province, China. 2018), electrostatic speaker, Dexion slotted angle, stripboard, electronic components, wire, shipping crate, packing materials, cable ties, printed matter, PIR, audio exciters. Courtesy of the artist and mother's tankstation, Dublin & London. Photo: Ros Kavanagh.
Yuri Pattison (b. 1986, Dublin, Ireland) lives and works in Paris. Solo exhibitions include ‘clock speed (the world on time)’, mother’s tankstation, London, (2022); ‘the engine’, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2020-21); ‘trusted traveller’, Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen (2017); and ‘user, space’, Chisenhale Gallery, London (2016). Selected recent and upcoming group exhibitions include ‘Radical Landscapes’, Tate Liverpool; ‘Post Capital’, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2022); ‘One Escape at a Time’, 11th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Seoul; ‘No Linear Fucking Time’, BAK, Utrecht; ‘Proof of Stake' – Technological claims’, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg; ‘The Ocean’, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway; ‘TECHNO, MUSEION’, Bolzano, Italy (2021); ‘Long Live Modern Movement’, CCS Bard, Hessel Museum, New York (2020) and ‘Phantom Plane, Cyberpunk in the Year of the Future’, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2019).
Further Info
Additional Links
Yuri Pattison, ‘clock speed (the world on time)’, mother’s tankstation, London
Event Details
This in-person event takes place on Thursday 30th June from 6 – 8pm at the University of Glasgow’s Yudowitz Lecture Theatre.
'Primers' are presented in collaboration with Dr. Dominic Paterson at the University of Glasgow.
Access
The Yudowitz Lecture Theatre is on the ground floor of the Wolfson Medical Building, University Avenue. The venue is wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets.
Tickets
Free. Book in advance here.
Related
Moving in Relation 2. ‘This Harmonic Chamber’ – Corin Sworn, Jer Reid and Luke Fowler
Corin Sworn, 'This Harmonic Chamber' (performance still) (2022), from the series 'Moving in Relation' (2021-22). Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Alan Dimmick.
Corin Sworn, Jer Reid and Luke Fowler present ‘This Harmonic Chamber’ – an incomplete, future film taking shape as a live performance lecture, with experimental sound and moving image.
Set within a distinctive redbrick factory – a former loom shed built in the 19th century – the performance deliberately plays with the apparently immaterial qualities of sound to physically reverberate this dense material site.
Through a deconstruction of the formal tactics of the lecture, Sworn describes a history that disconnects empirical philosophy from contemporary physics, charting intrinsic relationships between knowledge, idiosyncrasy and sensory experience. In parallel, the sonic performance amplifies the physical experience of sound unfolding within the space through vibratory resonances and echoes, building a palpably rich atmosphere.
‘This Harmonic Chamber’ is entangled in dichotomies of the material and immaterial, and speculation and sensation. The performance lecture teases out experiences of wavering uncertainty felt both bodily and mentally.
Throughout the performance, the spoken text can be followed online on mobile devices by scanning a QR code available at the venue. Fragments of video which accompany the lecture can also be viewed here through the same link.
‘This Harmonic Chamber’ is the second in a series of events entitled ‘Moving in Relation’ through which Sworn continues to research human interrelationships with technology. Working with dancers, academics and non-human collaborators, Sworn is developing a discursive and experimental event series that explores algorithmic thought, datafication and their influence on physical bodies, while seeking to make obscure knowledge immanent and palpable.
The first event, ‘eco-co-location’ by Corin Sworn and nussatari was presented within a suburban business park in the Clyde Valley in November 2021.
Further Info
Access the spoken text performed as part of ‘This Harmonic Chamber’ here. Available for a limited time.
Project Details
‘This Harmonic Chamber’ took place at 105 French Street, G40 4JS. The performance lasted c.40 minutes.
Read
Access the spoken text performed as part of ‘This Harmonic Chamber’ here. Available for a limited time.
Credits
Performance:
Scores and Sound: Corin Sworn, Jer Reid, Luke Fowler
Sound Engineer: Richie Dempsey
Costume: La Fetiche, Kenneth Thompson
Production and Website: Grace Jackson
Video (Online):
Movement: Molly Danter
Dramaturge: Jer Reid
Camera: Ambroise Leclerc / Paradax Period
Related
Artist Talk / Abbas Akhavan
Abbas Akhavan, ‘curtain call, variations on a folly’ (2021). Installation view at Chisenhale Gallery, London. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Andy Keate.
In conjunction with Mount Stuart Trust, we are delighted to bring Montréal-based artist Abbas Akhavan to Glasgow.
Akhavan addresses social, economic and political concerns through the lens of ecology, animal and plant life. He will talk about his on-site research at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute and his plans for site-specific works using materials from the island.
Akhavan’s exhibition at Mount Stuart will open on Saturday 30 April.
Abbas Akhavan, ‘CAT'S PAW’ (2021). Installation view at Chisenhale Gallery, London. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Ali Sadeghian.
The work of Abbas Akhavan (b. 1977, Tehran, Iran; lives/works Montreal) ranges from site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video, sculpture and performance. The direction of his research has been deeply influenced by the specificity of the sites where he works: the architectures that house them, the economies that surround them, and the people that frequent them. The domestic sphere, which he proposes as a forked space between hospitality and hostility, has been an ongoing area of study in his practice. More recent works have wandered into spaces and species just outside the home: the garden, the backyard, and other domesticated landscapes.
Solo exhibitions include Chisenhale Gallery, London (2021); the CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2019); and Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2017). Recent group exhibitions include Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022); Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (2018); Sharjah Biennial 13, UAE (2017); and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016). Residencies include Fogo Island Arts, Fogo Island, Canada (2019, 2016, 2013); Atelier Calder, Saché, France (2017); and The Watermill Center, New York, USA (2011). He is the recipient of the Fellbach Triennial Award (2017); Sobey Art Award (2015); Abraaj Group Art Prize (2014); and the Berliner Kunstpreis (2012).
Further Info
Additional Links
Abbas Akhavan, ‘curtain call, variations on a folly’, Chisenhale Gallery (2021)
Event Details
This was an in-person event taking place on Thursday 31 March, 6–8pm at Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle St, Glasgow G3 8AW.
Tickets
Free and bookable in advance.
Access
Kelvin Hall has step free access, a wheelchair ramp and accessible toilet facilities. The event will take place on the ground floor.
The venue is easily accessible by bus and the nearest subway stop is Kelvinhall - exit the station, turn left and Kelvin Hall is a short 5 minute walk.
Covid-19 Information
We are following the latest Scottish Government guidelines to protect against the transmission of Covid-19.
All staff will wear face coverings when interacting with the public and we ask that visitors wear a face covering during the event, unless exempt.
Please do not attend the event if you are experiencing any possible symptoms of Covid-19.
Related
Artist Talk / Sharon Hayes
Sharon Hayes, ‘Ricerche: two’ (2020). Installation view, The Common Guild at the former Adelphi Terrace Public School, Glasgow. Photo: Isobel Lutz-Smith.
Earlier this year, American artist Sharon Hayes presented a new project, 'Ricerche', at the former Adelphi Terrace Public School, bringing together Hayes’ three ‘Ricerche’ films for the first time and including the artist’s latest major work, 'Ricerche: two' (2020), which was commissioned by The Common Guild.
Hayes’ ‘Ricerche’ (or ‘research’) project constitutes an examination of gender, sexuality and contemporary collective identifications. It continues Hayes' sustained investigation of the act of public speech, and its intersections with history, politics, activism, queer theory, love and sexuality, through both the collective and the individual voice.
Sharon Hayes joined us online for a discussion of this project and the making of 'Ricerche: two' (2020), which was filmed in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, with two women’s tackle football teams.
Sharon Hayes, ‘Ricerche: two’ production still, Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, February 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin.
Sharon Hayes (b. 1970, Baltimore, Maryland, USA) lives and works in Philadelphia, USA.
Hayes is one of the most influential politically and socially committed artists working in the United States. She has been the subject of retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Hayes’ work is part of the public collections of Tate, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Dallas Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen; Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Warsaw; among many others. Hayes’ 5-channel video installation 'In My Little Corner of the World, Anyone Would Love You’ (2016) was co-commissioned by The Common Guild and Studio Voltaire, London.
Sharon Hayes holds the position of Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.
Event Details
This talk took place on Zoom on Thursday 16 December, 6–8pm. You can watch back until 31 January 2022.
Related
Moving in Relation 1. ‘eco-co-location’ – Corin Sworn and nussatari
Photo: courtesy of the artist.
Corin Sworn and nussatari present eco-co-location – a live one-off performance in a vacant office space within a near-empty suburban business park. Emerging through physical and verbal discussions, the performance explores dispersed sensation and variously suspended and compressed timeframes in response to this lapsed infrastructure of late capitalist administration.
Moving within the vast, stripped-out space, Sworn and Parinussa draw attention to the broad cloudscape visible through the building’s encircling windows. Clouds, employed as signifiers of data storage, insinuate connection between the material world and the complex concealed processes of corporate industries which, while remaining hidden and obscured, present as insubstantial, almost transcendent, ephemeral non-places.
Yet clouds, as shape shifting systems of condensation, have also long served as playful sites for shape spotting and make believe. As such, they can also speak to algorithmic machines which in a similar way, condense data whilst seeking to extrude patterns. These machines do so largely through correlation and abduction, seeking plausible generative associations without recourse to verification.
To engage these (in)operative metaphors and their associated processes nussa and Sworn have spent a period working into the affective qualities of feedback, delay and orientation amid systems that distribute sensation and trouble connection with echo.
This is the first in a series of five events entitled ‘Moving in Relation’ through which Sworn continues to research human interrelationships with technology. Working with dancers, academics and 'robot vision' equipped cameras, Sworn is developing a discursive and experimental event series that explores algorithmic thought, datafication and their influence on physical bodies while seeking to make obscure knowledge immanent and palpable.
Further Info
Corin Sworn wishes to thank the Leverhulme Trust, Creative Scotland and CCA, Glasgow.
Project Details
eco-co-location took place in a business park in the Clyde Valley. Coach travel was provided to and from the location. The performance lasted c.40 minutes.
Credits
Performance with sonic and sculptural installation: nussatari and Corin Sworn.
Sound Composition: nussatari,
Soft Sculpture and Costume: George Hampton Wale.
Sound technician: Guy Veale.
Film: Ambroise of Paradax Period.
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Discussion / 'The Art of Gustav Metzger and Climate Activism'
Gustav Metzger, ‘Mobbile’ (1970/2021). Courtesy the Gustav Metzger Foundation. Photo: Alan Dimmick.
'The Art of Gustav Metzger and Climate Activism' marks the end of Mobbile’s journeying around Glasgow with an informal discussion about the work of Gustav Metzger, his call for us to ‘Remember Nature’, and the relationship between art and activism.
The discussion includes contributions from artist and writer Ross Birrell, Ula Dajerling, Co-director of the Gustav Metzger Foundation, and artist and co-director of Sculpture Placement Group, Kate V Robertson.
Introduced by Dominic Paterson of the University of Glasgow.
Photo: Alan Dimmick.
About ‘Mobbile’
As the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) takes place in Glasgow, The Common Guild is re-presenting Gustav Metzger’s sculpture, ‘Mobbile’, a modified car that collects and stores its own carbon emissions, originally made in 1970 to demonstrate the destructive and harmful effects of manmade pollutants on the natural world.
Gustav Metzger was a visionary artist and radical thinker. Born in Nuremberg, Germany on 10 April 1926 to Polish-Jewish parents, Metzger came to the UK in 1939 as a refugee. He dedicated his entire creative practice to social activism and challenging our perception of public art as a vehicle for change.
At the heart of his practice, which spanned over 65 years, are a series of constantly opposing yet interdependent forces such as destruction and creation. Metzger’s involvement in anti-nuclear movements such as the Committee of 100 and his life-long activism to combat environmental destruction was fundamental to his provocative questioning of the role of artist and of conventional forms of artmaking and display. His auto-destructive art, meant as a public art form that would instigate social change, sought to provide a mirror of a social and political system that he felt was indifferently progressing towards total obliteration. He also sought to place the emphasis on action over creation of the art object, inviting viewers to interact with some of his work to heighten their impact.
The artist’s legacy is profoundly rooted in activism in both the political and artistic realms. Metzger envisaged art as a means of communicating the futility and horrors of conflict and war. By 1958, Metzger had become heavily involved in anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist movements and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1960, he was a founder member of the Committee of 100 and this led to a short imprisonment in 1961 with Bertrand Russell and other members of the Committee for encouraging mass non-violent civil disobedience.
Event Details
Listen to the discussion -
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Roundtable Conversation with Ashanti Harris, Winnie Herbstein, and Mathew Wayne Parkin
Sharon Hayes, ‘Ricerche: one’ (2019). Film still. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin
Roundtable Conversations offer space for dialogue and the opportunity to develop ideas prompted by exhibitions and projects.
Artists Ashanti Harris, Winnie Herbstein and Mathew Wayne Parkin offer their reflections and provocations on the work of Sharon Hayes, in an informal group discussion, drawing upon their own research and work as practising artists.
Event Details
Places are limited and booking is required.
All participants are encouraged join in the discussion.
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Pier Paolo Pasolini – 'Comizi d'amore' (Love Meetings)
Pier Paolo Pasolini, ‘Comizi d’amore’ (1964). Film Still.
Courtesy of Compass Films / Instituto Luce Cinecittà.
A special screening of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s feature-length documentary ‘Comizi d’amore’ (Love Meetings) (1964) to accompany Sharon Hayes, 'Ricerche'. The film will be introduced by Dr Pasquale Iannone (University of Edinburgh).
Developed during a period of rapid modernisation and socioeconomic transformation across Italy, ‘Comizi d’amore’ examines Italian attitudes towards sex and sexuality, relationships, gender and contemporary collective identifications.
The film follows Pasolini and a small camera crew through Italy where, at beach resorts, town centres, universities, fields and factories, they interview groups of students, children and co-workers. Filmed in the cinéma- vérité style, Pasolini himself often appears just out of shot with microphone extended, posing questions which reveal their subjects’ freedoms and prejudices, or “inversions” and “perversions”. Pasolini divides this cinematic report into a series of ‘ricerches’ or researches.
Event Details
Screening Information
Italian with English subtitles
89 minutes
Compass Films / Instituto Luce Cinecittà
Further Info
Additional Links
This event was part of Sharon Hayes ‘Ricerche’
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Artist Talk / Sam Durant – 'Iconoclasm'
Sam Durant, 'Iconoclasm', installation view London Road, Glasgow, 2021. Photograph: Isobel Lutz-Smith.
In the context of Sam Durant's 'Iconoclasm' project in Glasgow – a series of drawings presented across multiple public sites – the artist discussed his extended research, begun in 2008, into the destruction and defacement of public statues, memorials and monuments as acts of political protest.
Durant’s interest in monuments and memorials began with ‘Proposal for Monument’ at Altamont Raceway (1999), continued notably with ‘Proposal for White and Indian Dead Monument Transpositions’ (2005) that recontextualises memorials to victims of the conquest of North America, and more recently with ‘Proposal for Public Fountain’ (2015), a marble work depicting an anarchist statue being blasted by a police water cannon. He has presented major public art projects, ‘Labyrinth’ (2015) in Philadelphia, addressing mass incarceration and ‘The Meeting House’ (2016) in Concord, MA that took up the subject of race in colonial and contemporary New England.
His latest public sculpture, ‘Untitled (drone)’, (2021) – a monumental fiberglass sculpture in the shape of an abstracted drone – is the second commission for the High Line Plinth, New York City, and is on view until 2022. It raises the issues of drone warfare and surveillance in American society.
Event Details
This talk was recorded and made available to watch online for the duration of the project.
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Sam Durant – 'Trope'
Sam Durant, ‘Trope’ (2020) (video still). Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles.
Sam Durant’s two-channel video ‘Trope’ (2020) accompany The Common Guild’s presentation of the artist’s ‘Iconoclasm’ drawings across outdoor sites in the city from 17 May – 11 July 2021.
Both the drawings and the video depict historical and contemporary acts of destruction enacted upon statues and monuments in the public realm. Many of the ‘Iconoclasm’ drawings were taken from original newspaper photo-reportage and television footage. Likewise, ‘Trope’ is a compilation of recent and archival news clips collected and collaged together from anonymous internet sources.
The video portrays the simultaneous toppling and resurrection of public statuary in different locations around the world – including the spontaneous deposition of the statue of Edward Colston by Bristol residents in 2020 – ‘Trope’ emphasising the cyclical and recursive nature of iconoclastic acts and the compulsion to destroy symbols of the past.
Sam Durant (b. 1961, Seattle, Washington USA) lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Los Angeles, California, USA.
Durant is an interdisciplinary artist whose works engage a variety of social, political, and cultural issues that emphasise democratic ideals, racial equality and social justice. His works make connections with present and ongoing social and cultural issues, often taking up forgotten events from the past.
Durant’s interest in monuments and memorials began with ‘Proposal for Monument’ at Altamont Raceway (1999), continued notably with ‘Proposal for White and Indian Dead Monument Transpositions’ (2005) that recontextualizes memorials to victims of the conquest of North America, and more recently with ‘Proposal for Public Fountain’ (2015), a marble work depicting an anarchist statue being blasted by a police water cannon. He has recently presented major public art projects, ‘Labyrinth’ (2015) in Philadelphia which addressed mass incarceration and ‘The Meeting House’ (2016) in Concord, MA that took up the subject of race in colonial and contemporary New England.
Durant’s latest public sculpture, ‘Untitled (drone)’, (2021) – a monumental fiberglass sculpture in the shape of an abstracted drone ¬– is the second commission for the High Line Plinth, New York City, and is on view from May 2021 until 2022. It raises the issues of drone warfare and surveillance in American society.
His work has been included in numerous international exhibitions including Documenta 13, the Yokohama Triennial, the Venice, Sydney, Busan, Liverpool, Panama, and Whitney Biennials. His work can be found in many public collections including Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium, Tate Modern, London, England.
Durant teaches art at the California Institute of the Arts.
Project Details
Sam Durant, ‘Trope’ (2020)
Two channel video with sound
12 minutes, 35 seconds
Video editor Ana Branea, Sound design Laurențiu Coțac.
Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles.
‘Trope’ was presented as part of Glasgow International 2021’s Digital Programme.
Further Info
Additional Links
Sam Durant, ‘Iconoclasm’
Glasgow International