Glasgow Gallivanting: February 2019

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Window Wanderland, Strathbungo

Window Wanderland started in (I think) Bristol in 2015 and has now spread worldwide. It’s a scheme in which communities brighten up winter by transforming their streets into an outdoor gallery. We visited one for the first time in Strathbungo on the south side of Glasgow, and loved it. We came back with over 100 images of windows so you are getting off lightly with the selection below! I particularly liked the ones where the theme was continued over several storeys.

The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse (Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture) is always worth visiting, and currently has an exhibition about the life of Nelson Mandela (closes 3rd March, hurry along if you can). I don’t think I’ve ever come out of an exhibition snuffling quite so much. He was a unique human being.

Glasgow had a special relationship with Mandela. It was the first place in the UK to bestow Freedom of the City on him in 1981 (though for obvious reasons he wasn’t able to visit in person to receive the honour until 1993). In 1985 a year-long picket began outside apartheid South Africa’s consulate in St George’s Place, which was renamed Nelson Mandela Place in 1986. How it must have galled them to use that address! The Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation is currently raising money to erect a statue near where the consulate stood until it closed in 1992. Follow the link to find out more.

I also loved the Three Legged Stool exhibition by design workshop Still Life. There was a collection box for recycling plastic bottle tops and some examples of what they could be turned into – stools and trays. The impressive wall hanging is Care by Poppy Nash, which highlights the feelings of over 50 people about living close to someone with a long-term health condition or disability.

The last bit

Christmas 1984

Much of February has been spent catching up with old friends over coffee or lunch, mostly in Glasgow but also in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where John and I met as students in 1979 (story here). John still has connections with the University of Sheffield and visits from time to time, but I hadn’t been back for about 25 years until this month. There will be posts on the wonderful weekend we had in due course. In the meantime, enjoy this photograph which one friend produced and which we’d never seen before: it look as though we didn’t even know it was being taken. I’m particularly impressed by our luxuriant hair, and the fact that John is wearing a Christmas hat in public without apparent coercion.

Finally, to my Scottish word of the month. In December I chose bùrach, Gaelic for complete mess – specifically referring to the ongoing Brexit bùrach. Well, guess what? As I write, the UK government is still footering about in a complete guddle. To footer: to bungle or botch. A guddle: a mess, muddle, confusion. By my next Gallivanting post we are meant to have left the EU. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen. Happy March …

Scotland, UK , , , ,

76 Comments »

  1. The window art is whimsical. I agree; the multi-storey designs are very eye-catching. I also really like the one of the two people clinking their glasses, not so much because of the idea of drinking but because the bottles on the shelves above are so beautifully rendered. The shapes! The colours!

    Jude

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  2. What a great post 🙂 I just love the windows, especially the animal ones – I’d love to see something like that, I wonder if Manchester does the same thing any time? I would have been interested to see the Nelson Mandela exhibition – I went to Robben Island several years ago and saw his prison cell left exactly as it was when he was there, it was tiny 😦

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  4. I like how it’s called Winter Wanderland instead of Wonderland. 🙂

    That Mandela exhibition sounds extremely interesting. I wish I could have hopped over to check it out. I remember visiting the Martin Luther King museum in Atlanta, Georgia, many years ago and it leaving a huge impression.

    Thinking about all of you and the upcoming Brexit “split”… 😦 I guess they should call it Brexplit. I’m concerned.

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  5. Those Gasgow residents certainly have a lot of imagination- and artistic ability.
    Lovethe old photo. 1984 in some ways seems only a short time ago. Where have the years gone?

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  6. Adding my sixpence worth. Love art in most forms and the windows are a fab idea. The snail in particularly. Mandala, and his words of wisdom always makes me reflect on life!!
    Brexit or the lack of it is already starting to make a difference to those UK citizens who live away from the Uk.
    It’s a country we feel connected to so hopefully not too much of a negative impact on your lives!

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  7. Hi. Just discovered your blog.Really like what I’ve read. I stay very close to Strathbungo but haven’t noticed these windows before. Think the usual Glasgow advice applies – look up!
    Cheers – from Govanhill!

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  9. Anabel – I am so enjoying your language lessons. My grandpa used to speak Gaelic to me, and I am sure a word or two he spoke is one you are teaching me today! (also love the bright header photo on your blog – springtime??) -Susan

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  10. your Scottish sums it up perfectly . . . . goodness knows what it going to happen.

    loving the photo of you both :-), and I have not heard of the Winter Wanderlands before, what fun. I wonder if we could do this for HODs?!

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  11. I absolutely love the windows. An excellent idea and so many really clever works. The wall-hanging is beautiful too. I shall have to see if I can coping out more about it.

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  14. I LOVE those windows Anabel–thank you so much for posting them!! What fun to walk and see how creative people can be.
    And thank you for the Scottish words–they’re really fun to use in California!

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  15. Brilliant set of windows. As usual another aspect of Glasgow I knew nothing about until now. Will need to look it up. Not buying newspapers or going to libraries much these days has a downside.
    I’ve got some old photos of Sheffield from the early 1980s that I treasure for the visual impact of housing conditions then across the UK. Very different city now though.

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  17. I had never heard of the Strathbungo event until a few days ago when an old school friend of mine who now lives there posted pictures of her windows on Facebook. Her windows were covered in Pac Man characters. I thought the event sounded fantastic so thank you for sharing so many photos of the decorated windows.

    I don’t use the word “footer” often but I use the word “guddle” almost daily which probably provides a lot of insight into my life. Ha ha!

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  18. What an absolutely wonderful idea. I’d never heard of decorating windows like that and if it took off here I’d be more interested in that than in pasting bits of fake snow on my windows for Christmas! Loved every one of them, and if you want to post more i’d love to see them.
    Mandela needs no comment but congrats. to Glasgow for being among the first to recognise the man’s greatness.
    And re Brexit. Say nae a word more. My friends and I have deemed this week a Brexit-free week until some of us join the march in London on the 23rd. My arthritic limbs will no longer carry me on a protest march but I haven’t hung up my rebel cap yet!

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  19. Great photos of the window event. What a brilliant community project. I visited the Mandela exhibition last week and I learned a lot. I liked that it was mainly photos so not too much text to read. The striking images were very powerful.

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  20. Always good to find an old photo you don’t remember being taken, especially a flattering one. 🙂
    I’m actually off to Bristol with friends in April ( somewhere I have never been) and we shall be doing a Street Art walking tour. Might see some windows there too! X

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  21. I love those windows! What a brilliant way to add warmth to the winter landscape. Bùrach, footer, and guddle… what great words to describe what’s happening on both sides of the pond. Curious, they seem to be talking more and more about a Brexit re-vote… what do you think the odds are for that?

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    • I think it’s unlikely to get enough support in parliament. There is so little time now, May is running down the clock and I think enough MPs will be terrified enough of No Deal that they’ll support her in the end. I used to think we were a democracy, now I wonder! I wonder that about the US too. The leaders are acting like elected dictators.

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  22. All these selections are absolutely marvelous! Love the window project. Interesting that they’re making usable things out of caps, but hopefully we will someday do without plastic bottles completely.

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  24. Winter Wanderland sounds like a brilliant idea, not heard of it before. And youre so right about Brexit being a complete guddle! Dread to think what is going to happen.

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  25. Window Wanderland is a great idea. I haven’t heard about any towns or cities doing that in the USA. But maybe they are. If they aren’t, for sure it will catch on in the States one of these days.

    See ya!

    Neil

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  27. I love the windows, we moved from Germany where ‘fensterkunst’ or window art seems more of a thing…although not always on the amazing scale in the pictures. I’m hoping to head back over to Glasgow to seek out some of the murals, hopefully I can also fit in a wander round the windows also.

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  28. OMG! I LOVE those windows!! I’ve never heard of an event like this one and I wish it would gain some roots here. What a lovely way to brighten up the gloomy winter! It was hard to pick a favourite. I can’t! They are all wonderful.

    I’m loving that word bùrach. I had to look up the pronunciation of it and sadly it has the rolling r and guttural sound that reminds me of Dutch and is SO HARD for me to pronounce. Maybe if I practice it enough it could become my new favourite word. There is certainly enough bùrach going on right now to make its use appropriate :/

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  29. Excellent post. I had seen pictures of the window wonderland on Twitter and it looked great. Will have to get to the Lighthouse to see those exhibitions soon. I’ve heard the term omniburach to describe the current political situation which is wonderfully and scarily apposite.

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  30. Hi Anabel – wonderful idea … did you see they’re coming to Maryhill Park, Glasgow this coming weekend – check the website. Loved finding out about them …

    It’ll be fun to go back to Sheffield with the two of you … looking forward to that. Also I knew about Mandela’s connection to Glasgow … he was an extraordinary man … would love to see more – but for now … thanks for letting us know – cheers Hilary

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  31. Love the windows! I haven’t seen any sign of that, although since I’m not in an urban place, I probably wouldn’t…
    I wish the Statue website had some sort of indication of how much has been raised so far… makes me hang back from donating.

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