Last week was a disappointment all round, weather-wise. Cold and damp to start with, then Storm Kathleen blew in at the end. I was supposed to have my first women’s history walk of the year on Saturday but it was cancelled because of high winds. As it was Glasgow Women’s Library Necropolis walk, I suppose that was a wise decision. Taking 20 people to a graveyard with old tombstones on top of a hill in 50mph gusts is probably not a good idea. However, I was very disappointed because I had done a lot of work rerouting and rewriting this one over the winter. Ah well, there will be another opportunity.

It was the sort of week to spend in galleries, and we saw two very good exhibitions. Street Level Photoworks is showing Sewing Conflict: Photography, War and Embroidery by Jenny Matthews until 12th May. Jenny’s work deals with issues of dispossession and human rights, with a particular emphasis on the lives of women and girls, and this exhibition has two strands. First, a series of 23 photo quilts with edits of photos from her archive, brought right up to date with the last one, Gaza 2023.

Street Level, general view

Protest Quilt

Iraq

Rwanda 1995

Palestine 2009-2018

Gaza 2023

The second strand is Facial De-recognition, 35 portraits of Afghan women with embroidery obliterating their features, created to commemorate the Taliban retaking control of Afghanistan in August 2021 and the subsequent loss of freedom, rights, and identity for women and girls.

Dedicated to girls who find an escape in books

Dedicated to women who have lost their jobs and are now languishing at home

This was such a powerful exhibition which left us with a lot to think about. The other exhibition was powerful in a different way – the really strong colours of Sam Ainsley’s Wednesday is Cobalt blue, Friday is Cadmium red (on at the Gallery of Modern Art till 30th June).

The idea of North: Northumbria, Orkney, Iceland, Shetland, Fair Isle

What lies beneath

Making a heart like a tree

Making a heart like a tree (detail)

12 small square canvases

MRI scan of female breast with spermatozoa

I laughed at the last photo in the gallery above, remembering a recent conversation on Becky’s blog about a shot of the moon which Suzanne commented looked like a mammogram. And what do we have here? An image entitled MRI scan of female breast! (NB titles for all the artworks are in the captions, visible if you hover over or open up the gallery).

In other news, the bench in the Botanic Gardens which one of artist Rita McGurn’s daughters yarn bombs each Spring in her memory has sprung into life. Coincidentally, while in GoMA, we noticed a new(ish) artwork by another daughter, France-Lise McGurn.

Memorial bench for Rita McGurn

Wrong beat and baby (2021)

For the second week in a row I spotted a new Frodrik mural, this time on the wall of the Shelter shop on Great Western Road. This wall has been black for a few years, but it once had a colourful red hearts design to celebrate 50 years of the charity.

Frodrik mural

50th anniversary mural

And of course, the cyclist goes out in almost all weathers! On Tuesday he and a friend took the ferry to Dunoon. The tracks were a bit wet and the bridges left a lot to be desired, but the scenery was good.

Wet tracks

Broken bridge

Loch Tarsan

Thursday, which is my day volunteering at GWL, had the best weather of the week so John took off on a spontaneous solo trip over the “Tak and Crow”. A co-operative heron posed for a photograph by the canal on the way out, then an even more co-operative passing cyclist took a photo of John observing said heron.

Heron

John, bike and heron

View from Tak-ma-doon road

Carron Valley Reservoir

So that was last week, on to the next one. Hope yours is good!