The week in Glasgow Gallivanting: 1st-7th April 2024

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Victoria Park on a cold Easter Monday. The only busy place was the children’s playground! I’m glad to see a bit of colour in the flower beds, though they are nowhere near their former glory. Council cuts and Covid.

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, Sam Ainslie 2024
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!

Scotland, UK , , ,

67 Comments »

  1. Wow, so much to love & contemplate (& be shocked by!) in this post. The art exhibits are fabulous; it’s so horrifying to think how women are treated as property and not valued in so many cultures. Even here in the U.S. it seems women’s rights are being trampled from all directions. But our struggles are nothing compared to so many women in the world. Some of the images are shocking, like the one titled “Gaza 2024.” I love the yarn-bombed bench and the piece by the other daughter, “Wrong Beat and baby.” And I love the bright colors in the Sam Ainsley exhibition and the mural by Frodrik. Though you had dreary weather, you found lots of brightness indoors. 🙂

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    • Jenny Matthews’ exhibition was so powerful it still haunts me. I agree we in the west have less to complain about than many women throughout the world, but it does worry me how hard won rights are being rolled back especially in your country. And if you-know-who gets in, it will be just appalling.

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  3. Glad you filled in your time with the gallery visits as we all benefit from the bad weather now.

    Lovely images and what a lot of interesting exhibitions you seem to have in Glasgow, you are lucky.

    I’ve just come back from Battle in Sussex (1066 and all that) and I’m still thawing out, the cold wind and rain we had did rather spoil things. We had to spend a lot of time touring and as I wasn’t in charge of the trip, I couldn’t keep asking them to stop so I didn’t get many pictures. Being a back-seat driver isn’t always a good thing.

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  4. Very pleased to see the new Frodrik! It took me by surprise on my return from Canada. Hope your history walk can be rescheduled soon. The forecast for this weekend is great!

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  5. A disappointment about the walk, hope you can reprogram another date. Those exhibitions looked very interesting. The imagination of artists always amazes me

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  7. Too bad about your history walk – the trouble with outdoor presentations! My presentation on Saturday went well, though we had gusty spares of snow. Indoors, delightful.🙂
    Very thoughtful exhibits. So many troubles in the world.
    John sure is an adventurous lad!

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  8. I’m sorry your weather was so bad and your walks were cancelled. But the exhibits look so interesting! On a personal level, I feel so badly for the women in Afghanistan now that the Taliban are back in charge. And we never hear much about it on the news either, at least here in the States. I suppose so we won’t criticize the government for its decision.

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    • We don’t hear much either. It’s been pushed out of the news, by Ukraine, then that has been more or less pushed out by Gaza. And there are so many other conflicts still going on around the world, Syria, Sudan. Maybe they think we can only cope with hearing about one at a time.

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  10. Hope you get to do your walk and talk soon , the weather has been varied but disappointing. The yarn bombed bench really stands out and you’ve seen alot of thought provoking art.

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  13. I take it you don’t have a television in your house or never watch it as both of you seem to spend more time outdoors than inside. I mention this as the weather has been really grim the last few weeks, almost constant rain so I’ve been happy to binge on box sets rather than tramp about outdoors in the mud. Been a struggle to even pick one dry hill day a week for a walk last couple of months. No FOMO for me. Can’t wait for more settled weather to arrive though. Bob.BSS.

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    • Actually, we do, but I rarely watch it, I just lost all interest a few years ago. I prefer to read (or fall asleep quite often, truth be told!) John sometimes watches on catchup on his iPad with his headphones in to avoid annoying me. It certainly has been grim lately though.

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  14. What a blow to have to cancel your walk and talk. I hope that i does take place at another time.

    The cyclist is amazing. He fairly gets about. Does he ever run out of energy?

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  16. Sorry that your walk and talk was postponed but understandable with the weather conditions. Hopefully, it will be rearranged soon so all your preparation work won’t be wasted. Love seeing the exhibitions and the murals. The cycle rides looked hard work but worth it for some splendid views. I never knew that Glasgow had such a vibrant art scene- it’s wonderful!

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  17. It’s such a shame your walk was cancelled. I’m so ready to see the back of the seemingly constant grey skies, some sunshine would be very welcome! The Sewing Conflict exhibition looks so thought provoking. It’s a simple but effective way of highlighting the issues women face in conflict zones.

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  18. You seem to have the ability to vanish at will Anabel – I got notification of your post this morning, looked straight away but nothing 😕 I love the yarn bombed bench and the colours of the second exhibition, and the new Frodrik mural is superb 🙂

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  21. The work of Jenny Matthews looks both interesting and powerful – I’ve not come across her at all. And I love that new mural! Here’s hoping for some spring sunshine soon (we did have a few hours of it this morning but the gloom has now returned)

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  22. Hi Anabel – the Sewing Conflict exhibition … so sad, yet so apposite – what a creative idea though. Amazing all the art work you’ve got available in and around Glasgow. John’s intrepid … but obviously loves his outings. Such a pity about Storm Kathleen putting paid to your walks – but as you say … ready for another day. Cheers and happy week ahead – Hilary

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  25. Such contrasting exhibitions, Anabel, and both worth lingering over. Shame about your history walk- another time, I guess? Dunoon looks rather lovely. Have a great week ahead!

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