MFA exhibition at the Glue Factory

Today I visited the Glue Factory to see this year's MFA exhibition. This exhibition marks the end of the student's two year postgraduate degree at Glasgow School of Art. As is the usual case with such exhibitions at the Glue Factory, some work is enhanced by the gritty, dirty surroundings, while other works would be better suited to a 'white cube' gallery context.

Fraser Sim has embraced the individual features of the space by, for instance, using the fireplace in the wall as a focal point for his installation titled UNITS.

The variety of coloured blocks become like 'coffee-table books'. 

Each block is exquisitely handmade and individual, but I believe that when displayed as a collective group such as in this exhibition, they become so much more interesting as we are asked to consider them as part of a whole rather than individual pieces.

Market Gallery Residency - Day 9

After my experiment the other day with creating a sheet of plaster and also my test into how the plaster reacts to parcel tape, I decided to cover a couple of pieces of cardboard with parcel tape and then drip plaster onto them, before laying the carboard on the floor and pouring a layer of plaster onto the cardboard.

I added more layers of plaster to the cones.

Laura did a stirling job at rotating the cone so as to keep the plaster moving around the inside of the mould, the intention being for the sculpture to be hollow.

My good friend Del popped into the gallery to see what I am doing and he kindly offered to help me remove the cylinder of plaster from the mould. We managed to get the pieces out of the tube, but they separated in the process. This actually turned out to be very interesting, and I like the texture of the 'dusting' of the other colour on the top of the layer.

I then went to the printers at the Glue Factory to choose the paper for the posters and watch them get printed. The process used is called risograph, and I had never seen this method of printing before so was intrigued to learn more about it.

Gabriella, who runs Risotto Studio, was really helpful and explained the process, which follows the principles of screenprinting.

Her Mum had knitted her a bespoke cover for the computer!

After some deliberation, we decided to opt for the silver/grey paper.

Campaign against GCC Public Entertainment License Meeting

Saturday, 18 February 2012
1pm - 4pm
The Glue Factory
22 Farnell Street, G4 9SE Glasgow

As of 1st April 2012, Glasgow City Council will be changing their 'Entertainments' License, to include all free events, including Exhibitions.
After this date, all proposed public exhibitions, regardless of scale, will need to submit a tedious application along with a hefty fee, 6 weeks prior to the date, as well as public notification, 6 sets of lay out plans, and will involve consultation with Strathclyde police, Strathclyde Fire Brigade, Building Control, Environmental Health, local councillors, local community councils, and local area management committees.

It's a ridiculously bureaucratic process which is being introduced at a particularly uncertain period, weeks before the start of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art - GI2012.

At a time were Glasgow creative community is the subject of extensive research, being branded the "Glasgow Miracle", and when 2012 is being marketed as the "Year of Creative Scotland", this will have a crippling impact on many small scale, non-profit, emerging organisations, artists and practitioners.