This Week in Scottish Art: 30 Aug - 5 Sep
This week sees Simon Starling's Common Guild show close with two events, as well as new exhibitions from David Dale, Tramway, Civic Room, Patriothall, Glasgow School of Art, and more.
Tue 30 Aug: Not Shy at The Art School
Start this art week with Not Shy at the Art School, an exhibition by community-led darkroom The Grain Lab – see a few previews of their work on their Instagram account. They're exhibiting seven of their community of dark room users from 8pm, and have planned an opening party downstairs in the Vic with live music and DJs 'til late.
Thu 1 Sep: Tramway, The Common Guild, Civic Room, Patriothall
Skipping past Wednesday, Thursday sees Tramway's latest show previewing from 7-9pm. American artist Jennifer West has put together "a swan song to celluloid" entitled Flashlight Filmstrip Projections. Giving the film stock some kind of new use, visitors will be given torches to shine through the different rolls of film in the space, projecting their contents onto the Tramway walls. Here's a video of West's performance of the piece in 2014 to let you know what to expect.
Also on Thursday, The Common Guild also hosts a roundtable discussion from 6-8.30pm on its latest set of projects by artist Simon Starling. Drawing on the traitions of Noh theatres, as well as legacies of Modernism, Starling produced an exhibition and performance with Noh masks and research into a tight set of artists and poets, and specifically looking to the relationship between Ezra Pound and WB Yeats. This Thursday, short contributions from art writer and historian Isabella Shields, artist and theatre designer Kate Temple and artist and producer Carrie Skinner will open discussion about Starling's work. Free tickets are bookable here.
Heading east to the Civic Room on the High Street, The Battle of Collegelands takes place from 6pm. An exhibition and performance by Sarah McClintock, she sets duellers up as fighting for painting or the avant-garde, with brushes at the end of long cardboard tubes and canvases set up as shields. Over in Edinburgh, Visceral Absurdities opens in Patriothall Gallery from 6-8.30pm, featuring new paintings, drawings and sculptural works from artists Kirsty Boutle and Eilidh McPherson, both working with a certain kind of bodily abstraction.
Fri 2 Sep: David Dale Gallery
David Dale opens its latest show from 7-9pm. Titled Irmão dos homens todos, it features the work of artist Mauro Cerqueira and Pedro Wirz. While Cerqueira makes different kinds of collage and assemblage with found objects, Wirz makes knobblier, sometimes earthy looking sculptures and his works often seeming veiny, egg-shaped and dug-up looking.
Sat 3 Sep: Transmission, The Common Guild, GSA Degree Show
From 1-3pm in Transmission there's an artist talk by Scott Caruth. It's the first of three different artist talks at the gallery. Carruth opens the series with a talk about his three-year project on the West Bank, documenting the practices of studio portraiture photography. His background is in activism, and he "sets out to question the constructioin and dissemination of historical narratives." No booking necessary, free and all invited.
After that, head to Good Press if you can for the opening of Fritz Welch's Marbles in My Mouth from 3-6pm. For this exhibition, he presents a book he was given (now expensive and out of print) about the radical eccentric artist Viktor Rogy. Read Welch's great account of acquiring the book here.
The Common Guild hosts a second event for the last week of their Simon Starling show from 3-5pm. The theatremaker Graham Eatough will describe collaborating with Starling, in coversation with curator Katrina Brown. Book free tickets here.
Saturday also sees the first day of the GSA Graduate degree shows. From across all disciplines of art and design, graduate students' final presentations are displayed across the Tontine Building on Argyle Street, as well as the Reid Building further up on Garnethill.
Mon 5 Sep: The Old Hairdressers
At the Old Hairdressers this Monday, the GSA MLitt Curatorial Practice degree show continues with a presentation of Jarman Award winning artist Seamus Harahan's earlier works. It coincides with solo installation Both Together, as part of the main show at the Tontine. After the screening, Harahan will be in conversation with Glasgow-based artist Kathryn Elkin. Free, booking details here.