Inside Glasgow’s Listen Gallery

“Listening is an act of care – sensing, initiating, intending. It opens conversations, creating echoes across languages, cultures, and even places and time, which I learned through Listen Gallery. Just like dripping water on a stone, 念念不忘，必有回响” – Peilin Shi 石佩琳

My personal journey with listening begins in Iraq, where I was born, although a lot of my childhood experiences are of human displacement and obscured through family trauma – listening became a way for me to reveal and access some of my histories. Listening to pictures, conversations, my body, my dreams, became a route for trying to piece together all the unknowns and to overcome a sense of otherness. I have been interested in sound for as long as I can remember; the voice, different sonic-ecologies – in particular the existence of frequency, both internally in the body and externally around us, and how these frequencies sonically unify us. For me, this is the power of sound art, that it’s a conduit to explore what listening can mean. 

"Listening is a profound and radical act. To really listen you must do less of everything, and more of nothing" – Maria Kypridemou

“Listen Gallery is a truly special place, where one falls in love with listening and the power of community, love and refuge” – Mónica

Listen Gallery (LG) is a space dedicated to sound art and supports artists in presenting the theory and practice of audio-based projects. Sonic exploration is an important and valuable part of the arts and LG is providing much-needed representation and inclusion of these practices in a gallery space that thinks beyond the white cube model. 'Listen' is an acronym of ‘love is serving the ears now’ – which considers listening as a model of care. To love and to listen, for me, are two interlinking states to constantly strive for, both abundant, rooted in understanding, acceptance, imagining and dreaming. Everything in the programme is curated to give people the space to think about listening as an attentional and behavioural shift which can move from the individual to the collective. 

"‘To listen’, more than simply indicating our processing of sonic vibrations, is a practice of attuning ourselves to difference, of recognising the multitude of ways in which we are constituted within a natural environment that is, itself, embedded within the vast expanse of the universe” – g. Kypridemos

Although I founded LG, it has only been able to exist this long because of collaborators, volunteers and audiences who support it. People need more communal spaces to convene, share, learn and just be. We are desperate for places that challenge models that don't serve us: I just wish the infrastructure would support this more. It is a real challenge trying to get any larger organisations or funded institutions to acknowledge or support LG and realise that the work a lot of us do on the ground keeps the cultural sector active as a whole. Scotland is praised for its artist-run initiatives and although this is something to be celebrated, I think it is important to note how many people are doing this with such little resources and how evermore difficult this is becoming. 

“Listen Gallery is a space which embodies love as a leading practice. A space which fosters artistic sound practice in ways unique to the art ecology in Glasgow, Listen Gallery is a space which speaks to the crucial role and functions of galleries today – serving communities, responding to their needs and placing this at the heart of the work” – Pelumi Odubanjo

The community behind LG are truly the biggest blessing out of this venture and meeting so many DIY creatives who are challenging the status quo is so inspiring, such as Solidarity Screenings, Good Luck Choir, Radio Buena Vida, ERP and Baked Beans on the Doorstep, just to name a few. The generosity and dedication people invest to keep creativity alive is unreal. Glasgow is super special like that and this is definitely something I feel a responsibility to pass forward. 

"Listen Gallery is a place for hope and resistance dedicated to the spreading of love. The most subversive way to act is to love and to unite. And to unite in this universe is to become a community. The love for sharing, caring is what will make us stronger. A place where all these utopia can become real, should be preserved for our own good." – Yasmine Des Astres

The gallery exists in a grade-listed building, a stone's throw from the Necropolis and the Cathedral and is the only person of colour-led artist-run space within this area. I feel more and more the importance of this locality and the responsibility to hold this space, despite the odds – to have spaces that critically engage with inclusion on ground-level, multicultural narratives of history and thinking about representing people who contribute to the city but have very few monuments dedicated to them. LG is a working example of how diversity can exist in the arts outside of tokenism and performativity. As a non-drinking Muslim, I centre most events around food and tea – I feel so proud of my Iraqi roots for teaching me this approach to hospitality. I think this is what makes LG unique and a culturally essential example of trying to create a nourishing and nurturing space. 

“Working with Listen Gallery has given me such joy as an artist. I have never worked in/with an art space that has worked to cultivate an atmosphere of mutual support, care, knowledge exchange, and care for its artists and neighbours” – Kirsten M

“A hidden yet welcoming space, cosy and inspiring. A crowd of unknown yet like-minded people, relaxed conversations had over delicious homemade food. No idea is too far-fetched, as an artist I have never felt so supported “ – Velvachell 

“Listen Gallery holds a unique space within Glasgow and really feels like it belongs to the whole community. Everyone who visits leaves with a smile!” – Emma Diamond

Our next exhibition is by Toulouse-based sound artist Yasmine Des Astres. Yasmine and I have been growing a friendship online for a few years now and her sonic exploration is inspired by themes of Sufism and her experience as a Lesbian-trans-woman. She defines the piece as an exhibition for all the broken souls – for me, this speaks to the idea of solitary creativity and how sound has the power to create these metaphysical spaces of belonging.

“Listening sharpens the senses, blurring shapes of the visual, offering less dominant archetypes of learning and knowing. There are worlds within worlds, and elements beyond sight and sound, what is vocal or harmonic are clear indicators of the polymorphous often invisible creatures made in sound – let us listen to them and quieten” – Lucille Brownrigg

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Images: Felix Lumen (www.Felix-i-lumen.com)
Yasmine Des Astres: Overdriving Love, 19 Oct - 3 Nov, 2-7pm 
Listen Gallery, 210 Hunter St, Glasgow, G4 0UP / www.listengallery.co.uk