CCA Highlights: January and February 2020

With careful pen and pencil drawings, Inuit artist Shuvinai Ashoona depicts everyday life and landscapes in colourful and folkloric ways. Her latest exhibition Holding on to Universes (7 Feb-22 Mar) brings some of her lesser known works to CCA. These graphics convey the complicated nature of modern living which followed Arctic colonialism, highlighting the changes from life on the land and ice to contemporary communities – including pictures of Ashoona's hometown Kinngait, Cape Dorset, in today’s northern Canada. 

Those with great taste will know that how we perceive food teaches a lot about social life, the environment and global food systems. In Steph Marsden's food/play/food event Bubble Bubble: Fermentation and Feminism (4pm, 15 Feb) the gastronomer explores the culture and rituals of preservation through a hands-on workshop. 

Algorithm is a dancer for LA-based trio YACHT, as they bring data driven dance-pop to Glasgow (7pm, 9 Feb). YACHT's latest machination is to remodel their 82-track back catalogue through artificial intelligence, creating the neurally networked and innovative album Chain Tripping. No easier to categorise is Kindness (7pm, 18 Feb). Their versatile and ambient sounds defeat attempts at genre. Back from gigs in America, Paris and Berlin, they return to Glasgow with a four-piece band and new album Something Like War.

Film fans will find CCA's new year programme especially panoramic. Pity Party Film Club (15 Feb) are hosting an all-day screening of classic films about female friendships. Mike Leigh's Career Girls (1997) centres on two former university roommates reuniting as city careerists. How, or how much, have the two friends changed? Released a year later, Clockwatchers focuses on inter-office politics, combining comedy with nuanced characterisation. Then there's Tangerine (2015), a film with a budget about the size of the iPhone it was filmed on. The story follows two transgender sex workers through LA as they seek revenge. And, of course, there's perhaps the most iconic portrayal of female solidarity in Thelma and Louise (1991). Along with its smart and sharp script by Callie Khouri, it's possibly one of Ridley Scott's most beautifully shot films.

As part of LGBT History Month Scotland 2020, the Scottish Queer International Film Festival (6pm, 8 Feb) present a raft of short films looking back into obscured and unfound elements of 20th century queer Scottish representation, showcasing archival documentaries among other films by queer filmmakers. Panel discussions asking if these films are a fair representation of the past take place along with the screenings. Glasgow Film Festival's (27 Feb-8 Mar) full programme is announced on 29 January and will include local and international films from all genres. Films grouped under the theme Crossing the Line again find a perfect home at CCA, highlighting the avant-garde and artistic works of vision.