Christmas Day Down a Goldmine
French Street Studios, Glasgow G40 4EH
10th - 24th Decmber 2021
11am - 7pm daily (except Dec 24th - closes 4pm)
On 24th December 2020 I made some paper hats to wear at Christmas dinner and my natural affinity with creating 3D objects was reborn…
I spent the first 6 months of 2021 immersing myself in developing my creativity which I had ignored for many years. I enmeshed this with therapy which I was undergoing knowing instinctively that art lay at the centre of my wellbeing and was the vocabulary by which I must express myself.
In January 2021 I set myself a goal of exhibiting in some form by July 2021, structuring my life around achieving this.
Through delving into my inner child, my makings began to take the form of paper toys, the process not unlike making outfits for my action men and telling stories with them, my aim was to please the little boy I once was.
I took a huge amount of energy from the example of George Wyllie whom I had heard speak in 1990 and who like myself had started his creative practice later in life and believed strongly in the healing power of art.
After exceeding my expectations by being selected to show during Glasgow International at the CCA, Louise Wyllie (George’s daughter) and I began to correspond and the idea quickly emerged for a collaboration to honour Wyllie’s legacy in the lead up to what would have been his 100th Birthday on 31st December 2021.
With the invaluable support and mentorship of the Wyllie estate we began to delve into his archives and formulate the idea for this project funded by Creative Scotland.
We have reimagined Wyllie’s 1984 exhibition “Christmas Day Down a Goldmine” in its entirety using selected items on loan from the Wyllie family, pieces by myself and some by invited artists inspired by items from that show.
The exhibition is curated to allow the viewer to walk through the catalogue from the 1984 show and immerse themselves in how vital Wyllie’s messages are for us today.
A second exhibition within the venue “A New Seam” allows me to exhibit, in full, the prolific output which I have generated since the beginning of this year and to further extoll my belief in wellness through creativity and launch my artistic career on a grand scale. The chronological narrative shows that should we put personal wellness first, we can then help others and that there can be no community without individual participation.
In line with the wellness at the heart of the exhibition I have coordinated with Leverndale Psychiatric Hospital whose patients have created their own joyful submission based on their experience of restoring the health of their beloved Yucca plant Humphrey.
The pair of exhibitions or “sculptural digs” opens to the public 11 am – 7 pm, 10th – 24th December 2021 at French Street Studios G40 4JS and will also host surprise performances by a diverse range of artists.
Initial digital marketing will begin 22nd November with a poster campaign in conjunction with Jack Arts appearing shortly afterwards, the installation will be completed 3rd December when we will issue press releases and invitations for private viewings. Jan Patience is coordinating PR activity.
Creative Scotland funding has allowed me to rent the venue, build the exhibition, staff the event, create and deliver marketing as well as funding other artists to contribute their time and expertise.
Image above shows the poster for the event, it depicts one of my simplistic paper makings atop a Wyllie golden brick, intrinsically linked to his shovel for sculptural digging.
The brick recalls some of my happiest memories from childhood of my father and I visiting his uncle who was the nightwatchman at the local brickworks in Blantyre. My grandfather had been the manager of the brickworks when my father was a boy. We would stand inside the enormous kiln where the bricks were being fired, drinking tea and I would play with the mangey old guard dog in its pen.
Findings from the Goldmine
Opening Night
photography by Martin Gray
Contributing Artists
Christopher’s Saving Lives Campaign
"We started Christopher's Saving Lives Campaign after our son, Christopher, lost his life to an accident at the River Clyde in 2016.
We then noticed there were no ropes attached to the lifebelts there. We campaigned to Glasgow City Council to implement ropes and they agreed. The rope is uniquely colour coded, with the purple in the rope is dedicated to Christopher’s memory.
There have been many lives saved at the Clyde by using the rope attached to the lifebelts. We continue to promote water safety and campaign to get water rescue equipment implemented throughout Scotland."
Find Christopher's Saving Lives Campaign on Facebook
Hugh Clark
The Giant Robin
Recreation of last original giant robin made by George Wyllie in 2008. Made by Hugh Clark, restorer and maker George Wyllie works.
Judith Kenny
Judith Kenny is a metalsmith working with a wide variety of materials including gold, silver and titanium. She gained an MA Honours degree in 1996 in History of Art at Aberdeen University. The following year Judith joined the Glasgow Print Studio and enjoyed screen printing there for some time. She also worked as a stained glass artist for a company in Glasgow, then attended Cardonald College, where she discovered her love of working with metal.
In 2000 Judith became a jewellery designer for ‘The Ringmaker’, and from 2002 to 2006 taught the silver jewellery making leisure class at Cardonald College.
At this time, Judith also opened her retail outlet and workshop ‘Judith Kenny Jewellery ‘ in Glasgow’s West End. Here, she designed and made own her work, producing numerous commissions over six years. Her workshop is now in Eaglesham, where she continues to teach and create full-time. A recent commission saw Judith producing pieces for the BBC’s Shetland series.
Judith is inspired by the natural world around her, and this features heavily in her work. She also often incorporates typewriter-style stamped lettering into her mixed metal pieces. Currently, she is exploring pairing titanium with silver and is drawn to specific techniques such as hammering and riveting.
At home, Judith enjoys cooking using produce she grows in her garden, outdoor swimming and plans to keep chickens in the spring.
Unknown Galaxies
Mixed metals - silver, (blue) oxidised titanium, brass, (black) oxidised and plain copper, (red and green) anodised and plain aluminium.
My piece addresses the vastness of space and the uniquely human uncertainty and curiosity that this creates in our earthbound souls. A curiosity that has taken man to other planets and possibly in the future to ‘unknown galaxies’.
Laura Mcglinchey
Born in Liverpool in 1990 and raised in Ayrshire. Laura studied painting at Gray's School of Art, 2009-2013, where she gained a BA with First Class Honours. Selected for RSA New Contemporaries 2014, she was awarded the Maclaine Watters Medal and RSA Art Prize. From this, Laura gained a place at the New Scottish Artist Exhibition at Fleming Collection, Mayfair. In 2015 she began a year-long residency in the Painting Department at Gray's where she presented her first solo exhibition in 2016.
Returning to Glasgow, Laura continued to exhibit across the UK and work from studios co-founded with the now-disbanded artist collective VAU. Laura attended Glasgow School of Art in 2019, where she achieved a Master of Letters degree in Fine Art practice with distinction. In October 2019, she undertook a month-long residency in Switzerland - she was quickly invited back to exhibit the large installation made during her time there.
Continuing to make throughout lockdown, Laura was commissioned by Look Again to create her largest work to date - Paper Cave Anti-Rave, August 2020. Due to the ongoing COVID situation, the project was presented digitally. Once restrictions were eased, Laura reimagined the project in August 2021, thanks to a commission from Narture, this time she was able to engage with the public as originally intended. Videos of the projects are on her YouTube channel.
Umbrella Palms
Various collected papers, cardboard, flour and water.
"The umbrella palms are made using recycled bill board posters, event flyers and advertising materials, densely worked with flour and water to bind them.
These materials have a particular poignancy now, as ephemeral records of our social lives before Covid, that recall the connectedness and collaboration of the urban creative scenes that seem part of another world - one we didn’t have access to for so long."
Leverndale
The Recreational Therapy Department at Leverndale Hospital is a nurse-led hospital-based community centre that offers a warm, relaxed, friendly space where patients can access activity in a non-clinical environment.
During Covid, staff have solely offered outreach work within the wards as the department has been closed. This includes walking groups, Tai Chi, art, creative writing, football and prize bingo.
The Story of A Tree
Inspired by a true event. A small tree had been left in a condemned greenhouse and rescue was required to bring him into the Recreational Therapy Department. When the opportunity arose to participate in the George Wyllie project, the story of our small tree, who was now named Humphrey, seemed to fit perfectly with the theme.
We were keen to recycle materials in and around the department and drew inspiration from our new friend Willie Sutherland’s artwork by using cardboard boxes as stages. The project has been created and produced by the Recreational Therapy Department and approximately 80 patients based in the wards. Working together to develop the initial idea, stage set, props, music and script.
Also, kindly narrated by the hospital Chaplain Alistair Macindoe.
The project has provided social inclusion, confidence building and teamwork. It has been great fun and has inspired a sense of pride for all who were involved and we hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
Mark Osborne
Mark Osborne's work explores time, space, light and form in photography. By manipulating production techniques and pushing the dimensional qualities of the photographic surface to open visual depth, Mark's work asks questions of what is seen, how things appear and how we negotiate, interpret and give meaning.
Using darkroom, analogue and digital photography, and, at times, working in sculpture or installation, Mark aims to draw attention to photograph as a physical object in the digital era.
Mark graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA Hons in Fine Art Photography. He is based on the Black Isle and exhibits nationally and internationally. He has received several awards for his work including, Minimalist Photographer of the Year 2020 (honourable mention), V.A.C.M.A Scotland Award, D&AD Photography Award, The Bulmungo Grant and the Scheimpflug Photography Prize. His work is in private and public collections such as the University of Edinburgh Art Collection and Tate Modern Digital Collection. He is Professional Membership of the Society of Scottish Artists.
Deforestation of Fertility
100 unique photograms
"38 years after George first imagined (found) a Forest of Fertility at Hand Hallow, is still alive? Does it continue to thrive? Or, as so much of the earth's forests, has it been felled and degraded? This installation imagines a probable reality for George's forest today in the context of the climate crisis - deforestation and loss of fertility. Earth's equilibrium is lost - sterility is pervasive."
"Growing up in Glasgow, I was aware of George's public works around the city. As an archive photographer, I worked with the Wyllie Estate to document George's work and was honoured to photograph his home and workshop. These 100 photograms mark George's centenary."
Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre
Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre produces and presents a unique blend of visual and performance art, craft and engineering. Hundreds of carved figures and pieces of old scrap perform an incredible choreography to haunting music and synchronised lighting, Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre produces and presents a unique blend of visual and performance art, craft and engineering. Hundreds of carved figures and pieces of old scrap perform an incredible choreography to haunting music and synchronised lighting, telling the funny and tragic stories of the human spirit as it struggles against the relentless circles of life and death.
Sharmanka is a collaboration between sculptor-mechanic Eduard Bersudsky, theatre director Tatyana Jakovskaya (co-founders of the company) and lighting & sound designer Sergey Jakovsky. It is one of the most popular and unique attractions in Glasgow and has been entertaining and enthralling its audiences for over three decades since the original opening in 1989. Sharmanka features an extensive collection of kinetic (moving) sculptures assembled from found objects, beautiful scrap and exquisitely hand-carved characters. Each one of these ‘kinemats’ is fused with synchronised soundtrack and bespoke lighting design. With an extensive record of national and international tours & exhibitions, audiences in many countries have been fascinated by Sharmanka’s magic.
The company was originally launched in St.Petersburg (Russia) and moved to Scotland in the mid-90s. Eduard Bersudsky is the leading artist and co-creator of the Millennium Clock Tower at the National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh) and a recipient of the Creative Scotland Award in 2005.
Eduard Bersudsky and George Wyllie did not need translators though neither spoke the other's language. Both outsiders, both non-conformists, both as crazy as they come. What united them was an ability to observe, capture and re-create the joy and the struggle of the human spirit in their art. They also shared an interest in movement in their works as well as love and admiration for the Industrial Age, - an important subject in Glasgow’s history. Eduard dedicated one of his kinetic sculptures ‘Aurora - the battleship' to George. It now performs in Sharmanka, at Trongate 103 in Glasgow, on a weekly basis. The three works joining the Christmas Day Down a Goldmine exhibition are also aligned with the spirit of George’s work.
Brainwashing Machine (pictured above) 2007
The Secret Life of Artists 2008
The Whys?man wood carving, 2021
All created by Eduard Bersudsky
A note about the Whys?man carving: George gifted Eduard a small piece from his Spire series, which Eduard incorporated into this wood carving depicting George himself.
Sharmanka is located in Trongate 103, Glasgow
Karen Suzuki
Born in Glasgow, Karen works from a studio in Glasgow’s east end. She trained in ceramics (Glasgow School of Art, BA Hons 1993; Master of Design 1994), practising until 2005. In 2006 she began using textiles, and in October 2009 set up her full-time business, Nameless Wonders.
Karen exhibits throughout the UK, and had a solo exhibition in Harajuku, Tokyo in 2011. Commissions include animals for the Riverside Museum in Glasgow, and a cabinet object for An Tobar Gallery, Tobermory, inspired by her impressions from a residency there. As winner of the Manchester Art Gallery showcase award 2020 (Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair) She currently have specially made work in the gallery’s retail area.
Karen makes hand-stitched textile objects that usually emerge in animal-like form. With influences including urban wildlife, Staffordshire pottery figures and old toys, the work is spontaneously made, developing organically, vigorously stitched and with a rough finish.
Making techniques are simple, traditional hand processes emphasising the hand-produced qualities. With materials and process at the heart of the approach, she rarely makes preliminary drawings, instead allowing the objects to develop with as little control from me as possible, which she hopes gives them an edgy, sometimes humorous, vitality.
For the show I have made two robins with attitude, in honour of the exuberant trio of robins George created for the Christmas Day Down A Goldmine. My robins are hand stitched from mixed textiles and other media and are completely intuitively made, their characters emerging during the making process.
In the late 80s I was part of a trip with George and students from West Berlin to Rannoch Moor, to build an equilibrium spire. Shortly after this I began my studies at Glasgow School of Art, and was inspired by that unforgettable experience to base my degree show work on the history of Rannoch Moor. But I first came across George's work on a visit to the (then) Third Eye Centre and by a huge stroke of luck saw George performing A Day Down A Goldmine. What a treat! I was delighted to see humour used to make a serious point.
I take from that some confidence in making my own work, which is not altogether serious. There is no deep (or any) meaning behind most of it, including these robins; they are just intended to be what they are and to delight the viewer. That is what gives me most impetus and satisfaction.
Studio Studio 202, Wasps Studios, 77 Hanson Street, Glasgow G31 2HF
Daria Zapala
Daria Zapala is a Polish contemporary visual artist who works in painting, printmaking and multimedia. Her practice demonstrates a continued interest in the concept of semiotics, process painting and colour psychology. In her recent works, Daria refers to the theory of sound, investigating the idea of colour in sound.
Daria received her MA in Printmaking from the University of Opole, Institute of Fine Arts, Poland. In September 2020, she enrolled in the Glasgow School of Art's Masters in Letters in Fine Art Painting. She was awarded The Ranald & Jennifer May Postgraduate Painting Scholarship.
Daria Zapala has exhibited widely both in the UK and overseas. She lives in Glasgow and works from her studio in WAPSPS.
“I am so pleased to take part in George Wyllie's "Christmas Day Down a Goldmine" along with "A New Steam" by Willie Sutherland.
I have been familiar with George Wyllie's artistic practice for over a decade now. My first encounter with his art was in Glasgow - his sculptures scattered throughout the city. However, I learned more about him and his creative journey from his daughter Louise, in 2012, when I worked with her.
The painting I am presenting for this show is an interpretation of a page from the book "Christmas Day Down the Goldmine" illustrating ancient sculptures of lions from Delos, Greece. Those magnificent beasts set opposite each other are singing something that could be, as George listed, a song by Eddie Fisher called "Trust in Me". My take is not going far from the original composition. Nevertheless, I have created my own interpretation of this scene, creating an ancient landscape and elements that signify music sounds.”
www.dariazapala.com @dariazapalaart
Performers
French Street Studios
103 - 109 French Street, Dalmarnock, Glasgow G40 4EH
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