finallygottogotoaTransmissionparty#inapopsong

It's that time of year in the 'art school calendar' when final year shows are being conceived and that means the organisation that supports the students kicks in - which is where I come in.

Just returned from Glasgow International http://glasgowinternational.org/ which was a whirl of art and parties - some interesting work and some interesting spaces - sometimes those two things came together - sometimes the space was truly awesome - highlights for me have to be Urs Fisher's mechanical snails, Sol Le Witts black boxes under a magnificent skylight, Augustas Serapinas's piece blue pen at David Dale Gallery - I loved the highly specific story (whether true of not) that informed its making, it was just pitch perfect, Mark Lecky at Tramway rethinking thinking and Corin Sworn had created an interesting movement work within the space and showed the video of the work in the altered space....wonderful.

Just finished reading - Do no harm by Henry Marsh https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/30/do-no-harm-stories-brain-surgery-review-henry-marsh it will blow you away with his honesty - what is it to be a neurosurgeon? - a 5% failure rate is okay for us but for a patient its 100% fatal.

lostinglasgow

A weekend in Glasgow - some friends, some drinking and some eating but also some seeing - A night of Scratch performance as part of Take me somewhere festival was a range of experiences - editing, try it - is always advice in these circumstances but I am left with a woman covered in hair, the strong smell of weed, breast feeding, a talking cloud, doppler sound, glitter, visual sound bites, ironic hipness and the best face painting ever. The Hunterian - http://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/ all good. CCA was all inclusive and active art participation stuff but my experience there mainly focused around trying to buy a coffee and getting into the argument of how to do it with the person serving - went away deluded around the roles of customer/server. The documentary films by John Samson at The Gallery of Modern Art were excellent - wonderfully, charming and yet painfully, gloriously dated - showing a time of grime and a tarnished past - the subject matter - tattoos, steam engines, fetish wear and Eric Bristow - whats not to like. seek them out. http://five-minutes.ru/video/4510755/eric-bristow-arrows-1979-john-samson Transmission the space of song lyrics has a queer Caribbean show - great use of balloons and text. The Modern Institute is a beautiful space, if felt modelled on New York loft spaces but that could be to do with its location and the busy disengagement atmosphere of the people working there. https://www.themoderninstitute.com/ Tramway http://www.tramway.org/Pages/home.aspx  had a hauntingly melancholic film by Oliver Laric - http://oliverlaric.com/  it just makes me want to weep. Initially the work of Claire Barclay is stunning but the more time spent the more one starts to unpick some choices and eventually one is left looking at the space and surfaces of the materials used.  St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art overlooked by the creepy necropolis is a great find - so many inspiring pieces crammed together to form a kind of knick nack soup of religiousness. Glasgow - worth a visit.

microbooksarego

of average sunlight opens tonight - the micro show (in a good way) looks great http://www.kingsgateworkshops.org.uk/single-post/2017/02/17/Also-up-next-millimetre02-of-average-sunlight-BookMare-II making work within such tight restrictions was liberating.

moonlight http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4975722/ an extraordinarily beautifully painful film full of loss and possibilities - a must see. assassin creed http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/ lots of jumping, leaping, dust and roof tops I think the best bits are back here rather than there.... a busy weekend coming up with a trip to Glasgow which includes a mass of galleries, food and the Take Me Somewhere festival of contemporary performance which takes place across Glasgow.