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THE VIC
FIVE CROSSOVER PROJECTS BY GSA ALUMNI Among the many GSA students to go on to rich and varied careers, i ve in particular – three of them Turner Prize winners – stand out for crossover projects highlighting the wonderful and sometimes weird things that can come out of artists mixing it up with creatives from other mediums.
1. DAVID SHRIGLEY DOES OPERA In 2011, Shrigley teamed up with Magnetic North to bring his eye for the strange, funny and frankly unnerving to bear on the world of opera. He wrote the libretto for Pass The Spoon, which was based on TV cookery shows and staged at the Tramway.
2. DOUGLAS GORDON COLLABORATES WITH MOGWAI ON A FOOTBALL DOCUMENTARY A tribute to Zinedine Zidane’s peerlessly
artistic ways with a football, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait saw Gordon place 17 synchronised cameras around Real Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium to follow the French maestro in close-up for 90 minutes throughout one match. The i nished i lm was set to a soundtrack by Mogwai.
3. MARTIN BOYCE SCULPTS WITH JAZZ AND FILM A sculptor, a jazz saxophonist and a i lmmaker walk into a theatre – sounds like a joke in search of a
punchline. But Martin Boyce’s 2012 multimedia collaboration Scarecrows & Lighthouses with Raymond MacDonald and David Mackenzie at the Tramway was a serious and successful bridging of the gaps between gallery, concert hall and cinema.
4. RICHARD WRIGHT RECORDS AN ALBUM WITH CORRECTO Prior to his Turner win in 2009, Richard Wright moonlighted as guitarist with Glasgow post-punk band Correcto, fronted by fellow artist Danny Saunders and featuring Franz Ferdinand’s Paul Thompson on drums and Veronica Falls’ Patrick Doyle on bass. Their self-titled debut album was released on Domino Records in 2008.
5. JIM LAMBIE FOUNDS HIS OWN PERFORMANCE VENUE THE POETRY CLUB
With a collaborative event with punk legend Richard Hell upcoming, Lambie decided to design and build his own venue at the SWG3 warehouse in Finnieston, in the space of just six weeks. It remains today, hosting music, club and spoken word events and intimate encounters with the likes of Primal Scream and Patti Smith. (Malcolm Jack) 22 THE LIST 14 Nov–12 Dec 2013
➙ he says, ‘but with less pissy toilets and sticky walls and l oors.’ An animator who has worked with the likes of Hudson Mohawke and Mogwai, and whose earliest Art School memory is sneaking in underage for GSA student and Optimo DJ Johnny Wilkes’ techno night, Scholei eld in many ways has the union to thank for launching his career.
It was while studying at GSA and promoting and DJing at his own club night that Warp Records musician Jamie Lidell came to play the venue. Scholei eld put him up (at his parents’ house), and it led to him creating a video promo for Lidell, in turn building a relationship with Warp. ‘I learned quite quickly that to get places, you kind of need to meet people in person,’ he rel ects. Novelist Louise Welsh was Writer in Residence at GSA from 2010–2012, and frequently went ‘up the Arty’ to dance at club nights there throughout the 1990s. She often collaborates with creatives from other non-literary mediums, and believes that cross-pollination can’t be undervalued. ‘I’m working with an architect at the moment and I’m also working with a composer – these kind of connections are really, really important,’ she says. ‘They really
enhance your impression of the world.’ Welsh sees the union as crucial to GSA’s status at large. ‘It enhances the reputation of the school in so many ways,’ she says, ‘because it shows they’re not just thinking about the reputation of the institution, they’re thinking of it as a place where people have to come together in informal ways as well as in the seminar room or the studio. They’re recognising the importance of play within creativity and art.’ The Art School’s unique place in Glasgow’s cultural fabric is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that no other space has quite i lled the void in its absence – not the interim replacement on Sauchiehall Street (now closed), nor Nice’n’Sleazy, nor the CCA. All the more reason, says Scholei eld – who organises one of the venue’s i rst events, a show by ambient / industrial noise group Zoviet France – why the Arty can’t reopen soon enough. ‘It’s more of a social club than a nightclub,’ he muses. ‘As me and my friends say, it’s just going to be nice being able to return home.’
The Vic reopens with Croc vs Croc on Thu 12 Dec, i nd out more about the venue’s upcoming events on page 21.