ARTISTS TALKING

# 12 [12 January 2010]

JULIET- GSA Mutual crawled in to a hole over Christmas to eat and sleep, underground its great, fluffy body swelled and got stronger and as the old year expired The Mutual, Glasgow emerged into the light a bigger, better beast for 2010!

Formed in fear to thwart a promised pessimistic future GSA Mutual had a good run in 2009, a summer of exhibitions an autumn of events sustaining a community of young artists. But after speaking at the Artist's DIY soapbox at the Collective Gallery Edinburgh, the Mutuals took themselves back to their houses and started to work on Mr. Mutual's internals.

As we have gone along our interest in our idealistic idea only continues to grow. But becoming more confident and ambitious we thought we would ditch the GSA bit. The time has come, we thought to throw of the apron strings of the august institution that drew us all together and spat us out in to the world. So will lay GSA Mutual down to rest and leap up again as The Mutual, no longer framing ourselves as an organisation of recent graduates but as a collective of early career artists, with a portfolio of exciting projects planned for the New Year.

As time has gone on our organisation had grown bigger to encompass musicians and DJs, writers and filmmakers, all of whom have played a great part in past Mutual event and continue to make our exhibitions and events multi disciplinary affairs.

The Mutual is now open to new members, so if you’re an early career artist, or a DJ, musician, writer or filmmaker based in Glasgow for that matter, email themutual.glasgow@googlemail.com for more information. We would love to have you.

The next blog post will be about the breathtakingly exciting plans we have for 2010, grrrr!

# 11 [12 November 2009]

Carrie -

How can it be November already...the summer has flown by, and I think that has alot to do with how busy The Mutual has been keeping me.

After Brigadoon in September, we presented a fundraiser at SWG3 with LuckyMe Dj's and Hudson Mohawke. A brilliant night and a real learning curve for us as we're getting relativly savvy at exhibtions but this kind of event was a whole other kettle of fish!

Undettered we're linking up this weekend with Central Station to present 'Sunday School' to celebrate their launch and an excuse for us to have a right old knees up with an evening of vintage records, genteel games, quizes and fine ale at The State.

As Juliet pointed out to me that means we've had a Mutual event every month since graduation...so much for post-graduation malaise!

'Sunday School' takes place this Sunday 15th November from 5 PM at the State Bar, Holland Street, Glasgow.

# 10 [25 September 2009]

CARRIE -

Well it's almost a week now since we opened our final show at the Southside, 'Brigadoon'.

It's been a summer of intense energy and we're still reeling from the extreme highs and lows that go along with the total immersion in a project.  But we grumble not!  

The achievements of all the participating Mutual artists this summer is astounding, made all the more poignant as the students return to art school, we realise, we were doing the same only 12 months ago.

If you missed the opening last weekend, we will opening the doors of the Southside once more tomorrow, Saturday 26th, between 12 and 5.

Do pop along if you can, the 44A or the 66 gets you to Victoria road at Bowman Street.  The show really is worth the trip over the river, and we'll throw in a cup of tea and a biscuit for that extra incentive...

# 9 [13 September 2009]

CARRIE -

Visual and historical collage has never been more prevalent within all realms of contemporary existence. A fairly obvious observation, but one that has caught the attention of many in our merry band of artists in the GSA Mutual.  So much so we dedicated our second show Jack Move to cutting up, copying and pasting. 

Indeed, within our own hotchpotch ranks demonstrate a plethora of diverse origins, ambitions, and characters.  Some of us share commonalities, but we are all united by only one factor; we are making Art in Glasgow. We are striving and surviving together. 

It was our realisation of this union that brought us to The Mutual.  How then could we articulate this camaraderie to the world beyond ours?  Our language and ideals are romantic, and naive, drawn to the heroic and chivalrous, a crest seemed a natural expression of our identity.

Never ones to opt for the easy route, digital technology was never shunned, just not considered necessary.  Images, patterns and motifs were ripped out of books and magazines, photocopied, traced and glued.  

Each one carefully considered, its relevance and meaning of the highest importance; holding distant ideas that the crest and The Mutual may continue long after us in our moment.  Without the historical lineage of the oldest houses, our crest is born in this moment.  Yet its imagery delves into our understanding of the past we bear.  The Lions hold the long plait of GSA alumni Margaret Macdonald.  ‘Our understanding’ as the plait indeed may not be an accurate memory of GSA’s past.

These feroucious Lions hint at the future we are fighting for, supporting the shield with our present, the Saltire of Scotland and the linked rings of St Mungo’s Glasgow.  Support is fundamental; it is the hands of co-dependency and co-operation that crown our crest.  We need each other, sticking together our skills and prowess for the mutual benefit of all.

# 8 [7 September 2009]

AMY-

Mixing bowls belching out heaps of savoury snacks, a myriad of multi-coloured drinks; syrupy, cloying cavity catalysts, a fluffy pink mask sails past at eyesight- was that, is that my chum behind there? Speakers blare corny anthems, everyone is sporting little badges and enters through a silvery, fringed curtain straight into a rip-roaringly good old time. The evening was, perhaps some two sausage dog balloons and a clown short of bearing a true semblance of the most wonderful ever kid’s party. To interpose, that is, ahem, with an exceptionally mature, insightful offering of work from our collaborating artists. 

     Intentionally serving as welcome playback of erstwhile jolly misadventures- before council tax and c.vs and dole queues- the tone of the exhibition, in its entirety, was a little nostalgic for something now past; those heady days of party-harding which characterised Art School term time. Wearing rejection ever easier now, no longer licking our paws in maudlin self pity with each knock- back, each second sentence carried on the air seems to be suffixed with ‘I saw this residency online’ in somewhere or other. But one should not be deceived nor indeed disheartened by the necessity of ‘Jackmove’s unreserved jubilance to cure the onslaught of grown-up monotony now setting in. Professional opportunities have fallen into the worthy laps of many of  Show Two’s exhibiting artists, pre-empting recognition and exorbitant success upon whom they have been bestowed. Slowly but, indisputably surely this year’s batch of fresh baked  Glasgow art graduates are charting a clear route for themselves in the hinterland post Art School. Given a year, or perhaps less, it can be fully expected that they will emerge entirely from the undergrowth, rubbing their eyes, newly resplendent masters of their own practice.

     Wary and not a little disquieted by the astronomical alcoholic percentage of Zamaretto we soon discovered that this was gloriously concealed by the most cheering of sugar-sweet flavours. The bar was arranged with bottles in colour gradation, from ambery peach and yellow-golden pear through to a windsory green apple and true blue raspberry, which was positively cerulean! The masses present were forced to individually ask themselves a question when confronted with bountifully free measures of this unfamiliar spirit. Their internal dialogue went something like this; 

‘Am I Zam?’ glug of the beverage ‘Zam I am!’

Boy oh boy, Zam they certainly were, putting the stuff away like teens at a soda fountain and uncovering a vast quantity of mixer combinations in the process. Banana and coke, cherry and coke, pear and cloudy lemonade, original on the rocks and chocolate with milk à la white Russians all come highly recommended. Think something which looks like fruit syrup and tastes so innocuous must surely be a placebo? Think again. 

# 7 [22 August 2009]

CARRIE-

We vowed to learn from our previous slip-ups as we readied ourselves for JACK MOVE, the second of three GSA Mutual shows at the Southside Studios.  However aware we were this time of such obstacles, new difficulties inevitably arose...surely this should get easier!?

Well, tonight is the night and we have overcome hiccups and it looks great. Walls have been filled in and painted, work has been hung, and then re hung, alcohol has arrived and posters have been distributed.

Now all that is left to do is for you to all come tonight from 7pm to the Southside Studios.  See you there!

# 6 [10 August 2009]

JULIET-

Here are some photos from the opening of show one 'Descent Into The Maelstrom' and of B-movies in the fridge gallery the next day. Sadly none of the afterparty at which within the refined confines of the Research Club, the Glasgow University Post graduate Union there was crowd surfing ( I only know that because i overheard people talking about it at the opening at Tramway on Friday, I don't clearly recall the crowd surfing, I was having too much of a good time to notice even human bodies being passed over my head). On second thoughts I'm rather glad my all too exuberant dancing was not captured on camera.

With thanks to Joanna Waclawski for her diligent photo-taking in the face of extreme cider consumption.

# 5 [3 August 2009]

AMY-

So  408 bottles of pear cider and a barrel of kettle chips later we find ourselves having pulled off a memorable, interesting and well attended exhbition. Upon entering the vestibule one is met with a crescendo of sound, emitted from an animation projected onto the ceiling; a contribution, from participating artist Jonny Long. Necks craned, entrants who had just made it through the rather industrial style door bore witness to a 30 second film, closely followed by an exhibit which necessitated a plunging downward, a film played on a television screen situated at the depth of a black shaft upon whose sides swarmed an army of white protruding growths. Thus far, in true homage to Poe the aesthetic has confined itself to a monochromatic spectrum; a facet which continues in the work of Julia Mckinlay in her offering of a framed drawing in inkpen. Considered, linear and sparse, McKinlay also delivers a healthy dose of pathos in her arctic landscapoe with horn adorned penguin. Advancing slong the white corridor ( it took 4 coats of white paint to eradicate the stencilled face of a little spaceman who grinned back at us unphased after the first two coats. Anyone might think he was mocking our efforts to convert  that long but very useful passageway into some semblance of a gallery space) one is then met with the small scale framed pencil drawings by artist cum curator Juliet Fellows Smith. Intense and densely shaded at intervals the drawings harbour something of the loneliness and melancholy present in the poster image and which emanates from the narrative of Poe's piece of work from which the show took its title. An abandoned boat became something of a motif in the very fabric of the show itself. Lastly; an onslaught of sound. Just as one is losing oneself in the shadows of these quiet but brooding images which seem somehow to have been wraught into existence against their will a cacophony of American monologues berrate the gallery attendee back into the space, and one has the sense of being somehow chastised by these faceless voices reporting on various political issues. Accompanying this unashamedly rude awakening ( one is blasted by speaker on either side of the corridor) are stacks of pulped newspaper; a veritable mulch of text and Jeremy Oversier's interpretation of the maelstrom as an endless mass of information rendered meaningless by its very magnitude. Turning right one then enters the gallery space ( via the St. Helier's stall set up outside, obviously). For those of you who then proceeded into the gallery Well Done and for the rest of you who simply clung barnacle like to the table, practically buckling with pear cider for the rest of the evening Shame on you. The gallery comprised the work of no less than five separate artists which, in an area no larger than a generoous airing cupboard, ought perhaps to have felt crowded. In fact, this was by no means the case.

# 4 [30 July 2009]

JULIET-

It's the night before the first opening. I stayed up until half five last night finishing off a couple of drawings to go in the show but am still miraculously wide-awake. Its quite a nice feeling, I think, when its starts getting light and you haven't been to bed yet, especially (and I'm going to sound like a loser here) if you've been up all night by yourself working on something, I always feel like I've thwarted the norms of human behavior and cheated the rules of life.

So sitting up here still awake and nervous now, because of the art chat in the pub (as ex GSA students nearly all our friends are also ex GSA students (its like being in some religious order that has renounced the outside world)), I decided to post some pictures of our beautiful 34 crates of free St Heilier pear cider and sufficiency of Kettle chips, to comfort myself about the opening to tomorrow and to tantalize anyone who might read this to come.

# 3 [28 July 2009]

CARRIE -

'Well I've been grumbling at the lack I of time I have at the moment to watch Diagnosis murder, but these last couple of days, however jam packed, have been thoroughly exciting. 

Today Jen and I went to check things over and make a few more plans at the after party venue.  We're fortunate to have John Petrie on side, guiding us with his experience and excitement. And my, is it incredibly exciting. The Hetherington Research club is a real gem of a place, and the collaborative Noma/Cheer will be pushing the place to its most extreme potential, using the grand spiral staircase as their stage.  

The French windows I imagine will be further put through their paces by Holy Mountain. 

As Juliet mentioned, tomorrow is the big install, now the space is ready and the work has arrived.  I've checked my bus times, and I'm off to bed. More thrills than any Dick Van Dyke potboiler.

DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM AFTERSHOW PARTY ON FACEBOOK -

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=107793703662...