a weekend in glasgow 2

I promised at the time I'd write more about the trip to Glasgow made at the beginning of April.

I'll try and keep it brief. I'm aware recent posts have tended to expand somewhat.

I'll take some of the exhibitions we attended first.

The one we spent most time in was on the Saturday at Common Guild when a show by Ulla von Brandenberg opened. Other than a painting on the wall downstairs which didn't add anything to it I found the exhibition mesmerising.

Upstairs I particularly liked the sun exposed sheets which resembled huge photographic negatives, and the pieces like unconsidered detritus. A folded card file fixed to the wall - a shoebox with neat rolls of ribbon aligned along one long internal edge in one and a bit rows.

Downstairs in one of the rooms a film of a short opera, Chorspiel, created by the artist was playing. It was quite hypnotic - comprising a tableau among trees on a white painted rectangle representing a room. There were five people, and a separate operatic soundtrack to which the actors sometimes mimed.

I'm not sure whether understanding the words would have illuminated much - I'm reasonably confident that at one point something like 'he has no shoes' is sung. This doesn't appear to relate to anything happening onscreen unless the contents of the stranger's box - similar to the shoebox upstairs - are being discussed.

Partly it's the incidental things which interest - the tangle of ropes the younger woman pulls at early on with gestures reminiscent of plucking a game bird. The smooth movements of the camera - which nonetheless appears to be handheld.

Overall as I mentioned the effect of the performances, the camera, the editing, and the music create something hypnotic and beautiful.

I don't want to give away too much about Haunt. If you go to Old Wynd Lane with their description in mind - 'Haunt is a new curatorial venture based in Glasgow, run by a committee of unknown individuals. Open 24/7' - you'll see, eventually.

I can see how the venture - especially that opening night - might piss off some people, but I honestly rather enjoyed the whole thing. It's the sort of idea that could continue indefinitely and catch on elsewhere - if it doesn't just fade away.

I also liked Shelly Nadashi's exhibition at Transmission Gallery, which was nearing its end.

Like Ulla von Brandenberg there were objects like stage props, and a host of references to theatre. In this case perhaps more the puppet theatre.

There were puppets, and props designed to work with them. A triptych of films were projected onto overlapping paper circles low on one wall featuring live actors.

One of the things I liked about the exhibition was that some of the puppets felt familiar - they were made using techniques I've used - and reminded me of some of my own work. I found it a real boost to see that someone else was already exploring areas I'm just discovering and having success doing so.

Yeah, so much for brevity.

While in Glasgow we obviously saw a number of different spaces. They ranged from Liam from Glasgow Open School's flat where we saw a Psykick Dancehall gig, through the local authority's attempt to bring various creative endeavours together at 103 Trongate where we visited Transmission Gallery, to the David Dale Gallery which has both gallery space and studios.

We also visited Market Gallery, very briefly saw the Tramway where nothing much was happening, and went to Common Guild as already mentioned.

I very much enjoyed the Psykick Dancehall gig. We only managed to catch the final two acts - Arrington De Dionyso and Muscletusk.

Arrington De Dionyso's throat singing was more varied than you might have expected. For me it was also the most striking part of the evening.

It started with a drone from a radio rattling through a snare before adding in the throat singing. I liked the harsh sounds - and not having seen it in the flesh before was fascinated by how loud the throat singing was.

He then shifted to radio drone and bass clarinet (which, ignoramus I am I initially took for a saxophone). After which he continued the theme of nasty rattling drones - this time without the radio but with the bass clarinet wrapped in foil.

Next he used a snare as a resonator both to sing into for throat singing and to generate feedback from the mic. Finally he played a piece with a mouth harp making it sound variously like synth and synth drums.

I found the whole set relaxing and mesmerising. Rather similar in feeling to Ulla von Brandenberg's Chorspiel - although with a completely different texture and energy.

The gig had a big impact on me. I've been trying to learn throat singing ever since. I've begun to make more use of my voice non-linguistically in performance. I've got a long way to go yet.

Muscletusk were different again. It was hard to tell how far it was or wasn't improvised. It felt at least semi-improvised. The drummer operated in a way very similar to improvising drummers I've seen.

The group also included tapes and other pre-recorded material, sound-art noise generation, feedback, two guitars and effects pedals. They built up a blistering racket but were well able to take it down to smaller sounds and gestures. Including at the end running out on an incongruent melodic guitar figure.

Thanks to everyone we met in Glasgow. They were all incredibly helpful and we got a great insight into artists self-organisation. There seemed be a greater level of grassroots activity and greater communication between groups than I'm aware of in Manchester.