Posted by skyfox
on Thu 23 Jul 09, 5:39 PM to skyfox's blog.
Tags: Glasgow (G)
We were on holiday recently and took an afternoon in Glasgow to see some art. We went specifically for the Giacomo Brunelli photographic exhibition "The Animals". It was in Street Level Photoworks on King Street, a brightly lit studio hidden behind a buzzered door and a grungy stairwell. The exhibition was pretty good. He does black and white pictures of animals, dead and alive. The photograph used to advertise the exhibition is one of a somewhat devilish looking dog snarling behind a fence with eerily glowing eyes. One of my favourite pieces was the one of the dead mouse, upside down and in silouette, under a flower.
We also went to the Modern Art Gallery (the one with all the columns), where they were holding an exhibition called SH(OUT)! LGBT art. It was on the 4th floor, right at the top. It was an interesting exhibition, but strangely unfulfilling from my perspective. It would show a portrait of a transvestite with the card reading that it was part of a series. And then I would want to see the rest of the series! There were some I've seen (forgive my poor memory), but it really played like a Who's Who of LGBT art. The enormous sculpture of a tree with penis and cunt.
The exhibition continued onto the 3rd and a half floor that was distinctly more "modern" ("it must be art, I don't understand it"). There was a plaster cast of a body with breasts and a limp balloon signifying a penis from a hermaphodite. The most controversial piece in that section was the bible. Above it read: "Gays and Lesbians have been written out of the Bible over history. Now is your chance to write yourself back in!" (or something to that effect) It had a pen next to it.
At the end of each section, the more formal art and the moden section, there was a place to leave comments. After the main exhibition, cards were posted to a wall. While many had praise, and expressed that they learned something about the trials and tribulations of being LGBT, some were less philosophical. One read simply, "Dude WTF?" Another remarked that while the exhibition was excellent, they did not feel that S&M (in the form of two photographs of homosexual men from Maplethorpe) was appropriate. After the modern section, the little comment book was mostly fillwed with comments about how every LGBT person was going to burn in hell, not for being non-heterosexual, but for writing in the bible. "How could you deface the Bible????" they cried.
The negative comments baffled me. It seemed that many of the writers knew beforehand that they weren't going to agree with the sentiments of the artists. (Case in point: Dude WTF) Some seemed appalled that a museum would offer such non-family-friendly fare. Come on! It was on the 4th floor!! Seriously, you could not 'just walk by' and see any of it! Did these people just get lost looking for a rooftop pub?
The Animals finished July 19th, so I'm afraid I can't recommend seeing it. But the SH(OUT)! exhibition is going on until November. I suggest you take a day out to enjoy some light art and appreciate that the Glasgow Museum is providing such "controversial" work.
