Presented by The Common Guild as part of a major collaboration with ACCA, Melbourne for 2012 and 2014, coinciding with Glasgow’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games. Supported by Arts Victoria, Glasgow City Council and Creative Scotland.

‘How to Look at Everything’ brings together a selection of outstanding film and video works by four international artists; Zbynek Baladrán, Simon Martin, Nick Relph and Falke Pisano. The exhibition presents a group of works that combine narrative structures with the documentary format, exploring the very nature of looking and understanding.

Through the cultural history of the twentieth century, each work considers the stories that can be told through a collection of images and objects, ranging from the documentary narrative to the subjective encounter, looking at the past and the present through a non-linear archaeological excavation.

Czech artist Zbynek Baladrán acts as an archaeologist of knowledge, unearthing images, fragments and narratives from his country’s past. His video Working Process, 2004, is made from a collection of archive film footage from 1957-88 edited into a work that tells a partial history of Czechoslovakia alongside the story of the film’s own making. The apparently random selection of footage and partially obscured subtitles provide fragments of a narrative, whilst suggesting a purposeful censorship or arbitrary filtration of history and time.

London-based British artist Simon Martin’s work reflects upon material culture. He is interested in how we understand ourselves through social structures, mythologies and collective memory evidenced in art objects, mass media and the built environment. Carlton, 2006, is a short film that offers a philosophical mediation upon the ‘Carlton’ cabinet, designed by Ettore Sottsass in 1981. The camera circles the object with reverence and curiosity while the hypnotic voice-over provides something between a historical narrative and a series of informal anecdotes.

New York-based British artist Nick Relph’s work often deals with the representational problems of different media. His video Thre Stryppis Quhite Upon ane Blak Field, 2010, is a composite of blue, green and red projections, with superimposed documentaries on Ellsworth Kelly, Comme des Garçons’ founder Rei Kawakubo and the history of tartan. Seeing all three films simultaneously, the viewer seeks to find the relationship or shared meaning between them.

Berlin-based Dutch artist Falke Pisano’s work examines the relationship between our physical and theoretical understanding of objects and ideas. Through texts and spoken word she creates a densely woven web of subjective descriptions and reflections. In Chillida (Forms & Feelings), 2006, Pisano examines her relationship to a series of photographs of sculptures by the sculptor Eduardo Chillida. As she turns the pages of a photo book, she considers her the relationship between the specific objects, their depiction, and her own emotional responses to the images.

Exhibition open
Tuesday – Saturday 12 noon – 5pm, until 7pm on Thursdays and Fridays, and by appointment.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of events, full details to be announced shortly.

Socialist Sunday Schools were designed to counter the dominant influences of Liberalism, Conservatism and ultimately capitalism, thought by many to be promoted by both church and state schools, at that time. The Schools had no formulated curriculum, although guidelines were circulated on ethics, morality, love and social responsibility. The movement flourished in the early 1900s, with over 150 schools across UK in the 1920s. The Schools went into decline in the 1930s partly due to Government pressure but some of Schools in Glasgow remained in operation throughout the 1950s and 60s, and even the 1970s.
For Glasgow International Ruth will present an exhibition, publication and programme of public events at Scotland Street School drawing on her research into the Socialist Sunday School movement in Glasgow and contextualising it within Glasgow’s educational history.

‘The Glasgow Schools’ is curated by Kitty Anderson and Siobhan Carroll. Full details of all events will be available from the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art website.

Supported by GI Festival and realised in association with The Common Guild.

Opening times:
Tuesday to Thursday and Saturday 10am–5pm, Friday and Sunday 11am–5pm

To listen to an audio recording of the talk on Vimeo, please click here.

This film is temporarily unavailable but will be online again soon!

Working with a range of commonplace materials such as plaster, cardboard, wood and fabric, Djordjadze creates fragile, hand-made objects that appear partially constructed and partially destroyed. Djordjadze presents these hand-made objects alongside found items such as photographs, carpets and clothing suggesting ritualistic use or religious shrines. By utilising display mechanisms like shelves, plinths, tables and cabinets within the work she aligns the objects with something between the ethnographic museum and the fetishised collection.

For her exhibition at The Common Guild, Thea Djordjadze will make new work for the grand domestic spaces at 21 Woodlands Terrace.

Exhibition open Wednesday — Saturday, 12 noon — 5pm and until 7pm on Thursday and Friday, or by appointment at other times.

Supported by The Henry Moore Foundation.

Places are free but limited. To book please call +44 (0)141 428 3022 or email: info@thecommonguild.org.uk