In January 2013, six commissioned artists joined the ALBERT DRIVE project with the shared aim to engage with people living on and around Albert Drive.
They brought with them a whole new set of skills and interests working across film, photography, installation, architecture, performance, dance and visual art in order to further explore the idea of neighbour from a whole new perspective.
This Exhibition is a group-show of original work by Arpita Shah, Basharat Khan, Edo Architecture, Glas(s) Performance, Janice Parker, Nic Green and Shauna McMullan.
Each of the art works included in this body of work has been created in collaboration with people living in Pollokshields.
Opens Saturday 6th July, 12 – 7pm
Drinks Reception from 12 – 1pm
Runs until Sunday August 11th
Closed Monday. Tuesday-Friday, 12 – 5pm
Saturday & Sunday, 12 – 6pm
FREE
The Exhibition takes place in Tramway T5 and along Albert Drive.
Artwork on Albert Drive includes: Letters to Our Neighbours, Albert Drive TV and Vivarium.
Opening times for Vivarium are:
Tues – Sat, 10.30am – 7.00pm
Sun, 12.30 – 4.30pm (Closed Monday.)
Purdah
The Sacred Cloth
Arpita Shah
Purdah is a series of portraits of women from the Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities who practice the tradition of head covering or veiling. The term Purdah (to curtain) varies in meaning amongst particular South Asian and Arab cultures. It can refer literally to a fabric used to cover something sacred but it is also used traditionally to signify the veiling, modesty and privacy of women. The women in Shah’s portraits represent a variety of sacred cloths, which they wear day to day, during worship, or at particular occasions. The portraits range from Sikh women wearing the dastar and chunni, to Hindu women dressed in their sarees. The series also includes Muslim women wearing the niqab, abaya, and variations of the hijab. In her series of portraits, Shah shifts the focus of the Purdah to the physical and spiritual act of drawing and closing the sacred cloths that her sitters choose to embody. The work attempts to redefine Purdah’s historical meanings and perceptions, through representations of contemporary women who practice the tradition of head covering. Purdah slowly unfolds the delicate layers of meaning these sacred cloths have to these women, as they shift between their cultural, religious and personal states, as well as the private and the public spaces they inhabit.
To create Purdah, Arpita has collaborated with: Ghazala Hakeem, Attaya Quyyum, Reshma Shah, Samina Ansari, Ramizah Binti Asis, Perwinkle Ghumman, Komal Hussain, Shameem Raza, Kulvinder Kaur, Parminder Kaur, Maqsooda Aslam, Harbans Kaur, Central Gurdwara, The Dixon Centre, AMINA, Street Level Photoworks
This work is exhibited in Tramway T5.
Albert Drive TV
Basharat Khan
Albert Drive TV explores the stories of the fascinating characters living in the area and the importance of the local business. Made by meeting people in their homes and in the local shops, this work aims to introduce you to your neighbours, their thoughts and their ideas, by screening the films in the places they visit most every day; the local shops.Albert Drive TV seeks to re-imagine the CCTV screens that currently exist in local shops from a different perspective – where as you wait to be served you get to know a little more about the people who live alongside you.
To create Albert Drive TV, Basharat has collaborated with:Mohammed Shafiq, Saad Butt, Shazia, Zenib Qureshi, Sameer Choudri, Rizwana Ajaib, Libaas Fashions, Islamic Relief, Azad Newsagents, Delicious Too, Diamond Fruits, Numman Ali, Javaid Khan, Ewen Cameron, Dorothy Cameron, Farzana Kausar, Gill Macaulay, Don Macaulay and Mohammed.
This work is exhibited in Tramway T5 and:
Libaas Fashions, 174 Albert Drive, Delicious Too, 183 Albert Drive, Diamond Fruits, 218 Albert Drive, Azad Newsagent, 259 Albert Drive and Islamic Relief, 115-117 Albert Drive
The Living Room Dances
Janice Parker
I love the fact that so many people dance at home, either alone, with members of their family and/or with friends. I love the fact that movement is a form of social and personal expression, that spontaneous expressive movement is a way to share and connect, and a way to be in the world. And, I love the idea that everybody’s neighbour is, probably, dancing. For The Living Room Dances I met with each person at home, or in a place that was special and where they were likely to dance. Stories were told. Some people danced, while others shared the feeling of dancing, or what dance means to them. There was delight in remembering and joy in the telling. Meetings were audio recorded then edited together to create a continuous sound-loop of dance experiences. These are shared with a collection of photographs from the meeting place, along with a compilation playlist of each person’s favourite tracks to dance to at home. The exhibition is an invitation to continue the living room dance; a public and a private space to enjoy, to share, to listen, to remember and to dance, alone or together.
To create The Living Room Dances, Janice has collaborated with: Claire Biddles, John Cavanagh, Kevin Low, Roanne Dods, Ruth Clements McQuaid, Jamie McQuaid, Bruce McQuaid, Audrey McQuaid, Michelle Montgomery Masters, Kiri Goss, Paul Connelly, Isabel Irons, Shona Young, Linda Payne, Agatha Dunn, Martin O’Conner, Adam Masters and Michael John McCarthy
This work is exhibited in Tramway T5.
Vivarium
Nic Green
Vivarium: /vīˈve(ə)rēəm/ pl. vi·var·i·ums or vi·var·i·a Noun. Latin for “place of life.”
For two months Nic has been resident in the New Victoria Gardens, just off Albert Drive, on Glenapp Street.
Through quiet observation, gentle interaction and an attempt to become part of the day-to-day of this place, she has collected documentation of the various voices that make up the space. Weaving together the historical, the ecological and the sociological, Vivarium takes its shape as an audio experience for one person at a time, inside the walls of the Gardens.
Designed to celebrate the complex community inhabiting this space, the listener is guided through this extraordinary hidden aspect of Pollokshields heritage.
Responding to stories and observations collected in relation to the central question: “What Grows Here?” this work treads delicately upon the topography of this place, its past and its community.
To create Vivarium, Nic has collaborated with: The New Victoria Gardens Committee and Plot Holders, Fiona Sutherland, Hilary Stanger, Stephen Macauly, Morgan Macauly, Aster Macauly, Matthew Moodie, Laura Moodie, Beth Mallon, Norman Smith, Dorothy Allan, Grace Miller, Saoirse Miller, Rachel Brennan, Eadie Brennan, Seoras Brenan, Ali Lord, Paul Turnbull, Owen Turnbull
This work is exhibited in Tramway T5 and New Victoria Gardens, Glenapp Street.
Vivarium is for one audience member at a time and requires sign up at the Tramway Box Office.
Opening times for Vivarium are:
Tues – Sat: 10.30am – 7.00pm
Sun: 12.30 – 4.30pm (Closed Mondays)
The Albert Drive Colour Chart
Shauna McMullan
The Albert Drive Colour Chart is a record of favourite / significant colours, selected by 72 people who live, work on, or visit Albert Drive. Collected over a period of five months, each contributor to the project was invited by the person who went before them – a kind of daisy chain of connections.
The artwork exists in two parts.
The first is a temporary wall painting in the Gallery at Tramway, bringing together the complete collection of colours selected. This will exist for the duration of the exhibition only.
The second is a limited edition, digital, fine art print on paper. This edition of 72 prints, the same number as there are contributors to the work, will be gifted to each person involved in the project. The prints will ultimately be dispersed in and around the Albert Drive area in contributors’s homes, offices, allotments, shops and meeting places.
There will also be a hand drawn Map of Connections, describing the links between everyone involved in the project. A drawing that maps our relatedness and connectivity to one another, charting a mutual topography.
To create The Albert Drive Colour Chart, Shauna has collaborated with: Jean Gavin, Frank Norton, Pauline Slaven, Lynne McKever, George Burke, Paula Murdoch, David Martin, Joan Walsh, Donna Borokinni, Fiona Sutherland, Maggie Martin, David Black, Ella Cooper, Alison Blake, Stephen Pacitti, Clare Harker, Jennifer Bowers, Brian O’Neill, Paul Romano, Shanaz Ali, Ghazala Hanif, Karen Boyle, Calum Campbell, John Gannon, Carolyn McConville, Nicola Sturgeon, Kevin Meek, Vivian Davey, Fatima Uygun, Shaista Aslam, Katie Rowlands, Najma Anwar, Dorothy Cameron, Margaret Morran, Martin Morran, Marie MacDonald, Niamh Fitzpatrick, Ruth MacDonald, Jennifer McGeoch, Johan Persson, Nicola Persson, Maja Persson, Sheena McMenamin, Divine Kasonga, Bill McLaughlin, Bill Cahir, Viviane Hullin, Bashir Ismail, Mohammed Shafiq, Amrit Bedi, Amir Afzal, Israa Afzal, Jennifer Whyte, Joanna Fozard, Rachel Anderson, Doug Aubrey, Kiri Goss, Niamh Goss, Gemma Thurston, Danny Aubrey, Alison Leon, Rene Hetherington, Isobel Irons, Nasreen Ghafur, Charandeep Singh, Bryony Randall, Farah Khan, Paula Grant, Fozia Ali, Evelyn Lennie, Muna Sultan
This work is exhibited in Tramway T5.
Glass Performance and Edo Architecture
Everybody’s House
Everybody’s House, designed by Edo Architecture, is an open invitation by Glas(s) Performance for the local community to spend time together as part of the ALBERT DRIVE Project in a street based House. This has been facilitated by a small piece of contemporary architecture entitled the “Tea Caddy” house that has been travelling up and the drive regularly throughout the duration of the Project.
During this time it has been host to a large number of people and activities including a tea party, an open mic and a pop up disco and now takes its place in the Albert Drive Exhibition.
This work is exhibited in Tramway T5.
Letters to Our Neighbours
Glas(s) Performance
From January to April Glas(s) Performance visited schools, community groups, homes, families and residents across Pollokshields with a workshop around the idea of neighbours and the ways we might all get to know each other a little better.
As a result the project received hundreds of letters from people of different ages, representing different parts of the community, all introducing themselves to their neighbours and asking questions about the area in which they live.
A selection of these letters were exhibited on every lamppost on Albert Drive for everyone to read and this is where they can be found as part of the Exhibition.
This work is exhibited on the lampposts of Albert Drive.