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1st - 30th November 2002 : accommodation
SYHA Youth Hostel, Glasgow, 7-8 Park Terrace,
page 1 : introduction
7 & 8 Park Terrace – The Past
After the decisive battle of Culloden in 1746 Cumberland, the "Bloody Butcher",
led his
Hanovarian army through the Highlands to carry out an early form of ethnic cleansing.
This
was followed by a further "Clearing" to make way for sheep farming
when Napoleon blockaded
the British Isles. The result was a population explosion in the city of Glasgow
as people moved
away from the Highlands in search of food, jobs, and safety.
Come 1852 the rich and elite merchants were sick of rubbing shoulders with the
working
class scum and development began on some lush, town houses in the west end of
the city to
accommodate the wealthy citizens.
Park Terrace overlooks Kelvingrove Park and protects the inner Circus. It’s
the most obvious
part of the development and therefore, the grandest. Number 8 Park Terrace was
lived in by a
number of Glaswegian industrial merchants. At one point there was a sugar merchant
living in
number 8 and a wine and whisky merchant next door in number 7, two commodities
still very
big in the city today.
But the boom times never last forever and at the end of the Second World War
the two town
houses became the Bonaccord Hotel on one side and offices on the other. The
hotel ran for 23
years before closing briefly and being bought over, along with the offices at
number 7, and
converted to a larger hotel called the Beacons.
The Beacons was grand and was the favourite haunt of rock stars when they came
to play
Glasgow. There was a snug bar where the TV room is now, and downstairs was Diva
night
club. Gradually, the rock n roll lifestyle took its toll and the hotel became
sleazier. As ladies of
the night plied their trade the reputation slid into the gutter and the hotel
closed.
140 years after the birth of Park Terrace, number 7 and number 8 became the
Glasgow Youth
Hostel. The whole area is in a period of rejuvenation with the cities rich and
wealthy
purchasing buildings in their faded glory, doing them up, then living under
the roofs. Media
companies jostle with hotel and restaurant developments for space and the cosmopolitan
atmosphere has, once again, been injected into the shadows of a bygone era.
neil GIBSON (manager - Glasgow Youth Hostel)
To accompany the showing of the works in ‘accommodation’ E
merge D will be hosting a series of
talks on Wednesdays, 7pm, at the Glasgow Youth Hostel.
13th November : ange TAGGART Shop-u-like?
A presentation of counter-cultural shopping patterns
20th November : SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP :performance by reader
27th November : christine NIEHOFF and
neil GIBSON ‘real history, real poetry’
Traces
of the past and how architecture and interior design reflect changing societies
and taste
E merge D is an artist run non-profit
organisation set up to facilitate emerging artists working
site-specifically and in a context led manner. We work with artists across a
broad range of disciplines with a
strong focus on professional practice and support
For more information see www.emerged.net
E merge D would like to thank all the staff at the Glasgow Youth Hostel and
the SYHA for their support.
We hope you enjoy the show….
page 2 : kate BURTON
kate BURTON
location :games room
'the white horse'
The project began when BURTON made a film of a running horse in reaction to
a newspaper clipping
which read ‘Chase away the grey clouds’. Her research began with a
study of legendary movie stars and
their stories, this led to focus predominantly on the legendary landmarks within
the deep south
and the west where certain American films were shot and the mystical presence
of horses within
film.
She traveled to the north of Scotland and met with Dr Deb Bennet a horse trainer
and
communicator, based in central California, who has worked on many film sets
with her horses. Inspired
by this visit, BURTON began further research into a particularly prominent film
in her archival
process "The Misfits" set in Nevada in 1960.
This led her back to her original film footage taken at a stables where her
Mother Lesley Burton,
a training horse healer, works with horses. This marked the arrival
of 'The White Horse' Like a silent landmark
BURTON has placed the white horse inside the youth hostel, keen to create a
myth that the white horse is there,
like a meditative moving symbol of its own mystical filmic image, and now embedded
in the history of the building.
about the artist:
kate BURTON’S work focuses on the legendary, the mysterious, the intangible.
Through an examination
and scrutiny of film and archival imagery she puts together the fragments and
collections, which
form a dialog, feed her visions and inspire her work.
page 3 : james HODGSON
james HODGSON
location : main foyer and other sites
‘hotwash’
What HODGSON’s final outcome will be within the Youth Hostel depends on
his process. His work is
site-specific. He looks for contextual elements; a place, a process, an object.
The result incorporates an essence of his ‘self’ and is entirely reliant
on his working process.His work is performative,
constructed within an environment.It could be no more than a reconfiguration
of existing elements.
HODGSON’s work is improvisational; he invites the pressure of deadlines
and the opportunity of new sites to
shape the work. Time has an aesthetic impact.
HODGSON’s work is time-based; where it is, when it happens, who takes part….
page 4 : christine NIEHOFF
christine NIEHOFF
location : corridor to rooms 104-109
unisex
toilet (off corridor) and various others throughout the building
Using real Victorian features as guides, NIEHOFF creates semi-fictional relics
that tell the stories of those who lived at
7 & 8 Park Terrace. She alludes to the varied history of the hostel, from
it being a grand home to flats to a hotel. One of
the denizens of this address was a sugar merchant, Alexander Ronaldson of Richardson
& Co.who made it his home
for over thirty years in the 19th century.
Traces of his life and of the lives of many others can be found across the hostel,
and NIEHOFF’s work sits alongside
these as if it should have always been there. They create additional narratives
in the spaces, stories of the past,
waiting to be discovered.christine NIEHOFF’s work explores the building's
rich and colourful past in her beautiful
architectural additions and decorations made from royal icing.
about the artist:
NIEHOFF’S work is strongly aesthetic. The lightness of touch and skill
in her work create a sculptural quality that
captures you immediately. Originally trained as a painter, she now uses icing
as her main material because of its
strong decorative properties and age-old connections to female craftsmanship,
and special, festive moments. What is
most interesting is its limited lifespan, relating to the transient nature of
people’s lives.
page 5 : ange TAGGART
ange TAGGART
location :bedroom 104
reception
with support from robert WALTON and david STAMP
'bed'
'bed' is a new work made for the SYHA site inspired by many nights experience
of sleeping in a hostel bunk bed with a
complete stranger above.
You will need to book yourself into 'bed' on your arrival at the hostel reception
for a brief encounter in a hostel room.
Availability is limited so book early.
'bed' is one of a series of works inspired by the desire to copy based on feelings
of imperfection. Previous audiences to
TAGGART’s work have reported feeling a mixture of curiosity, confusion,
claustrophobia, delight, embarrassment,
fear, frustration, guilt, pleasure and a general sense of uneasiness…….....sometimes
all at the same time.
It all depends on your personal disposition.
TAGGART’s performance to video work will be showing in the hostel reception
throughout the duration of the show.
about the artist:
ange TAGGART warps the 'everyday experience' mixing it through video, installation
and performance. She likes to
tap into the insecurities connected with looking, placing the audience in confined
spaces, stripping the spectator of a safe
distance, sometimes they are isolated and outnumbered by her performers. She
creates genuinely unsettling experiences,
which often confuse the roles of performer, participant and spectator. Her ideas
play around with issues of reproduction,
imperfection and the desire to copy, which materialise as both live-performance,
and performance-for-videoworks.
Much of her work reflects her distaste for consumerism and mass production.
This has manifested itself in the work of
FANCLUB, www.fanclubbers.org, which fluctuates on the borders of performance
art and activism. The crux of this work
lies in counter-capitalism or critical consumerism.