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Thanks to the kind support and assistance of friends, supporters, colleagues – and many of you – Chris Leslie and I shall be going to the ball. Or rather, we shall be going to the New Glasgow Society, to exhibit our work for Red Road Underground.
Red Road Underground will show previously unseen material concerned primarily (but not exclusively) with the underground leisure complexes built at Red Road.
The show is open from 1st February 2nd March, and open Monday to Saturday 11-5pm, but we also have some very special events planned throughout the run of the show, and we’d love to see you there! There is a private view for supporters (which include blog readers) at NGS on the 2nd February from 7pm. The other events are open to all:
Red Road Beneath the Surface: Artists Talks with Chris Leslie, Mitch Miller and Alison Irvine, Saturday 18th February, 2-5pm, (PUBLIC EVENT, FREE)
Artists Chris Leslie and Mitch Miller welcome novelist Alison Irvine, author of This Road is Red. Working through their respective disciplines of photography, illustration and the novel, all three artists have responded to the challenge of depicting the complex and rich history of the Red Road Flats. Here they will discuss how they approached the subject matter, the challenges (and opportunities) of working in such an environment and how the finished work reflects their experiences. There will also be an opportunity to buy copies of This Road is Red and have them signed by the author.
The Roots of Red Road: Discussing the wider legacy of the Red Road Flats, Friday 2nd March, 6.30-8.30pm (PUBLIC EVENT, FREE)
When architect Sam Bunton dreamed of American style tower-blocks in 1960s Barmulloch he both identified with and distinguished himself amongst a pan-European trend for Modernist high rise residential developments. Now regarded by many as a wrong turn in urban planning and housing policy, the legacy of High Rise continues to provoke strong feelings and lively debate. Join Johnny Rodger and Dr Florian Urban of the History + Theory at the Mackintosh School of Architecture (GSA) and Dr Miles Glendinning Dr of the Scottish School of Conversation Studies, Edinburgh College of Art for debate and discussion on the wider cultural and political legacy of the Red Road Flats.
For more information on the project and the show, visit www.redroadunderground.co.uk
A couple of years ago, artist, Polymash and genius at large Chris Dooks gave me a huge leg up into exhibiting my visual efforts with a joint show at Market Gallery.
(He is not, incidentally, to be confused with equally estimable Chris Leslie. I just seem to have a tendency to work with people called Chris or Jo(h)nny. Really don’t know why, but if I ever write an autobiography I might call it Chrises I have met and Johnnies I have known (although looking at that in black and white, it would probably give a lot of people the entirely wrong idea)).
Getting back to business (as quickly as humanly possible), while this hardly repays the favour, I’d like to point you to Chris’ (Dooks’) brilliant psychogeographical web-pilgrimage around Edinburgh based on that very Scottish subject of religion.
In fact, I order you to look at it. That’s all – on you go…
Sort of. There are exactly twelve days to go until the end of the campaign to fund the Red Road Underground exhibition. The show will be held at the New Glasgow Society gallery in Partick in February this year, and is a joint collaboration with the filmmaker and photographer Chris Leslie.
All the funds we raise go directly to the cost of making prints, flyers and admin for the exhibition at the gallery run by New Glasgow Society in Patrick. The NGS is a charity that promotes public interest in and care for the history and character of Glasgow, and did a great deal to prevent the demolition of many historic tenements during the demolition-happy days of the 70s and 80s. We’re delighted to have been asked to exhibit, but as a voluntary (if distinguished) organisation, their resources are limited. So unfortunately, are ours. We are taking no fees or funds for this show – we just want the chance to show the public what we’ve been doing at Red Road these past couple of years, in a really great exhibition space that will allow us to show the artworks off at their best.
So far we have raised $755 dollars, which will help somewhat, but still falls far short of what we need to cover at least the minimal costs.
So, I’m not in the habit of making appeals, but if any of you have enjoyed this blog so far, and have a spare 6 or 7 quid or so (which I do understand is often not the case in January) then I’d be very grateful if you’d consider a visit to our campaign site and looking at how you can donate, and the gifts that we’ll give you in return for that. By gifts I mean receiving exclusive art prints, films and DVD souvenirs, all limited edition. You will also be listed as a patron and sponsor of the show, and be offered our firstborn to do with as you please (only two of those three perks are actually true…)
To get a sense of what you will see at the exhibition (and to finally see the latest dialectogram of The Bingo at Red Road!) visit www.redroadunderground.co.uk, and if that should inspire you, then here’s the link to indiegogo again – www.indiegogo.com/Red-Road-Underground-Exhibition .
For those who don’t like Indiegogo/want to stay anonymous, please do feel free to contact me directly on the ‘Get Involved’ page of this site – I can still hook you up with a nice thank you gift from either myself or Chris!
In any case, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who have read the blog, contributed comments and offered up ideas and words of support over the past year. A Happy New Year and all the best for 2012 – here’s a ‘minigram’ of the Brig for your pains!
Mitch
