Something old, something new. Weekend Glasgow concert reviews

Live gig review -

• Lee 'Scratch' Perry. St Lukes, Glasgow 10th March 2018
• Superorganism. CCA, Glasgow, 11th March 2018

Saturday night's gig was my choice, Sunday night was my brother's. Our musical tastes have some overlap, and some differences. Luckily in Glasgow there is always a variety of musical options and if we had wanted something different again we could have alternatively joined the thousands of people at The Hydro for the "Country To Country" shows. As it was I settled for veteran Jamaican dub reggae musician Lee 'Scratch' Perry on one night, and "BBC Sound of 2018" nominees Superorganism on the other. One night it's all ginger wine and marijuana, the next it's Diet Irn Bru.

Lee 'Scratch' Perry and the Upsetters, St Lukes, Glasgow

Lee 'Scratch' Perry

After the life he has led, first let me say hats off to Lee 'Scratch' Perry for still being here. The 81 year old Jamaican producer largely created the dub style in the 1970s, taking existing reggae tracks, remixing and looping them in the studio to make new tracks. Emphasising the drum and bass, the instrumentals, he was constantly innovating and a whole new musical genre was born. His behaviour can probably be best described as eccentric over the years, from burning down recording studios, communing with aliens and wearing his hat that represents connections to elemental gods. A lifelong belief in the powers of ganja may have a part to play in his personality (his letter to the Japanese Minister of Justice in 1980 in support of Paul McCartney, who had been arrested for allegedly carrying cannabis, maybe best sums up his views on the matter).  

His tight four-piece band introduce themselves as The Upsetters, the name of Lee Perry's old house band, and they kick things off until the man himself wanders on stage after a couple of tracks. Bedecked in an old braided military coat, wearing his trademark hat and dyed red beard he laughs and sings away, treading a fine line between improvisation and rambling gibberish - not always successfully. The setting of St Lukes as a former church seemed to appeal to him, the old church organ behind him on stage, and the words turn to god and Zion at times. 

Lee Scratch Perry and band at St Lukes, Glasgow

When a fan at the front hands him a large bag of a herbal substance early on, he happily sequesters it away with his suitcase on the stage and throughout the night blithely puffs away on his pipe between songs. There will be no smoking ban at a Lee 'Scratch' Perry event. Breaking off for a few sips of the ginger wine that he has brought on stage, he mumbles on for an hour and a half, loosening up as the night goes on and seeming to be enjoying himself as much as the collection of Glaswegians in the audience. As has to be noted that the audience have been providing some of the worst excuses for dancing that I may have ever seen. As he wanders off stage during a riff on Bob Marley's 'Exodus' we realise that is exactly what he has done. Long may he reign.

Lee Scratch Perry in a fug of smoke

Superorganism, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow

Superoganism

Superorganism are an international collective of eight musicians, fronted by 17 year old Orono Noguchi. Their self-titled debut album has just been released last week. They roll into Glasgow on the back of a lot of hype, but don't appear over-awed by it all. A lot of effort has gone into creating a lo-fi, homemade, psychedelic, indie pop sound that gives the album a happy, upbeat vibe full of technological references and hints of dozens of musical influences. 

Superorganism at the CCA

On stage everything has been carefully put together too, from the co-ordinated raincoats and video backdrops to the dance moves of backing singers Ruby, Soul and B. It's all a stark contrast to Lee Scratch Perry's shambolic fun the previous night. Orono's insouciant demeanour lets them get away with the contrived wackiness. As proper pop bands should, they batter through a set of 3 minute tunes, smile, wave and look happy. Orono tries to curry favour with the local crowd by glugging down a bottle of Irn Bru throughout the show. Where she got it right in choosing a glass bottle, she made the mistake of going for the sugar-free version, greeted by boos from the audience, much to her bewilderment (in one of the few countries in the world where the local fizzy drink outsells Coca-Cola, nobody seems to have pointed out to her that this teeth-coating, caffeine and sugar concoction is best known as a hangover cure, rather than as a late night thirst quencher). She saves the day by somehow finding a bottle of the full-fat Irn Bru to help with the encore.

Back on the Irn Bru

It is hard to tell how much of the music and backing vocals is played live, with various pre-recorded voices and electronic beeps going off left, right and centre, but it doesn't really matter. They look like they are having fun, and we don't want to put a dampener on it. 

Everybody Wants To Be Famous and Something For Your M.I.N.D. are the most memorable songs, but there are plenty of others that show there is variety across the album. The overall sound here is of Bis doing Kandy Pop, filtered through The Monkees whilst somebody nearby plays an 80s video game. As I quite like all of these things, that isn't a criticism.

Their album lasts little over 30 minutes, as does the concert. A couple more tunes wouldn't have hurt, but they don't seem like they are going to release anything upon the world until it has been finely honed and polished. I hope they have the stamina to keep that going.

Sonic-a 2017 Review

Review: Sonic-a 2017. The Glasgow Music Festival "For the Visually Minded".

Curated by Cryptic.

Sonic-a is always a highlight of the calendar for me in Glasgow. The biennial festival is a mash-up of music, performance and visual arts that always turns up some real gems. This year it brings together artists from around the world for 11 days in the city across a variety of venues. The full programme is available from their website, with many family-friendly distractions among the varied films, performances and installations. 

AquaSonic, Tramway 26-28th October 2017

AquaSonic. Photo from their website

The concert in the Tramway which I saw on the opening night of Sonic-a was quite spectacularly breath-taking. Five Danish musicians from Between Music sang and played their specially constructed and tuned instruments, submerged in huge tanks of water. If the premise sounds weird, the execution of it was phenomenal, one of the most entertaining and enchanting pieces of theatre I have seen. I was there with my 10 year old daughter, whose mind was buzzing about it afterwards, and her enjoyment was contagious. 

On a dark stage eerie sounds start to emerge with clever illumination of the tanks then revealing where the sounds are being made. The musicians bobbed to the surface to gulp breathes of air, then went under to continue their performance. Alongside recognisable violins and percussion instruments - singing bowls, gongs, triangles and a darboukha - were beautiful, custom-built instruments, such as a rotacorda, a hydraulophone and an elegant crystallophone. The singing varied from amplified voices on the surface of the water to a peculiar technique of underwater singing which managed to avoid expelling any air. Added to the background drips, plops and bubbles a mysterious sound was created which sounded like Bjork and Sigur Ros in a dialogue with mermaids and whales. 

During the hour long performance the visual and aural spectacle was mixed up at times, with the performers fading into the darkness whilst they blew bubbles into mic-ed up pillars of water at the front of the stage, or hidden behind an unexpected downpour from the sprinklers overhead. Despite all the earnest intent, it looked like a lot of fun and thoroughly deserved the standing ovation the sizable audience gave it at the end.

AquaSonic - singing and playing the hydraulophone. Photo from their website

Govanhill Baths - Buzz Aldrin Syndrome, The Extended Tension, Chijikinkutsu, Phase Transition.

Govanhill Baths, Glasgow

Several years ago, against the wishes of the local community, Glasgow city council closed Govanhill swimming baths. Since then locals have been campaigning for its repair and re-opening, whilst running it as a local arts and culture venue. Every nook and cranny of the building is being utilised at present for four installations as part of Sonic-a. 

Upstairs, among the cubicles where the old slipper baths still sit, Japanese artist Nelo Akamatsu has installed a delicate sound installation, Chijikikutsu. Magnetised needles float in glasses of water around dotted all the upper floor. Walking quietly around the ghostly abandonment of the cubicles, many still filled with assorted detritus, the gentle tinkle of needles tapping against the glass as electric currents create magnetic fields creates a fascinating atmosphere. I reminded me of my recent trips walking through some of Glasgow's closed railway tunnels, where the only sounds are the gentle drip of water which are hard to place in the darkness.

Part of Chijikikutsu by Nelo Akamatsu

The two swimming pool halls have been fitted out with noisier exhibits. Manuel Rocha Iturube from Mexico has strung up two electric guitars above the empty pool. The Extended Tension speaks of metaphorical tensions in 20th century music and performers, but basically it is a lot of fun just walking about and getting to twang an electric guitar in an empty swimming pool (if you are tall enough to reach them, I would have had them lower down). 

In the other pool Kathy Hinde presents Phase Transition which  has funnels of ice melting under lamps. As the water drips onto metal trays below the sound is amplified and echoes around the room, driving turntables as they go. It is  hypnotic sight, in a Heath Robinson kind of way. I had heard of French scientist Joseph Fourier, born in 1768, but had little notion of what he achieved. As well as developing theories on the behaviour of sound waves, he also came up with the climate change theory which we now know as the Greenhouse Effect - a perfect person for a contemporary sound artist to create works on.

The extended Tension, by Manuel Rocha Iturube

Buzz Aldrin Syndrome by Quentin Euverte and Florimond Dupont from France, looks like a steampunk off-licence, with assorted bottles of murky liquids suspended from rusty scaffolding poles whilst unrecognisable music from old sci-fi films is amplified around the room. Peculiar, if rather humdrum.

Buzz Aldrin Effect

CCA, Glasgow - ZZZZZZZZZ, Singularity, Nearer Future

As well as hosting talks and performances, the CCA on Sauchiehall Street also has a couple of installations and a VR film on the go in their cinema space.

ZZZZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZZZZ by Manuel Rocha Iturube has a turntable sitting alone on an old chair, with the vinyl record playing the repetitive sounds of snoring. The blurb accompanying it makes great play on the tension between the irregular snoring and solidity of the chair, comparing snoring to the tides and the sea, but anyone who has nodded off in a chair will know that the lack of tension between the two is more of an issue. I mustered a yawn.

In the darkened theatre space of CCA Heather Lander's Nearer Future is running, an hypnotic 3D projection of abstract shapes accompanied by Robert Bentall's ambient sounds, Telian. The music has Scottish tinges to it, though played on a Swedish nyckelharpa apparently, and the vector graphics of the visuals at times gave the appearance of the viewer trying to fly through the vector graphics of an 80s video game. 

Singularity is another audio-visual work, viewed on a TV screen with headphones worn, by Norwegian Solveig Settemsdal, and Kathy Hinde, who also has a work on show at Govanhill. Accompanied by the slowly building music from a string quartet we watch an extreme close up of an abstract white shape worming its way into a black space. The 10 minute loop is playful and intriguing, without ever bursting into life.

CCA Glasgow - Collisions by Lynette Wallworth

Martu elder Nyarri Nyarri Morgan

Of all the works on show at the CCA, the most interesting is the film Collisions by Lynette Wallworth. The Australian artist and filmaker has filmed the story of indigenous elder Nyarri Nyarri Morgan of the Martu tribe of remote Western Australia. Filmed in 360 degrees you don a VR headset and headphones to hear the story of this man, immersed in his environment and able to look around at his world. We hear about his first dealings with Western culture in the 1960s when, without explanation, he was an unwitting witness to atomic bomb tests. It is a preposterous story and heard in his words, in this way, very powerful, particularly the closing scenes of him "mosaic burning", clearing the scrub to prevent the country catching fire. Quiet music from Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Max Richter adds to the piece. It is not a story I had heard before, and I still have it turning over in my head.

Titan: A Crane is a Bridge, Michael Begg. Clydebank

Titan Crane, Clydebank, late October 2017

With pieces in swimming pools, swirling vortexes of water on installations at The Lighthouse and musicians playing music in fish-tanks, water is a recurring theme this year. One other waterside musical extravaganza was happening 150 foot above the former basin of the John Brown shipyards. Although many of us would still prefer to hear the music of hammer on steel, building great ships down here, those days are gone.

The Titan Crane is all that remains of the shipyards in Clydebank, the land cleared and awaiting redevelopment. The shipyard that built the Lusitania, the Queen Mary, HMS Hood and the QE2 finally closed in 2001. My great-uncle Andy worked in the yards as an engineer, as a teenager when the workers celebrated the news of the end of the First World War, on night shifts through the Clydebank blitz and in my pram as a baby I joined him and his colleagues on the UCS demonstrations, when the workers fought to keep the yards open in 1971.

I find it now a sadly forlorn place, a complete contrast to its former glory. The Titan Crane opens through the summer months for visitors to ascend and hear about the crane and the yards, but otherwise recognition of the works that built the town are sorely lacking in Clydebank.

Sound artist and experimental composer Michael Begg was commissioned by Cryptic to produce a work using the crane as his starting point. He has turned it into a giant musical instrument, a colossal version of the instrument invented by Soviet physicist Lev Sergeyevich Termin, a theremin by the Clyde.

Wheelhouse of the Titan Crane, Clydebank

Once the elevator takes you to the top you can see the electronic wires and strings on the upper platform contributing to the sound, but within the wheelhouse, where the giant coils of steel ropes sit. The ambient and gentle sounds here for me were frankly overwhelmed by the beauty of this engineering creation, and the views we were lucky enough to enjoy on a clear and frosty late October day in the west of Scotland. I did not feel any sense of peaceful calm, we were not atop a mountain, despite the prayer flags, but in someone's place of work, whilst all around was desolate wasteland.

Prayer flags wired up to the sound installation

Views east over Clydebank College to Glasgow, with the River Cart flowing into the Clyde

• Sonic-a runs until November 5th 2017 in many venues across Glasgow

Glasgow International 2016, a Festival of Contemporary Art

Yet again Glasgow International rolls into town, a two week festival of international contemporary art, which arrives here every second year. There are dozens of exhibitions and events on the go until April 25th, which does cause a bit of stress to a completist like me. However to maybe help you chose what to see I will give a quick review of the stuff I have managed to see in the first couple of days. One of the best things about Glasgow International is that it is all free.

West End

I started out at the Hunterian Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow. Apart from a small Glasgow International exhibition, there is an excellent exhibition upstairs here on the history and influence of comic books, including possibly the world's first comic book from 1825, The Glasgow Looking Glass.

Work by William Hunter, anatomist

Work by Damien Hirst, sort of artist

The theme of the exhibition here is to show "moments of mutual synergy" between science and art. What it does show is that the 18th century anatomical casts of a truncated pregnant women and illustrations from a 19th century textbook of histology are far superior works of art than Damien Hirst's Necromancer display cabinet.

Kelvin Hall , Glasgow

The Kelvin Hall is currently undergoing refurbishment before opening next year as the new home of the Hunterian Museum from Glasgow University. Whilst it is still a building site the foyer has been used during Glasgow International to house works by Helen Johnson and Claire Barclay. I'm afraid I was drawn as much by the chance to sneak a peek at the building wrk inside the building as by the artworks on show, but I was impressed by both.

A crumbling room in the Kelvin Hall

Both artists on display here used history as inspiration with painter Helen Johnson creating large canvases riffing on scenes from Ovid's Metamorphosis and reflecting on colonialism (this was the site if the Great Empire Exhibition), and upstairs Claire Barclay's elaborate sculptures reflect on the 1951 Exhibition of Industrial Power from the Kelvin Hall in 1951, but also from the annual carnival that used to be held here.

Claire Barclay's sculptures at the Kelvin Hall

Across the road from the Kelvin Hall, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was built for the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

Upstairs on the balcony, opposite to the organ is a small, but interesting exhibition by Aaron Angel , who also has pieces withing the Botanic Gardens this year. These sculptures (The Death of Robin Hood) reflect pastoral crafts, but skillfully executed and tie in with a program of organ recitals within Kelvingrove.

Four sculptures by Aaron Angel in Kelvingrove Art Gallery

Kelvingrove pipe organ viewed through the sculpture

City Centre

Trongate 103 is a hive of activity with Glasgow Print Studio, Transmission Gallery and Street Level Photoworks all holding exhibitions. Most eye catching is the stuff at Project Ability, an arts organisation supporting people with disabilities and mental health problems. They have a series of drawings by American artist Derrick Alexis Coard, imagined portraits of bearded African-American men. They leap off of the page with colour and vigour, really enjoyed seeing them. 

Work by Derrick Alexis Coard in Project Ability

Further up High Street, in what is being called "Civic Room", a former British Linen Bank building in danger of vanishing unless it is looked after, is the work of Brazilian artist André Komatsu. In an early example of Victorian concrete an steel construction, he exhibits Disseminacao Concreta, a life sized clothed body of a man, made from concrete boulders. At the from of the building he also has a piece, Borders 1, on display.  I really liked this concrete man, particularly in the shabby back room of this former bank, with the steel door of its safe behind his carcass. It is a lovely use the building

Former British Linen Bank, High Street Glasgow

Disseminacao Concreta by André Komatsu

At their Aird's Lane gallery the Modern Institute have a collapsed steel framework by Monica Sosnowska, modeled on a structure from an Eastern European scheme, with more twisted metal sculptures outside, whilst at their Parnie Street gallery a child-like talking desk critiques the world of art production and distribution. The work is by Joanne Tatham and Tom O'Sullivan and looks like the result of a weekend of brainstorming by the Ikea design team when someone sneaked LSD into their tea.

A Petition for an Enquiry into a Condition of Anxiety at the Modern Institute

Monica Sosnowska's work outside the Modern Institute, Aird's Lane

The main hall at the Briggait has a sculpture made of polythene sheets suspended from the ceiling by Heather Lander and Simon Harlow. This may be more impressive when seen at night when they have projections on them. Also in the Briggait are sculptures and drawings by Jock Mooney, which look set for a religious ceremony created by a comic book artist in the style of Frank Quitely.

Part of Jock Mooney's exhibition

There is more humour in the excellent exhibitions within the Mitchell Library. In the main hall Tamara Henderson's giant, totemic scarecrows inhabit this great big space. The gallery invigilator encouraged me to sit in the dilapidated car in the middle of the room to watch the video that goes along with it all. Upstairs in the Jeffrey Room, incongruously set amongst the shelves of leather bound books the works of Jacob Kerray and George Ziffo look like home made banners from a football match but riff on subjects such as racism and commercialiation. This was one of my personal favourites of my day.

Jacob Kerray and George Ziffo at the Mitchell Library

At the CCA Pilvi Takala has multiple video works on display looking back over ten years of work. They are humorous, silly and very engaging, such as trying to get into Disneyland dressed as Snow White, and being refused. I am not always a big fan of video artworks as I am too impatient at times but these are worth watching. Also there is a wall of posters for lost pigeons. Have you seen any of these birds? Some of these have been posted around Glasgow, haven't they, or am I imagining that?

Pilvi Takala

Within the Reid Building at Glasgow School of Art I really liked Serena Korda's suspended fungi, which are accompanied by musical chanting that you hear through headphones whilst walking around if there is not a live performance on the go. Her archival material in the room next door is fascinating too.

Serena Korda's Hold Fast, Stand Sure, I Scream a Revolution

I like the pop art inspired works by Emily Mae Smith on near St Enochs Square at Mary Mary Gallery. Bright, cheerful, but also with dark hints within them. I liked the marching broomsticks from Disney's Fantasia posed like Andy Warhol's gun-slinging Elvises. Pop culture reference overload. 

Emily Mae Smith at Mary Mary Gallery

There is plenty to see in the Gallery of Modern Art too, with the main hall filled with sculptures, paintings and videos by Cosima von Bonin. She was born in Kenya and lives and works in Germany. Her works have lots of toy-like sea creatures and "Missy Misdemeanor, the vomiting white chick" who sits astride a huge pink rocket. Tessa Lynch's sculptures upstairs are interesting too and the blurb that goes with it talks about the "questionable existence of the female flaneur, or flaneuse". It is a funny idea to find questionable when the city is ideally set up just now for male and female flaneurs to wander aimlessly, stumbling across things and just observing people. 

Sculpture by Cosima von Bonin at GOMA

Southside

House for an Art Lover, Bellahouston Park

A cluster of exhibitions sit in the "Artpark" buildings that sit alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh's House For An Art Lover in Bellahouston Park. I didn't know this place existed and it has a fantastic permanent exhibition on the heritage, architecture and history of the are, including the shipyards which I spent most of my time here at to be honest. Gabriella Boyd and Marco Giordano fill one shed with engaging paintings and sculpture. For the other works here, I was more impressed with the buildings and gardens, where the hyacinths are just beginning to flower with their distinctive smell that you either love or loathe (*metaphor klaxon*).

Artpark at House for an Art Lover

Artpark at House for an Art Lover

Scotland Street School Museum, again an overwhelmingly impressive building by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, has a small exhibition in their ground floor gallery space next door to the cafe. This shows work from the varied career of Glasgow born artist Raoul Reynolds. I had never heard of this interesting character. He was born in 1882 and led a nomadic life between Glasgow and Marseilles, and died in New York in 1969. His father was a shipyard owner and his mother from a Marseilles manufacturing family. He was influenced by European avant-garde art movements but doesn't ever seem to have fitted in anywhere. His life story turns out to be more interesting than his work if I'm being honest, with hints of someone having more money than imagination. Perhaps I am just being over cynical. 

Work by Raoul Reynolds at Scotland Street School

There are several major exhibitions on at the nearby Tramway, a group show including work by Alexandra Birken, Lawrence Lek, Sheila Hicks, Mika Rottenberg and Amie Siegel. The premse of the exhibition is to explore ideas around production, manufacture and history. Like the exhibitors in the Kelvin Hall the interactions with the building's history is part of that. Many of the spaces used in Glasgow for studio space and galleries are disused industrial spaces, such as this massive tram depot on the southside. Many of the works here are meant to be using that idea, but most of them weare video works and I didn't have the patience to sit through them. I admit I wasn't in the most receptive frame of mind after just being stopped by the Police on the way here for jumping a red light on my bike. At the subsequent set of lights (which were green) two pedestrians then just about bundled me off of my bike by not noticing me. I arrived at the Tramway in a peevish mood. However I was still a bit disappointed by it all. On a side note, could someone at the Tramway think about installing a few cycle racks in the vicinity, there aren't many easy places to chain up a bike nearby. Ta.

A sculpture made of coloured linen by Sheila Hicks at Tramway.

 Also in the Southside, Glasgow graduate Josée Aubin Ouellette has a display of ergonomic soft sculptures on the floor of the pool at Govanhill Baths. You are encouraged to put on a pair of felt slippers and go down and loll about on these pieces. I preferred to nostalgically stare at the wooden changing cubicles lining the pool, remembering my childhood swims in Whiteinch Pool. 

Govanhill Baths, Glasgow

Who knew that there was a Roller Disco in Kinning Park? (Oh.Well I didn't know). This is the scene for performances by Asparagus Piss Raindrop, the self proclaimed "crypto conceptual science fiction anti-climax band". I have seen them perform before at the Glasgow Tectonics festival and they usually tread a fine line between taking themselves very seriously and being very silly. I am not sure whch side of this line they've fallen this time but I liked the idea of them performing on roller skates to electronic music and live percussion and saxophone. It feels like an unsuccessful 1970s dystopian film that failed at the box office because of the poor special effects and I would not have been surprised to see a young Donald Sutherland with handlebar moustache appear amidst the chaos. Whilst five of them kept skating around and performing three others acted as a transvestite, a saxophonist and compere. You get the gist.

Asparagus Piss Raindrop at Roller Stop, Glasgow

Asparagus Piss Raindrop at Roller Stop, Glasgow

What else?

There is a fantastic amount on show all over the city, much more than I have mentioned here. I plan to head to the Glasgow Sculpture Studios and Glue Factory in the north of the city and to the David Dale Gallery in the east end. I also fancy going back again to see the works at the Art School, CCA and the Civic Room which were some of my highlights.

Glasgow International 2014, Quick Review

I was looking forward to the return of the Glasgow International festival this year, after it being such an entertaining and engaging event two years ago. Sadly, however, I have found very few of the exhibits in this year's Glasgow International to be particularly relevant, engaging, interesting or thought provoking in any way whatsoever. Many times the idea behind the exhibits are so cryptic and pretentious that the festival guide reads like the Pseuds Corner world cup event qualifying, the navel-gazing round perhaps.

I like a lot of modern art. I particularly enjoy it when it elicits some kind of response, whether it is sadness, disgust, happiness, memories, laughter or even just admiration for the skill or technique on display. Artists should be part of the real world and can engage with events, politics, life, injustices, etc. On spending a couple of days catching up on things at various venues this year the most common emotion it created was disappointment. So much of it seemed cobbled together, cheap, pointless or pretentious. It seemed to be occurring in another reality where there is no national debate on whether Glasgow should be part of a new country, where there is no politics or emotion or engagement. It feels very petty. The real world seems not to have touched many of the things on show, they are happening in a bubble removed from anything I could connect with.

So what did I like?

• Counterflows is an annual event in Glasgow of experimental and contemporary music. This year it was included under the umbrella of Glasgow International and was a resounding success. (Review here)

"The Colours of the Palestinian Flag" by Khaled Hourani

• Khaled Hourani is a Palestinian artist who has work on display at the Centre for Contemporary Arts. Some of the work reflects the surreal nature of current events in Palestine with works here commenting on the Palestinian winner of "Arab Idol", donkeys painted as zebras in a Gaza zoo and a photo of a Picasso painting on display in Palestine. I didn't even notice the Picasso at the centre of the photo until I read the title, so distracted was I by the guards in the forefront. Every piece is stimulating, thought provoking and double edged.

Aleksandra Domanovic's work at GOMA

• Aleksandra Domanovic's work is on show in the main hall at the Gallery of Modern Art. The Berlin based artist has filled the hall with huge celluloid screens with images from sci-fi films, reflecting the inferior roles women are often given in science fiction literature and films. The punchline comes on the last panel where a letter to a woman applying as an artist in the Disney studios is reproduced, showing where a woman's place is in that world. 

Reclaimed

• Reclaimed-The Second Life of Sculpture is an exhibition in the main hall at the Briggait. You could put an ice cream van on display and I would come in to see it as I just enjoy getting into this building where my great-great granny used to have a fish stall. This exhibition displays sculptures held in long term storage and raises questions about fashions in art and when it becomes disposable. Much of the exhibits on at other venues in Glasgow International give weight to the argument that there is plenty of sculpture out there that should have by-passed the galleries and gone straight into storage. A treat for any Glaswegian is seeing the "love it or loathe it" sculpture Spirit of Kentigern that used to sit at the bottom of Buchanan Street on display. I always thought it was meant to be a whale's tail until I read this week that it is actually representing the bird that never flew. Who knew?

Bricolage

• Bricolage at The Pipe Factory. An interesting collection of stuff in an interesting building.

So what was mildly distracting?

• At the Modern Institute Tobias Madison, Emanuel Rosseti, Stefan Tcherepnin have changed the frontage to resemble a ghost train, whilst the inside has become a sort of carpetted corridor. Ten out of ten for effort.
• Gabriel Kuri at The Common Guild has made a colourful and interesting collection of sculptures, which make more sense once you flick through his book whilst going around (this was a recurring problem, exhibitions with no gallery staff helping to explain things or not raising their faces out of their iPhones to engage with you or with no leaflets left). The staff at The Common Guild and Modern Institute were very helpful, chatty and engaging as always.

Henrik Patzke at Project Ability

• Alex Frost at Glasgow Print Studio had some interesting ideas and my children and I were big fans of Swedish artist Henrik Patzke's exhibition Cloud at Project Ability.

Work by Gareth Moore at Glasgow Sculpture Studios

• Canadian sculptor Gareth Moore shows the products of his three month residency at Glasgow Sculpture Studios, drawing from the surroundings with discarded materials from the adjacent Forth and Clyde Canal and clay dug from local claypits.

Le Swimming at Fleming House

• Also interesting, although maybe a bit unevenly executed, was Le Swimming in the disused underground car park under a shabby modernist building, Fleming House, in the city centre. It was quite witty and made a good point about the lack of such non-commercial amenities in the city centre and the folly of the construction of these buildings 
• At David Dale Gallery in Bridgeton Claudia Comte has a collection of interesting sculptures, and top marks for venue goes to those behind Baldachini  under one of the arches on Cleland Lane by the Citizens Theatre.

So what was rubbish?

• Well, following on from the point made about the lack of public amenities in Glasgow city centre I was keen to see inside the old Govanhill Baths, closed several years ago by Glasgow City Council but trying to find a second life as a community resource. It is meant to be home to a collection of inflatables (LOVE) by Anthea Hamilton and Nicholas Byrne but on the two days I tried to go I wasn't allowed in to see the building, because one of the inflatables had a leak. I really feel I could have mustered the imaginative powers to conceive the exhibition in all its glory without the full display but was told I wasn't getting in. Poor show. 
• Kling Klang, an installation at Queen's Park Train Station was impossible to fathom. Were the two turned off electric guitars meant to be the "open access electronic music studio" promised in the programme?
• The McLellan Galleries building was more impressive to see then any of the four exhibitions therein. Photocopies of an artist's genitals, video installations akin to many pop videos complete with someone shagging the pavement. I've got a bit tired of exhibitions where the attendants stop you at the door to say "oh....you might not want to take your children in there..."
• Hydrapangea at the Botanic Gardens and Simon Martin at Kelvingrove sounded good on paper, but in reality were unengaging. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the Botanics were both mobbed during the school holidays when I was in them, but the bland video installations in both were completely ignored by everyone. They were making no connection with their surroundings or the visitors to them who were all walking past. Both exhibitions were overwhelmed by their settings. This seemed particularly ironic in Simon Martin's case as the description claimed he was paying "attention to the relationship between viewer and artefact".
• Gymnasia was full of ideas that sounded better than its actual execution, as were another pile of exhibitions I could mention, but won't.
• Welshman Bedwyr Williams and America's Michael Smith have video installations at Tramway, the former in the main hall given a creepy twist with an abandoned coach illuminating the darkened main hall. However both seemed in thrall to TV and not unlike too many well known shows or similar characters I know drawn as roundly in comics I've read. Both were entertaining but there are a lot of videos on show in the festival. These installations come over as cheap and easy enough to dispatch to festivals around the world, but the world watches these things on YouTube, on their phones and tablets these days. It just often feels too disposable.
• Sometimes getting access to buildings housing the exhibits was more worthwhile than the exhibits they held. SWG3 have a couple of disjointed exhibitions on in the studio spaces in the top floor there. It was nice to get to see the huge space up there but I would have been disappointed if I had climbed the stairs hoping to find a hidden artistic gem. Nowhere was this more apparent than at the new Glasgow Art School building in Garnethill. It was great to see inside the new building and to use Michael Stumpf's exhibition across the road as an excuse to re-visit the Mackintosh Building.

Atelier Public #2 takes over a floor at GoMA

• Atelier Public #2 at GoMA? Is this really the best use of the space, recreate a children's play area in a shopping mall, but give the public less art materials than you'd get in one of these places.

So...

The Glasgow International 2014 festival seemed incredibly bitty and disjointed. There were too many videos and exhibitions which seemed to lack a curator's touch or any point to them. Some of the favourite things which I saw were not part of the festival, such as the new art school building and Martin Boyce's glasswork in its entrance or Iain Hamilton Finlay's exhibition of prints in the GOMA. These displayed more wit, skill and bite than so much of the stuff that is in the festival. However it is all free, there is tons more that I haven't managed to see yet. I just think it requires more of a guiding hand than it seems to have, or maybe that just costs more money.

Martin Boyce's glasswork in the foyer of the new Reid Building at the Art School