Glasgow International - the sequel

City of Glasgow College was one of the first commercial high-rise buildings in the city, a towering concrete structure beside Queen Street Station that no doubt symbolised the future-facing philosophy of the building school it was designed to house.

Dialogue of Hands, a small exhibition of child-friendly sculpture curated by Sarah Lowndes and Katie Nicoll, provides an oasis of colour and fun in one of the college’s open-air courtyards and features work by Mary Redmond, Corin Sworn, Chris Johanson and Camilla Løw.

The curators’ inspiration comes in part from the Brazilian artists Helio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, who saw the participation of the viewer in their work as an act invested with social and political meaning.

The exhibition poses gentle questions about the educational value of sensory exploration and play - a timely provocation in the current climate. I felt I really needed some toddlers in tow, but the absence of small companions didn’t prevent me from having a go on Chris Johanson’s marvellously inviting steel-drum sculpture.
I’d defy anyone to resist it.

There’s a lively group show to admire at the Briggait, a former fish market transformed by WASPS into an extensive complex of studio, office and gallery spaces.

It’s also well worth lingering in the two small galleries to either side of the main entrance, which are currently showing a pitch-perfect exhibition of drawing, photography and recorded sound by Judy Spark and Lesley Punton. Both artists make work about the natural world, addressing the gap that exists between their physical experience of landscape and the process of articulating it in art.

A different kind of gap exercises Rosalind Nashashibi in her newly commissioned film for GI, which explores the relationship between the dancers of Scottish Ballet and a group of onlookers who have shuffled in to watch them in rehearsal. By wiring the dancers up for sound, she makes us acutely aware of the physical exertion involved in creating an illusion of effortless movement. She also records the reaction of the audience, their comments, facial expressions and body language. It’s a lovely piece: observant and cleverly shot.

And perhaps no other city could achieve such a seamless integration between the ‘big name’ artists and everyone else. I’ve concentrated here on some of the main venues, but there is a great deal of artist-led activity in other places, for example the series of works and events devised for GI by Hole in my Pocket, a dynamic art/ architecture duo with a diverse and entertaining multi-disciplinary practice.

It was especially good to see a group show of work by younger Glasgow-based artists at The Lighthouse, including Katri Walker, Laura Yuile, Rachel Adams and former Axis MAstar Amelia Bywater. Curated by The Duchy, one of Glasgow’s newest spaces, it exemplifies the strong and supportive culture emanating from the city’s institutions and artists’ community.

The Lighthouse building was designed for the Glasgow Herald by John Keppie, to whom Charles Rennie Mackintosh was once apprenticed. It serves as a reminder, if any were needed, that Glasgow’s artistic traditions and civic confidence go a very long way back and that GI 2012 is only their latest manifestation.