To Stay To Stay
The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow
January 2013
The title, 'TO STAY TO STAY', is taken from the spray-painted text on a wall in the artist's studio's courtyard and directly references an old industrial building's part-demolition. An interior wall now stands on the exterior with these words in full sight, allowing all to see what is considered safe and to guess from the remaining foundations what was not.
This choice of what is to remain and what is not is apparent in both Laing and Frew's work through the decision making processes that each artist adopts while creating their drawings. Both working with pen on paper, each mark made by the artist is deliberate yet ultimately building towards something unknown as neither artist set out with a final image in mind.
For this exhibition, both artists will display a body of work created using their processes that reference this idea of what should remain, or stay.
The artists have also produced a publication with written contribution from Emmie McLuskey (below images) to accompany the exhibition.
Preview images courtesy of Patrick Jameson
The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow
January 2013
The title, 'TO STAY TO STAY', is taken from the spray-painted text on a wall in the artist's studio's courtyard and directly references an old industrial building's part-demolition. An interior wall now stands on the exterior with these words in full sight, allowing all to see what is considered safe and to guess from the remaining foundations what was not.
This choice of what is to remain and what is not is apparent in both Laing and Frew's work through the decision making processes that each artist adopts while creating their drawings. Both working with pen on paper, each mark made by the artist is deliberate yet ultimately building towards something unknown as neither artist set out with a final image in mind.
For this exhibition, both artists will display a body of work created using their processes that reference this idea of what should remain, or stay.
The artists have also produced a publication with written contribution from Emmie McLuskey (below images) to accompany the exhibition.
Preview images courtesy of Patrick Jameson
A Short Collection of Thoughts about the Lack of Genuine Gesture experienced in Everyday Life and a Frustration with Imposed Time Limitations, in relation to the drawings of Sarah Laing and Ross Hamilton Frew.
By Emmie McLuskey
I approached this piece of writing in the same way as the artists, beginning to write with no set objective or outcome in mind and to edit as and when I felt necessary.
The act of looking appears evermore poignant in an age of immediacy.
To see an obvious reference to labour construed as almost taboo appears to me to throw up a brand new set of relationships between object and human to scrutinise and consider.
Switching off your iPhone isn’t really that bigger deal.
Basic human impulse lies in the desire to do a job well. In a country where class division is so overt, identity crisis prevails as an overriding tension to be cashed in on, the proposition of direct gesture being too simple to fathom. Reconnecting with this interaction feels similar to holding my hot-water bottle.
I’d like to make reference to the consideration of ‘the hand’ in contemporary society and how this relates to the art world. Technology adheres to have the interface of simplicity, ease of usage and for the customer, to be numb the complexities that lie beneath. Learning and interpreting skill is not an inevitability, the west’s inability to connect head and hand demonstrates why we’ve waged war on ourselves in the struggle to keep up with our own ideas. I’d like to propose that confronting process has never been so important.
You can switch your iPhone on again.
Due to said time limitations, I have to end here.
By Emmie McLuskey
I approached this piece of writing in the same way as the artists, beginning to write with no set objective or outcome in mind and to edit as and when I felt necessary.
The act of looking appears evermore poignant in an age of immediacy.
To see an obvious reference to labour construed as almost taboo appears to me to throw up a brand new set of relationships between object and human to scrutinise and consider.
Switching off your iPhone isn’t really that bigger deal.
Basic human impulse lies in the desire to do a job well. In a country where class division is so overt, identity crisis prevails as an overriding tension to be cashed in on, the proposition of direct gesture being too simple to fathom. Reconnecting with this interaction feels similar to holding my hot-water bottle.
I’d like to make reference to the consideration of ‘the hand’ in contemporary society and how this relates to the art world. Technology adheres to have the interface of simplicity, ease of usage and for the customer, to be numb the complexities that lie beneath. Learning and interpreting skill is not an inevitability, the west’s inability to connect head and hand demonstrates why we’ve waged war on ourselves in the struggle to keep up with our own ideas. I’d like to propose that confronting process has never been so important.
You can switch your iPhone on again.
Due to said time limitations, I have to end here.