CCA: Summer 2022

SUMMER 2022

W o m e n’s S tu dies , Ale x an d er H e th er in g to n, 2021

CENTRE FOR CONTEMPOR ARY ARTS

2

Savoy, Sc o tt C ar u th, 2015

Seen and Not Seen

SUMMER 2022

JUNE — JULY Seen and Not Seen Alex Hetherington and Scott Caruth 4 Ju ne —16 Ju l y 2 02 2

An exhibition of new work by two artists, Scott Caruth and Alex Hetherington. Both work primarily with the moving image in this exhibition, reflecting in different ways on what remains unseen, invisible or deliberately hidden from view.

Scott Caruth approached Pipeworks Gay Sauna in Glasgow which permitted him to conduct a series of experiments there using 16mm film on the condition that there would be no cameras involved. Describing the first stage of the process he recalls: ‘I exposed 100ft of Kodak colour film directly to changes in light, temperature and precipitation whilst transferring the film reel from one hand to another as I navigated the entire site of the sauna; exposing the film between rooms bathed in red or blue light, underneath the water of the jacuzzi, to the heat of the steam room and throughout cabins devoid of any light at all.

The resulting footage of abstract yet perpetually moving colours lends the impression of travelling through something that cannot be fully seen.’

J U N E—J U LY

4

W o m e n’s S tu dies , Ale x an d er H e th er in g to n, 2021

Alex Hetherington, working through his own recent material, considers the porous nature of influence and collaboration in his work as well as the unseen outtakes that would normally be excluded from the public viewing process. He wants to focus on the actual process of making, and both his films and the installation of his work draws on a dense series of allusions and artistic references including Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Querelle (1982), The Chittendens (2005) by the American artist Catherine Sullivan and Gregory J. Markopolous’s Himself as Herself (1967).

Hetherington’s film also foregrounds the presence and involvement of the Scottish artist Catherine Street and he points to the importance of Egyptian writer Haytham El-Wardany’s How to Disappear (2018), a book grounded in the necessity of making oneself unseen to be a good listener. The mythical figure of Tiresias also haunts the work and becomes linked to the materiality of 16mm film itself, approaching ‘their mutable gender fluidity as radical states of queerness and transness, embodying different forms of sight and knowing, and premonitions as a form of knowing and making and radical oppositions to authority.’

Seen and Not Seen

SUMMER 2022

JULY —SEP TEM BER

we are compost/composting the we Alexandra Regan Toland

Cur ator:

29 Ju l y —10 S e ptemb e r 2 02 2

Fe atur e d Ar tists:

Asad Raza, Désirée Coral

CCA’s July-September exhibition will explore soil and its place within world ecologies and cultures. Using compost and farming, the show will explore the many ways humans form relationships with the environment.

The exhibition will involve the work of artist Asad Raza, the curatorial practice of soil scientist and researcher Alexandra Toland and the work of Glasgow Seed Library artist in residence Désirée Coral.

The exhibition coincides with the World Congress of Soil, an international conference of soil scientists. The events branching from the exhibition and conference seek to produce new understandings of soil, exploring how soil interacts with societies across the world.

Curator Alexandra Toland spoke to us about the importance of soil, ecology, and what we can learn from investigating soil as a material.

I think for some people, the idea of an art exhibition of and about soil might seem a bit unusual, could you explain a bit about the ideas behind this exhibition and your part in it?

The outgoing impetus for the exhibition was the announcement of the 22nd World Congress of Soil Science – Crossing Boundaries, Changing Society, happening in Glasgow from the 1st to 5th of August. After over 10 years of engagement with the international soil science community, I wanted to create a public exhibition that reflected on some of the main concerns of soil science today, particularly issues of food sovereignty, sustainable land use and the remediation of polluted landscapes.

The exhibition makes extensive reference to Donna Haraway’s metaphoric use of compost as a method for exploring and bringing to light the entangled crises of climate change, extractionist economies, and the J U LY— S E P T E M BE R

6

violent legacies of colonialism on which modern agriculture is based. The exhibition uses artistic means to ask: how can compost be used as a tool for social transformation and a driver for change?

It serves as an invitation to think about what needs to be composted today – what ideas, practices, and policies can be radically reconsidered and reconfigured to allow for new ways of living on and with the earth?

What is “soil science”?

Soil science is devoted to understanding the physical, chemical, and biological, and I would also add social processes of the formation of soils.

That includes their uses by humans as well as their roles and functions in different more-than-human environments. Soil science is historically related to geology, but also to agriculture, horticulture, hydrology, and geography.

Over the years, the science has become more interdisciplinary in including important work by arts and humanities scholars. The dynamic universe beneath our feet is simply too complex and multi-layered to be understood from any one perspective, so this diversity of soil knowledge is one of the things this exhibition seeks to highlight.

What can visitors expect when they attend the exhibition?

The exhibition features a large scale room installation of locally sourced and continuously cultivated materials, called “neosoil“, by the Berlin-based artist Asad Raza; an installation of seeds by Glasgow Seed Library artist-in-residence Désirée Coral Guerra; and a research installation designed by Lea Maria Wittich and myself, consisting of literature and objects that provide visitors with a richness of information about soils sourced from scientists, artists, farmers, and other practitioners.

The exhibition encourages participation as a form of composting – visitors are invited to bring their own materials to contribute to the installation and to take soil and seeds with them to use in their own homes and gardens.

You’ve done a lot of research on the “anthropocene”, could you explain what that is and how it informs this exhibition?

The Anthropocene is a culturally constructed concept for the most recent geologic era in which human activity has had the most significant impact on the planet’s climate. we are compost / composting the we

SUMMER 2022

Traces of industrialised society (such as nanochemicals in the soil, and increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) are left in the geologic record of the earth for a long duration of time with unknown long-term consequences for all life on the planet and short-term consequences of accelerated biodiversity loss, acidification of oceans, desertification of soils, and increased political violence as human societies attempt to mitigate, manage, and adapt to the future.

The pressures of the Anthropocene makes bringing soils into the collective consciousness imperative. The exhibition seeks to create visibility and value to sustainable engagement with soils, and to give people tools – such as composting – to improve human-soil relationships.

C o m p o st , Ale x an dr a R e g an Tolan d, 2022

J U LY— S E P T E M BE R

8

Inter view with Désirée Coral Désirée Coral is an Ecuadorian artist currently based in Dundee. Her practice attempts to reconstruct colonial histories and geographical movement, exploring the relationship between people and the materials they interact with. She is completing a PhD at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, investigating the botanical and mineral trajectories of materials from the Americas in the 16th century and how they shaped our extractionist understanding of nature today. She is currently the Glasgow Seed Library’s artist in residence.

What have you been up to during your residency at the Seed Library?

I have been running a series of talks discussing the histories of seeds named Colonial Seeds. In these talks, I explain where seeds come from, how they arrived here, and how their cultural meanings have changed (historically and geographically). I’ve presented these talks across Glasgow, and we’ve covered tomatoes, quinoa and most recently beans – the last event was unique as it was accompanied by a meal where the chef made extensive use of beans in Latin American recipes. People learned about the origins of the vine and I talked through its representation and role in the life of the ancient people of the Andes. The series will conclude on June 21st, the summer solstice, where CCA Director Francis McKee will join me to talk about corn and Inti Raymi, a celebration to the God of the Sun in the Inca Empire.

Traditionally, in academia, written ideas from Western scholars are cited, but the origins of resources aren’t traced to the same extent (it’s only recently that imperial institutions have been open to these processes).

Through my residence at Glasgow Seed Library, I have made space to open up these conversations, supplement my research with practical field knowledge about seed cultivation and deepen my understanding into food sovereignty - whilst engaging with conversation about food security in the UK.

we are compost / composting the we

SUMMER 2022

How does your research tie into this exhibition?

We can’t talk about seeds without talking about soil and compost.

Composting, for me, implies a cycle of breaking down materials in time. It also suggests the generation of something new based on the already existing, implying a change that is cyclical. Through the idea of the composting cycle, I want to establish a conversation about time; how ancient cultures gathered, domesticated and saved seeds all over the world.

In the exhibition, I want to connect the past, the present, and future of seeds. My practice explores our collective and individual responsibility to keep the cycle of saving and sharing and to think about the cyclical responsibility that each generation holds for the next one.

Your work seems fascinated by cycles; natural, historical, and spiritual. Where do you think that comes from?

I believe it comes from the syncretic culture we have in South America, particularly in Ecuador. The reality we perceive and understand is informed by layers of cultural exchange. I’m not an indigenous artist, I am mestiza, but there will always be a strong component of indigenous cosmology in the syncretic way I learned to relate to the world. It manifests in how we speak Spanish, relate to food and interact with nature. It is something so ingrained in daily life that it becomes a living corporeal and spiritual practice.

There is a song from my childhood that colours this exhibition for me. Written in the 1950s, it is a collaboration by prominent Ecuadorian poets, musicians and artists. It refers to ancestral pre-Columbian mortuary rituals which the writers point to as the return to nature after death. The song is called Vasija de Barro (Clay Vase), I’ve included a portion of it below.

Vasija de Barro (Clay Vase) Written by Jorge Carrera Andrade, Jorge Enrique Adoum, Hugo Alemán y el pintor Jaime Valencia hosted by Oswaldo Guayasamín. Composed by Gonzalo Benítez

Yo quiero que a mi me entierren I want them to bury me Como a mis antepasados Like my ancestors J U LY— S E P T E M BE R

10

En el vientre oscuro y fresco In the dark and cool belly De una vasija de barro …

Of an earthenware pot. … Arcilla cocida y dura, Clay fired and hard, alma de verdes collados, soul of green meadows, luz y sangre de mis hombres, light and blood of my men, sol de mis antepasados. sun of my ancestry.

De ti nací y a ti vuelvo, From you I came and to you I return, arcilla, vaso de barro, clay, earthen vessel, con mis muertos yazgo en ti, with my dead I lay in you, en tu polvo enamorado… on your lovely dust. (translation by Paul Boizot)

What do seeds mean to you?

Seeds are a way to connect to life, to connect with those previous generations before me. Seeds are the most fascinating holders of secrets and knowledge. For pure aesthetic pleasure, I‘ve been photographing seeds from the Seed Library. I needed a super-macro lens for some and for others, a microscope. With each one I discovered a magnificent shape; seeds are micro-sculptures that hold the secrets of life. I can see why ancient Andean cultures devoted their artefacts to honour them. we are compost / composting the we

SUMMER 2022

Asad Raza

A b s or p tio n , As a d R az a, at Gr o pius B au, B erlin. Ph o to: R ay S to n a d a

J U LY— S E P T E M BE R

12

Belonging Amanda Thomson Belonging: Natural histories of place, Identity and home will be published

by Canongate Books in August 2022. The book started as a collection of creative non-fiction essays giving additional context to the art work I was making about some of the highland forests. It has evolved to include reflections on the natural world, family history, identity, making art, the complex connections that we make between them all, and what it takes to make a home and to feel at home.

Some chapters weave around pieces of work made for the lightly, tendrils exhibition, shown at the CCA in April—May this year. The large walkDrawing (walk circles) that was on the wall in Gallery 2 is a composite piece consisting of the GPS tracks of walks around my house over a period of time, distilled down to lines. These are thicker with repeated visits, thinner where I have just passed through. The thicker lines tend to be my walks along tracks, paths and desire-lines, and places that I have come to know more; the thinner lines more ‘unpaths’ across fields or through the forest, perhaps looking for flowers or birds. Within this map, somewhere, are the flowers that featured on the monitors in Gallery 1 as part of imago/ imagines, the part of the forest where one of the moth traps was filmed, the walks where I’ve searched for the twinflower that I filmed and featured in Gallery 2, and where the moths and plants shown, listed and spoken in the imago/ imagines soundwork are to be found.

Belonging is also a reflection about the importance of the small, the everyday and the unnoticed, and it’s about time, and taking time, looking back but looking at what’s before us too.

Amanda Thomson is a visual artist, writer, and educator based in Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands. Her practice is interested in the natural world, landscape, and ecology of Scotland. She is a tutor in Painting and Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art and was one half of the CCA exhibition lightly, tendrils where she showed work alongside Barbadian artist Annalee Davis, the show was curated by Alaya Ang. For more information and to see documentation of lightly, tendrils please visit the CCA website.

Belonging

SUMMER 2022

CCA OPEN _ SOURCE CCA Open Source

CCA’s open-source programming strand is a citizen-led process, and means that we share our building and resources with a range of artists, individuals and organisations.

We’re really open to new ideas, and invite anyone who has a suggestion for an event to get in touch. You can simply email us to start a conversation or simply pop in and ask.. You can find more information on our website.

We’re highlighting just a few of these organisations, showcasing their events and how they work within our open-source model. We spoke to an existing partner, Glasgow Zine Library, and a newly formed connection, SAFAR Film Festival, about their upcoming events hosted at CCA.

SAFAR Film Festival 2022

14

SAFAR Film Festival 12t h Ju l y —16t h Ju l y 2 02 2

We spoke with SAFAR Film Festival curator Rabih El-Khoury, about their programme and what brought them to Glasgow.

Hi Rabih, thanks for taking the time to speak to us. First of all, how would you describe SAFAR Film Festival to someone who hasn’t heard of it before?

The SAFAR Film Festival is the only festival in the UK dedicated to cinema from the Arab world. SAFAR in Arabic means journey, and so the festival is an invitation to navigate throughout the Arab world, from its Maghreb to its Mashreq, and engage with its stories. It was founded back in 2012 by the Arab British Centre, a charity that works to further understanding of the Arab world in the UK, and always runs under a different theme, allowing us to showcase a broad range of films that have rarely or never been screened in the UK before.

Congratulations on SAFAR’s 10 year anniversary! This is the first year you are screening in Scotland too - I was wondering what brought you to Glasgow in particular?

The Arab British Centre has supported projects in Glasgow in the past and, thanks to other incredible initiatives like Dardishi Festival, we knew there was a strong audience in the city for Arab film. We first reached out to CCA about hosting SAFAR screenings back in 2019 before the pandemic, so we’re really excited that it is finally happening!

We see this edition as a pilot and an opportunity to get to know the Arab diaspora communities in Glasgow better. From working with local producers to partnering with groups to offer free tickets to young people, refugees and asylum seekers, we want this first edition to serve as a conversation starter about what SAFAR can contribute to the city in the future.

SUMMER 2022

Are there any particular films you’d like to highlight in this year’s programme?

To be honest, every film is a personal highlight! We tried to come up with a programme that is eclectic and that showcases a wide range of topics, formats but also geographic diversity. We’re screening this year films from Qatar, Yemen and Somalia, which are countries that we don’t always get to see films from.

We’re also very excited about our opening film, FARHA, the feature fiction debut of Jordanian filmmaker Darine J. Sallam, which we’re also presenting in Glasgow. Through the singular gaze of a teenage girl, the titular Farha, Sallam reconnects with her own history, that of Palestine in 1948, where she addresses the horrors of the Nakba, which resulted in the destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages and the displacement of over half a million Palestinians. It’s an important story that has been rarely explored in film.

Farha directed by Darine J. Sallam

I’m curious about your theme “The Stories We Tell in Arab Cinema”. How did you go about selecting these films and what would you like audiences to take away from the programme as a whole?

SAFAR always rotates around a central festival theme which allows us to select a broad array of films: new releases, lesser seen gems and much older classics. It is also really important for us to bring as many different voices into the programme as possible – the Arab world, or CCA OPEN SOURCE

16

SWANA region, is extremely geographically and culturally diverse, so it is important for this to be reflected within the selection.

With The Stories We Tell in Arab Cinema, we were asking ourselves about the essence of storytelling today. Who is telling the story?

To whom is it told? How is it told? And why is it told? Many of the films in the programme rotate around these questions.

Some of the filmmakers deal with the history of their countries, trying to piece events together and connect their story to collective memory. Several filmmakers play around with genre to address their stories, making sense of difficult issues through new lenses.

There are stories about family ties, deep friendships, but also love.

We hope that our audiences will relate to the films on offer and see themselves in the stories, regardless of their background or connection to the Arab world. After all, many of us want to understand our past and where we come from, many of us wish to connect to our true identity if we live abroad, and who doesn’t question themselves when falling in love?

What are you hoping that audiences will get out of these kinds of events beyond the screenings?

After two years of the pandemic crisis and endless digital talks, it was important for us that the artists get to present their works to the public in-person, but also that the public can engage and exchange with the filmmakers. This interaction is what makes festivals a place of vivid encounters and during which stirring discussions can occur.

We do hope the British public at large gets to experience the diverse Arab cinematographic landscape, but our festival is a special opportunity to reach out to the various Arab communities based in the UK. During our last edition, after the screening of two Sudanese films, a young woman came to me and said, “it’s the first time that my mother goes to the cinema and it was my first time seeing not one but two Sudanese films, a country in which my parents were born and that I never got to visit. And we felt we got a bit of feeling of home, here in the UK.” It’s moments like that that make SAFAR extra special and we’re looking forward to connecting with new audiences in Glasgow at CCA this year.

S A FA R F i l m Fe s t i v a l

SUMMER 2022

Glasgow Zine Fest 1— 4 Ju l y 2 02 2 An Interview with Glasgow Zine Library Director LD Davis about Glasgow Zine Festival.

Glasgow Zine Fest, 2019

So, just briefly for those who don’t know, what is a zine?

And what do you do at a zine festival?

A zine (pronounced “zeen’) is most commonly a handmade publication often made in small circulations, printed and bound using various methods and sizes. I always say “dimensions are variable,” because I see digital zines, audio zines, and even amongst printed material there’s such a wide range of what can be produced. Zines can be about absolutely anything, which is really the beauty of them. They’re a place where people can explore their thoughts and niche interests, or just go wild and run with an idea without needing to conform to traditional publishing standards. No one but you gets to decide if your zine gets printed.

Glasgow Zine Fest is an annual weekend-long festival that hosts workshops, talks, screenings, exhibitions, a pop-up zine library for people CCA OPEN SOURCE

18

to sit and read, and our flagship zine fair which has over 75 makers from across the UK (and sometimes even further afield!) selling their zines and publications. We pack a lot into two days!

What do you hope people get out of attending Zine Fest?

More than anything, I always hope that what people get out of Glasgow Zine Fest is community. I hope that people get a chance to explore their curiosity, learn new skills or expand on existing ones, and find people who share interests similar to theirs. I hope that people leave having learned something and feeling excited and inspired to make something.

Glasgow Zine Fest, 2019

Glasgow Zine Fest, and the Zine Library have become staples in Glasgow’s small press scene. What do you think the importance of small press publishing is?

We’re very lucky to be part of what was already a thriving DIY scene. So many people paved the way for us to be able to jump in and add our voices to the mix. I think that small presses and independent bookshops are doing so much to bring voices that are traditionally left out of mainstream publishing to the forefront. I look at independent bookshops near us like Burning House Books and Category Is, and they’re working with and distributing work that I wouldn’t normally see in big Gl a s g ow Z i ne Fe s t

SUMMER 2022

bookshops. And then I see new presses like Rosie’s Disobedient Press, who are really mentoring and nurturing and working at a small scale to produce quality content from marginalized artist writers, and I feel lucky that our library and festival get to be part of something that feels so special. The work produced when we circumvent those traditional publishing processes is new and exciting, and we need small presses and independent bookshops who work with their communities in order to make sure those publications are going out into the world.

Are there any events/workshops/talks you’d like to highlight for this year’s festival?

This year’s festival was programmed around the theme of collective autonomy. We’re looking at how we can build our collective power and make things together in loving and accountable ways. We’ve got a weekend-long exhibition from Queer Youth Art Collective, who are traveling with their exhibition Erratica. MadZines will be doing a talk and a workshop, OOMK will be delivering a talk on publishing ecosystems, we’ll have an experimental translation workshop with Camille Cornu, an in-conversation from Lola Olufemi about her book Experiments in Imagining Otherwise with Titilayo Farukuoy, an online workshop with Autonomous Design Group, and so much more! Our Programme Coordinator Martha has done a beautiful job this year of weaving so many different subjects together to create one cohesive weekend. There’s tons to make, see, and share.

We’re also thrilled to be bringing back our Young Producers Programme, which is a stellar group of young people who are programming events for this year’s festival. They’ve got some great events in the pipeline, focusing on bringing people together through music. Their events are not to be missed!

CCA OPEN SOURCE

20

Unmuted Cave by Sooun Kim, 2021

SUMMER 2022

CCA ANNEX CCA Annex

Launched in April 2021, serving as the digital wing of CCA’s programme.

CCA Annex is an online project space that offers an alternative means of working with artists, writers, activists and other practitioners. We spoke to Projects & Digital Producer Alex Misick and Rectangle Design Studio’s Lizzie Malcolm about creating an online art space.

To what extent was CCA Annex a response to the COVID-19 Crisis?

Alex: The pandemic really highlighted the urgency of conversations around access. In the case of the pandemic, that was “access” in a very physical sense. Although CCA had a previous history of online programming, we wanted to build an infrastructure to sustain this. We also wanted to think about access more broadly: who were CCA programmes accessible to and in what way? The online realm allowed us to think of the practices and artists we would be able to work with, and explore the different ways of working with them that the online context might provide.

Does the digital form affect the kinds of artists you work with?

A: Annex works a lot with artists who are showing their work in the main exhibitions programme, but we’ve also been able to use the platform to focus on practices that might not necessarily relate to or be interested in pursuing exhibition.

For example, writing practices might be able to take different forms than they would in printed publications. You can also think about computer games and game design; the online realm offers quite different experiences to traditional exhibition spaces.

What has been your experience designing a website as an “art space”?

Lizzie: I should say we’re definitely not trying to be a replacement or complete alternative to a traditional exhibition context. As Alex explained,

22

Score by Hannan Jones and Shamica Ruddock, 2022

Annex really does run in parallel with what is happening in the CCA building. There’s obviously a lot of technical things to think about in design, but what’s been really interesting is working with artists and developing things that are really unique to their material.

When designing an online interface, it can be a balance between things like information systems and user interactions and creating a bespoke space for work without shoehorning it into a particular layout or design.

A: That was something that was quite important when constructing Annex, we wanted the design to be really responsive, which led to the website’s newspaper-style format. On the landing page, we can choose colours and fonts depending on the project in an almost tactile way. It’s enabled us to have conversations with artists about the way they would like their work to exist, and we can be quite expansive - it’s a bit like doing a traditional install!

SUMMER 2022

Can you tell us about the new projects that Annex will be supporting this year?

A: We’ve been lucky enough to receive some help through Creative Scotland’s pandemic relief fund, allowing us to offer a fairly generous opportunity to artists who proposed new work through an open call. We’re now working with Joey Simons, Lauren La Rose, Sean Wai Keung and Rosie’s Disobedient Press. They’re each completing research residencies, and these bodies of research will appear on Annex, like the tip of an iceberg.

Joey Simons is working to uncover hidden histories within Glasgow, looking at ghost stories in spaces of urban and cultural regeneration through archival work. Lauren La Rose will be exploring sound as a means of justice, raising questions about how disabled people can build collective bodies of justice within Scotland’s post-industrial landscape.

Rosie’s Disobedient Press is a publishing project that focuses on writing from marginalised perspectives, with a focus on queer, working class, and feminist writers and we’ll be working with them on an ever-evolving publication called “The Last Stop.” Sean Wai Keung is running a project called “Dish of the Week,” which is an online recipe book. The project will be created through various kinds of exchanges with local communities around Garnethill and aims to explore the relationship between recipes and poetry.

You can keep up to date with these projects as they evolve on CCA Annex: www.cca-annex.net where you can also browse the previous projects that have left their footprint on the site.

CCA ANNEX

24

For full and up-to-date listings, check our website www.cca-glasgow.com. You’ll find all event details on our “What’s On” page. …or pop in to chat to our friendly reception staff, who can also be reached on 0141 352 4900.

Stay informed of every event and exhibition on our social media: Twitter: CCA_Glasgow Instagram: CCA_Glasgow Facebook: CCA Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts 350 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3JD

CCA is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status.

Registered Company No: SC140944.

Registered Scottish Charity No: SC020734.