Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art

Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art is situated on Queen's Street right in the heart of the city centre in a bustling hub of coffee shops and restaurants. It is an icon for the city because of its beautiful architecture and image. At night, it is lit up beautiful and this demonstrates the mixing of the the old building, with its columns, and the new modern art which is inside. This can also be seen when looking at the front of the building, the old columns and statue and the modern design at the top. The windows have this lovely marble effect on them which also adds to this contrasting design.

Inside were 3 open galleries with a fourth being refurbished. Gallery 4 was called 'Unsettled Objects' and had a theme of constraints. It contained several very interesting pieces of work, my favourite of which is called 'the shadow of the object fell upon the ego,.' which Beth Forde was commissioned to do in 2007 for the bicentenary commemoration of the abolition of slavery. This title is a quote from Sigmund Freud as he spoke about Schizophrenia. The ego, or one's self, was merged with another object. The exhibition was placed just outside the main gallery and if one stopped to look at it and understand it then it made an excellent introduction to the rest of the gallery. However, I noticed that many people didn't stop to look at it because it is so seemingly unimportant, but merely moved past it into the main gallery.

 The first half of the exhibit was a glass object on the wall. At first glance, I didn't realise it was actually part of a work of art. I thought there was supposed to be a picture hanging on it. However, I quickly realised my mistake. I wondered what it could be, it seemed fragile and the lines of it were gentle. As it was translucent, the light came through it, giving it a kind of ethereal beauty.  

However, once I looked over to the picture next to it, I realised what it was and it made sense. It was to represent slavery. It suddenly became an ugly restraint- 'the iron mask, enclosing a human face and rendering it unrecognisable constricting individuality.' (Quote) An object has passed over the ego and masked individuality. Slavery became an object which cast a shadow over the ego, or the identity, and the mask is a powerful symbol which showed that. A slave with no individuality became your new identity.

It was very interesting that the artist put herself into the picture. She was not only exploring the slavery issues but also her own issues of identity. It is so difficult to find out who you really are. Often people are constrained by social identities and norms rather than the person that you feel you are. The use of the black background against her white skin is startling and effective. Black can be used to represent darkness and evil but also Africa, which is fitting as it was commissioned for 'Voices of Africa' at St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art. She might also be trying to say how the horrors of slavery should still haunt the west.

The simplicity of the picture masks the complexity of the issue. This time of art might be described as 'avant garde. It is trying to communicate a message and also challenge the viewers beliefs about something. It requires that the viewer think deeply to  'overcome his or her reliance on habitual forms of perception(Kester, 2004).' When I looked closely at the beauty of the first piece of art, I never expected what it would be connected to. The mask represented identity, which we look to as a good think, but it quickly became ugly and enslaving when put in connection with the painting. Art can be used in this way to challenge and communicate new messages. The art, is learning to listen and to interpret its message.

References

Kester, G (2004), Conversation Pieces, London, University of Los Angeles Press
http://www.glasgowmuseums.com/assets/fileStore/Preview-January-March-2008.pdf
http://www.gerald-pinedo.com/Gerald-Pinedo.2+M52087573ab0.0.html