Four artists and designers – Rabiya Choudhry, Fiona Jardine, Raisa Kabir and Hanneline Visnes – were specially-commissioned for the show
They have each taken a selected piece or their starting point from textiles archives, including GSA Archives and Collections
The exhibition includes newly created textiles, film, performance and paintings alongside loaned artefacts
The show is co-curated by the GSA’s Exhibitions Jenny Brownrigg and CCA’s Sabrina Henry
Entry free, but must be booked in advance
ambi, an exhibition co-curated by GSA Exhibitions Director Jenny Brownrigg and CCA’s curator Sabrina Henry will be shown at CCA from Friday 7 May – Saturday 29 May 2021. The exhibition will be complemented by a programme of events developed by CCA Assistant Curator, Sabrina Henry.
The show takes works from the textiles, fashion and costume holdings at The Glasgow School of Art Archives & Special Collections as its starting point. The GSA has specially commissioned UK-based artists and designers Rabiya Choudhry, Fiona Jardine, Raisa Kabir and Hanneline Visnes and to select one piece each and to track its histories in order to present a new story or work from it. The title of the exhibition, ambi, is Punjabi for the pattern known in Scotland as Paisley Pattern ambi also means ‘both’, allowing for multiple narratives and acknowledging that these works from the archive have diverse origins and appropriations.
For her new work, Gather your spools, let your hair down for me. Gently. Here. Undo., Raisa Kabir performs with a woven head of hair, responding to the textile geographies of labour between Kashmiri woven shawls, Paisley, Scotland, Textile Archives, and South Asian diasporic migration and displacement. This work acts as a consequent reminder of the colonial imposed borders and the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan.
Hanneline Visnes is researching the work of Dorothy Carleton Smyth [1880-1933]. The GSA Archives & Collections holds several costume designs by Smyth for Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Wilde’s Salome. In 1914, Smyth became Principal of Commercial Art at Glasgow School of Art, teaching miniature painting and the history of costume and armour. In 1933, she was offered, and accepted, the post of Director of the Glasgow School of Art, but tragically died of a brain haemorrhage, aged 52, before the appointment was made public. Visnes will respond to the costumes and characters created by Smyth in a series of new gouache drawings. Visnes will show her new cast of characters in paintings alongside Smyth’s costume studies of theatrical casts.
“We are delighted to partner with CCA on ‘ambi’ particularly as this exhibition occurs 39 years after The Third Eye Centre’s ‘The Paisley Boteh’ exhibition, which exhibited a collection of Kashmir, Scottish, English and European shawls to show the genesis of the ‘Paisley’ design from textiles in the Middle East and India,” says Jenny Brownrigg, GSA Exhibitions Director.
“Through the commissions and loaned works the exhibition aims to begin to open up discussions around textile archives; how they are amassed and categorized, and the question of their relevance for the future. The title of the show allows for dual stories, and acknowledges that the archival items of interest have, in a number of cases dual origins and appropriations. For example, ‘ambi’ is Punjabi for the pattern we know in Scotland as Paisley Pattern,” she adds.
Sabrina Henry, CCA Assistant Curator, said “We’re really looking forward to ambi coming to CCA, in partnership with GSA and co-hosting these events. The exhibition and events provide important opportunities to interrogate colonial legacies in relation to textiles and the archive.”
The exhibition will be open from 11am to 6pm Tuesday to Saturday. Entry is free and ticketed (1-hour slots bookable from late April)
Ends
For further information, images and interviews contact:
Lesley Booth, 0779 9414474 / press@gsa.ac.uk
The show takes works from the textiles, fashion and costume holdings at The Glasgow School of Art Archives & Special Collections as its starting point. The GSA has specially commissioned UK-based artists and designers Rabiya Choudhry, Fiona Jardine, Raisa Kabir and Hanneline Visnes and to select one piece each and to track its histories in order to present a new story or work from it. The title of the exhibition, ambi, is Punjabi for the pattern known in Scotland as Paisley Pattern ambi also means ‘both’, allowing for multiple narratives and acknowledging that these works from the archive have diverse origins and appropriations.
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Untitled Paisley shawl design 1840s-1850s
(courtesy of GSA Archives and Collections)
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Rabiya Choudhry is investigating the Paisley Pattern, (which historically has its origins in Ancient Babylon or Iran) with its unique teardrop or ‘boteh’ form. The word ‘boteh’ is Persian for ‘shrub or cluster of leaves’, and the seed like shape of paisley pattern is purported to represent fertility. Paisley pattern also became a bohemian emblem in the western world’s appropriation of it. Choudhry has collaborated with a textiles specialist to make small textiles from a series of new patterns she has designed.
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Templeton-Stoddard carpet
(courtesy of GSA Archives and Collections)
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Pursuing a line of research connected with the manufacture of carpets late 19th and early 20th century, Fiona Jardine looks at the relationship between space, place and labour. Originally concerned with weaving lace in Darvel, Ayrshire, by 1898 the firm of Alexander Morton & Sons had established an enterprise in Killybegs, Donegal making hand-knotted carpets. Prominent architects and designers such as George Walton and C.F.A. Voysey produced designs for Morton which were worked up by women in Killybegs, and the name ‘Donegal’ became synonymous with carpets of the highest quality.
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Untitled Paisley shawl design 1840s-1850s
(courtesy of GSA Archives and Collections)
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For her new work, Gather your spools, let your hair down for me. Gently. Here. Undo., Raisa Kabir performs with a woven head of hair, responding to the textile geographies of labour between Kashmiri woven shawls, Paisley, Scotland, Textile Archives, and South Asian diasporic migration and displacement. This work acts as a consequent reminder of the colonial imposed borders and the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan.
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The Servants of The Queen by Dorothy Carlton Smyth,
(courtesy of GSA Archives and Collections)
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Hanneline Visnes is researching the work of Dorothy Carleton Smyth [1880-1933]. The GSA Archives & Collections holds several costume designs by Smyth for Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Wilde’s Salome. In 1914, Smyth became Principal of Commercial Art at Glasgow School of Art, teaching miniature painting and the history of costume and armour. In 1933, she was offered, and accepted, the post of Director of the Glasgow School of Art, but tragically died of a brain haemorrhage, aged 52, before the appointment was made public. Visnes will respond to the costumes and characters created by Smyth in a series of new gouache drawings. Visnes will show her new cast of characters in paintings alongside Smyth’s costume studies of theatrical casts.
“We are delighted to partner with CCA on ‘ambi’ particularly as this exhibition occurs 39 years after The Third Eye Centre’s ‘The Paisley Boteh’ exhibition, which exhibited a collection of Kashmir, Scottish, English and European shawls to show the genesis of the ‘Paisley’ design from textiles in the Middle East and India,” says Jenny Brownrigg, GSA Exhibitions Director.
“Through the commissions and loaned works the exhibition aims to begin to open up discussions around textile archives; how they are amassed and categorized, and the question of their relevance for the future. The title of the show allows for dual stories, and acknowledges that the archival items of interest have, in a number of cases dual origins and appropriations. For example, ‘ambi’ is Punjabi for the pattern we know in Scotland as Paisley Pattern,” she adds.
Sabrina Henry, CCA Assistant Curator, said “We’re really looking forward to ambi coming to CCA, in partnership with GSA and co-hosting these events. The exhibition and events provide important opportunities to interrogate colonial legacies in relation to textiles and the archive.”
Ends
For further information, images and interviews contact:
Lesley Booth, 0779 9414474 / press@gsa.ac.uk
Listing
7 May – 29 May 2021
ambi
Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow G2 3JD
Entry free and ticketed (1 hour slots) Booking opens late April
The Glasgow School of Art and CCA Glasgow have specially commissioned four UK-based artists and designers Rabiya Choudhry, Fiona Jardine, Raisa Kabir and Hanneline Visnes and to take artefacts from or respond to textiles archives including GSA Archives & Collections in order to track histories and present a new story or work from it. The new work will be shown alongside the artefacts.
Further information www.gsa.ac.uk/events and www.cca-glasgow.com
Notes for Editors
The Glasgow School of Art, Archives and Collections
The GSA’s Archives and Collections are an outstanding resource for the study of art, design, architecture and art education. They comprise a wide range of material from GSA’s institutional archive, to artworks and architectural drawings, textile pieces, plaster casts, photographs and furniture. Holdings include a large number of items by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, giving the Archives and Collections one of the largest Mackintosh collections held in public ownership. They also hold a number of deposited collections from former staff and students which often contain preparatory work such as sketchbooks, drawings and samples as well as finished artworks, notebooks and diaries. Taken together, the collections provide an excellent record of the activities of The Glasgow School of Art since it was established in 1845.
The Archives and Collections are currently located at The Whisky Bond on Dawson Road, a 20-minute walk from GSA’s main campus. The Archives and Collections are currently closed to visitors due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation. However, information about their holdings can be viewed online at www.gsa.ac.uk/archives
Centre for Contemporary Arts
The Centre for Contemporary Arts, on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street, has been a hub for visual art, film, performance, festivals and literature since 1992 and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2017. Previously home to The Third Eye Centre, the building is steeped in history and the organisation has played a key role in the cultural life of the city for decades. CCA’s year-round programme includes exhibitions, film, music, literature, spoken word, festivals, Gaelic language events, and talks. With building admissions of 306,482 in 2019-20, the venue hosted 239 programme partners across 1304 events. CCA’s public engagement programme welcomed 1628 people participating in 67 events. CCA also provides residencies for artists in the on-site Creative Lab space. CCA curates six major exhibitions a year, presenting national and international contemporary artists, and is home to Intermedia Gallery which showcases emerging artists. CCA is supported by Creative Scotland and Glasgow Community Planning Partnership. www.cca-glasgow.com
Rabiya Choudhry
Born in Glasgow 1982, Choudhry graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2006. She creates works that explore the complicated coupling of eastern and western cultures in richly vibrant portrayals of the different autobiographical factors in her life. Her influences are drawn from a diverse hybrid of styles, ranging from psychedelic art, comic book art, folk art, b-movie film posters and cartoons. Recent exhibitions include COCO!NUTS! at Transmission gallery, Glasgow (2018), Please Be Real at Orgy Park, New York (2019) and Domestic Bliss at GOMA, Glasgow (2020) Choudhry is currently working towards an exhibition at Glasgow International in 2021.Further information www.rabiyachoudhry.com
Fiona Jardine
Fiona Jardine trained in Drawing & Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD), University of Dundee before undertaking an MFA at Glasgow School of Art and pursuing PhD research at the University of Wolverhampton. Her interest in textile practices and histories is connected to studio work with pattern and positions teaching Fashion and Textile students at DJCAD and in the School of Textiles & Design, Heriot-Watt University. She joined the School of Design at the Glasgow School of Art in 2015. She is interested in twentieth century Scottish narratives, especially those connected with the Scottish Borders, and in the relational attributes of textiles, fashion and place.
Raisa Kabir
Raisa Kabir is an artist and weaver, who utilises woven text/textiles, sound, video, and performance to address cultural anxieties surrounding nationhood, textile identities and the cultivation of borders. Her (un)weaving performances comment on histories of trans-national power, global production, and colonial geographies of labour. She has exhibited work internationally at The Whitworth, The Tetley, Raven Row, Textile Arts Center NYC, the Center for Craft Creativity and Design U.S, The Indian Art Fair 2020, Ford Foundation Gallery NYC and the upcoming 2021 Glasgow International.
She was artist in residence for the British Textile Biennial 2019, and an awarded recipient of the Cove Park Craft and Design residency programme 2019. Kabir has shared her research, and lectured on decolonial South Asian textile histories at Tate Modern, ICA London, the London College of Fashion, The Courtauld Institute, Royal College of Art, Manchester School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, Slade School of Fine Art, and the V&A.
Hanneline Visnes
Hanneline Visnes was born in Bergen and lives in Glasgow. Visnes is a lecturer in Painting and Printmaking at GSA.She has exhibited widely in the UK and Europe. Recent shows include ‘Heavy Weather’ (2019), with Carol Rhodes and Lucy Skaer; ‘The Green Man’ (2018), with Lucy Skaer, Talbot Rice Gallery; ‘Notes From The VIP Lounge’ (2017/18), Linlithgow Borough hall Linlithgow; ‘Ornament In Context’ (2016), with Barbara Eitel, ArteGiani Frankfurt; ‘INK:Public Archive- five decades of Printmaking at The Glasgow Print Studio’ (2017), curated by Ainsley, Harding and Moffat; and ‘Samlede Verker’ (2017), Kunstgarasjen, Bergen.
There is in Visnes work a long term preoccupation with the decorative, which has its roots in the craft traditions of her native Norway. The paintings are informed by research into opulent and valuable furnishings, carpets, jewellery, porcelain and more recently fashion and haute couture. Through attention to detail and a painstaking process of applying small amounts of paint with thin brushes Visnes makes paintings that are tense and mesmerising.
The GSA’s Archives and Collections are an outstanding resource for the study of art, design, architecture and art education. They comprise a wide range of material from GSA’s institutional archive, to artworks and architectural drawings, textile pieces, plaster casts, photographs and furniture. Holdings include a large number of items by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, giving the Archives and Collections one of the largest Mackintosh collections held in public ownership. They also hold a number of deposited collections from former staff and students which often contain preparatory work such as sketchbooks, drawings and samples as well as finished artworks, notebooks and diaries. Taken together, the collections provide an excellent record of the activities of The Glasgow School of Art since it was established in 1845.
The Archives and Collections are currently located at The Whisky Bond on Dawson Road, a 20-minute walk from GSA’s main campus. The Archives and Collections are currently closed to visitors due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation. However, information about their holdings can be viewed online at www.gsa.ac.uk/archives
Centre for Contemporary Arts
The Centre for Contemporary Arts, on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street, has been a hub for visual art, film, performance, festivals and literature since 1992 and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2017. Previously home to The Third Eye Centre, the building is steeped in history and the organisation has played a key role in the cultural life of the city for decades. CCA’s year-round programme includes exhibitions, film, music, literature, spoken word, festivals, Gaelic language events, and talks. With building admissions of 306,482 in 2019-20, the venue hosted 239 programme partners across 1304 events. CCA’s public engagement programme welcomed 1628 people participating in 67 events. CCA also provides residencies for artists in the on-site Creative Lab space. CCA curates six major exhibitions a year, presenting national and international contemporary artists, and is home to Intermedia Gallery which showcases emerging artists. CCA is supported by Creative Scotland and Glasgow Community Planning Partnership. www.cca-glasgow.com
Rabiya Choudhry
Born in Glasgow 1982, Choudhry graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2006. She creates works that explore the complicated coupling of eastern and western cultures in richly vibrant portrayals of the different autobiographical factors in her life. Her influences are drawn from a diverse hybrid of styles, ranging from psychedelic art, comic book art, folk art, b-movie film posters and cartoons. Recent exhibitions include COCO!NUTS! at Transmission gallery, Glasgow (2018), Please Be Real at Orgy Park, New York (2019) and Domestic Bliss at GOMA, Glasgow (2020) Choudhry is currently working towards an exhibition at Glasgow International in 2021.Further information www.rabiyachoudhry.com
Fiona Jardine
Fiona Jardine trained in Drawing & Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD), University of Dundee before undertaking an MFA at Glasgow School of Art and pursuing PhD research at the University of Wolverhampton. Her interest in textile practices and histories is connected to studio work with pattern and positions teaching Fashion and Textile students at DJCAD and in the School of Textiles & Design, Heriot-Watt University. She joined the School of Design at the Glasgow School of Art in 2015. She is interested in twentieth century Scottish narratives, especially those connected with the Scottish Borders, and in the relational attributes of textiles, fashion and place.
Raisa Kabir
Raisa Kabir is an artist and weaver, who utilises woven text/textiles, sound, video, and performance to address cultural anxieties surrounding nationhood, textile identities and the cultivation of borders. Her (un)weaving performances comment on histories of trans-national power, global production, and colonial geographies of labour. She has exhibited work internationally at The Whitworth, The Tetley, Raven Row, Textile Arts Center NYC, the Center for Craft Creativity and Design U.S, The Indian Art Fair 2020, Ford Foundation Gallery NYC and the upcoming 2021 Glasgow International.
She was artist in residence for the British Textile Biennial 2019, and an awarded recipient of the Cove Park Craft and Design residency programme 2019. Kabir has shared her research, and lectured on decolonial South Asian textile histories at Tate Modern, ICA London, the London College of Fashion, The Courtauld Institute, Royal College of Art, Manchester School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, Slade School of Fine Art, and the V&A.
Hanneline Visnes
Hanneline Visnes was born in Bergen and lives in Glasgow. Visnes is a lecturer in Painting and Printmaking at GSA.She has exhibited widely in the UK and Europe. Recent shows include ‘Heavy Weather’ (2019), with Carol Rhodes and Lucy Skaer; ‘The Green Man’ (2018), with Lucy Skaer, Talbot Rice Gallery; ‘Notes From The VIP Lounge’ (2017/18), Linlithgow Borough hall Linlithgow; ‘Ornament In Context’ (2016), with Barbara Eitel, ArteGiani Frankfurt; ‘INK:Public Archive- five decades of Printmaking at The Glasgow Print Studio’ (2017), curated by Ainsley, Harding and Moffat; and ‘Samlede Verker’ (2017), Kunstgarasjen, Bergen.
There is in Visnes work a long term preoccupation with the decorative, which has its roots in the craft traditions of her native Norway. The paintings are informed by research into opulent and valuable furnishings, carpets, jewellery, porcelain and more recently fashion and haute couture. Through attention to detail and a painstaking process of applying small amounts of paint with thin brushes Visnes makes paintings that are tense and mesmerising.