Look Again
A silent conversation I had with the streets of Glasgow and its inhabitants, as I took my large scale paintings outside.
This project began outside of the studio, interacting and living alongside other people in Glasgow. The stories of people I interacted with became drawings and paintings worked up in the studio. The project concluded as I took the completed paintings back outside, into the streets of the city, the streets that are shared by those in this publication.
Conversations that inspired this series of paintings were echoed in conversations that closed the project, as people stopped and looked at the works. We talked about the art, how these pieces came about, the stories of the sitters and of Glasgow itself. It felt like a fitting conclusion to this story.
It was interesting to see the variety of responses to large 1m square paintings of heads that were placed around the city. Some stopped and looked, others gave a quick glance as they passed, whilst others’ eyes remained on their phones as they walked by.
In the windows above the old M&S on Sauchiehall Street, a building that is now used as artist studio spaces, letters have been placed that read the words, ‘Look Again.’ This encompasses some of the message I hope to convey with this body of work: an encouragement to look again at that which you may already know, but have grown blind to because of its familiarity. It is urging people to notice.
How often do we look again?
Do we look at something long enough to see it properly?
I hope these paintings, the portraits that render faces larger than life size, force us to reckon with and look properly at people.
We see people all of the time. Especially living in a big city like Glasgow, we are constantly brushing shoulders with others. But I wonder how many of the people we come across and interact with we actually see, and see properly.
These photographs were taken as I took the paintings to different spots in the city.
I hope they encourage you to slow down and look again.
