Worth its salt

Jack Mottram

gets the low down

on glorious mud and follies

at

an

unconventional

gallery

The Herald, Saturday November 10th, 2007 (arts books cinema magazine)

EXHIBITION REVIEW
Alex Gross and Stephen Murray: Out of the Wrong Comes the Sweetness

When Glasgow blossomed into a city of high standing in the international art world in the 1990’s – a phenomenon curator Hans Ulrich Obrist dubbed “the Glasgow miracle” – many factors were behind the transformation, ranging from the School of Art’s environmental art programme to the simple fact that artists could find affordable studio and living space.

Another key factor was, and remains, the DIY approach of emerging artists and students, who, rather than struggling to find a place for their work in the commercial and public art establishment, set up and ran spaces to exhibit work freely.

In 2006, though, then-students Rebecca Anson-Armstrong, Chloe Brown, and Krisdy Shindler identified a lull in the scene and set out to do something about it. “We took over a space on the Saltmarket for three months”, Shindler explains, “and every two weeks we put on a new show. By the end of the run we’d shown work by 60 artists, all in group shows based on an open call for submissions.”

After this flurry of activity, Lowsalt took the summer to regroup, before moving to its present location on Renfrew Street – a wonderfully scruffy former garage, complete with peeling paint, old signage, and uneven floors, between the School of Art and the CCA – to continue its free-wheeling curatorial approach. The result is very different from the typical gallery programme, with a focus on short, sharp shows, inventive events and happenings.

“We try to put on different kinds of events to encourage students and artists to explore their work in different ways,” Shindler says, “Artists in this city often have a primary practice, but are into other things, too. The arts and music are closely linked in Glasgow, for example, so we like to encourage people to try their ‘side practice’ and put on a gig as well.”

As well as performances by musician-artists, Lowsalt has built a reputation for inclusive events. A highlight of the recent programme was Draw or Die, which saw artists battle each other by sketching and drawing on overhead projectors, with the victor of each round determined by the cheers of the crowd. Last month the gallery was transformed into a workshop, with screen-printing facilities available to all-comers and technicians on hand to guide visitors through the process of printing T-shirts and works of their own design. “we’re interested in finding ways to use the gallery that bring in a broad audience,” Shindler says, “It’s about getting people involved, even if they’re not exhibiting artists or art students.”

There is room, though, for (almost) conventional exhibitions amongst the boundary-blurring: Alex Gross and Stephen Murray have filled Lowsalt with sculptures that explore 18th-century follies and “getting stuck in the mud” respectively. It looks to be a typically eccentric offering form an eccentric gallery that’s fast becoming something of a Glasgow institution.

Review by Jack Mottram

As in The Herald, Saturday November 10th, 2007 (arts books cinema magazine)