Hannah Faith Jackson

Island Expressions unites twenty-six creative practitioners, from twelve island communities surrounding Oban, in a contemporary showcase of artwork, craft, poetry and song. Grounded in Dùthchas, an ancient Scottish Gaelic concept highlighting the profound connection between individuals, their land, language, and cultural heritage, this curatorial work shifts away from the transactional or extractive, de-centring the institution by challenging the implications of bringing external narratives to a community. Instead, Island Expressions seeks to highlight stories, artistic practices, and histories embedded within island communities, offering an opportunity for creatives within these disparate communities across Scotland’s west coast archipelago, to come together to share their work with new audiences. In this way, the exhibited works do not only tell their own stories, but when presented together unite in kincentric and relational storytelling. The exhibition space fosters relationships connecting ancestorial influences, present community, and the wider landscape. Situated within the socio-political sphere of the Hebrides, this is not a traditional exhibition. This is a platform for kinship through shared practice, an act of community building, facilitating an opportunity for Scottish island creatives to share their practice, voices, and island bonds, with new audiences.

For the islands, by islanders, to non-islanders.

Ballroom of Memory is a moment of remembrance and an opportunity to locate our individual and collective histories. This immersive, interactive workshop explores exhibition-making and archiving – asking you to use care and vulnerability to connect. In sharing an object, a story or engaging in conversation, this project invites participants to take part in creating a democratic, community-built archive. This project, run by Curatorial Master’s students at GSA, seeks to create a living archive within the timeframe of the workshop which will be subsequently immortalised through an online and physical archive generated by the histories recorded today and throughout our research. This archive will include oral histories and a zine publication including photography of the artefacts brought into the space today as well as the written responses to them.

The ephemera of this transient, experimental workshop will create the basis for a permanent collection which tells the stories of lost and changed spaces in Glasgow.

We invite you to interact throughout this workshop: whether through presenting an object on one of the plinths, or responding to one of the objects you see before you in the guestbooks provided. This workshop is intended to create space for conversation and sharing, whether you feel comfortable sharing in the written form, talking to one another or simply having a drink and observing – please feel welcomed to the ‘Ballroom of Memory’.

Ballroom of Memory is a collaborative project initiated by students from Glasgow School of Art, with contributions from the wider Glasgow public.

With thanks to: GSA Archives, GSA staff, the MLitt Curatorial tutors and our collaborating artists Coire Simpson and Zhongyang Sun

This project was curated in collaboration by: Alex Howey, Bjorn Blakstad, Jem Staples, Ruihan (Sherry) Wang, Hannah-Faith Salmons