Exhibition: Polygraphs

Polygraphs -Truths, evidence and the authentic voice

                         

I went to Glasgow during Easter break, first thing I always do in the city I’ve never been is visiting their galleries and museums to see what events are on the exhibition, Polygraphs exhibition is fascinating me to look at, and it is a group exhibition.

It is interesting to see how different area of artists put their works and connect each other, then linking back to the topic, I am focus on photograph basically, because it might be a new staff for me or it probably inspired me new ideas to do in the future. Because I think, at the present time, there are more and more issues for us to notice, and photography is a great medium to convey what we see as well as bringing our views to our audience.

Polygraphs is a group exhibition, centred abound Abstract by Hito Steyerl, which explores truth, fiction and evidence in a complicated world.

Artists are often witness to a changing global environment and their role within that is to document, ask questions and create layers of meaning to engage audiences with current international discourses.

Polygraphs is drawn from Glasgow Museums Collection and includes artists who interrogate dominant historical narratives about our connections to the arms trade, colonialism, the slave trade and feminism. It poses questions about the relationship of museums to the histories, identities and politics that they reflect. By redisplaying older works alongside more recent pieces the exhibition reactivates truths and fictions still relevant today.

                     

The Great Eastern Hotel was men’s hostel in the East End of Glasgow which was intended to provide short-term accommodation for the homeless. The reality was that residents were there for long periods.

                     

Atwood lived in the hostel, interacting with and gaining the trust of the residents. Her photographs capture moments in the men’s daily lives, revealing the humour, loss and vulnerability of the city’s often invisible and neglected homeless.

                 

Legacy documents an encounter of people, conversations and place.

                            

When working with young people in Glasgow, Schrag realised that some professionals involved in anti-sectarian projects had never been to the areas where they identified issues. He organised a formal meeting in Toryglen, south Glasgow, physically relocating them to somewhere they considered a focal point of the problem.

Reference

Five works from the Great Eastern Hotel series, 1994

Jane Evelyn Atwood 

Black and white photographs

PR.1995.4.h,l,o,d and PR.1995.4

Legacy, 2007

Anthony Schrag

Digital photographic prints and typed text on paper

commissioned and bought by Glasgow Museums, 2008

PR.2008.2.a-d

Contemporary art society. 2017. Polygraphs at Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Glasgow. [Online]. [23 April 2017]. Available from: http://www.contemporaryartsociety.org/news/friday-dispatch-news/polygraphs-gallery-modern-art-goma-glasgow/