At Last! It’s HERE! We are Finished! - Sorry there’s not been much activity in recent weeks, I’ve been busy with Mitch Miller in putting together the physical show at market gallery in Glasgow. We’ve got a huge installation, 100 bottles of sweetheart stout with a soundtrack of my story - bit like an audio book with a physical presence. We are very happy with it. Some of the photographs have already been sold even before the exhibition goes online - by other artists. That’s the nice thing about Market Gallery, it’s an artist led co-op. Anyway, here’s the flyer, folllowed by the text fom the show! If you are in Scotland and happen to be near Glasgow, come tonight at 7pm-9pm to Market.
An outsider and an insider, the creation of something new from something old. The funfair – an ever-evolving creature with a past that is bursting with enterprise and mythology.
This exhibition explores the community that many encounter only in fleeting, sugar-fuelled moments as they queue for the Waltzers or are mesmerised by the deft work of the candyfloss weaver.
Writer, historian, and showman, Mitch Miller, who grew up in the cradle of this community, asked Glasgow-based multimedia artist Chris Dooks to respond to an archive of materials from an outsider’s perspective for How’S The Ghost?.
Dooks’ captures charged moments, vibrant colours and the engaging faces of the people which occupy this world in his gently worn pictures. Having explored how travelling shows constantly developed something new from something old there is a supernatural quality to this work and the way of life it presents. Through the use of film Dooks has beautifully remixed mostly amateur footage, setting it to haunting, original music, depicting travelling shows and the towns they visited in the 1950s.
Miller also presents something new for the exhibition his visual artwork and series of drawings explores themes of migration and community, closely linked to the world of the travelling shows in which he was raised.
His work draws attention, through a comic strip, to parallels between how the Amorites lived and did business, and the way of life for Travellers today including how they are perceived and often stereotyped. He includes a work in ‘Travellerology’ a socio-schematic drawing of a showman’s yard in present-day Glasgow, demonstrating complex family relationships, business partnerships, bonds and tensions between the residents. On a more personal note, his last piece ‘Tickets’ shows poster pull-ins such as ‘A Prize Every Time!’ decorated with memories and family sayings like: ‘A Sweetie for a Sweetheart.’ suggestive of the big personalities and warmth to be found in the centre of the hoopla.
