The Merchant City
Public Art Trail For further information on all of these works and the artists mentioned, please go to our website, www.glasgowmerchantcity.net The Merchant City Initiative would like to acknowledge the assistance of the individual artists in supplying background information and also Ray McKenzie’s invaluable book Public Sculpture of Glasgow. Additional photography by L. Crawford and S GuÊneau, (Simon Corder person) need to check with Liz, and the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Buildings of Scotland.
Text: Nicola White Photography: Ruth Clark Design: cactushq.com
GE SQ
UARE
ST
TROS E ST
10
4 9
WA LLS ST
B EL
B RU N
L ST
ST
G L AS S
13
DLER CA N
SWIC K
8
ST
ON S T
FOR D
E
ION
PARN
2 Royal Exchange House
10 Hutcheson’s Hall
Transition
Statues of George and Thomas Hutcheson
Glasgow Bouquet
R IV
ER
CLY
CLY
DE
ST
DE
3 Ingram Hotel
BRIDGEGATE
11 Rottenrow Gardens Monument to Maternity
12 Ramshorn Theatre
17 Tron Steeple
Pavement Engravings
St. Mungo at the Tron
5 178 Ingram St
13 City Halls
18 Tron Theatre
Works
Pavement Engravings
Cherub/Skull
6 The Italian Centre
14 Tontine Lane
19 New Wynd
Works
Empire Sign
Bough 2
7 Virginia Place
15 Tontine Lane
20 Clyde Street
Cherubs and Narrative Tympana
Dug-out canoe
La Pasionaria
8 Wilson St
16 Glasgow Cross
21 Beside Glasgow Bridge
Police Box/Jacobean Corsetry Sign
Mercat Cross
Piers/Disused Railway bridge
St. Mungo and other sculptural elements
IE ST
OSBORNE ST ST
9 Hutcheson St
B R I DG
Tympanum/Monument to the Duke of Wellington
20 KI NG
21
E ST
19
1 Gallery of Modern Art
4 177 Ingram St
ST GH
TON
TIN E
ALB
Public Art Trail
CHIS
HOL
The Merchant City
Untitled sculpture
14
MS T
TRO 15 17 18 NGATE
HI
LE ST
L AN
ST
ST
IGGS
GART H
N ST
12
WILS
ARGY
MO N
JOHN
6 5
VIRGIN
IA ST
MILL
7
ST
GE ST
H ESO
3
AN E
ST
ST DRICK
M ST
COCH R
S FR E
INGRA ER ST
2
IA PL
1
GEOR
UARE
HUTC
GE SQ
HANO VER S T
GEOR
VIRGIN
C ENT
N ST
Or you can complete the trail at your own pace, over a day, stopping off for refreshment in the many cafes and restaurants of the area, detouring through some of the galleries and public buildings, or simply taking time to look up and around at the often-ignored richness of the city’s fabric and what it tells us about Glasgow past and present.
ST VI N
QU EE
This walking tour will include traditional sculpture, decorative art, and contemporary installations, ranging from the 17th century to very recent. We will see how these works reflect the life, the mythology and the aspirations of the city. Certain themes recur throughout the trail – many works extol the virtues of hard work and thrift or refer to the trades of Glasgow and
The trail takes about an hour and a half to complete, starting outside The Gallery of Modern Art on Queen Street and ending either in the gallery district of King Street, or in a rewarding walk along the Clyde to Glasgow Bridge.
11 GEOR
ST
the legacy of Empire. Also, the figure of St. Mungo will be appearing in various guises. This patron saint of Glasgow has been a favourite subject of artists through the decades, with his accompanying emblems of tree, bird, bell and fish, not least on the civic shields that appear over many doorways.
H ELL
Glasgow is particularly rich in architectural sculpture and civic adornment, mainly because the Victorians, who built so much of the city, were partial to uplifting decoration – city emblems, men of achievement, maidens and cherubs embodying various virtues. But the tradition of creating art for the public realm stretches back further than that and has also continued forward through the 20th Century and into the 21st. The Merchant City area, as the traditional civic and commercial centre, has the densest concentration of public art in Glasgow.
MITC
This leaflet guides you on a walking trail around some of the most interesting artworks that embellish the historic heart of Glasgow, the Merchant City.
16
1 The façade of GOMA Queen St. at Royal Exchange Square
Tympanum
The triangular mirrored frieze above the front pillars was commissioned from French artist Niki de St. Phalle to mark the transformation of this iconic building into The Gallery of Modern Art.
Niki de St. Phalle, 1996
2 Royal Exchange House 100 Queen St.
Transition John Creed, 1990
The frieze shows elements from the story of St. Mungo, Glasgow’s patron saint. In particular it concentrates on the legend of how he helped an unfaithful queen retrieve her ring after her royal husband threw it in the Clyde. The saint instructed a messenger to fish a salmon from the river, and the ring was found inside. This is how a fish with a ring in its mouth came to be one of the four emblems of the saint, who we see at the centre, with his initial M and the unlucky salmon. On the left the queen and her lover are framed in a heart, while the king is alone on the right. A stylised bell, bird, tree and ring complete the scene. The original plan for this work was very ambitious, involving animated sculptures on the roof of the gallery, like the ones on the fountain de St. Phalle created beside the Pompidou Centre in Paris, but practicalities and opposition from more conservative factions resulted in a relatively modest work. While you are passing, have a look at entrance hall which she lined in mirror mosaic and includes a light fitting by her husband, artist Jean Tinguely.
Monument to the Duke of Wellington Carlo Marochetti, 1840-4
In front of the gallery stands an equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington. More often than not, the Duke, or the horse, or both, will be wearing traffic cones on their heads. This persistent ‘intervention’ by anonymous members of the public has been going on for years, and has become something of an iconic sight, commemorated on t-shirts and posters, despite being discouraged by those worried for the wellbeing of the statue. Marochetti was a well-established Victorian sculptor, who also created the equestrian statues of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in George Square.
Diagonally opposite the Gallery of Modern Art, on the corner of Queen Street and Ingram Street, you will see two metalwork screens flanking the entrance to an office building. This is a good spot to look back at the facade of GOMA, but also affords a close look at another interesting work of architectural embellishment. ‘Transition’ is by Scottish-based designer and metalworker John Creed and is made from forged mild steel with brass and bronze detailing. The subtle serpentine forms and layering of curved steel ‘fronds’ contrast with the blocky formality of the surrounding architecture, softening the space while protecting it. The form of the work was prompted by pot plants used in the building’s foyer to liven the space, and creates an organic flow towards the street. John Creed has also created metal gates for the refurbished Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in the city’s west end.
Proceed east along Ingram Street.
3
4
Ingram Hotel
177 Ingram St.
197-201 Ingram St.
former Trustee Savings Bank, now Jigsaw
Untitled sculpture Richard Coley, 1973
St. Mungo and other sculptural elements
This abstract sculpture, reminiscent of a rock pool or waterflow, was designed by the artist Richard Coley for Reo Stakis, the original owner of the hotel. It has an almost brooch-like appearance, and is mounted on aluminium fins which tie it in to the design of the building, resulting in a satisfyingly complete example of 70s design. The dish is made from fibreglass with metal elements and was similar to other works made by Coley for the Stakis organisation.
George Frampton, 1894-9
This ornate little building incorporates a Beaux Arts version of St. Mungo above the main door, his bronze crozier with bell, fish and leaves held in his left hand.
This main figure has a very benign appearance and was sculpted by George Frampton, who also modelled the rest of the sculptural decoration around the facade, but left the carving of them to a local stone sculptor, William Shirreffs. Flanking St. Mungo are two weight- bearing figures. Other pairs appear on the sides of the building. Called atlantes, they are a common motif throughout the city, but these ones are particularly burdened, bent double by the heavy pediment. Look, also, at the lovely ironwork detail of the letter box and bell push on either side of the door, one nestled in a bed of oak leaves, the other wreathed by mistletoe. The next stop on the trail is directly across the road
5 178 Ingram St. (Cruise Clothing)
Works Alexander Stoddart and Jack Sloan, 1994
At the Ingram Hotel we saw an example of new building raised on this old thoroughfare, but by the 1990s the emphasis had shifted to saving and restoring what was already there. This 1994 reconstruction of a fire-damaged warehouse by architects Page & Park incorporates work by two artists to articulate the traditionally proportioned façade. On the ground floor, Alexander Stoddart’s portrait capitals on the pillars commemorate the history of the Merchant City as embodied in four men involved in the construction of some of the finest Georgian buildings in the area. Bronze plaques at the bottom of the pillar identify each one – they are, from left, Mungo Naismyth, mason; David Hamilton, architect; Thomas Clayton, plasterer; and Allan Dreghorn, merchant (and designer of St. Andrew’s church). On the floor above, Stoddart also executed the restrained window surrounds which act as a transition between his subtle portraits and the bravura swirls of the window shutters on the top floor. These shutters are given the title Grasp the Thistle by their maker Jack Sloan and are decorated with stylised thistles and large protruding spikes. Images of thistles appear on several Merchant City buildings, but their adoption here is a contemporary reference to the resurgent sense of Scotland as a separate nation.
Exit the courtyard to your left, and re-cross Ingram Street, turning right then left into Virginia Place.
6 The Italian Centre 7 John St./Ingram St.
Works Alexander Stoddart, Jack Sloan and Shona Kinloch, 1990
To the right of the Cruise shop is an earlier development, the Italian Centre, also by Page and Park. With its mixed residential and commercial
units, its street café flowing into pedestrianised John Street, and its internal courtyard, it was a catalyst for the development of the kind of urban living that the Merchant City now embodies, but which was groundbreaking at the time. Alexander Stoddart’s neo-classical figures on the top of the building connect the development to a classical European aesthetic. Italia faces Glassford Street holding a palm branch in one hand and cornucopia in the other – symbols of peace and prosperity. Around the corner in John Street, two seated figures of the god Mercury embody dual aspects. To the left, Mercury holds a caduceus - a wand symbolising his artistic role, while, on the right, he is called Mercurius and holds a money pouch. This is the first of several references we will see to the area’s important commercial role, now and in the past. At ground level, a freestanding figure of the god blends both roles.
Walk through the covered archway on John Street and you will find two more sculptural works in the internal courtyard of the centre . Directly in front of you are the playful figures of a man and his dog by Shona Kinloch. Entitled Thinking of Bella, the man yearns skywards, ‘aspiring to all things beautiful’, according to Kinloch, while his little dog echoes the pose. To your right you will see Jack Sloan’s metal ‘Guardians’ standing above a glass canopy and above them, a set of sliding window shutters depict the story of Phaeton, a human who stole the Apollo’s chariot and rode across the sky, almost destroying the earth in his folly.
8 Wilson St.
7 Virginia Place
Police Box and Jacobean Corsetry Sign Unknown
(rear of the Corinthian building)
Cherubs Narrative Tympana, c.1854, John Mossman
Like Alexander Stoddart’s Mercurius, this 19th century carving refers to the creation of wealth. Three semi-circular arches frame scenes of cherubic toddlers engaged in counting money, design and engineering, and in the final arch, agricultural activities. The building was originally the Union Bank of Scotland, a typical institution to extol the benefits of industry and hard work, even when undertaken by babies. Recently restored, the building is now a complex of bars, casino and restaurants and retains a sumptuously ornate interior. Continue down Virginia Place and turn left into Wilson Street.
In the middle of Wilson Street stands a police box, effectively redundant since the advent of the walkie-talkie, but cherished enough to remain here, repainted and re-invented as a mock first aid station. Look back to Virginia Place and you will see how the buildings frame an ornate gilt sign reading ‘Jacobean Corsetry’ - all that is left of a defunct undergarment shop. Neither of these items were intended as artworks, yet they add so much to the area’s character that they have become a cherished part of it - remaining for purely visual pleasure, having lost their original functions. Later on in the walk will see how some contemporary artists have created works that look like signs. Turn left into Hutcheson Street.
9
11
Hutcheson St.
Rottenrow Gardens
opposite Garth St.
Glasgow Bouquet
Monument to Maternity
Doug Cocker made 2005, installed 2010
George Wyllie, 1995
You can see a remaining fragment of the building at the highest part of the site, which is now owned by Strathclyde University.
This park was created in 2003/4 on the site of Glasgow’s well-known maternity Hospital, Rottenrow.
At the centre of the park, a sevenmetre high safety pin, or nappy pin, is placed with a plaque naming it as ‘Mhtpothta/Maternity’. The pin is made of stainless steel and was made by George Wyllie, a former customs officer who became an artist later in life, and is well known in Scotland for his humorous and questioning work.
This, most recent of artworks to be placed in the Merchant City, was commissioned to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the reconstitution of the Trades House and Merchants House. Cocker’s idea was to echo the notion of a bouquet, but with tools in an open weave basket rather than flowers in a vase. There are ten tools in all, six representing the trades of Glasgow including a tailor’s square, a dyer’s tongs and a mason’s dividers. A ship’s mast and a bobbin represent the role of the merchants, while a mace and a crozier are symbolic of the city in its civic and ecclesiastical roles. The sculpture was originally constructed in wood, then cast in bronze. It is mounted on a tall granite column, and faces down Garth Street to the front of The Trades Hall of Glasgow, whilst behind it is the façade of the earlier Merchants House before it relocated to its current home in George Square.
10 Hutcheson’s Hall Ingram St.
Statues of George and Thomas Hutcheson James Colquhoun, c. 1649
Looking north, you will see the handsome spire-topped frontage of Hutcheson’s Hall, formerly Hutcheson’s Hospital. In niches either side of the entrance stand two stone figures. These are portrait statues, the earliest in Glasgow, of the philanthropic Hutcheson brothers, landowners and notaries, who set up a hospital in 1641 for ‘poor, aiget, decreppit men’ on Trongate and an associated charity school for boys. George died before the foundation stone was laid and so his charitable work was taken on by Thomas for his few remaining years. The statues were carved in Ayrshire freestone and brightly painted, as was the style of the day. When the new hospital was built here in 1805, the statues were moved and their bright colours stripped off, but during the upheaval the brothers were apparently placed on the wrong pedestals. So George is actually Thomas and Thomas is George, but so much time has
passed since the error, that no one is inclined to correct it now. Someone also repaired George’s date of death wrongly – it should read 1639 not 1693. Note the money bag in ‘George’s’ right hand, so similar to the one held by Mercurius on top of the Italian centre to your left. Walk east on Ingram Street then turn left on Montrose Street until the road climbs steeply to a park
Notice the little bird perched on the top of the pin, an echo of the sculpture-loving pigeons that sit on the worthy heads of so many Glasgow statues. Interestingly, the sculpture had a former life situated as a temporary artwork on Glasgow Cross during 1995. It was then entitled ‘Just in Case’, but has taken to the role of motherhood without alteration. Return down the hill to Ingram Street and turn left.
12 Ramshorn Theatre Ingram St.
Pavement Engravings Kate Robinson, 2008
This is another example, like the Doug Cocker basket and Alexander Stoddart portrait capitals before, where a contemporary artist has been commissioned to make work which reflects directly on the history of the area. The Ramshorn church and adjacent graveyard are the resting place of many important Glasgow figures, and once stood among orchards and vegetable gardens. In 1992 the church became a theatre, and these engravings were subsequently commissioned to reflect this rich history by the Merchant City Initiative in 2009 as part of the repaving of Ingram Street. In the centre of the work is a round pattern derived from a stained glass rose window inside the church. Above it the head of a ram reflects the building’s name, and below we see the church in previous and existing forms. On either side of the central motif stand two stylised trees, a Laburnum and a Yew, symbolic in themselves and often associated with graveyards, but also referring to two trees which stood here long ago, but were removed to widen the road.
13 Walk down the cobbled street, Candleriggs, opposite the church and stop half way down on the left hand side.
City Halls Candleriggs
Pavement Engravings Frances Pelly and Edwin Morgan, 1996
Another pavement work, this time in red rather than gray granite. It includes four specially commissioned poems by Glasgow’s well-loved poet laureate, the late Edwin Morgan. The poems are framed by simple motifs representing the trades of Glasgow and market goods – reflecting the many former uses of the City Halls, now an important music venue. Orkney-based sculptor and stone carver Pelly designed the motifs and the layout of the text.
Here is the Bird that never flew Here is the Tree that never grew Here is the Bell that never rang Here is the Fish that never swam And alters it into something that more accurately reflects the stories behind the myths and also holds out the possibility of renewal. For
example, the bird of myth was a pet robin accidentally killed. St. Mungo prayed over it and brought it back to life. So in Morgan’s poem, it becomes the ‘bird that fainted but flew’. Similarly, in the other Mungo stories, the bell did ring, the tree merely had a couple of branches plucked from it and the fish swam well enough until it was hooked from the Clyde. How the rather dour and inaccurate verse took such a hold on the Glaswegian imagination is a bit of a mystery.
Turn left on Bell Street, cross Albion Street and take a right into narrow Tontine Lane
14 Tontine Lane
Empire Sign Other parts of the carving refer to individual events or people in the Ramshorn’s history, including, on the far right, an audience watching a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, marking the building’s new theatrical role.
The four poems vary in tone, some elegiac, others playful. One takes the traditional verse associated with the four emblems of St. Mungo:
Douglas Gordon, 1997
Douglas Gordon is the most successful Scottish artist of his generation in Scotland, internationally renowned and winner of the Turner Prize, among many other awards. His work is often concerned with language, and also with film, and both come together in this rare public work.
The sign is a mirror image of one briefly seen in Hitchcock’s film ‘Vertigo’, so here we have something returned to the real world from the fictional. Says Gordon, ‘I liked the fact that I could make an artwork that would not look like an artwork. I could make an object which was a copy of something that doesn’t actually exist except in fiction, and the only way you can read it properly is to look in a mirror which is a place that does not really exist either.’ The word Empire is a loaded one here, the source of so much of the
wealth that the Merchant City was built on, but also a common name for cinemas and theatres. This work was originally sited in Brunswick Lane, opposite The Mitre Bar, a favourite with artists. When the Empire sign had to be moved because of development in that area, the sign from the defunct Mitre Bar came with it, to keep a sense of the original juxtaposition. Walk past the sign towards Trongate. The next work is situated just before you emerge from the lane on your right.
15
17
Tontine Lane
Tron Steeple
Dug-out canoe found AD 1871
Trongate
St. Mungo at the Tron
Louise Crawford and Ian Alexander, 2002
Eduard Bersudsky,, 2002
In 2001 artist Louise Crawford and architect Ian Alexander were invited to collaborate on a research project in the Merchant City, investigating the history, overlooked spaces and changing details of this small quarter.
This neon triptych is a result of their collaboration and was intended as the first in a series of signs which would make reference to the area’s hidden past. One of the old maps that they came across in their research bore the words, ‘Dug-out
Canoe found AD 1871’ where the Tontine buildings now stand. The canoe was one of four uncovered in the city centre during various building works, and one of them still lies in the storeroom of Glasgow’s Museum of Transport,
a simple hollowed oak shell. The sign brings attention to the fact that below the paving lies the riverbed mud of an ancient stream, or early River Clyde.
Walk out onto Trongate and cross to the central traffic island at the busy intersection of Glasgow Cross.
Part building, part sculpture, a Mercat (or market) Cross is an essential component of any substantial Scottish settlement. During the 19th century, citizens were concerned that Glasgow had no cross – the original one having been destroyed centuries earlier, though it was said to be some where near here, and to be octagonal in form ‘finely spangled with thistles’.
thistled shield on the top of the cross and the wooden owl, rabbit, cat and small dog that perch on the staircase. Actual carving was done by the firm Dawson & Young.
Walk west on Trongate to the Tron steeple which juts into the road on your left.
16 Glasgow Cross
Mercat Cross Edith Burnet Hughes (architect), Margaret Findlay (sculptor), 1929-30
This replacement cross, dating from 1930, was bequeathed to the city by antiquarian William George Black and his wife Anna Blackie Black. It is a rare example of a collaboration between a woman architect and woman sculptor. Edith Burnet Hughes is considered to be Britain’s first practising female architect, setting up practice in Glasgow in 1920, although refused membership of the RIBA in 1927. Sculptor Margaret Findlay trained at Glasgow School of Art and modelled the unicorn holding a
The interior of the cross is not accessible to the public, but we hope the photograph will convey an idea of Findlay’s work.
Like the Empire Sign, this artwork
uses the visual language of the twentieth century city – neon – to tell of a nineteenth century discovery of an even more ancient artefact. The lights of both works are activated in time with the street lighting in the evening.
Perched in front of the second floor window on the west side of the steeple, facing down Argyle Street, is another interpretation of Glasgow’s patron saint and his emblems of tree, bell, fish and bird. This figure is made in bronze and the elements are designed to move with the striking of the clock on the hour. Artist Eduard Bersudsky’s intention, much like Edwin Morgan’s poem at Candleriggs, was to subvert the ‘Bird that never flew…’ verse with animatronics that would see the bird flap, the fish swim and the bell ring. Unfortunately, interruptions with the electricity supply have meant that the sculpture is not always operational, and the verse often rings sadly true in this case. The concept of the clock tower with moving figures has a deep history in Europe, as seen at the famous examples at the Old Town Square in Prague and at St. Mark’s Square in Venice. The appearance of this St. Mungo seems influenced by both eastern European tradition and the medieval Celtic art – reflective of the influences on Russian-born Bersudsky who moved to Scotland in 1993 and whose unique moving sculptures can be seen at the nearby Sharmanka Theatre at 103 Trongate.
Retrace your steps through the steeple to the corner of Trongate and Chisholm Street.
18 Tron Theatre Chisholm St. and Parnie St.
Cherub/Skull Kenny Hunter, 1997/8
Commissioned as part of the refurbishment of the celebrated Tron Theatre, these two related sculptures bracket or bookend the building. On the corner of the building facing on to Trongate, the Cherub steps confidently forward from an ornate niche, as if about to fly or jump into the bustle below. Like other public works by Hunter it manages a delicate balance between traditional and contemporary forms.
The second part of the work can be seen at the back of the theatre on Parnie Street. In a specially constructed square niche sits a colossal human skull of a dull gold colour. Like the cherub it is an image associated with theatre, but more generally with the questioning of human existence. Conceptually, the two sculptures refer to the span between childhood and death, to spirit and mortality, suggesting that all human endeavour is reflected and addressed inside these walls.
Continue west along Parnie Street, towards what looks like a dead-end wall, and turn left at the wall into the cobbled lane called New Wynd.
Best seen at night or in the dark of a winter’s afternoon, Bough 2 is the third work we have seen in which light plays a central role.
19 New Wynd (off Parnie St.)
Bough 2 Simon Corder, 2005
This work was commissioned for the 2005 Radiance Festival, a mid-winter festival of lightworks and installations centred around the Merchant City which also took place in 2007. Although initially intended as a temporary work, Glasgow City Council purchased Bough 2 in a more permanent version so that it could remain illuminating this typical back court, bringing light and colour to a dark corner of the city. The piece is made from commercially available fluorescent tubes in three colours, but arranged in a dynamic, almost treelike flow. Part of the work (the blue tubes) is installed on the hidden walls of the courtyard and is seen only reflected in the windows surrounding the central stream of light. From this point you can either stop and explore some of the galleries in the King Street/ Osborne Street area, or you can continue on to see two more public artworks of note, outside the Merchant City proper, but worth the walk along the Clyde.
Leaving New Wynd, skirt the large carpark and head down Bridgegate, past an ornate grey building which has a steeple emerging from it topped by a golden ship. This building is called the Briggait and the steeple was once an important lookout point for merchants and ship owners. The building below was a purpose designed fish market, but now houses artists’ studios. Head west along the Clyde, passing St. Andrews Cathedral and a pedestrian suspension bridge, until you come to the figure of a woman with upraised arms facing the river.
20 Clyde Street (near Dixon Street)
La Pasionaria (Monument to Dolores Ibarruri) Arthur Dooley, 1979
This monument was erected to commemorate the British volunteers who took part in the Spanish Civil War on the republican side, and specifically the 65 Glaswegians who died in the conflict.
La Pasionaria was a real woman, Dolores Ibarruri, a communist member of the Popular Front and an inspirational figure to her generation, although the rousing quote ascribed to her on the base of the statue is not originally her own. The statue was commissioned by The International Brigade Association of Scotland and funded by money raised from the labour movement. However, not enough money was raised, and Dooley had to abandon his plan for it to be cast in bronze. Instead the armature was welded together from scrap iron and covered in fibreglass. Recent restoration revealed a catalogue from the fibreglass company glued into the skirt and that the metal armature included a pair of tongs. Arthur Dooley was a fascinating figure, a former Liverpool welder, self-taught as an artist, who completed many religious works in his native city and achieved such fame in the sixties that there was a This is Your Life made about him. A communist and a catholic, he gave away or spent whatever money came his way. During his time in Glasgow he stayed in a working men’s hostel on Anderston Quay. The statue was controversial from the outset, a bone of contention between Labour and Conservative councillors, the latter objecting to it on both political and aesthetic grounds. The planned unveiling was cancelled for these reasons. It is believed that Dooley never made it back to Glasgow to see the work in place.
Continue to walk west, then cross half way on to the first bridge, Glasgow Bridge, from where you can view the disused railway bridge that lies between the bridge you are on and the working rail bridge into Glasgow Central.
21 Beside Glasgow Bridge Piers
Disused railway bridge Ian Hamilton Finlay, 1990
On the strong granite pillars that once held up a rail bridge into Glasgow Central Station are carved, in Greek and in English, the phrase ‘All greatness stands firm in the storm ‘ On one pillar the Greek is carved above the English, on the other the sequence is reversed. The phrase derives from Plato’s Republic, through a translation by Heidegger. Ian Hamilton Finlay was a Scottish artist of international standing, whose work explored the persistence of the classical tradition throughout western culture. He is perhaps best known for his garden, Little Sparta, south of Edinburgh, which contains dozens of his sculptural works. The work you see now came about through Finlay’s own proposal to the organisers of a city-wide public art project for 1990, Glasgow’s year as European Capital of Culture. The other parts of the project were temporary, but the organisers found Finlay’s idea for a permanent work too good to pass up. It is safe to presume that Finlay was drawn to this site for the classical grandeur of the pillars, made from Dalbeattie granite and ‘rusticated’ in form – each stone block roughly rounded to suggest
strength. The combination of the phrase and this particular site however, produces an ambivalence – the pillars do indeed stand firm more than 130 years after they were built, but they no longer have a purpose. Like so much of Glasgow’s industrial heritage, they were built to last, but the shifts of history and economics mean that have become redundant, that strength is not all. So is Finlay’s work a celebration of the pillars’ survival or is it an ironic statement about empire’s decline? There is no simple answer here, but the work throws us back a challenging reflection on an ever-changing city