Revisiting 'Two Invisible Case Studies'

Revisiting Two Invisible Case Studies                                                                                             Malmo Konsthall, Presented as part of '24 Spaces: A Cacophony,' 29th July - 7th August                       At the Invitation of Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, GENERATOR Projects, Dundee, and Embassy Gallery, Glasgow

In 2012, Mother Tongue were invited to work with the archives of the Third Eye Centre/Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow. Our response took the form of re-presenting exhibition material and artworks from Maud Sulter and Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé, existing in the archive via the exhibitions Alba [1995] and Through Photography [1989], respectively. While both were active artists in Glasgow in the late 1980ʼs and early 1990ʼs, they are notably absent from the grand ʻGlasgow Miracleʼ narrative, detached from their contemporaries, an issue about which both Sulter and Bamgboyé were vocal. The ʻGlasgow Miracleʼ is a term coined by the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist in the mid-1990's to describe the emergence of a strong artistic community in the city at that time.

Alongside the original exhibition Mother Tongue produced a critical essay titled 'The Whiteness Necessitated by the Glasgow Miracle: Two Invisible Case Studies.' For '24 Spaces - A Cacophony', we re-visited this previous project, conducting interviews with figures directly and indirectly involved with the Glasgow art community, these dialogues made public through a revised publication under the title Part II, which was made available in the gallery space alongside the original archival works from Sulter and Bamgboyé. A .pdf version of this can be found on our website under the 'What We Have Done. What We Are About To Do' project section.

Mother Tongue has subsequently been invited to present this project on three occasions: at Glasgow School of Art, Grays School of Art, and at the Scottish National Records Assocation annual conference in 2014.