GMMA

On a previous visit to the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, I entered the ground floor gallery and came across obscure paintings of what seemed like shirt patterns and maths shape lessons. I never returned. Until I got an invite for my arts within society elective.

Before we entered the gallery however we took a tour of what was around the building itself. I didn't quite understand why, until I looked at it from Glasgow's cultural point of view. The gallery is bang on in the city centre. It is surrounded by top brand coffee shops (Starbucks and Costa), restaurants (Bella Italia) and shops (Lush). Glasgow is the most jam packed city in Scotland. It's modern culture makes it the place to be which is caught even just by the location of Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art.

When entering the building itself I noticed straight away the wall decorated by lots of mirrors. It captured everyones attention and revealed people to be who they really were by their reactions towards themselves. We had some girls checking as much as possible to make sure they looked ok; some were confident enough to march straight up to the mirror and do a touch up of make up; others avoided their reflection; and some just didn't care. It was amusing and revealed to me personally that yourself is an art altogether.

Going straight to the top floor was a room full of pictures which carried the theme of 'race'. It had pictures of African tribes, muslim women and quite simply houses which carried the tale of an event to do with race. I found it difficult to connect with most of these art pieces. I didn't quite understand the significance of the theme 'race'.

But afterwards I understood that some of these pieces of work weren't for looking at. They each carried a story as to what the picture was inspired from or how it inspired the artist. It was then I realised that art is seen differently for everybody and that artists capture art and create it differently from everybody else. Which almost links in with the actual theme of 'race' itself and how different races can be from each other.

When entering the second floor, there was a theme of 'flats'. Again, I didn't quite understand why this was at all significant or in fact beautiful to look at. However one display was very interesting. It was lots of tvs which each had a different video of flat life, e.g, the local park outside, knitting inside, rain drops falling off the building. Each video had an action which went at it's own pace. They different speeds and images captured was strange to look at. Later on I was told that in hospitals they often have videos like these to help calm patients. Never would I have thought that art based on a block of flats would be calming... but it was!

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the gallery and learnt that art can be what ever you want it to be. There is no right or wrong answer or opinion as to what a good piece of art is. I found it almost spiritually calming searching pieces of art trying to figure out what it could mean in relation to myself. I didn't enjoy every piece of art, but there was plenty there to make sure at least a few pieces stood out to me and pleased me.

Links: http://www.glasgowmuseums.com/venue/index.cfm?venueid=3 (Venue details)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallery_of_Modern_Art (GMMA facts and history)

http://www.igougo.com/attractions-reviews-b30954-Glasgow-Gallery_of_Modern_Art.html (Reviews)