Saturday 24 January 2009

What Im thinking bout DUST

There are various methods of dust collection.

1. Cloth dusters, feather dusters, sponges, using fingers.

2. Recepticles for containing dust. bags, jars, a glass lamp shade, sellotape, paper, laminate,

A portrait of Francis Henry (Fra) Newbery (1855-1946) painted in 1913 by Maurice Greiffenhagen (1862-1931).

Maurice Greiffenhagen was an English painter and illustrator, who turned increasingly to portrait painting from 1900. He taught at Glasgow School of Art in 1906 at the request of Headmaster and Director Fra Newbery.

Born in Devon, Fra Newbery had studied art in Bridport and London. He taught at the National Art Training School in London until in 1885, at the age of 30, he was offered the post of Headmaster at Glasgow School of Art. Under his guidance the teaching curriculum was overhauled, important artists such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh were nurtured and the school attained an international reputation. Newbery also oversaw the construction of the new GSA building (a corner of which is visible in the background of the portrait) designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He retired in 1918.

This whole idea of dust being a metaphor for the history of the building....

There must be elements of everyone in that space in one nook or crannie or another.

therefore the dust holds a history of whose been before us and what they have done.

A complete list of all names of students, tutors etc could relate to the dust in some way.

life stories are embedded in far away, non-descript corners of Mack.

These stories are perhaps forgotten. Or perhaps re-iterating a peice of history can inform, enlighten, make us laugh or something.

from those who passed by before us - from us who are passing the noo - the future is yet to unfold.

2 comments:

  1. hey liking this idea of dust.
    do you think in the locked rooms that dont get used very often, in a wee knook that there is some vintage original dust.
    Maybe we all are actualy breathing in a bit of history.

    blabbles.

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. dust, dusty, dustiness, duster, doing ma duster. traces of others, of other places, of before, of what has been, of what was, but of now. confused? try pledge.

    ReplyDelete