“George wasn’t too fond of museums,” says Will Cooper as he walks through the two main rooms that form The Wyllieum, the newly opened Greenock based gallery space devoted to George Wyllie (1921-2012), the ‘George’ of Cooper’s observation. “That is something we have to negotiate every day,” says the centre’s director.
Such are the glorious contradictions of the Glasgow born artist and self styled Whys?man who first came to prominence with his playfully theatrical critique of capitalism, A Day Down a Goldmine (1982). The large-scale works that followed occupied similarly non-institutional spaces. They were equally damning too about the managed decline of shipbuilding and industrial culture that was taking place at the time.
The Straw Locomotive (1987), saw a full-scale wire and straw reconstruction of a locomotive hung from Glasgow’s Finnieston Crane before being ceremonially burnt. The Paper Boat (1989-1990), was a 78-foot vessel that sailed the Clyde and beyond. Wyllie’s permanent public works continue to disrupt whichever landscape they sit in to this day. Like the man it honours, The Wyllieum embraces those contradictions, and, like Wyllie’s The Clyde Clock (1999-2000), that stands beside Glasgow’s Buchanan Bus Station, runs with it.
“There’s a lot of anger in George’s work,” says Cooper, acknowledging Wyllie’s sleight of hand. While his genial façade drew audiences in, beyond the spectacle, he produced a deeply political and quietly subversive canon. This was on a par with the likes of German social sculptor Joseph Beuys and American kinetic sculptor George Rickey, both influences and peers.
“When Margaret Thatcher said in 1979 that we needed to reduce industry, like most people that worked in a revenue economy, George could see that the claims about saving the UK money weren’t genuine, but were being used as a way to break voters. The story he told, and the questions he asked, about what happens when we take too much industry away from the river, and what happens if we blow stuff up, was widely understood in this area, so it feels really appropriate that we're able to check out his work here in this way.”
Situated in Greenock’s Richard Murphy designed Ocean Terminal building, the Wyllieum’s bright and flexible interior overlooks the River Clyde. It’s presence acts as a marker of sorts that sits between Wyllie’s Gourock home and The Customs House where he worked for much of his adult life before becoming an artist.
In one room, a permanent display shows off maquettes, drawings and epigrammatic quotes dotted about the walls in gold leaf lettering. It also charts details of Wyllie’s early life, including a visit to Hiroshima in the aftermath of America dropping the atomic bomb on the city. This had a profound effect on Wyllie.
“We really wanted to use this space to be able to have exhibitions that speak in slightly different ways,” says Cooper. “So this room is very direct. If you've never heard of George Wyllie before, you can come in for ten minutes, have a look, buy a book in the shop, and get back on the cruise ship.”
The larger second room houses the Wyllieum’s opening temporary exhibition. I Once Went Down to the Sea Again showcases eleven works from Wyllie’s sculptural series, Spires (1982-2007).
“Sometimes they were making a relatively grand political statement,” says Cooper, citing two works in particular. “They’re portable spires that he bought golf bags for, and which are completely collapsible, and sat in the back of his car. Then if you should you be driving around and something needs commemorating you could put them up and do that.
“He was very keen that there wasn't like a top down didactic attitude to what should be marked, and that, instead of having big statues of military figures or politicians or people that probably weren't as nice as they think they were, we should find joy and celebration within our own lives and celebrate that.”
Wyllie’s Spires appear in I Once Went Down to the Sea Again alongside previously unseen sketches and drawings. The show is co-curated by Cooper and artist Sara Barker, with the collections space made by Cooper and designer Andy McGregor. Both exhibitions can be viewed as part of a living monument that is as adaptable and light-footed as one of Wyllie’s spires.
The show also features a piece called Daphne’s Happy Compass (2004), a deeply personal work made for Wyllie’s wife towards the end of her life to aid her on her ‘cosmic journey’.
“Daphne was so important in George’s work,” Cooper points out, “and that story is perfect for this room, where we can be a bit more essayistic.”
Given that Wyllie’s entire canon was based around asking questions, what, one wonders, would the Whys?man make of being institutionalised in this way?
“I don't know,” Cooper admits. “He would maybe be a bit embarrassed, but also quite pleased. He liked performing and showing off, so I think he would have liked it.In George’s day, remember, museums were these quiet, mausoleum type places, whereas George was always very razzmatazz, and pulled you in with humour.
“I think there's a difference in the sort of museum culture of the sixties, seventies and eighties, when George was coming up and learning about these things. Back then you had to stand there, not breathing, and revering a white, upper middle class man's interpretation of history. Thankfully, that has been broken down over the last forty years, and museum culture is very, very different now.
“Rather than having your ivory tower curator telling people what culture is, you can be a bit more responsive and engaging with audiences. So I would hope that this place is much more of that twenty-first century idea of an arts institution than a 1960s idea of an arts institution. I hope George would’ve liked that.”
The Wyllieum, Greenock is open Wednesday-Sunday, 12 noon-5pm. I Once Went Down to the Sea Again runs until 11thAugust.
Scottish Art News, May 2024
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