Alexandra Smart

Glas/Glas
or
The grey-green river and the grey-blue sky

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

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Alexandra Smart is a Welsh/Scottish artist currently based in the Scottish Highlands. She is

a recent graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, where she achieved a First-Class Honours

degree in Sculpture and Environmental Art. Working across a variety of mediums, including

installation, ceramics, textiles and illustration, she explores the mythology and folktales of

her two homes, Scotland and Wales. Motifs from laundry appear throughout her work, as

she aims to build monuments to forgotten women and their legacies of work and care.

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EXHIBITION STATEMENT:

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Glasgow is a magical place.

 

Once a part of the Brittonic kingdom of Strathclyde, its name comes from the word “glas”,

meaning grey/green or grey/blue in both Welsh and Gaelic. The second half of the word,

“gow” is likely rooted in the Middle Welsh word for “hollow”.

 

Glasgow is a rainforest.

In Summer, the plants seem to reach out towards you from every crevice.

Flowers burst out of drainpipes.

Moss carpets tarmac.

Trees cling onto the walls of tenements.

Even the motorway, that grey scar that runs through the city, can’t fight it. Birch saplings

climb its walls, waving at motorists.

 

Grey Green.

Grey Blue.

Hollow.

 

Glasgow is a magical place. It’s in its bones.

Saints sleep beneath shopping centres.

Miracles have happened here.

 

Bird.

Tree.

Bell.

Fish.

 

Glasgow is a sanctuary.

The mother of our city, Teneu, was our countries first recorded rape victim. She sleeps

beneath the city now, does she dream of that grey/green grey/blue hollow?

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EXHIBITION PHOTOS BY AMY IONA