The Glasgow School of Art

Stations of the Green

An exhibition focusing on Turner Prize winning GSA alumnus Douglas Gordon's demolished work 'Proof' at Glasgow Green Station. Curated by Johnny Rodger and Mitch Miller as a GSA cross-school collaboration.

A collective of artists, writers, photographers together with sponsors The Glasgow School of Art, New Glasgow Society,The Drouth, University of Salford, Glasgow City Council, and West, would like to announce the opening of an exhibition in the New Glasgow Society gallery to mark the demolition of artist Douglas Gordon's work 'Proof' at Glasgow Green Station.

Executed by Gordon in 1990 as a mural painted on the interior remaining north and east one story walls of the abandoned Glasgow Green railway station, it had, by the end of the decade, become hidden from public view by the matured sprouting of bushes and trees within the plot, and ultimately by security fences raised to keep citizens away from the exposed drop to the tracks.  In its original state however, the walls were painted white and on the east facing elevation in black was painted the series:

1787      1812      1820

1916      1922      1932

while the north facing wall bore the single word and punctuation 'mute,'. Network Rail demolished the front or west wall with the dates on it in March 2012 sometime after high winds had brought down the south or 'mute' wall.  The empty site lies adjacent to Templeton's Factory on Glasgow Green.

Besides display of original artefacts and images of the station, this multimedia exhibition will encompass film, photography, contemporary music and illustration from artists Dave Allen, Stephen Davismoon, Peter McCaughey, Michael Mersinis, Mitch Miller, Gordon Munro, Johnny Rodger, and Ross Sinclair.

Why an exhibition to mark the passing of this work 'Proof'?
There is so much curiosity about this work, and also regret about its passing amongst the citizens of Glasgow that we felt that some mark of respect should be offered. It is difficult to find information   --even on the internet-about the work, what it meant, why it was constructed, why it is gone and what actually happened to it.  The New Glasgow Society Gallery is the ideal place to put our archive of video, written, virtual, photographic and material effects regarding the work on display to a broad public.

In May 2012, working with The Drouth, The Glasgow School of Art and the People's Palace, Mitch Miller and Johnny Rodger organised an event to mark the demolition of Proof.   In this way a great deal of information and some artefacts were collected together at the event.  This exhibition allows us to put these hidden treasures on display, raise the profile, and work towards the creation of a permanent legacy to the station on Glasgow Green. We have involvement from The Glasgow School of Art,The Drouth, Glasgow City Council, Peoples' Palace , Salford University, and the Glasgow Brewery WEST.

We have on display:

• 2 short ( 10 minutes each) films of artists (as named above) and writers talking about the work, demonstrating with illustrations, artefacts etc the history and the meaning of the work.
• A revolving virtual 3D reconstruction of the work by photographer Michael Mersinis.
• Some bricks and dust collected from the demolition of the work.
• A photographic exhibition of the destroyed work by Michael Mersinis
• Original massive red sandstone blocks with carved lettering from the original station sign.
• Panels with written analysis of the history and significance of the work by historians and writers.
• A provocative new Project analysing the Glasgow histories which the work may refer to and mapping the events through history with drawings and text of and about the city.
• A specially commissioned piece of music by composer Prof. Stephen Davismoon.

There will be several evening events at the gallery with speakers (including David Harding, Ray McKenzie, Bruce Peter and Sarah Smith) who will talk about the work and related political, social and built environment issues: we will publicise these events as they arise.An accompanying volume,DemolitionProof,with essays and photographs about the work will also be published and launched at the gallery.  

Event sponsored by WEST