Social Sculpture

About the Book: 

Once 'the workshop of the world', in the last 30 years Glasgow has emerged from post-industrial decline to become the UK's main art centre after London, with a reputation for prodqcing innovative and highly acclaimed artists and musicians. Social Sculpture explains the phenomenondescribed by the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist as 'The Glasgow Miracle', through detailed analysis of the city's predominantly self-organised and autonomous arts infrastructure and interviews with the people who made it happen. This fully revised and updated new edition of the first and only book to chart the emergence of the Glasgow art scene draws upon over 60 original interviews with Clasgow writers, curators, artists and musicians, including Turner Prize winners Douglas Gordon and Richard Wright, Turner Prize nominees Christine Borland and Cathy Wilkes, Jarman Prize winner Luke Fowler, Beck's Futures winner Toby Paterson, curators Francis McKee, Katrina Brown, Will Bradley and Toby Webster and musicians Stuart Brathwaite (Mogwai), Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap) and Optimo DJ Keith McIvor.

Reviews: 

Lowndes has created a veritable bible... a fascinating social history. MOIRA JEFFREY, The Herald

Perceptively attuned to the aesthetics idiosyncratic to Glasgow. NEIL MULHOLLAND, Frieze

... a fascinating study of the music and visual scene in Glasgow. SUKHDEV SAANDHLI, The New Statesman

About the Author:

DR SARAH LOWNDES is a lecturer, curator and writer based in Glasgow. Lowndes lectures in the Historical and Critical Studies Department at Glasgow School of Art, where her research focuses on artist-led projects, interdisciplinary and performance-related practice and contemporary art. She regularly contributes to publications including 'Frieze', 'Art on Paper', 'Spike Art Quarterly' and 'Afterall'.