THE GLASGOW PLEASURE GARDENS
by Zadee Garrigue
The initial Material Acts project initiates a rural – urban dialogue between the sites of Grymsdyke Farm and the Truman Brewery. The stile becomes a vehicle through which individuals can explore and define various boundary conditions. As it moves between each site, it’s use becomes distorted. Interchangeable handles allow for an exploration of identities within these urban – rural contexts. The second project, titled Contingency, continues this exploration of boundary conditions relating specifically to gendered and social hierarchies within the context of Glasgow. The Glasgow Pleasure Gardens sit on the River Kelvin which represents a boundary between two communities with important socio-economic disparity. Using the bridge piers, which represent relics of the masculine industrial environment that once occupied the site, the structures span the river and propose a new feminist industrial public space to connect these communities. Using the three elements of Pleasure: Reason, Imagination and Sense to drive the brief; The Glasgow Pleasure Gardens will aim to create an environment where gender identities can be explored and social hierarchies can be dismantled through an exploration of the thresholds between urban and rural, leisure and labour, where the leisure relates to communal festival and the ceilidh, and labour relates to the processing of wool and the feminist craft of knitting.
