SALTHOUSE Exhibition & In-Conversation
The exhibition is a show cases Fiona Robertson’s latest film work SALTHOUSE (2023)
Press Release
SALTHOUSE takes place in two distinct but connected settings. The first is an abandoned Salthouse at Prestwick beach on the west coast of Scotland: semi-rural, post-industrial, intertwined with the natural world yet apart from it. The second is in the corridors of the McLellan Galleries in the nearby city of Glasgow – a place once culturally alive and physically salubrious, now abandoned, dilapidated, fungus growing from its walls. The two places are haunted by the film’s sole protagonist, a woman costumed in natural shells and drift wood, black lace, antique lampshades, and drawings printed on her skirt. This woman – or, perhaps, creature – haunts the spaces of the film, collecting sea water in a pot one segment, carrying that pot through the gallery corridors in the next .The defunct and decrepit interiors, the decayed confusion of nature and artifice, human and inhuman, reflect the failures of modernism but also the continuing nostalgic appeal that ‘lost future’ holds.
To mark the close of the exhibition we are pleased to be hosting a special in-conversation with the artist and Carl Lavery (Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Glasgow) at 5pm in the Reid Auditorium. Laurie Figgis will introduce this event, which will be accompanied by a screening of the film SALTHOUSE and followed by an exhibition reception upstairs in the Reid Ground Floor Corridor from 5.45pm – 7pm. https://vimeo.com/fionagrobertson5091374
Fiona Robertson is an artist who has lectured part-time in the Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art since the late 1990’s. Her most recent exhibition of drawings, sculpture, and film entitled tit-bits was held in Southblock, Glasgow in 2023. Fiona’s films have premiered in international competitions such as Oberhausen Short Film Festival and Go-Short. She regularly collaborates with, and is commissioned by performance and theatre makers.
Carl Lavery is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Glasgow. He has published widely on performance art, dance, audio walks, photography and poetry. He is an expert in avant-garde French theatre and has published books on Jean Genet and Antonin Artaud. His latest book Getting a Taste for Landscape explores how performance can produce a new belief in the world, a desire to bring things closer, the creation of attachments.
The closing event will be held on the Tuesday 27th @ 5pm February in the Ried auditorium where Carl Lavery, Professor of the Theatre and Performance, University of Glasgow will be in conversation with the artist, this event will be accompanied by a screening of SALTHOUSE (2023).
Alongside the new film photographs from a selection of Fiona’s films made over the past 14 years are exhibited. Some costumes and props featured in Fiona’s films and documentation of projects related to her collaborative work with theatre and performance makers are also displayed.
Photography © Alan Dimmick
