The Art School

As the Reid building opened it’s doors, the echoing vertical funnels stretching from roof to basement reverberated with some notion of a return. Hunkered under the translucent green arm of the Reid’s apparent “creative abrasion”, the original facade of The Art School swelled with a fragmented archive of period haircuts and half-remembered nights out. These memories and archive meant little to the collective body of students who’d spent nearly three years in a repurposed office block, many of them with little memory of what stood atop Garnethill before. However, the impossibility of impartiality of what these changes in location have meant are ever present.

The possibilities of interpretations coming from these changes are somewhat explored by this weekend’s programme at The Art School. The WIP (Work In Progress) Show, organised by the VisCom department, is part of a series of interim exhibitions showcasing the recently re-located (read: located) Design School’s work. The opening is at the One Cube or Two gallery followed by an afterparty featuring (amongst others) Rinse FM affiliated Bake and Cleoslaptra. The School’s return to Garnethill is also being celebrated by the publication of Comeback, a collaborative zine which showcases the diverse selection of work being produced by the Design School.

On Saturday, representing this synthesis between the Reid and The Art School, between art and parties is textile student and DJ Francesca Stride. In 2013, Stride designed the winning jumper for Pringle in a competition set by The Campaign for Wool, a campaign set-up to encourage and promote the use of wool for its unique, natural and sustainable qualities. RIDE, the club she runs with Lauren Donachie, started back in 2008 (yes, two years before the Ludacris and Ciara track) at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh, “we named it RIDE because Lauren and I worked in a bar together and late night finishes meant we tended to cycle into town on one bike” they add. Francesca is playing The Vic bar at Freaky Freaky, which she describes as “the ideal club for us to come and play […] we’re strictly about R’n’B and Hip Hop bangers.” Freaky Freaky have also invited London’s premiere hip hop party crew Livin’ Proof to ensure a two-floor slammer.

Welcome back!

One of the new Thursday night Pleasure Garden residents Cleoslaptra introduces herself with this mini-mix of tracks that she says “people will either want to dance to or have
sex to…or both, you be the judge.” Her Jackie Your Body radio show has been running for four years, traversing footwork, juke, house and all kinds of experimental sleaze. She says the motivation behind the mix “comes from my appreciation of girls letting go on the dancefloor to tracks which people usually raise an eyebrow or screw their face up at - I say FU to all that posturing.”

You could say she’s part of a new generation, she was only just starting out when the doors closed on the decrepit old union building on Renfrew St., too young to be granted entry (regularly), her reputation as one of the most effective DJs at The Art School really flourished in 2013. Security were called to remove people from the stage when she played at our Halloween party and she went in just as hard for the Sauchiehall closing party.

This isn’t throwback music, this isn’t an all-vinyl-boys-club, this is redressing the balance, this is her own thing and it’s designed to make you move.

Sound and visual artist Tom Scholefield’s involvement with The Art School goes way back to his Eskrima nights, bringing artists like Autechre, Squarepusher and Luke Vibert to the venue. Aside from some stark surrealist releases on Planet Mu and his own label Display Copy, his post-futurist visual work has been picked up by artists like Hudson Mohawke, Wiley and Martyn. He’ll be returning to the decks at The Art School with his rave orientated 48K crew on Friday 24th January.

“Its probably been about 10 years now since I played my first record in the Vic Bar on a Tuesday night after the quiz (I think). Stuck together this vinyl only mix of some records I used to play on a Saturday night upstairs with a few other things I probably haven’t played out in the same amount of time.”

- Tom Scholefield (Konx-Om-Pax)