Commission Aims
Seven public works for Glasgow were commissioned with 'unexpected places' in mind, works which originated from the past, present and future of Glasgow. The project aimed for the new public commissions to be 'unlike traditional public sculpture or monuments... accessible, questioning and thought-provoking' (Third Eye Centre, New Art for Glasgow, Glasgow: 1990) and to interrogate the 'range of possibilities of what art outside the gallery can be' (Tony Foster Johnathan Harvey, James Lingwood, New Works for Different Places TSWA Four Cities Project, TSWA Ltd: 1990).
Commission Background
Around three quarters of the commissions were realised by artists invited to submit proposals, with further commissions sought through an open application process. Of the artists invited to submit proposals, groups of artists were invited to Glasgow (in addition to the other three participating cities) a year previous to the project opening to find and select possible sites within the city to create a temporary public art work. Artists included Mona Hatoum and Rosemarie Trockel, who subsequently participated in the project. The brief is described as 'necessarily open', encouraging
'Interest both in places where local history or experience was manifest, and in those from which such history or experience had been erased or repressed - airports and shopping centres as much as air-raid shelters or battleships'. (Tony Foster Johnathan Harvey, James Lingwood, 'New Works for Different Places TSWA Four Cities Project', TSWA Ltd: 1990)
Submissions were chosen for development by Television South-West Arts (TSWA), of which James Lingwood was a key figure with Johnathan Harvey and Tony Foster, with Euan McArthur (then of the Third Eye Centre, now renamed Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA)) acting as project manager.
Ian Hamilton Finlay's proposal for the project however arose from neither of these two commissioning routes. Despite Finlay's importance and standing within Scottish arts, he was not invited to propose a work for the simple reason that the organisers thought he would not be interested. Finlay's proposal was mailed, unsolicited and post deadlines. It consisted of a small card folder containing a drawing of the proposed work and a short, typewritten explanation. The organisers considered Finlay's work too good to be missed, and immediately commissioned the project.
Ian Hamilton Finlay's work at Bridge Piers is situated on the four pairs of rusticated grey Dalbeattie granite columns which are the remains of the original bridge to Gordon Street (now Central) Station. Built in 1879, the bridge was previously threatened by the Bruce Plan of 1948, which sought to completely re-build the centre of the city, but survived until its later removal in the late 1960s. Described as '[free] from their original purpose and burden, they have become monuments in themselves ... splendidly functionless', the redundancy of the pillars is thrown into sharp relief by the functional bridge alongside. (Third Eye Centre, 'New Art for Glasgow', Glasgow: 1990).
Finlay's work adds the inscription, 'All Greatness Stands Firm in The Storm', in both English and Greek to the piers and is related to its positioning on the Clyde. Finlay claimed this text as a passage from Plato's Republic, although a check of the Greek/ English translations by TSWA curators with Glasgow University's Philosophy Department revealed it was unlikely an English translation of 'Republic' would yield Finlay's exact phrasing.
McArthur suggests the texts reference the ultimate collapse of the pillars, the suggestions of change underlining the tensions inherent to both the work and site. He describes how, understood within its relationship to the river and the pillars' history, the context of the work ironises its statement.
No explanation was given by the artist as to why he wanted to use the pillars, but his proposal was explicit and specific regarding the location. McArthur regards the redundant nature of the pillars, their rusticated and primitive nature and their visual similarity to 'original' classical pillars or structures as qualities which would have attracted Finlay. It seems likely that the bridge piers were previously known to Finlay, as no additional site visits were made before the project.
The proposed work was given no specific title, being referred to within documentation simply by its location - 'Bridge Piers, Broomielaw' - although it is also referenced elsewhere as 'All Greatness Stands Firm in the Storm'.
TSWA with Glasgow 1990 and the Community Unit, British Railways Board, commissioned the work with assistance of Glasgow Steeplejack Company (Hunter and Clark Ltd.), Incisive Letterworks, Hugh Pritchard Stonemasons Ltd. Offshore Workboats Ltd. and Clyde Marine Motoring Co. Ltd.
There were artistic collaborations from Brenda Berman and Anna Stirling.
Commission Difficulties
The bridge piers were owned by British Railways, who approved the site with no concerns or further issues. The predominant problem facing the organisers involved gaining physical access to the site. Steeplejacks had to build scaffolding which hung from the tops of the pillars, and safety boats were necessary at all times. Maintaining the safety boats alone costed around half the projects budget. The stonemason, who quoted the job by sight from Jamaica St Bridge, found the granite extraordinarily and unexpectedly hard. This resulted in more costly work, with the stonemasons themselves losing money.
Funding
As Ian Hamilton Finlay's proposal came late in the development of the project, all Television South-West Arts' (TSWA) funding had by that point been allocated to prior commissions. No funding was made available from Glasgow's City Council, but such was the organisers' commitment to having Finlay's project realised, the extra funds needed were raised from TSWA.
Finlay himself received no artist's fee.
The total costs of the work approximated at £10,000 - £12,000.
Legacy
Finlay was explicit that the works should have no plaque or attribution, with the aim of it becoming a civic artwork. Finlay himself allies the work with a Classical tradition of public civic works which remained unattributed, such as the lettering found on the great buildings in ancient Rome;
'Two of the eight existing pillars of the old bridge joining north and south banks of the Clyde are dramatised by the addition of a text derived from Plato's Republic: ALL GREATNESS STANDS FIRM IN THE STORM. Rendered in English and the original Greek, the lettering is intended to be read from the river and is conscious not only of its Piranesian scale but its Roman origins in such 'ad hoc' applications of grand lettering as that on the Ponte Fabrico in Rome.'
Ian Hamilton Finlay and Anna Stirling. Little Sparta March 1990 in James Lingwood (ed.) 'New Works for Different Places TSWA Four Cities Project', TSWA: 1990
Finlay's work appears to have been embraced within the city as part of a 'civic tradition', underlined by the perceived ownership of the work by the City Council, despite their having made no funding contribution. With the letters weathered over the past two decades, it now more than ever appears as part of this Classical tradition, visually recalling the aged, 'authentic' pillars of Greek and Roman buildings.
Finlay's work remains the only physical remnant of the Television South-West Arts (TSWA) Four Cities Project within Glasgow. Conceived as a series of temporary offsite projects, the 'fast and easy' decision to commission Finlay's permanent work broke the curatorial premise of the project. The organisers themselves were persuaded by opportunity, Finlay's work being an example of 'good artwork superseding guidelines'.
The project conceived by TSWA is held up as an example of both curatorial achievement and as an exhibition dealing with responses to site - specificity across not only one, but several city sites, featuring in publications such as 'Situation' (Claire Doherty (ed) Whitechapel, London; 2009).
Project Background
Ian Hamilton Finlay's permanent monument for Bridge Piers, Broomielaw, Glasgow forms part of the Television South-West Arts (TSWA) Four Cities Project 1990, which took place simultaneously in Derry, Glasgow, Newcastle and Plymouth.
TSWA was a public arts organisation supported by Television South-West (TSW).
Seven new public artworks were commissioned in Glasgow including, in addition to Hamilton Finlay:
'Depense: A Museum or Irreconcilable Loss', Judith Barry, Corporation Cheese Market
'A Project for John St.Arches', Cildo Meireles Third Eye Centre 346-354 Sauchiehall St. (Project unrealised. Permission refused by Glasgow District Council as considered 'inappropriate'.)
Rosemarie Trockel, St Enoch Centre
'Every Horse has a Heart', Janett Emery and Kevin Rhowbotham, Caledonia Rd. Church, Gorbals
Stuart Brisley, Govan Graving Docks
Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Domestic Departures, Glasgow Airport
In total, 22 artworks were commissioned across the entire TSWA Four Cities Project. Of these works, Ian Hamilton Finlay's inscribed columns in Glasgow and Richard Deacon's work 'Moor' in Victoria Park, Plymouth (1990) were the only permanent commissions.
TSWA collaborated with the Third Eye Centre (supported by the Scottish Arts Council and Glasgow District Council) for the Glasgow project.
TSWA Co-Organizers: Tony Foster, Johnathan Harvey and James Lingwood.
Glasgow Organizer: Euan McArthur
Education and Community Organizer: Graham Johnstone
Third Eye Centre Exhibitions Organizer: Andrew Nairne
Funding support for the project (excluding Finlay's commission) from
Glasgow District Council Festivals Budget
Strathclyde Regional Council
The Henry Moore Foundation
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Commission for the European Communities
The Elephant Trust
Govan Institute
Visiting Arts