Glasgow’s AI mural stooshie – there is a way forward |
The AI-generated mural that has caused a stushie in Glasgow has rightly been condemned, but there is a way forward, says Mark Smith
This is not, it’s fair to say, Glasgow at its best. We’re near the Clyde Tunnel, on the edge of the A739, one of the giant carriageways that sliced the city into bits in the 60s. Behind us is a bleak patch of grass beloved only by dogs who need the toilet, and a brick wall claimed by angry men with spray cans: UB07, they say over and over again. Across the road is a Lidl, stranded on concrete; how you get to it is unclear. This is what the planners and the thinkers did to our city and I’m not sure I’ll ever let them forget it.
Is there a way to make it better though? On the edge of the road is one of the tenements that survived the bulldozers and on the gable end is a mural in reds, pinks and purples. At first it’s hard to tell what the picture is but the more you look, the more you see the figure of a little girl. And I recognise her: it’s the girl in the red dress, knees scuffed, tongue out, in the Gorbals maybe, made famous by the people’s photographer Eric Watt. Like the city she’s from, she’s got humour and attitude (with potential for trouble).
There’s another mural on the tenement across the road, this time more literal. Arranged around the face of a young woman is the Finnieston Crane and the shipyards and welders bent over their work. And it makes sense because the art was designed in collaboration with people in Linthouse and Govan who value the area’s history as a crucible of industry and the door to the Clyde and the Empire. Both of the murals are the result of a project called Yardworks Grid, which aims to brighten up Glasgow with public art. Funded........