16/09/2019 Galleries: Paisley Art Institute's 131st Annual Exhibition | HeraldScotland

ARTS&ENTS 14th September

Galleries: Paisley Art Institute's 131st Annual Exhibition

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It's a wet Wednesday in Paisley town centre and I'm standing outside The Piazza shopping arcade looking at six vividly-colourful Paisley
Pattern murals currently lighting up the windows of a former supermarket. John Walter, the London-based artist who created these vinyls, is
with me. In his emerald green rimmed specs, bright blue vintage Adidas jacket and technicolour trainers, he is a walking, talking antidote to
the dreichness of the day.

All animation and fizz, John is pointing to specific parts of the murals, inspired by his long-standing fasciation with the Paisley pattern. "I've taken all
the historical examples of Paisley patterns and thrown them into mix," he explains. "You see mutations at every turn. The pattern is like a fertility
symbol. Then it gets copied more and so it goes on."

Passer-by look on askance as he points to particular patterns. "That one is like a spermatozoa, that's vaginal… and look, these could be testes."
I lean in for a closer look, imagining what my late gran, Presbyterian wearer of scone hats and resident of the Renfrewshire town, would have
to say about this. But do you know something… he's right! These are six sexy vinyls. (Sorry gran!)
The panels are the gatekeepers of this year's Paisley Art Institute (PAI) annual exhibition, currently lighting up a former supermarket space,
which has lain empty for the last two years. Inside, alongside around 500 artworks of all shape, size and type, is another Walter work, The
Fourth Wall, which first saw the light of day at Aberdeen's Look Again Festival earlier this year.
The Fourth Wall is four minutes worth of psychedelic trippiness. Walter has placed six revolving blue desk chairs on painted vinyl panels on
the floor. On the chairs sit virtual reality headsets adorned by a fabric face of sorts; Paisley pattern hair, boggling felt eyes in a three-way
colour suit of orange, purple and yellow with a scarlet wooden pom pom for a nose.
Chaperones in Walter-designed pinnies, help you into the headset and make sure you're safe before you take a deep dive into his 360 degree
immersive VR experience. Who needs mind-altering drugs when you can sit in a spinny chair for four minutes and be immersed in Walter's
world of high colour, pattern and a soundtrack which rhymes Jacquard with knackered? Walter was invited to be guest artist at the 131st
annual exhibition by PAI's new president, Jean Cameron, a Paisley "Buddie" who grew up in nearby Ferguslie Park. Cameron was the
creative force behind the Paisley 2021 City of Culture bid. The collective hopes of many may have been dashed by the failure of this bid but
the energy around it has led to a renewed sense of cultural purpose in the town. Reimagining is quite the buzz word in the creative industries
but PAI's hardworking voluntary committee, steered by Cameron, have had to do a power of reimagining this year as their traditional "home"
of Paisley Museum and Art Galleries is shut for a major a major refurbishment. Until the museum reopens in 2022, the committee behind the
143-year-old organisation must keep the art show on the road. This year – for the 131st annual exhibition – the itinerant artists have set up
their stall in 3,000 square feet's worth of space in the vacant supermarket unit still known to some as "Prestos".

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16/09/2019 Galleries: Paisley Art Institute's 131st Annual Exhibition | HeraldScotland

It's an ambitious piece of programming, but Cameron, who has helped shape the Scottish cultural calendar through her work with Glasgow
International Festival of Visual Art (GI), Aye Write Book Festival, and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games cultural programme, has form. As
does fellow committee member and Paisley Buddie, Steven Thomson, who is creative director and CEO for Outspoken Arts Scotland and former
producer of the late-lamented Glasgay! Festival. In a neat piece of serendipity, the unit at the Gilmour Street entrance to the Piazza stands more or less
on the exact spot once occupied by the Paisley Government School of Design. It was here, on November 10, 1876, that Paisley Art Institute was formed
by a group of artists. According the first ever annual report of PAI, they were joined by "a number of gentlemen – admirers of Art – having from time to
time expressed their opinion that an art society should be established in Paisley." It might come as a surprise to some that Paisley had its own art school,
but in the mid to late nineteenth century, Paisley was a magnet for artists and designers, drawn to the thriving mill town by the opportunities presented
there. Today, PAI's annual exhibition is Scotland's longest running showcase for artists' work. There has been quite a buzz – not to mention record sales
–around the opening weekend of the show. It must have been a daunting task for those hanging this exhibition to know where to start when faced with
around 600 works. Luckily, PAI's resourceful committee inherited a hanging system of white boards from their counterpart Glasgow organisation, RGI,
who were unable to store them. This provided a canvas on which to work, while Renfrewshire Leisure technicians were on hand to help with the
hanging and the lighting system. The work is displayed more or less by genre; portraits, landscapes, seascapes, floral paintings, still lifes and so on but
there are more installations this year, including multi-media work. Barry and the Monster Below by Leila Kleineidam is a stop frame animation work
with an eco message which stopped me in my tracks. A fatberg is the congealed matter found in sewers formed by a mash-up of non-biodegradable
solid matter, such as wet wipes, and grease. Once you see one fatberg come to life, it stays in your head! It's a joy to see work like this by young
emerging artists alongside the likes of established sculptor, Simon Manby. As you enter, the first grouping (in what was the bakery section) is work by
so-called PAI diplomates. These artists, who have been nominated by fellow artist members within PAI for the honour, include highly collectable
painters such as Liz Knox, Robert Kelsey, Alice McMurrough and Charles Jamieson. The joy of an open exhibition is that you see work by artists
whose paintings are sold in high-end galleries, cheek-by-jowl with budding Paisley artists such as Liam McGrady, who has been attending classes run
by Made in Paisley. This pop-up art studio, run by PAI's vice president, Caroline Gormley and her artist partner, Sandy Guy, is sending out ripples in
the town by offering art classes for all ages and stages. The gamble to take the PAI annual on the road has paid off. Last weekend – the opening
weekend – record attendances and sales were recorded. Always good news for exhibiting artists. Sales figures between the preview events and first
weekend of being opened to the public combine to surpass sales over the entire exhibition period last year. PAI has also joined the Creative Scotland-
managed Own Art scheme; which means that anyone falling in love with an artwork will have the chance to pay it off in instalments if they can't live
without it. I wish my Presbyterian scone hat wearing gran was still here to see the wee linocut of the island of Bute – her birthplace – by Alan
Richardson I bought for £50. All part of the rich tapestry which has been weaving intricate patterns in Paisley since 1876. Paisley Art Institute's 131st
Annual Exhibition, The Piazza, Central Way, Paisley PA1 1EL, www.paisleyartinstitute.com, until October 20, Tue – Sat, 11.30am-5pm, Sun:
12pm-5pm. Closed Monday. Free

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