Catriona Clark

Exhibitions at Ingram Street and the challenges of installs

Clip Title	Exhibitions at Ingram Street and the challenges of installs
Interviewee Name	Catriona Clark
Interviewee Role	Worked as Administrator from the mid-1970s to 1983, carrying out a wide range of tasks in the Gallery and supporting Director Calum MacKenzie.
Interviewer Name	Kerry Patterson
Interview Date	16 January 2013
Clip Length	2 minutes 33 seconds

Transcription

CC: Erm, when I started the exhibition that was on was called ‘Art Extraordinary’ [1978]. Um, and it was a woman called Joyce Laing had put that exhibition together. I think it was a touring exhibition and it was work by people who had mental health problems. Eh, there were straw men and there was all sorts of different artworks in that exhibition. Um, I think that stands out in my mind simply because it was the exhibition that was on when I started. Things like the, erm, Mark Gertler exhibition [1982] stand out simply because the size of the painting, the Merry-go-round. I think there was a poster for that?

KP: Yes that’s right, featuring that painting

CC: Uh ha. Um, ‘Max Ernst Books and Graphics’ [1979] was, erm - I think, I think we got that through the Goethe Institute, there was a connection with the German Institute where we got several exhibitions through the auspices of the – of them. Um, certainly ‘Max Ernst Books and Graphics’ was one, and eh, they were quite valuable and we had to hire gallery sitters, two chaps to sort of be there the whole time, and you had to put gloves on if you wanted to look at the books and everything was very, very precious, and I’m trying to think what other…God there were so many [….] ‘The French Cartoonists’ [1980] was in collaboration with the Glasgow League of Artists. That was their connection. Some of these were, eh, like, ‘Gregor Smith Watercolours’ [1979], again was a Glasgow League of Artists exhibition. I think the arrangement was that for three months of the year, the Glasgow League of Artists used the Gallery space.

KP: Oh really?

CC: I think that was the arrangement. Erm, ‘West of West’ [1980] came from the Irish Tourist Board and the artist was a guy called Nigel Rolf and these pictures arrived with the glass all covered in, erm, packing tape. Which took the whole night and about six of us with razor blades to actually get the tape off the glass for the exhibition. And it was hung ceiling to floor. And it was a nightmare, a nightmare! I remember that well.