Painted shopfront shutters of Glasgow's Gallowgate.
Over the past year or so,painted decorations have started to appear & proliferate on the steel security shutters which--with good reason--practically all the shops & businesses in this area utilize.
Painted,I would imagine,by no more than two or three artists,they vary in style & quality & they all contribute a certain gay cheer to an otherwise drab necessity.Most of them allude,in one way or another--like the one above--to the goods or services available within.
Here is a small selection.
This one,portraying two cheery--but strangely intimidating--celtic types was the first to appear,or at least the first I became aware of.
This mysterious & alluring nude adorns the portal to the Tarot Readers.
Next door,"The Barras Boutique" is decorated with a yellow submarine & jewel motifs.
Linoland features spray-painted depictions of the goods to be found within;vinyls,carpets & linoleums mainly.
A detail of the Linoland shutters.
Linoland as a verdant outcrop upon a jagged sea.
The Clydesdale Bank was the last bank to have an outpost in this area before one hold up too many sent them high-tailing it back to the reality beyond the railway bridge.It's premises are now home to The Potters House Church.
At weekends it's congregants assemble on the street & with guitars,kazoo & tambourines hold revivalist-style services,enjoining passers by & shoppers to join in & praise The Lord.
The faithful used to be greeted with some derision & laughter from the drinkers across the road in Bairds Bar,until--after one stabbing too many--it too was forced to call "last orders" for the last time.The wooden-panelled exterior of this popular watering hole is decorated with depictions of local "Barras" Traders & Characters.
Not a shutter,but a colourful "Modern Art" fresco in the Barras.
 |
|
A Barras shutter displaying a rich patina of time & tide
The Spartan,minimalist shutter of "Barras Art and Design" Cafe.Reminiscent,I feel,of an early Frank Stella.
A sparkling diamond pattern.
Sometimes a change of use in shop premises can result in odd juxtapositions.
As here,where the inscrutable,sphinx-like features of King Tutankhamen--which once graced one of the many gold traders stores--stare out from the Barbers across into "Tracey's Snacks",possibly yearning for a delicious roll on scrambled eggs.
The vibrant,Fauvist semi-abstractions of "Kidz Count" child day-care centre.
Young Lovers enjoy a cup of tea in the cosmopolitan ambience of "The Rumbling Tum" Cafe.
I can personally recommend their pie & beans.
Or,indeed,their hot coffee & muffins as represented here in this giant still life.
Again,not strictly a shutter painting.
But what a weird thing.What does it mean?Baffling & crazilly reminiscent of a Joan Eardley street wean,or one of John Byrne's wonderfully spiky pen & ink self portraits.
