(Untitled)

red road

The Red Road flats in Glasgow have been a darkly iconic presence on the city’s landscape since 1964. A symbol of both the ambition and the dysfunction of the urban planning process.

Calum Clezy sources his images from the sudden, the accidentally, incidentally observed. He has often been drawn to the landscapes of the marginal – dead ends of various kinds.

Here, he sets about responding to the Red Road site by capturing the periphery. Using his distinctive close seeing, he has captured various objects in their abandoned state.

With exquisite attention, to position, light, subject, Calum presents tiny pieces of human detritus from around the building. A shoe, a ball, a child’s pacifier all speak to us via his transfiguring gaze. In his focus on these physically small details, he leads us deeper into understanding the hugeness of the flats themselves.

Sandyfield multi-storey flats, Gorbals

Counter-Demonstration in Manchester back in October against the EDL

The English Defence League (EDL), a far-right group with links to the British National Party (BNP) and other neo-fascist organisations,have disgraced the streets of Brittan’s biggest cities in recent times claiming to be protesting simply against ‘Islamic extremism’. However, their previous demonstrations have contradicted this, all have involved racial violence, racist chants and fascist salutes.

Back on October 10 I joined the anti-fascists protesters in Manchester’s Piccadilly gardens. The gardens had been the chosen location for the EDL’S demonstrations.However the gardens were held throughout the day by the anti fascist protesters disrupting the EDL.