AGA.HRB.5
Catch up with Holly as they share more tales from their time at AGA!
People often joke about how they have no idea what it actually is that their friends do for work. I’ve worked in hospitality since I was in high school as have many of my friends so until recent years that’s been a little less apparent in my life. We all understand the craziness of restaurants. My friend recently sent me a post on Instagram (as is standard communication with friends I don't see often, but we let each other know we care through messages like this) of a tweet that says ‘I want a fake gay job like creative director’. I hadn’t realised that my friends thought I was already living that dream!
While my job is definitely not fake (thank you very much!), it is hard to encapsulate what I do as Curatorial Assistant at AGA because every day is new and there’s always something different happening, which is also why I love it so much.
I feel like a big part of what I do is capturing the memories and stories of people that relate to Alasdair and the collection. Something I really love about AGA is the commitment to preserving the voices of others alongside Alasdair’s. One of the first things we were taught on my Masters is that you cannot curate alone, and I think it’s evident in the way Alasdair worked that he appreciated the same sentiment with his creative practice. Every person who made his work possible is credited and celebrated for doing so.
We work very hard to plan and schedule our time to be as efficient as possible but sometimes a story comes up unexpectedly that simply must be captured right there and then. We came back from lunch one day and instantly I was ushered into the main archive room with AGA’s Custodian Sorcha Dallas and another woman. Sorcha opened A Life in Pictures to show me a painting, Juliet in Red Trousers, 1976, and the woman standing next to her was Juliet. Juliet in Red Trousers I would argue is one of Alasdair’s most striking paintings. The simple colour palette of pale skin tones, the red trousers, and deep blue of the patterned armchair is really visually appealing to me.
Abby then helped me set up the camera and get Juliet mic’d up to do the most impromptu interview I’ve ever done. Juliet sat at Alasdair’s desk with A Life in Pictures open at the page about her portrait. I asked her how they came to meet and what it was like to sit for him and she told me amazing stories of what it was like to be in Glasgow during that time. I am obsessed with this city so to hear Juliet’s experience of it then and now was really interesting and something I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to do. The way she described the coal stained stone of the West End buildings and the permanent rain made me think of Unthank and the Elite Café in Lanark. We laughed a lot and talked about the pub and climate change and books. Juliet was amazing and we’ll be sharing her story along with others in the future. Keep your eyes peeled!
I bumped into my tutor from my MFA, Judit, and her husband Roddy, at the GSA Degree Show just after this and was telling them about this crazy day and how it all happened which Roddy said suited me. This was such a nice compliment! I love the unexpectedness of some of my days, but understand why it confuses my friends trying to understand what exactly it is I do every day.
Another story I’m really lucky to be working with is the one of David and Marion Donaldson. When I was on my placement at AGA during my Masters I recorded an interview with them which I’m now able to go back and work with turning into a shareable video. The Donaldsons moved into Alasdair’s top floor flat at 58 Hill Street when he and his family moved to the larger ground floor flat. It was in this flat that the Donaldsons worked on starting the Marion Donaldson fashion label, which was then sold in boutiques such as In Gear on Gibson Street. There’s an amazing photo of this on Lost Glasgow that the Donaldsons shared from their personal archive:
It’s funny to me that so much of my work involves making films as it’s not something I’ve ever trained in yet somehow I have made so many across my degree and time at AGA. I do really enjoy it but me and Premier Pro have a tumultuous relationship to say the least. The universe wants me to make films and who am I to deny her.
One of the boxes in AGA’s collection dedicated to other figures in Alasdair’s life contains donated materials from the Donaldsons about David’s mother and Alasdair’s friend, Katy Gardiner. I’ve been able to record some footage of these items to add into the full video of their interview to give this really nice, round idea of the stories they shared and what items within AGA’s collection they relate to. My set up for recording this was what some might call experimental, but trial and error has seen me through this far. I laid out the postcards and Christmas cards Alasdair sent Katy on a table, had the camera at the highest height the tripod would allow to get an aerial shot and stood on a chair beside it. Got the shot, and isn’t that all that matters?
Another friend was convinced that all I do is package things. I have two time lapse videos on my Instagram (I love a time lapse) of packaging some art works, which is also something I had never done before and was taught how to by Sorcha. Sorcha’s mentorship means that I am constantly learning new things from how to write funding applications to safely wrapping original artworks. I thrive with a manual task. Building boxes to package mugs for Gray Day? In my element. Sticking labels to archive boxes? Living the dream.
When I get asked, so what is it you actually do? I sort of just do an elongated ‘uhhhh’ and launch into listing off things my friends haven’t heard of before. What’s very sweet is that they are always very proud of me anyway. When I was studying I was working full time throughout most of it, and travelling between Glasgow and Dundee. 2024 was an insane year for me and I genuinely don’t know what I would’ve done without the support of my friends. 2024 was the year of friendship. I’ve always been the biggest lover of my friends, but last year with support like that it really solidified that the love of your friends is one of the most important things in life.
One day maybe I will find the words to succinctly explain to them what it is I do. From getting to nosey through letters, handle original artworks, support students, write, accession items into the collection, record interviews, curate an exhibition, learn, network, and just generally have an unreal time.