A Wee Multitute Of Questions, an exhibition of the works of artist, Georgw Wyllie

The Scotsman

GREENOCK. The Wyllieum, Greenock Ocean Terminal, Greenock, PA15 1EG.  Willie Sutherland, general manager of The Wyllieum speaks at the new exhibition, A Wee Multitute Of Questions.  A WEE MULTITUDE OF QUESTIONS:  Scul?ture by George Wyllie  Our second exhibition of 2024 invites a new generation and those more familiar with George’s work to engage with the artist's prolific practice. We are excited by this opportunity to display some well-loved pieces of art, and works never before shown in the UK, in the fresh and contemporary setting of The Wyllieum.  Asking big questions lay at the heart of all George Wyllie's prolific creative output - although often his work intended to provoke thought and discussion rather than provide answers. Describing himself as a "scul?tor" Wyllie’s "trademark" question mark lies at the heart of this exhibition.

Transcript

00:00I'm Billy Sutherland, I'm General Manager here at the Wylium.

00:03So this is the second exhibition that the Wylium's hosting since we opened in April of this year.

00:09The title of the exhibition is A Wee Multitude of Questions, Sculpture by George Wylie.

00:13The title was taken from Liz Lockhead's poem.

00:16What we're seeing here now is more of a retrospective of objects that he made.

00:22He would play with works in a light-hearted way to entertain himself and others,

00:27but the playfulness captures the imagination and allows you then to deliver these more serious messages

00:34that are contained within the exhibition.

00:36The concept behind Wylium has been going on since 2013.

00:40It was very important for us to be by the Clydes because George had a deep affinity with the water,

00:47having been in the Royal Navy and then in the Customs Service,

00:51and he lived on the hill overlooking the same view that we have here.

00:55Yet to be contradicted, but the view that we have from the gallery is unrivalled in the country,

01:02and to be able to place George's works against that backdrop of an ever-changing landscape,

01:10where the light in every day is different.

01:13The majority of pieces were last seen when there was a major retrospective at the Mitchell Library in 2012.

01:21So it was a year-long exhibition that had been organised for George's 90th birthday,

01:25and George died during the run of that show.

01:27The majority of these works have been in storage since.

01:30We hope to change this space over at least two or three times a year.

01:34The humour of George's work is very much a gallows humour,

01:37and having been through the experiences that he'd had earlier in life,

01:42through his wartime experiences for example,

01:46the sound of laughter flowing through the gallery isn't something that...

01:50there's not many places that you hear that.

01:53He started making public art that the public can't ignore.

01:56Huge projects such as the paper boat and the straw locomotive.

02:00The straw locomotive they put in a flatbed and drove round the schemes of Glasgow to take.

02:05It's a grand public art project to people's doorsteps.

02:10George was very passionate about him because he was such a well-known local character.

02:15The Continental Cafe in Goorock, where he'd have his evening meal most nights after Daphne's passing,

02:22apparently he would announce himself by opening the door and throwing his bonnet through into the bath.

02:28This building itself sits on a former shipyard.

02:31The paper boat from 1988 was built round about here by traditional shipbuilders and welders.

02:41George's studio was built into the Undercroft and they would throw the doors open

02:47and the view of the Clyde Estuary was directly in front of him.

02:52The majority of these sculptures were being made in his workshop, or his basement as he called it,

02:58against the backdrop of this view.

03:00So for us to be able to continue to display them as they were intended with that backdrop is quite beautiful.

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