CRITIC’S CHOICE

The CCA opens up its post lockdown doors with a new exhibition called Ambi. The GSA has commissioned four UK-based artists and designers to select one piece and track its histories in order to present new work.

The title of the exhibition, ambi, is Punjabi for the pattern known in Scotland as Paisley Pattern. Ambi also means “both” and anyone with an interest in the twin histories of textiles and design will be drawn to this exhibition.

All four artists have chosen artefacts which have layers of meaning. Rabiya Choudhry investigates the Paisley

Pattern, which has its origins in Ancient Babylon or Iran. With its unique teardrop or “boteh” form the seed-like shape of Paisley Pattern is purported to represent fertility.

Inspired by carpets, Fiona Jardine examines the relationship between space, place and labour. Alexander Morton & Sons, who weaved lace in Darvel, by 1898 had established an enterprise in Donegal making hand-knotted carpets.

For her new work, Gather your spools, let your hair down for me. Gently. Here. Undo, Raisa Kabir performs with a woven head of hair, responding to the textile geographies of labour between Kashmiri woven shawls, Paisley, Scotland, Textile Archives, and South Asian diasporic migration and displacement.

Hanneline Visnes has researched the work of

Dorothy Carleton Smyth, pictured above, (1880-1933). The GSA Archives & Collections holds several costume designs by Smyth for Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Wilde’s Salome.

ambi, Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow G2 3JD, entry free and ticketed (1 hour slots), 0141 352 4900, https://www. cca-glasgow.com/programme/ambi, Tuesday to Saturday, 11am – 6pm, Friday, 12pm – 6pm. Until May 29.