About this Event
George Wyllie had an enquiring mind and a mischievous sense of humour which in-spired him to:
• create curious scul?tures
• question established assumptions in his writings and
• embrace geopoetics, the creative expression of the Earth.
In this talk, author Norman Bissell, Director of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics, will explore some of George’s lesser known voyages that led him to champion such things as shamanism, geopoetics, the Crystal Ship and Imagine the Clyde. He will also read short extracts from the chapter about George in his new book Living on an Island, Expressing the Earth.
There will be lots of time to ? everything and to discuss how creative minds and actions can help to bring about cultural regeneration. In that sense, Norman and George together will launch this paper/back/boat from the Tail o’ the Bank down and up the river that was, and is, so dear to their hearts.
Norman Bissell is the author of the poetry collection Slate, Sea and Sky, a Journey from Glasgow to the Isle of Luing and Barnhill a Novel about the last years in the life of George Orwell when he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four on Jura. A former history teacher and EIS trade union activist, his latest book is a memoir about growing up in Glasgow and what led him to live on the slate island of Luing in Argyll and, like George, to creatively express the Earth later in life.
Refreshments and nibbles
Some excerpts from the chapter about George Wyllie in Norman Bissell’s new book Living on an Island, Expressing the Earth:
Doon the watter
The last time I met George was, appropriately enough, on a trip ‘doon the watter’ on The Waverley paddle steamer organised by the Imagining Scotland group of enthusiasts. A large crowd of us left from the Yorkhill Docks where years before my uncle and other relations had worked as dockers and I used to sell socialist newspapers when I was a student… I thought of this past as we stepped aboard in bright summer sunshine. It was a lovely sail downriver, calling in at Greenock to pick up more passengers, then out into the Firth, round the Kyles of Bute and back. The steamer had been rented in aid of a project to Imagine the Clyde as it could be in the future. Down below, some guys were running a songwriting workshop and coming up with some pretty good lyrics. On the lower passenger deck, George held court with lots of admirers who were much taken by him and his work. He spoke passionately about his latest project The Crystal Ship which would traverse the junction of the Kelvin and Clyde rivers and be Glasgow’s answer to the Eiffel Tower. On the way back he did a roaring trade in selling and signing posters he’d drawn of The Waverley to raise funds for the river project. I still have mine somewhere.
Looking back, I can see now that George was a force of nature who combined an enquiring mind with a bold imagination to create unique art out of whatever he came across. His work was exhibited all over the world but the places which meant most to him were his birthplace Glasgow and the Tail of the Bank where he spent the last part of his life as a Customs and Excise man (like Burns) before becoming a full-time artist at the age of fifty-nine. It’s fitting, therefore, that his work has found a permanent home in The Wyllieum at Greenock Ocean Terminal. The River Clyde meant much to George Wyllie. As his daughter Louise has said, ‘It inspired my father constantly during the course of a long and creative life.’…
Pure joy it was to be part of a select band of about five hundred folk celebrating the life and work of George Wyllie at the opening preview of The Wyllieum towards the end of April 2024. There was such a buzz about the place. Murray Grigor talked about his friend the Why?sman, Liz Lochhead read her marvellous poem A Wee Multitude of Questions for George Wyllie with lines like ‘Who puts a question mark at the centre of everything?’ and ‘Who lives unbowed under the slant of Scottish weather,/ loves the white light of stones, walks on wiry grass/ and, feeling the electric earth beneath him/ turns his wide gaze to the open sea?’ I met some remarkable people and relished the depth of vision and mischievous good humour in the work that was on display.
One photograph in particular of George sitting on a little bike beaming at me, surrounded by a group of primary pupils who had made their own bikes, got me thinking how significant his educational work was. It ranged from working with young ones in and out of schools to talking to students at Glasgow School of Art, invited there to sprinkle some fairy dust by David Harding, Head of Environmental Art at the time. The Big Little Paper Boat project of 2011- 2012 showed what could be done. I’m sure The Wyllieum could offer ongoing projects to Inverclyde schools and a programme of speakers about various aspects of George’s work could attract new audiences to become more aware of his significance as an artist, writer and educator. With Alec Galloway’s Creative Regeneration project to turn the Glebe former sugar refinery into a community arts hub, the Beacon Arts Centre, the McLean Museum and Art Gallery and much more, it feels like an upsurge of creative renewal is leading the way forward for the cultural and economic regeneration of the area. George would have heartily approved and got stuck into it….
In his wee red book My Words, writing about the Glasgow Art Fair, George said ‘there’s something about a tented enclosure that pleasantly obscures the unpleasantness of life outside.’ He imagined the Scott Monument in George Square as the central pole of a big top circus tent and actually enjoyed the Fair in spite of himself and said ‘with all this art making us such a happy breed, it is increasingly difficult to be miserable.’ Yet he was highly critical of what capitalism was doing to the planet and people and reflected, ‘Thrashing about for a solution is like looking for a slither of soap in a bathtub.’ Well, he found that bar of soap in his art and in the joy of being creative, and he continues to in-spire all those who are open to his geopoetic practice.
© Norman Bissell
Images of George Wyllie and his artwork © the George Wyllie Estate
Every penny that is donated will be used to deliver the Wyllieum's community engagement and ensure we remain accessible and welcoming to all. Thank you for being part of our journey.Suggested donation £5
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The wyllieum, Custom House Way, Greenock, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00