0:00:04 > 0:00:08In the early 1990s, something startling happened in Scotland
0:00:08 > 0:00:12which would cause an earthquake across the international art world.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20A group of young guns challenged the establishment to create works
0:00:20 > 0:00:23so audacious and so arresting that critics proclaimed
0:00:23 > 0:00:25the coming of a "Glasgow Miracle".
0:00:30 > 0:00:33This close-knit generation would produce no fewer
0:00:33 > 0:00:35than six Turner Prize winners,
0:00:35 > 0:00:39beginning in 1996 with the godfather of the gang, Douglas Gordon.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41APPLAUSE
0:00:41 > 0:00:45I'd first of all like to say thanks my family and also the other
0:00:45 > 0:00:48family, the kind of Scotia Nostra. LAUGHTER
0:00:48 > 0:00:49They know who they are.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55These days, the Scotia Nostra is less a secret society
0:00:55 > 0:00:57and more of a global phenomenon,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01and its members are international figures whose diverse work is
0:01:01 > 0:01:03sought-after across the world.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11To mark 25 remarkable, revolutionary years, Scotland is hosting one
0:01:11 > 0:01:15of the most ambitious celebrations of contemporary art ever staged.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Featuring more than 100 artists in 60 venues from Orkney
0:01:20 > 0:01:23and the Outer Hebrides to the Borders and the big cities,
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Generation shines a spotlight on one of the most important
0:01:27 > 0:01:30and misunderstood cultural stories of modern times.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Over the past few decades, Scotland has reinvented itself.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38A declining industrial powerhouse now advertises itself
0:01:38 > 0:01:41as a world centre for artistic creativity.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44But I want to get behind the headlines to find out
0:01:44 > 0:01:46how this extraordinary transformation happened,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49who drove it and what might happen next.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08It's the opening day of one of the most anticipated
0:02:08 > 0:02:10of the Generation exhibitions.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Taking centre stage at Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art is
0:02:17 > 0:02:22a dazzling installation - Douglas Gordon's Pretty Much Every Film
0:02:22 > 0:02:24And Video Work From About 1992 Until Now.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33Remarkably, this is the first time since the early '90s that
0:02:33 > 0:02:37the internationally renowned artist, born and bred near Glasgow
0:02:37 > 0:02:41but now based in Berlin, has had a show in his home city.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Little wonder that his kaleidoscopic retrospective
0:02:44 > 0:02:46is proving such a sensation.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53Does it matter to you that you're being celebrated in your home town?
0:02:53 > 0:02:54Oh, I'm not being celebrated yet.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56Oh, you're being celebrated. Get over yourself!
0:02:56 > 0:02:58Of course you're being celebrated!
0:02:58 > 0:03:01I don't think...
0:03:01 > 0:03:04You're someone that doesn't have a bit of a hit for himself,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06I think that's really interesting. You don't have an arrogance.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08I don't like to be happy.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12I think it's...
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Happiness is not my...metier. Um...
0:03:18 > 0:03:25It's more interesting for me to be disturbed and agitated.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Perhaps the most famous expression of Douglas Gordon's agitated
0:03:30 > 0:03:35and agitating imagination was his 1993 work, 24 Hour Psycho.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40His obsessive slow motion version of the Hitchcock classic
0:03:40 > 0:03:43made his name and opened the eyes of the art world to a whole
0:03:43 > 0:03:46generation of contemporary artists from Scotland.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51One of the attractions to Psycho was that,
0:03:51 > 0:03:56you know, that my mum had always said it was too dangerous
0:03:56 > 0:03:58or frightening to watch.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00And the same thing, The Exorcist
0:04:00 > 0:04:04was kind of a forbidden fruit type of a thing.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07The Cramps were DEFINITELY forbidden.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12The Smiths were dodgy, and a lot of these references
0:04:12 > 0:04:16that I'm using all the time are to do with what I wasn't allowed
0:04:16 > 0:04:19to watch or allowed to do.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24And, you know, I think a lot of the work that you'll see here
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and a lot of the work from people in Glasgow is transgressive.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31It's very important to be transgressive.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35This is the first time you've ever had anything like this in Glasgow.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38I mean, what does it feel like to be here?
0:04:38 > 0:04:42Erm, I suppose it's like the anxiety of...
0:04:42 > 0:04:46playing at the home ground or something.
0:04:48 > 0:04:54So, aye, it's good to be back, but, aye, a wee bit nerve-racking.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56- Really? For you?- Aye, yeah.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58Even for me, it's nerve-racking.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02But, you know, it's kind of...
0:05:02 > 0:05:07It's strange how sometimes things can become...
0:05:07 > 0:05:09differently significant.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12You know, I knew that I was going to be doing this
0:05:12 > 0:05:13and I was nervous about it,
0:05:13 > 0:05:20and then suddenly the Mackintosh building goes on fire, and that puts
0:05:20 > 0:05:22things into a different perspective.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25You know, I'm very proud of what I've done here,
0:05:25 > 0:05:30but that's nothing compared to the Mackintosh building.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32One of Scotland's most significant buildings,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35the Glasgow School of Art, has been badly damaged in a fire.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37SIRENS BLARE
0:05:37 > 0:05:40The 23rd of May 2014.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44A devastating fire tears through Glasgow School of Art's
0:05:44 > 0:05:47famous Mackintosh building.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50On the city streets and around the world,
0:05:50 > 0:05:52onlookers watch in dismay.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55The emotion, real and raw.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh
0:06:06 > 0:06:08in the early 20th century,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11this marvellous invention of stone and glass
0:06:11 > 0:06:13has always been a very special place.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20At the heart of Scotland's artistic success story,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23the iconic building has beguiled and inspired
0:06:23 > 0:06:26countless young art students.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33What was your notion of what would happen to you
0:06:33 > 0:06:34when you went to art school?
0:06:34 > 0:06:39The real draw was the romanticism of the Macintosh building.
0:06:39 > 0:06:45Here was this beautiful and stand-alone kind of...
0:06:45 > 0:06:48I guess, a kind of window to the rest of the world.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51You could kind of sense that this was quite magical.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54And then I think the fortunate thing was, you know,
0:06:54 > 0:06:59being there at a time where my peer group were equally...
0:06:59 > 0:07:06inquisitive and smart and hardworking and a bit gallus.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13That colourful Scottish word, "gallus",
0:07:13 > 0:07:17perfectly captures the gutsy swagger of a group of students who
0:07:17 > 0:07:20came together at Glasgow School of Art in the mid-'80s.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32The gang that would later become the Scotia Nostra included
0:07:32 > 0:07:37Nathan Coley, Douglas Gordon, Roddy Buchanan, Christine Borland
0:07:37 > 0:07:39and Ross Sinclair.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42You were a kind of merry band.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45Erm, you're still all in touch.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Is that because you just like each other as human beings or is it
0:07:47 > 0:07:50that you have this great creative conversation?
0:07:50 > 0:07:53There's a real sort of deep-seated connection there which,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57actually, isn't to do with a formal style of work.
0:07:57 > 0:07:58It was never to do with that.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02Maybe that's why it was sort of difficult to do any definitive
0:08:02 > 0:08:07exhibition of that, because, you know, it all looks quite different.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11But I think the connection came from environmental art and David Harding.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16For me, anyway, that was the unfolding of all those possibilities.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22The catalyst for the Scotia Nostra - what bound them together -
0:08:22 > 0:08:24was Environmental Art,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27a ground-breaking new course being pioneered by tutors
0:08:27 > 0:08:29David Harding and Sam Ainslie.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33You were the two revolutionaries, weren't you?
0:08:33 > 0:08:35You started it all.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39Yeah, well, we had the great opportunity
0:08:39 > 0:08:41to found our own department.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44And not many people get the chance to do that within an art school.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48That was a great privilege and gave us great freedom
0:08:48 > 0:08:51to invent and introduce...
0:08:51 > 0:08:56elements to art teaching that we felt were important.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01The radical philosophy behind environmental art
0:09:01 > 0:09:05came out of David Harding's public artwork in Scotland's new towns
0:09:05 > 0:09:07in the early 1970s.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12His mantra was that the context of an artwork,
0:09:12 > 0:09:14its physical and social setting,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17was just as important as the work itself.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20I just want you to press this into here, all right?
0:09:23 > 0:09:26For the eager students who signed up for the new course,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29it was an inspiring vision.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31Was it a certain type of student that wanted to take this course?
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Had they any idea what they were letting themselves in for?
0:09:35 > 0:09:37No, I don't think so.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42I mean, they may not have had a clear idea, but what they did know was,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46they didn't want to specialise in one medium.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49- They didn't want to be painters, photographers...- Sculptors.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51..sculptors, printmakers.
0:09:51 > 0:09:58But there's an interesting thing, I think. In that first three cohorts,
0:09:58 > 0:10:02all the students came within 20 miles of Glasgow.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Rather like the Celtic team winning the European Cup.
0:10:05 > 0:10:10- The players all came from 15 miles around Glasgow.- Mm-hmm.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14And, I think there was something about that
0:10:14 > 0:10:17that built a sense of community.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20They believed in their work.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23You know, they were passionate about what they were doing.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26And they debated constantly amongst themselves, you know,
0:10:26 > 0:10:31and there was a real sense of, you know, commitment to
0:10:31 > 0:10:34the life of an artist, even if you ended up poor.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39David Harding and Sam Ainslie's students
0:10:39 > 0:10:41felt they were a tribe apart,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45something only reinforced by the fact that Environmental Art
0:10:45 > 0:10:47was housed in a semi-derelict former girls' school
0:10:47 > 0:10:50round the corner from the Mackintosh.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53We were banished from the Mackintosh building.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56None of us were ever in there after first year.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59We were in the kind of Salon de Refuses down in Hill Street.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01You were the kind of outriders?
0:11:01 > 0:11:03Yeah, and we all had keys for the building
0:11:03 > 0:11:05and folk were sleeping there and we were doing raves.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07I mean, it's not that...
0:11:07 > 0:11:10I think we were tolerated up to a point,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13but mostly they just didn't really want to know what was going on.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20Beneath the feverish creativity and equally feverish party going
0:11:20 > 0:11:21at the former girls' school,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25something new and quite profound was being worked out.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30A kind of art that was in dialogue with its surroundings
0:11:30 > 0:11:33and which encompassed everything from text to installation,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35from performance to video.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40It was an inspirational course.
0:11:40 > 0:11:46You had a lot of time on your own, but you also had your peers.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48And, really, it was like a sort of peer group school.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52I mean, David and Sam mentoring, but, really, you know,
0:11:52 > 0:11:57they really encouraged you to talk about work together.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00It was just a course that had a vibrancy to it,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03and it seemed very immediate and relevant.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08They were making work that was grounded in the here and now
0:12:08 > 0:12:11and the things that were immediately around them.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15They worked very cheaply. The sort of materials they used,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18you could say, were unsanctioned, so they just used ordinary things
0:12:18 > 0:12:23rather than more obvious art materials like bronze or oil.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26You know, so it's an attempt to cast off that idea of art being
0:12:26 > 0:12:31somehow elevated and above, or being different from,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33your everyday life.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39Taking part in Generation are some of the most famous graduates
0:12:39 > 0:12:41of the Environmental Art course.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49Winner of the Turner Prize in 2011, Martin Boyce.
0:12:52 > 0:12:57Turner nominees, David Shrigley and Jim Lambie.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04Beck's Futures prize-winner, Roddy Buchanan.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08And Scotland's first Venice Biennale representative,
0:13:08 > 0:13:09Claire Barclay.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19But as Generation highlights, the eye-catching conceptual work
0:13:19 > 0:13:23of the environmental artists wasn't the only show in town
0:13:23 > 0:13:25in the late 1980s and early '90s.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30The painter, Alison Watt, was, from the very beginning,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33committed to a very personal kind of art.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37When you went to art school in Glasgow, it was the time
0:13:37 > 0:13:41of Martin Boyce and Douglas Gordon and Nathan Coley and group.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43They feel like a community. Their art's all very different,
0:13:43 > 0:13:48but they feel like a community. Did you feel part of that community?
0:13:48 > 0:13:51No, I mean, I know them all and I'm friends with them,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55but we all have very different ways of working. And I think that's one
0:13:55 > 0:14:00of the sort of beauties of this project because, if anything,
0:14:00 > 0:14:06it's impossible to categorise all of us. For me, the Generation project
0:14:06 > 0:14:11is more about marking a particular period of time, because that's
0:14:11 > 0:14:15all you can really do, because we all have different ways of making
0:14:15 > 0:14:20and inventing. And I'm glad that's the case. I'm glad it's so diverse.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25I've always felt very strongly that I wanted to be a painter.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30I have no memory of ever wanting to be or do anything else.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34Being a painter is a solitary business,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37because when you make a painting, you can't delegate.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39No-one can go through that process for you,
0:14:39 > 0:14:44and I spend almost every day of my working life entirely alone.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49At the time when, you know, there was increasing hubbub
0:14:49 > 0:14:53around conceptual art in particular, I've always
0:14:53 > 0:14:56thought of you as somebody that, really, was quite quiet,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59I mean, about your work.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Although, you have been commercially successful as well.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04- But you were very quiet about your work.- Yeah.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08I feel that's part of... That's who I am, and I think you have to
0:15:08 > 0:15:12be true to who you are. I would prefer that the work speaks for me.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17Alison Watt is one of the country's most significant
0:15:17 > 0:15:18and successful artists.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25As part of Generation, she has a show at Perth Museum and Art Gallery
0:15:25 > 0:15:28where recent canvases hang side-by-side
0:15:28 > 0:15:30with some of her earliest paintings.
0:15:31 > 0:15:37Even early on, her work was poetic, luminous and self-contained -
0:15:37 > 0:15:41qualities not necessarily in tune with what was happening elsewhere
0:15:41 > 0:15:43in the late 1980s and early '90s.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51This was the moment when contemporary art
0:15:51 > 0:15:53met popular culture.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57In England, the YBAs, or Young British Artists,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00led by the entrepreneurial genius of Damien Hirst,
0:16:00 > 0:16:04were staging barnstorming shows that wowed the art world.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Nick Serota from the Tate came, Norman Rosenthal,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10and a lot of people from, like, London galleries.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12Practically everybody, really.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17But while the London artists were grabbing headlines and transforming
0:16:17 > 0:16:21themselves into celebrities, north of the border, their exact
0:16:21 > 0:16:25contemporaries were also tuning in to the buccaneering Zeitgeist.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29I've often said I'm a child of Thatcherism,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33that notion of entrepreneurial spirit and the individual.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36It's the opposite of my personal politics, but it was...
0:16:36 > 0:16:43it was a time when you didn't need to fall into the structures
0:16:43 > 0:16:46of the establishment and you could make your own rules.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49- They were enterprising...- Yes. - ..and that, actually,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52funnily enough, is a word that we might associate with the YBAs,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56who were kind of setting up shops and urgently self-promoting.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Well, it seems to me that the Glasgow artists were
0:16:59 > 0:17:01a little bit like that too.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04You know, they had to make their own luck. But that was...
0:17:04 > 0:17:07It was sort of more about cooperation than competition.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16That cooperative DIY spirit had already found
0:17:16 > 0:17:19a focus in Glasgow's Transmission Gallery.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25Set up by artists disillusioned with the lack of opportunity
0:17:25 > 0:17:27to show their work in the city,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30it quickly became a hothouse for a new kind of artistic enterprise.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34We made, like, 17 shows, I think, in one year.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38I always call it, Transmission, a sort of post-grad course. You know,
0:17:38 > 0:17:42it's really, like, practically working out experiments and working
0:17:42 > 0:17:46with artists, having to get in touch with artists, friends, networks.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49We were very keen to bring people to Glasgow
0:17:49 > 0:17:51and it was always about this sort of exchange.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55Transmission transmitted.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59International critics and curators began to notice that
0:17:59 > 0:18:02something extraordinary was happening in Scotland.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05A very few people in Glasgow have really
0:18:05 > 0:18:07made an unbelievable impact globally.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11This Glasgow model - or as I always call it, the Glasgow Miracle -
0:18:11 > 0:18:13is now really internationally discussed.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16How a very small city, in a do-it-yourself way, all of a sudden
0:18:16 > 0:18:21can create out of itself this very unique and dynamic situation.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25Swiss-born Hans-Ulrich Obrist
0:18:25 > 0:18:28was an early devotee of Scotland's young artists,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32and is now one of the art world's most influential figures.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35I was 23 years old and I had never been to Glasgow.
0:18:35 > 0:18:36I'd never been to Scotland
0:18:36 > 0:18:39and I also had never heard of Transmission, which
0:18:39 > 0:18:43proved to be this amazing artist-run space. And I did my first lecture
0:18:43 > 0:18:47there and then, all night long, I was brought from one studio to the next.
0:18:47 > 0:18:53And it was amazing to see the energy, to also see the solidarity
0:18:53 > 0:18:55among the artists, because, you know,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58one artist would show me his or her studio but would then say,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00"You've got to see my friend next door."
0:19:00 > 0:19:03And I think it went until four or five in the morning.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06It was actually an incredible, incredible revelation.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Did you not coin the phrase, "the Glasgow Miracle"?
0:19:09 > 0:19:11I think that has often been a misunderstanding,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13because that was obviously, you know, never meant
0:19:13 > 0:19:16in a literal sense.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20The term "Glasgow Miracle" might never have been meant literally,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23but it has become a handy marketing slogan.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27So, hello and welcome to the Glasgow School of Art
0:19:27 > 0:19:31and to the Glasgow Miracle City Walking Tour.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35Every summer, the city's famous art school
0:19:35 > 0:19:38runs Glasgow Miracle walking tours,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42attracting tourists and art fans from across the world.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45So what kind of people take this tour?
0:19:45 > 0:19:48You can get somebody who's really interested in architecture,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51somebody that's really interested in contemporary art, or somebody
0:19:51 > 0:19:56who has absolutely no idea what you're about to lead them into.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59And then, it's amazing, you get these lovely little moments
0:19:59 > 0:20:02in the tour where people are discovering little things
0:20:02 > 0:20:06that they had absolutely no idea would have existed in the city.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10Tourists visiting Scotland's largest city might be surprised,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13even astonished, by the Glasgow Miracle.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18But it is a phrase guaranteed to provoke those who were
0:20:18 > 0:20:20actually there at the time.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24I feel uncomfortable with that notion of the Glasgow Miracle
0:20:24 > 0:20:28because it somehow means that
0:20:28 > 0:20:32it's landed from another world and from outer space.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37It also denies the fact that it's hard work, endeavour,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41a degree of luck, perhaps, and also that there's a longevity to it.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45You know, a miracle is a moment and the situation is not a moment.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49The Glasgow Miracle's a creation myth and it implies
0:20:49 > 0:20:52that nothing happened before the 1990s,
0:20:52 > 0:20:57that it was some sort of spontaneous act of creativity, and there
0:20:57 > 0:21:01has never been anything of worth to have emerged, say, from Glasgow.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04So it's like Scotland coming out of the dark.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12To many, Scotland before the 1990s did indeed seem like a dark place.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20Heavy industry - the mainstay of the economy - was in steep decline,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24and the country was racked by high unemployment and social deprivation.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32But for writers, artists and musicians, this was a creative spur.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35I think people responded
0:21:35 > 0:21:38to this post-industrial lack of hope.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41People were politicised. People, crucially,
0:21:41 > 0:21:47were meeting up and interacting and talking to each other.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51And you wrote or made art perhaps not with the expectation
0:21:51 > 0:21:56that it would be recognised or that it would get anywhere, but because
0:21:56 > 0:21:59you actually had to do it. You know, it was an urge, it was a need.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05Culturally, things were stirring in Scotland, despite the referendum
0:22:05 > 0:22:10vote in 1979 which had failed to establish a Scottish Assembly.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13The referendum was hugely deflationary
0:22:13 > 0:22:17for the national mood and character, but in the undercurrents of that,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20much was changing. In fact, an awful lot of things were
0:22:20 > 0:22:24changing in Scotland that would be changed and could never be reversed.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26There were a range of different art forms,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29cultural forms that were beginning to emerge.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32One of the things that Scotland had always had was what you might
0:22:32 > 0:22:34call popular theatre.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36There were a lot of touring companies
0:22:36 > 0:22:40and one of the biggest and most important of them was 7:84.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42And, of course, the biggest single play that they did was
0:22:42 > 0:22:45The Cheviot, The Stag And The Black, Black Oil.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48WOMAN SINGS IN SCOTTISH GAELIC
0:22:52 > 0:22:55The song says, "Remember that you are a people
0:22:55 > 0:22:57"and fight for your rights.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00"There are riches beneath the hills where you grew up.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03"There's iron and coal there, grey lead and gold.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06"There is riches in the land beneath your feet."
0:23:06 > 0:23:09In '79 and onwards throughout the '80s,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13you began to see a revivification
0:23:13 > 0:23:15of Scottish traditional forms of Scottish culture.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20But alongside that as well was a much more kind of globally
0:23:20 > 0:23:24astute culture which was looking outwards from Scotland.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27And the one area that I would single out for that is the rise
0:23:27 > 0:23:30of Scottish bands, Scottish singers.
0:23:30 > 0:23:31MUSIC: "Rip It Up"
0:23:31 > 0:23:33# Rip it up and start again
0:23:33 > 0:23:38# I said, rip it up and start again... #
0:23:38 > 0:23:39MUSIC: "Walk Out to Winter"
0:23:39 > 0:23:41# Walk out to winter
0:23:41 > 0:23:44# Swear I'll be there... #
0:23:44 > 0:23:48'The Postcard bands of Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera
0:23:48 > 0:23:51'and things like that, they were living in a Glasgow that'
0:23:51 > 0:23:55itself was changing. It was a city that was becoming more metropolitan,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58it was a city that was becoming more interested in the arts.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00It was transforming profoundly
0:24:00 > 0:24:03about how it could actually imagine itself as a creative city
0:24:03 > 0:24:07rather than a city of industry, so all of these forces in a kind
0:24:07 > 0:24:10of odd kind of cocktail of things were coming together.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19A vital ingredient of Scotland's intoxicating cultural cocktail
0:24:19 > 0:24:24in the mid-1980s was a loosely linked group of young painters.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26Nicknamed the New Glasgow Boys
0:24:26 > 0:24:29after an even earlier generation of Scottish artists,
0:24:29 > 0:24:35Peter Howson, Ken Currie, Adrian Wiszniewski and Steven Campbell took
0:24:35 > 0:24:39a fractured landscape of declining industry and social deprivation
0:24:39 > 0:24:43and transfigured it through the prisms of their imagination.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47People like Peter Howson and Wiszniewski
0:24:47 > 0:24:53and Ken Currie, they were all like gods to the students like me.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56There's a real lack of decadence to that work.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00It's real and it's solid and it's not always comfortable to
0:25:00 > 0:25:04look at, but life is not always comfortable.
0:25:04 > 0:25:09The New Glasgow Boys might have been like gods to some students,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12but others were much more agnostic.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14In the current climate,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18it's just not a feasible thing to even think of taking those people
0:25:18 > 0:25:23as role models or anything. Plus, I don't really like their work!
0:25:24 > 0:25:28For the up-and-coming generation of environmental artists,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31the New Glasgow Boys and their expressionistic,
0:25:31 > 0:25:36figurative painting style seemed of little relevance.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39That was what the public knew about Glasgow Art School,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43were the Glasgow Boys. And where did you fit into that?
0:25:43 > 0:25:46It wasn't really of much interest to me or my sort of peer group.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50Actually, I think we just wanted to do our own thing.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53And some of these painters, for me, anyway,
0:25:53 > 0:25:55that looked a bit like a monologue.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57You know, you sat in your studio, you did your canvases
0:25:57 > 0:26:01and then you shipped off to the gallery and never saw them again.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04But that never interested me, you know,
0:26:04 > 0:26:09and I think there was a lot more outward-looking sort of ideas.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13That's one of the unfortunate things that happened,
0:26:13 > 0:26:15that that cluster of artists,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18who were remarkable in doing incredible things internationally,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21quickly sort of congealed into this "Glasgow Boys" tag which
0:26:21 > 0:26:26tended to suggest a sort of macho, industrial, working-class hero
0:26:26 > 0:26:30sort of culture that was anathema for a lot of people coming through
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Glasgow at a younger age, partly because a lot of them were women.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40Christine Borland was one of the original Environmental Art course
0:26:40 > 0:26:45alumni and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51Her fascination with forensics, genetics and family history
0:26:51 > 0:26:55gives her work an unsettling and deeply moving quality.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04For one of her Generation exhibitions,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07she has come home to Ayrshire, where I'm from too.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14In what must be one of the country's most idiosyncratic
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and cherished museums, The Dick Institute in Kilmarnock,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20Borland has installed her towering work,
0:27:20 > 0:27:22Daughters Of Decayed Tradesmen.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33Explain to me what the cards represent.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36The great thing is that they don't need to represent,
0:27:36 > 0:27:37they just are.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42They are pattern cards that would fit a Jacquard loom.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46It's the same technology that's used in the lace looms that still
0:27:46 > 0:27:49exist today, in one particular factory near where I grew up
0:27:49 > 0:27:51a couple of miles down the road.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54Your parents worked in lace mills all their lives?
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Yes, they both worked on the factory floor, really.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00Left school as teenagers, they worked in the lace factory.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05So I remember these places from childhood. You know, cathedral-like,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09because these patterns go up into the ceiling just the way that
0:28:09 > 0:28:14they do here, and then they run onto the loom to make the cloth.
0:28:14 > 0:28:19But the cards are the first, what, iteration of computers?
0:28:19 > 0:28:22Yes, they are an early form of binary code
0:28:22 > 0:28:27which led eventually to, you know, to the development by Babbage
0:28:27 > 0:28:32of the computer using the very same kind of dots and blanks principle.
0:28:34 > 0:28:39These actually contain the oral histories of two ladies
0:28:39 > 0:28:45who were in an institution that was set up in the early 1700s
0:28:45 > 0:28:49to educate and care for the daughters of decayed tradesmen.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53So these contain their stories, their oral histories.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56So this is an evocation of memory, and it's not
0:28:56 > 0:28:59necessarily just the memory of the women, it's your memory.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02Yes, it is, it is amazing how that has all come together.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05All these layers are in there, yep.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08The way that Generation has kind of unfolded,
0:29:08 > 0:29:11it's very, very obvious that there may have been lots of women artists
0:29:11 > 0:29:14working 25 years ago, but the celebration of women artists
0:29:14 > 0:29:17was not the same as it is these days.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21No, that's true. It's something that I was aware of at college.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25The sort of attitude exemplified, I suppose, by the generation
0:29:25 > 0:29:28- right before the Glasgow Boys. - Which would seem quite macho?
0:29:28 > 0:29:33It was extremely macho and, in a way, that's just great
0:29:33 > 0:29:38for a young artist, to have something that overt to kind of say,
0:29:38 > 0:29:42"That's what I don't want to be like, I don't want my work to be about,
0:29:42 > 0:29:47"I don't want the image of the artist kind of struggling in the garret,
0:29:47 > 0:29:49"stripped to the waist, covered in oils."
0:29:49 > 0:29:51You know, that's... You know,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54we're more into the intellectual kind of traditions, really,
0:29:54 > 0:30:00so it was very useful to have that as a, you know, as a predecessor.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07At the time, the younger artist might have self-consciously reacted
0:30:07 > 0:30:10against the heroic image of the New Glasgow Boys
0:30:10 > 0:30:12but, 25 years on,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16it's now possible to see much more continuity than cut-off
0:30:16 > 0:30:18between the two generations.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Was it a fundamental shift with the Glasgow Boys to what happened,
0:30:21 > 0:30:23or was it a continuum?
0:30:23 > 0:30:27I think these shifts always only appear as such with hindsight,
0:30:27 > 0:30:31you know, I think at the time it's all part of a continuum, really,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34and one of the things that we have done with the Generation project,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36which seemed so obvious,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39was looking at a moment that happened in 1990
0:30:39 > 0:30:42when Steven Campbell made this extraordinary exhibition
0:30:42 > 0:30:45at the Third Eye Centre called On Form And Fiction.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51Steven Campbell's On Form And Fiction show
0:30:51 > 0:30:53was a game-changer.
0:30:53 > 0:30:54# Je t'aime
0:30:54 > 0:30:56# Je t'aime
0:30:56 > 0:30:57# Je t'aime... #
0:30:57 > 0:31:01It's not just another traditional painting show.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04It's almost like you're getting to see the sketchbook work
0:31:04 > 0:31:05at the same time.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08Large paintings were surrounded by sketches
0:31:08 > 0:31:11made on rolls of cheap wallpaper.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15Every square inch of the room was covered in imagery.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19Wooden benches from Kelvingrove Park
0:31:19 > 0:31:21sat in the middle of the space
0:31:21 > 0:31:24while Serge Gainsbourg's Je T'aime was played on a loop.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28This wasn't a traditional exhibition.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31This was something closer to an installation,
0:31:31 > 0:31:33a sensory and intellectual overload.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37It's daunting to see the amount of...
0:31:37 > 0:31:39You know, the amount of narrative in this room.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41It's incredible.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46Steven Campbell sadly died in 2007,
0:31:46 > 0:31:50but his ground-breaking show has been recreated for Generation
0:31:50 > 0:31:54at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58I'm meeting Campbell's personal tutor
0:31:58 > 0:32:02and the former head of painting at Glasgow School of Art, Sandy Moffat.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09God! Well, you haven't seen this for a very long time,
0:32:09 > 0:32:11so what are you thinking?
0:32:11 > 0:32:14I mean, I think it's extraordinary to see this!
0:32:14 > 0:32:17Well, it's bit of a wow factor.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Haven't seen this since 1990.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22Nearly quarter of a century.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25But, I mean, this is literally...
0:32:25 > 0:32:27I'm not going to touch it,
0:32:27 > 0:32:30but it is kind of just as it was.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33I mean, nothing protecting it. You think he would have worried
0:32:33 > 0:32:35about what would have happened.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37No, he didn't worry about things like that.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39The main thing was just get the work done,
0:32:39 > 0:32:44the expression, you know, the idea had to be immediate,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48you know, spontaneous and...
0:32:48 > 0:32:49- My goodness.- I know.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52My goodness! It's incredible, the kind of energy that went into this.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55I mean, is it quite emotional seeing this, for you?
0:32:55 > 0:32:56It is.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59It is, because we were really quite close,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03and, you know, I saw him, I was in his studio often.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06I saw him making these things.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23If Generation is about showing us what happened in the last 25 years,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27I mean, is that an indicator for the future,
0:33:27 > 0:33:28I mean, are things healthy
0:33:28 > 0:33:31or do we need to really, really work at it?
0:33:31 > 0:33:33Things are very, very healthy, I think,
0:33:33 > 0:33:35but we can never become complacent,
0:33:35 > 0:33:38that's something that Steven Campbell, you know,
0:33:38 > 0:33:40told us in his own work.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42Never be complacent - you've always got to be seeking,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45as it were, you've got to be pushing on.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52If Steven Campbell pushed at the boundaries
0:33:52 > 0:33:53of what painting could do,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57then, in the next-door room at the National Gallery of Scotland,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59you can see how another Generation artist
0:33:59 > 0:34:02took the medium in a radical new direction.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Edinburgh-based abstract artist Callum Innes
0:34:08 > 0:34:10was nominated for the Tuner Prize in 1995.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20Critics dubbed his mesmerising canvases "exposed paintings"
0:34:20 > 0:34:23because of his technique of applying layers of paint,
0:34:23 > 0:34:25then stripping them back.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28The violet, in this case,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31has gone on the painting several days beforehand,
0:34:31 > 0:34:32and it's left to dry.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34Then I've taken this vine-black
0:34:34 > 0:34:36and taken it across the entire painting.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40Then by freehand I've taken a single line through the painting.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43- With solvent?- With solvent, but doing it from the bottom to the top,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46because if you put a brush onto a canvas with turpentine
0:34:46 > 0:34:48and it's got a thick surface it'll meander.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50So everything is controlled.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52So it's taken from the bottom to the top.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54So you make the line that way.
0:34:54 > 0:34:55And I've dissolved one side off
0:34:55 > 0:34:58and I've taken it as far back as I need to take it back.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01So you still get the history of the black being there,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04but it's also slightly damaged the violet
0:35:04 > 0:35:05so it's not a pure violet.
0:35:05 > 0:35:06It retains a fragility.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11Not every artist has been able to make new work for Generation,
0:35:11 > 0:35:12but you have.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15I made one new work for it, which is an exposed painting here,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18but we're only showing a body of exposed paintings.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22There's six paintings in the show dating back to 1995,
0:35:22 > 0:35:23if I'm correct.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27Over the years, I've become synonymous with exposed paintings -
0:35:27 > 0:35:28hate that word.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30Erm...
0:35:30 > 0:35:32And almost this is... not the last one,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35but I think of them almost coming to an end.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39Do you see a return to painting
0:35:39 > 0:35:41when you're looking at the art that's been made now?
0:35:41 > 0:35:43Return to painting - has it ever gone?
0:35:43 > 0:35:44Has it ever gone?
0:35:44 > 0:35:46No, I don't think painting will ever go.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48Painting can be conceptual, it can be many things
0:35:48 > 0:35:49and...
0:35:51 > 0:35:53..if painting is relevant, then it's relevant.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56I'm interested in where you're anchored,
0:35:56 > 0:35:58I mean, intellectually and everything else,
0:35:58 > 0:35:59but actually physically anchored.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02I think identity for an artist is really important
0:36:02 > 0:36:05and my identity as a Scottish artist is very important to me,
0:36:05 > 0:36:07I don't shout about Scotland,
0:36:07 > 0:36:08it's not about Scotland,
0:36:08 > 0:36:11but I live and I work in this country and...
0:36:11 > 0:36:15I think placement, in my head, is very important for me.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21That sense of psychological rootedness
0:36:21 > 0:36:24is profoundly important for many artists
0:36:24 > 0:36:26who live and work in Scotland.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28But a distinctive Scottish identity
0:36:28 > 0:36:32also has other less-obvious advantages.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36Let's not play down the notion of,
0:36:36 > 0:36:38erm, being different.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Any activity which is seen on an international stage,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46people are attracted to the exotic.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50And I think Glaswegian artists
0:36:50 > 0:36:54have benefited from the way that we speak,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57which sounds slightly different to everybody else.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59I do!
0:36:59 > 0:37:01I can be as Glaswegian,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04and I can roll my Rs when I feel I need to,
0:37:04 > 0:37:09and then I can be as British Council as I choose to be also.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11- Great answer. - It's kind of relevant
0:37:11 > 0:37:13in the whole kind of independent debate,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16in terms of I can be Glaswegian, I can be Scottish, I can be British.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19I can be European.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22I would never describe myself as being a Scottish artist.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25I would describe myself as being an artist living in Glasgow.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Although many of the Scotia Nostra artists might feel hampered
0:37:30 > 0:37:34by demands that they specifically address ideas of Scottishness,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38others have revelled in the country's multi-layered stereotypes.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42A lot of the works I've made over the past 20 years
0:37:42 > 0:37:45have touched on ideas of Scottish identity
0:37:45 > 0:37:47and I've always kind of described it
0:37:47 > 0:37:49as a sort of identity in a small, damp,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52northern European nation. One of the things I'm doing
0:37:52 > 0:37:54is called Real Life Rocky Mountain,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56which I did first in 1996.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02HE SINGS
0:38:05 > 0:38:10Basically it's this chunk of sort of Highland mountain landscape scenery,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13clearly constructed with wooden supports.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16And the grass is fake, the animals are stuffed,
0:38:16 > 0:38:18the waterfalls are electric,
0:38:18 > 0:38:20the trees are made of fibreglass.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25# Will you no' come back again
0:38:25 > 0:38:29# Will you no' come back again? #
0:38:30 > 0:38:32I'm in there in the middle of it,
0:38:32 > 0:38:33playing this selection
0:38:33 > 0:38:36of maybe 300 years of popular Scottish songs
0:38:36 > 0:38:39from, you know, Jacobite,
0:38:39 > 0:38:41chapbook sort of classics, you know,
0:38:41 > 0:38:43through to Teenage Fanclub, Edwyn Collins,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46Arab Strap maybe even this time,
0:38:46 > 0:38:48which wasn't around that time.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52So I'm trying to look at, I suppose, that historical spread,
0:38:52 > 0:38:54through something that is genuinely popular.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59While Ross Sinclair has been exploring
0:38:59 > 0:39:01the mythical landscape of Scotland,
0:39:01 > 0:39:04at Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art
0:39:04 > 0:39:08Nathan Coley has been unravelling its sprawling religious architecture
0:39:08 > 0:39:11and its deep Calvinist roots.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16His installation The Lamp Of Sacrifice
0:39:16 > 0:39:20was originally created for an exhibition in Edinburgh.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25This is the first time his Lilliputian collection
0:39:25 > 0:39:27of the capital's religious buildings
0:39:27 > 0:39:29has travelled across country to Glasgow.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38When you got this back out,
0:39:38 > 0:39:41what were the memories of making this, how long ago?
0:39:41 > 0:39:43Ten years this month.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47And it felt...
0:39:47 > 0:39:49like seeing an old friend
0:39:49 > 0:39:51and not really knowing what to say to them.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55These are the churches of Edinburgh, how many of them are there?
0:39:55 > 0:39:57- These are the places of worship... - Places of worship.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00..listed in the Yellow Pages of Edinburgh.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02People perhaps will ask the question,
0:40:02 > 0:40:05"Is this the artist's homage to religion?"
0:40:05 > 0:40:07I'm always conscious
0:40:07 > 0:40:12that publicly I never take sides with any of the institutions.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14But yet, unlike me,
0:40:14 > 0:40:18people believe, and people gather themselves
0:40:18 > 0:40:22and sing together and baptise their children,
0:40:22 > 0:40:26and there's clearly a social and a spiritual need
0:40:26 > 0:40:28for the institutions.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31So I'm still fascinated by that.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34You're not religious, but I would think that actually
0:40:34 > 0:40:37what kind of informs you, in a funny way, is Calvinism.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39I think this generation of artists
0:40:39 > 0:40:43are coloured here in Scotland by Calvinism
0:40:43 > 0:40:47in the extent that, in its purest manifestation,
0:40:47 > 0:40:48there's a fear of the image.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52And I think...culturally in Scotland
0:40:52 > 0:40:55we still trust and honour the word
0:40:55 > 0:40:57more than we do anything else.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01I think that's a really interesting filter, perhaps,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04in looking at this generation of artists.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13That very Scottish fascination with the word
0:41:13 > 0:41:16and that ingrained iconoclastic spirit
0:41:16 > 0:41:18is something which also marks a younger group
0:41:18 > 0:41:20of up-and-coming artists.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23- VOICE OF DAVID CAMERON: - Yes, we are a small island,
0:41:23 > 0:41:25in fact, a small group of islands,
0:41:25 > 0:41:28but I would challenge anyone to come up with a country
0:41:28 > 0:41:29with a prouder history,
0:41:29 > 0:41:31with a bigger heart, with a greater resilience.
0:41:33 > 0:41:34Using found audio
0:41:34 > 0:41:37such as political speeches,
0:41:37 > 0:41:39movie soundtracks and TV clips,
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Rachel Maclean conjures delirious worlds
0:41:42 > 0:41:45that are somewhere between dream and nightmare.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48BELL TOLLS
0:41:51 > 0:41:54Maclean studied at Edinburgh College of Art
0:41:54 > 0:41:56but now lives and works in Glasgow.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59She's an extraordinarily precocious talent,
0:41:59 > 0:42:04not only writing, designing, directing and editing her videos,
0:42:04 > 0:42:06but also playing all the roles.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11In pieces such as A Whole New World,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14she takes mischievous pot shots at national stereotypes.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16PIPER PLAYS AMAZING GRACE
0:42:16 > 0:42:18GUNSHOT
0:42:18 > 0:42:21The cultural identity in your work is kind of fantasy land.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25- Yeah, yeah.- Is that to encourage people to think or just to have fun?
0:42:25 > 0:42:28Erm... Maybe a bit of both.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31I think a lot of that started
0:42:31 > 0:42:32when I lived in Edinburgh
0:42:32 > 0:42:34and I'd walk up and down the Royal Mile a lot
0:42:34 > 0:42:37and there's a sense, quiet an intense sense,
0:42:37 > 0:42:39in that part of Edinburgh, of tourist culture
0:42:39 > 0:42:41and tourist tat.
0:42:41 > 0:42:42And it started just with that
0:42:42 > 0:42:46being kind of material that was available that I could work with.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48And more recently, with the referendum,
0:42:48 > 0:42:50it's become much more politicised.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52- VOICE OF JEREMY PAXMAN: - We've got £1 trillion worth
0:42:52 > 0:42:55of public debt in this country. How much would the Scots take?
0:42:55 > 0:42:58- VOICE OF ALEX SALMOND:- Well, the normal way to divide up debt
0:42:58 > 0:43:00would be either a population share or a GDP share.
0:43:00 > 0:43:02'Partly I'm interested'
0:43:02 > 0:43:06in looking at the absurdity of national identity,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09or at least, some of the absurdity of the symbols
0:43:09 > 0:43:11and associations of national identity.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Showing at the CCA in Glasgow,
0:43:22 > 0:43:26her new work for Generation, The Prince And The Pauper,
0:43:26 > 0:43:28once again takes political issues,
0:43:28 > 0:43:31this time ones of class and inequality,
0:43:31 > 0:43:34and skewers them with her usual disarming theatricality.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38The fact that I got a job in an investment bank
0:43:38 > 0:43:40during the biggest recession we've ever seen,
0:43:40 > 0:43:43especially in terms of financial markets,
0:43:43 > 0:43:46and did this after getting a first-class honours degree last year,
0:43:46 > 0:43:47shows I'm a very special candidate.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49I want people to realise and accept
0:43:49 > 0:43:52that I'm an extremely talented young guy.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56Extraordinary.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58It's an extraordinary construct.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00'There seems to be'
0:44:00 > 0:44:02a kind of recognition
0:44:02 > 0:44:04that Scotland is, at the moment anyway,
0:44:04 > 0:44:06an incredibly creative place.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09It is a really exciting time for me to be in Scotland,
0:44:09 > 0:44:12given, I guess, what's been established
0:44:12 > 0:44:13in the Scottish Arts Scene.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15And thinking about Generation in the last 25 years,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18there's so much available in terms of showing,
0:44:18 > 0:44:20in terms of commissioning,
0:44:20 > 0:44:24in terms of just the kind of institutions and set-up in Scotland.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27It's very supportive to recent graduates, I think,
0:44:27 > 0:44:29and young artists.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32You would see no reason why you couldn't work here in perpetuity?
0:44:32 > 0:44:35Yeah, yeah. I guess that's maybe the difference, in a sense,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38that I don't feel I have to move to London
0:44:38 > 0:44:39or I have to move to New York
0:44:39 > 0:44:43to get people to notice my work.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45# Keep watch
0:44:45 > 0:44:49# By your weary head. #
0:44:49 > 0:44:51What's so extraordinary now
0:44:51 > 0:44:54is that you can have all these artists anchored here,
0:44:54 > 0:44:57you don't have to go away any more.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00No, and that was the big shift that happened, I suppose.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02What would conventionally have happened,
0:45:02 > 0:45:04pre-1989/90,
0:45:04 > 0:45:08or even perhaps slightly earlier, is that artists would study here,
0:45:08 > 0:45:11they would maybe stay for a couple of years, but if they were
0:45:11 > 0:45:14really going to strive to make it big, they'd leave and go to London
0:45:14 > 0:45:17or New York and that just doesn't happen any more, not only do people
0:45:17 > 0:45:20stay after art school, but quite often you find that artists are
0:45:20 > 0:45:24moving to Glasgow because it's just a viable place to live and make work.
0:45:27 > 0:45:29Sculptor, Mick Peter,
0:45:29 > 0:45:32is typical of artists drawn to the Scottish arts scene.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38For a generation, he's created a playful pair of sculptures
0:45:38 > 0:45:41inspired by '70s graphic design.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47His levitating, long-haired hippies
0:45:47 > 0:45:51are as at home in the Tramway's Hidden Gardens in Glasgow
0:45:51 > 0:45:53as Mick is in his adopted city.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57You came to Glasgow to do your masters, from Oxford
0:45:57 > 0:45:59and you stayed.
0:45:59 > 0:46:00Why?
0:46:00 > 0:46:02At that time a lot of my
0:46:02 > 0:46:05colleagues were going to London, but I felt I wanted to go
0:46:05 > 0:46:08somewhere where there was a bit more time to kind of get going.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11And then ultimately, once you're settled in and you realise,
0:46:11 > 0:46:13all of the interesting projects that are happening
0:46:13 > 0:46:17and when you kind of start getting involved with Transmission Gallery,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20and you realise all the places you can go to fabricate stuff,
0:46:20 > 0:46:22then that's so attractive.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25- Lots of space and cheap? - Yeah, of course, that really helps.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31The post-industrial cityscape of Glasgow
0:46:31 > 0:46:34provides artists with studios, performance venues
0:46:34 > 0:46:36and galleries.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41But these spaces are, of course,
0:46:41 > 0:46:45only available because the shipyards, steel plants and factories
0:46:45 > 0:46:47have largely shut down.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51There is an irony, I guess,
0:46:51 > 0:46:54that artists have ended up occupying these buildings.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56We're colonists.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59We go into these places, we find the gaps
0:46:59 > 0:47:01and we slip in.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05But nobody asked the people of Glasgow, "Would you prefer
0:47:05 > 0:47:08"to have heavy industry or art?" It was not a choice.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10It was something that happened.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18It's not just the ambivalent legacy
0:47:18 > 0:47:22of Scotland's industrial past that attracts artists.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28For many, there is a magnetism about the wilder corners
0:47:28 > 0:47:32of the country that fires their imagination.
0:47:32 > 0:47:38The Scottish landscape is totally inspiring and remarkable
0:47:38 > 0:47:40in terms of its geology.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47For a generation, New York-born artist, Ilana Halperin,
0:47:47 > 0:47:51has come to the island of Mull to research a unique two-part project.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56I'm interested in looking at the relationship
0:47:56 > 0:48:00between our daily lives and the way we think about time
0:48:00 > 0:48:03and deep geological time.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06So for me there's no better place to be than Scotland
0:48:06 > 0:48:09where there's some of the oldest rocks in the world,
0:48:09 > 0:48:11there's young rocks,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15and laid out bare, you can see the way that the Earth has changed.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21The first part of Halperin's Generation project
0:48:21 > 0:48:24is rooted in the intertwined geological and human histories
0:48:24 > 0:48:26of a remote granite quarry on the island.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30Granite from this quarry was shipped all over the world,
0:48:30 > 0:48:33including New York, where I'm from.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38And I found out, in fact, there are minerals from New York
0:48:38 > 0:48:42that have made their way to Scotland and we have them, right here.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46And they are part of the Hunterian Museum Collection.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50So I wanted to bring minerals from New York
0:48:50 > 0:48:56and granite from the quarry together in one place for the first time for the exhibition.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06As well as her exhibition at An Tobar
0:49:06 > 0:49:08in the island capital, Tobermory,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11she's also preparing for a new performance piece
0:49:11 > 0:49:13on the nearby Isle of Staffa.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20Staffa, as far as I'm concerned,
0:49:20 > 0:49:22is one of the wonders of the world.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29What I'm doing is a performative lecture
0:49:29 > 0:49:32at the mouth of Fingal's Cave.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37There's water that runs in and out of the cave
0:49:37 > 0:49:40so the acoustics are absolutely beautiful.
0:49:44 > 0:49:49On Staffa, you stand on a volcanic island,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52a series of lava flows surrounded by water.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55We are in volcanic places.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07Strewn across the Atlantic fringe of Europe,
0:50:07 > 0:50:11Scotland's islands are a powerful source of creative inspiration.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17But this far-flung landscape offers a new way of thinking,
0:50:17 > 0:50:19not just about art
0:50:19 > 0:50:22but also about the art world.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27I think it's important that Scotland is an archipelago.
0:50:27 > 0:50:28I don't know,
0:50:28 > 0:50:31780 or 790 islands, I mean, it's a huge amount of islands
0:50:31 > 0:50:35and the wonderful philosopher, Edouard Glissant, he always says
0:50:35 > 0:50:38that if the 20th century followed mainly a continental logic,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41the 21st century is more, an archipelago logic,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44and he talks about this idea of the archipelago
0:50:44 > 0:50:47being more sheltering, being more welcoming,
0:50:47 > 0:50:50and I think that's kind of interesting, the idea of, you know,
0:50:50 > 0:50:54Scotland being an archipelago, very much a polyphony of centres.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03If the structure of Scotland's arts scene
0:51:03 > 0:51:05reflects its scattered island landscape,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08then perhaps it can offer its artists something different,
0:51:08 > 0:51:10an alternative model,
0:51:10 > 0:51:12a less pressurised environment
0:51:12 > 0:51:14than traditional centres like London
0:51:14 > 0:51:18where power and money are still largely concentrated.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23Well, I think, the great thing about being in Scotland is,
0:51:23 > 0:51:25and you know, this is not a party political broadcast,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28that the thing about Scotland is that we had no commercial scene.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32And if you don't have any commercial scene, you don't have artists,
0:51:32 > 0:51:36looking over their shoulder all the time, "Which gallery are you with? Are you with that?"
0:51:36 > 0:51:39- "Why are you not doing that?" - Quite good, that, isn't it? - It's very important.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43You're not going to run into gazillionares,
0:51:43 > 0:51:47in the street, kind of shopping for Damien Hirsts in Glasgow.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49So for those of us, you know,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52who might find all that stuff a bit uncomfortable anyway, you know,
0:51:52 > 0:51:55that makes Glasgow even more attractive in a way.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57Scotland's art world
0:51:57 > 0:52:01might be more relaxed and less money-driven than London...
0:52:01 > 0:52:03Lot number one.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05I'll start the bid here at 120,000.
0:52:05 > 0:52:06150,000.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08Now 180,000...
0:52:08 > 0:52:11But the capital's commercial clout and media dominance
0:52:11 > 0:52:13means that artists north of the border
0:52:13 > 0:52:17have often been overlooked, even in their own country.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20The most famous artists in Scotland
0:52:20 > 0:52:22are Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst.
0:52:22 > 0:52:28And it's a celebrity type of, you know, fame and culture.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33None of the artists that we're talking about, you know, pursue
0:52:33 > 0:52:36or are interested in that path.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40And for a long time, there simply was
0:52:40 > 0:52:44no possibility of selling work
0:52:44 > 0:52:47for these artists we're talking about.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50They didn't expect to sell work,
0:52:50 > 0:52:53they didn't make work that was saleable,
0:52:53 > 0:52:58they felt free to experiment and to be ambitious
0:52:58 > 0:53:01and to do weird and wonderful things
0:53:01 > 0:53:05that perhaps if they were made for a market might not have been made.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12Scotland doesn't have a huge base of collectors
0:53:12 > 0:53:14to support its artists.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17But the DIY ethic that enabled them
0:53:17 > 0:53:19to show their work to the world
0:53:19 > 0:53:22also produced its own entrepreneurs.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28After studying environmental art and a stint at Transmission Gallery,
0:53:28 > 0:53:33Toby Webster transformed himself into an agent and dealer.
0:53:33 > 0:53:35His Modern Institute now has
0:53:35 > 0:53:38some of Scotland's biggest international names
0:53:38 > 0:53:41and most exciting new talents on its roster.
0:53:44 > 0:53:49People around the world absolutely love the Scottish thing.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52It has such a huge pull for people, you know,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55and really, they identify with it in an amazing way.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58And we represent something that collectors want to be part of,
0:53:58 > 0:54:00and a vision that they want to be part of.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05I really admire the artists and I admire their integrity
0:54:05 > 0:54:08and their dedication to what they're doing
0:54:08 > 0:54:11and I think it has huge relevance
0:54:11 > 0:54:14and I want this to be seen around the world.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19When this year's Turner Prize short list was announced,
0:54:19 > 0:54:22the fact that three out of the four nominees had trained
0:54:22 > 0:54:24at Glasgow School of Art
0:54:24 > 0:54:26triggered a bout of head scratching
0:54:26 > 0:54:28in the London-based media.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34But at the home of the Turner Prize, Tate Britain,
0:54:34 > 0:54:37the reaction to Glasgow's dominance has been very different.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42You're chair of the Turner Prize.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46Does anything strike you as strange that out of the four
0:54:46 > 0:54:50on the short list, three are out of Glasgow School of Art?
0:54:50 > 0:54:54I think that the jurors are not thinking about Glasgow, at all.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57They're looking at a range of artists, you know,
0:54:57 > 0:55:00they start off with maybe 24 artists and they talk together
0:55:00 > 0:55:03and they come to a consensual list at the end,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05and it was only when we got to that list at the end
0:55:05 > 0:55:07that someone said, "Oh!"
0:55:07 > 0:55:09Well, I think it took a while for anyone to realise
0:55:09 > 0:55:13that they all had this in common, so that really comes afterwards.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16And the fact that the press think it's remarkable, I mean,
0:55:16 > 0:55:20you could say it is remarkable and it is a sign of the fact
0:55:20 > 0:55:25that Glasgow School of Art has given a very good education to artists,
0:55:25 > 0:55:26but I think it also means
0:55:26 > 0:55:30that Glasgow has been a good nurturing place
0:55:30 > 0:55:33for young artists and they're able to go on living there.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44Generation is more than a celebration of contemporary art.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46It's a reflection of how one of
0:55:46 > 0:55:49the most turbulent periods in recent history
0:55:49 > 0:55:52has been refracted through creative imagination.
0:55:52 > 0:55:57It's a period of history where there's been moral uncertainty.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02There's been moments where the financial world has changed,
0:56:02 > 0:56:07where the power of religion has changed, and where our sense
0:56:07 > 0:56:11and our notion of our self and place has been questioned.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16And I think that's why the exhibition is a reflection
0:56:16 > 0:56:18both of Scotland but also of the wider world.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25Generation isn't only about works of art,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28it's about a creative community.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30This year's nationwide event
0:56:30 > 0:56:32celebrates what Scotland has been,
0:56:32 > 0:56:34what it is now,
0:56:34 > 0:56:36and what it might become.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41Do you think things are looking healthy for the Scotia Nostra?
0:56:41 > 0:56:45I think the future is healthy
0:56:45 > 0:56:48because there's new blood all the time
0:56:48 > 0:56:53and they look to their forebears, not only for inspiration,
0:56:53 > 0:56:57but they aspire to a very high level
0:56:57 > 0:57:00of commitment, of hard work,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03of quality of work, of ideas,
0:57:03 > 0:57:06ambition for the work rather than for themselves,
0:57:06 > 0:57:12so I think, yeah, it's not going to go away, any time soon.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16If the community of artists in Scotland is in any way
0:57:16 > 0:57:18a mirror of the broader society,
0:57:18 > 0:57:21then I think that's very healthy
0:57:21 > 0:57:23and active and dynamic
0:57:23 > 0:57:27and there's really a fantastically interesting mix
0:57:27 > 0:57:30of nationalities
0:57:30 > 0:57:33and interest and sexualities
0:57:33 > 0:57:36and maybe one day
0:57:36 > 0:57:38in the free international socialist republic of Scotland,
0:57:38 > 0:57:41many years hence, or not,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44if that could be a reflection of the kind of society
0:57:44 > 0:57:47Scotland might be, then no bad thing.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58Generation isn't about an artistic movement,
0:57:58 > 0:58:00it isn't even about an artistic moment.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02What this unique event celebrates
0:58:02 > 0:58:05is an outpouring of energy, creativity
0:58:05 > 0:58:08and sheer hard work that's impossible to define
0:58:08 > 0:58:12but that continues to provoke, astonish and delight.