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Overlooked land, Yorkhill, Glasgow | April 2009

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This project introduced an arts community to the urban wasteland adjacent to Glasgow Sculpture Studios and increased public access by providing visitors with a chance to explore the land’s particularities, ecology, users, and future potential. The process, part colonization, part investigation, part landscape design, cleared pathways through the Japanese Knotweed and created meeting places, temporary signage, structures and interpretation tools. Traffic bollards, ‘For Sale’ signs, road barriers, pallets and packing crates found fly tipped on the wasteland and leftover from Glasgow Sculpture Studios became the materials of choice. Two shipping containers, the Duplex, were sited and stacked, back to back, at the periphery of the site. Pallet steps were constructed to allow the top container to be used as a base and viewing platform from which to ‘overlook’ the wasteland. The Lower container facing the car park was occupied by the Low Salt art collective. On the evening of the Duplex opening event the overlooked land was celebrated and was open for all to inhabit and experience. As part of the opening event there was a ‘Give Away’ where artists Jen Sykes and Ane Østrem where selected to occupy the Duplex for a week long residency. Running parallel to this one-week residency various foraging experiments with Japanese Knotweed took place, a film screening and social gatherings also happened in the wasteland. This project was the initial step to encourage people to further activate the space as an outdoor urban site for debate and investigation.

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Overlooked land B Introduction
Next to a car park, beside railway lines, overgrown and overlooked.

An area of urban wasteland lying adjacent to the recently re-located Glasgow Sculpture Studios and a stone’s throw from the Clyde side redevelopment project. The area is owned by Glasgow City Council, it is unclear how long it has been left vacant. The land is blocked by a mound of imported rubble (perhaps brought in by the council to deter illegal fly tipping and access to the area). The adjacent car park is used by a ‘park and ride’ service for the nearby Kelvin Grove Art Gallery and as parking space for Glasgow Sculpture Studios by day. A key feature of this wasteland is the abundance of Japanese Knotweed; one of the most invasive non-native plants in the UK. Knotweed is a plant regarded as a troublesome pest in many parts of the UK because of its rapid invasion and domination of habitats, which results in the exclusion of other plants. It can damage property by growing through tarmac and concrete and is costly to remove. It is unclear how long the Knotweed has been present at this site it is slowly becoming a monoculture, starving the surrounding Beech trees and Gorse. The presence of the Knotweed will undoubtedly influence any decisions made regarding the future use of this land by town planners and artists alike. Over time the land has become abandoned and overlooked.

DUPLEX was hosted and organised by Lowsalt, supported by Glasgow Sculpture Studios and funded by the Scottish Arts Council.
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To view more documentation go to www.lowsalt.org.uk