Instant Whip exhibition opened at Glasgow School of Art

By Julian Pla

Colourful drape-like-cloths with eye-catching designs.

For the next couple of weeks, the exhibition Instant Whip from world-renowned Scottish artist Fraser Taylor will be on display at the Reid Gallery at Glasgow School of Art (GSA).

Taylor graduated from Glasgow School of Art with a first-class degree in painting and the Royal College of Art with distinction in printmaking in the 80s and shortly after he founded the internationally acclaimed textile company The Cloth.

The exhibition explores the multifaceted practice of Taylor and the connection to textiles, design, fashion, style creativity and identity in the 70s and 80s. The collection is a set of pieces, textiles and papers. After they had previously been lost. Lent to GSA by Taylor himself.

After moving around the world, he thought the pieces were long lost. However, after recovering them by chance, he decided his alma mater would be the best place to exhibit them. He hopes this will inspire not only current students but artists all over Glasgow.

The exhibition itself is a contemporaneous mix of huge pieces of cloth hanging from the ceiling like drapes. Many of them have designs full of vivid colours and eye-catching patterns.

There are also sketch books full of designs, cloth samples, and unfinished projects. This allows us to experience a fraction of what the creative thought process can be like. Showing how much work, research and trial and error it took Taylor in order to create such elaborated pieces.

The exhibition gets its title after an independent Scottish magazine published in 1981 featuring a photoshoot from the GSA annual fashion show on the cover, offering “the latest in art, fashion and music”. Using this energy of newly flourishing sub-cultures formed the subjectivity of Taylor’s archive. Artefacts are grouped by theme and presented as a whole, collectively alongside private loans and some newer pieces, in order to broaden the perspective.

Most of the old pieces are from Taylor’s time as a student, showing to current students and aspiring ones not only what they can achieve but also shows them a comparison point to develop their own techniques and unique styles.

This allows him to fill the new generations with a youthful aspiration to be different from the previous ones, inspiring creativity across Glasgow and Scotland.

The exhibition will be running until the 20th of April.