Alasdair Gray: Valuing impact

Creativity is all about impact. From the creative and their creations, to us as the audience: if art doesn’t have an impact on us, we don’t value it. And it’s failed in its creative purpose - at least for us.

Alasdair Gray had an inspirational impact on many people, including me. My projects explore his creativity and personality through the works that inspired him, and the way his own work has inspired others.

A Gray Space

Three white Alasdair Gray drawings arranged horizontally: a skull with a baby inside the brain cavity, a winged heart and clasped hands with the words A Gray Space inspired by Alasdair Gray on a dark abstract background of an interior space.

A Gray Space is a collaborative creative project that asks, how do we value the creative Alasdair Gray and his work?

It aims to answer this question by gathering information on what Alasdair has asked us to think, feel and do differently. In the hope that by seeing and valuing Alasdair Gray through our eyes, we’ll learn something about him and feel something about our own creative value and potential.

Alasdair Gray rereads

A photograph of an old white man reading in a room filled with books on the left. On the right a complex fantastical drawing of a naked woman holding a white disc with gold sun surrounded by faces and buildings with words Lanark Alasdair Gray.

Throughout 2019 I recorded Alasdair reading and talking about favourite books for a series of podcasts in what turned out to be the final year of my uncle’s life. Over the months our recordings turned into an intimate and unspoken conversation about Alasdair’s own life and imminent death.

The most personal of these recordings have never been shared and are now part of A Genius Uncle

Alasdair Gray tattoos

Tattoo in black ink on the white skin of a person's back. A strong young face is framed by celestial designs, with a photograph of a book page and the matching illustration by Alasdair Gray shown next to it.

My first Gray project was inspired by the ways in which other people related to Alasdair’s art and writing and chose to have it inked on their skin. It was exciting to see people relating to my uncle’s work in this way - proof positive of Alasdair’s cultural impact and definitely something to be proud of. And so I started to collect and share Alasdair Gray tattoos and the stories behind them online – first on Instagram and now in A Gray Space.

Speaking

I’m always happy to speak about Alasdair Gray and his work in person or online. Past events include:

Museums + Tech, Museum’s Computer Group Conference 2024 Watch on YouTube

Alasdair Gray + Yorgos Lanthimos, The Depot Cinema 2023 Read the talk

Making Imagined Objects, 2nd International Alasdair Gray Conference 2022, hosted by the University of Strathclyde and The Alasdair Gray Archive

Lanark &, 1st International Alasdair Gray Symposium, hosted by The Alasdair Gray Archive, Strathclyde University, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow University 2021

Remembering Alasdair Gray, online presentation in association with Strathclyde University and Canongate 2020 Watch on YouTube

Split image showing a projected slide with A Gray Space inspired by Alasdair Gray on it and a smiling older white woman speaking at a podium during a presentation.

Katrina Rolley speaking at Museums+Tech 2024 conference