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
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
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
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.
Find out more about current and past events in News
Katrina Rolley speaking at Museums+Tech 2024 conference