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Frances and I took a walk down to Glasgow’s Tramway, which is “one of the leading contemporary visual and performing arts venues in Europe“. It’s also only a 20 minute walk from our front door, which is nice.

It was a spur of the moment decision, after having seen a mention of an exhibition in the Guardian’s listings supplement for Kirsty Stansfield “Object Scores” exhibition whilst sipping coffee at Shawlands’ Beanscene. Adding to the reasoning was that there was also a combined exhibition from Scottish contemporary artists Katy Dove and Victoria Morton. All free too. Double-plus good.

The Tramway is an interesting venue. I’d not visited there before, and Frances hadn’t been in years. It’s certainly an excellent space for exhibiting art in all it’s forms. There have been some challenging plays on recently (Aalst is particularly infamous, dealing with infanticide), and a look through the forthcoming brochure certainly indicates that there’s more to come in that vein.

What interested me most was the marvelous ‘Hidden Garden’ at the back. It’s a Garden, that’s, well, Hidden. But as well as that stunning revelation, it’s a surprisingly calm and refreshing spot, nestled as it is between two railway lines, and close to major roads in to town. Bright. Clean. Green. Hidden. With a coffee shop. With nice pastries. We’ll be visiting there again.

The art itself was worth a visit, but not as compelling as I’d expected. I was a little disappointed by “Object Scores”, part of her study of how people relate to objects that make sound. The centre-piece didn’t work for me, not least that I was peering under the table and trying to work out how it worked (well, spot the geek!), but also that it wasn’t quite as responsive as I would have liked. Frances left unconvinced it was working at all. None the less, turning the visitors into a study in themselves is always interesting. Her work from a residency at a hospital in Glasgow certainly struck me as a more interesting angle.

The paintings of Morton and Dove were interposed, and it was a bit of a struggle working out which was which and belonged to whom. A floor plan, rather than picture names, didn’t really help matters. That the artists seemed to, er, title much of the art “Untitled” was a bit unfair. Or ironic, in an arty sort of way.

Morton’s work certainly was a bit more compelling and involving of the two, as the paintings seemed to unveil hidden depths the more you studied them. Dove’s images and sounds were curious, but I struggled to get anything much other than mildly curious with any of it, other than the larger projector pieces: Moving images and sounds. I even seem to have had my picture taking by another visitor when I was sat on a bench trying to be contemplative, and ignore Frances’ comment about “I hope we’re not sat on some art” - A not uncommon problem in contemporary art venues, I fear.

Contemporary art is always challenging, and the process of understanding the art and the artist can be a challenge in itself, especially to somebody such as myself who is not particularly artistic or replete with art knowledge. However, I did feel that the exhibition didn’t really contain enough variety. Whilst there may be original ideas there, the studies on display felt a touch repetitive.

I’m still waiting for another ‘Oak Tree’ moment. This relates to when I first saw perhaps my favourite piece of modern art: An Oak Tree, by Michael Craig-Martin. The journey from shocked (”But how’s that art!?“) to contemplative and, perhaps, understanding was one of those moments where the joy of viewing art, particularly non-representative art became apparent to me, a artistic n00b.

Still, to risk sounding a bit odd and not a little contemplative: art is a journey for artists and viewer alike. We need to expose ourselves to various works - good and bad - and see where it takes us. Much is in the eye and mind of the beholder.

Today’s visit to the Tramway certainly exposed me to some new, if not hugely arresting pieces, but more importantly (for me) introduced a new venue that’s within walking distance of our house. We’ll be back and perhaps I’ll endeavor to do a bit more research before heading along next time. And maybe even get there to hear the artists themselves.