Tongues of Diamond Collins Gallery 1999

Tongues of Diamond Collins Gallery 1999

The 1999 Tongues of Diamond Exhibition at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow was a group show consisting of five ‘Glasgow Girls’ who were all contemporaries of each other and graduates of the Glasgow School of Art.

Alexander (Sandy) Moffat OBE RSA in his introduction to the Exhibition wrote…

“Tongues of Diamond, is an exhibition of 5 artists who worked directly or indirectly with myths, legends and fairy-tales. These 5 artists are all painters and all were students in the 1980s when the ‘new painting’ had such a liberating impact on many young artists. What Rosemary Beaton, Lesley Burr, Helen Flockhart, Alison Harper and Debbie Lee present to us is neither a simplistic development of the 1980’s expressionism nor is it a return to the safe paths of parochial tradition. The potency of their work resides in the unique power of the painted image to convey the irrational and the mysterious, and to reveal a world of enigmas, visions and dreams. As such, Tongues of Diamond poses a challenge to contemporary taste and value.”

In her introduction to the exhibition Alison Harper writing on behalf of all five artists wrote…

“The Potency which many myths, legends and fairy-tales have for us, is often on a level below the surface of our conscious minds. Myths impact on us in a way that touches our deepest desires and fears. Those who originally created myths needed intuitive access to the recesses of the unconscious imagination where experience that is personal meets experience that is universal and metaphors are born and expressed.”

Below is the full reproduction of the exhibition’s booklet.

Andrew Wamae, London