ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Heaven in a wildflower
ANGUS REID speaks to Angus Farquhar about the political roots of his work with communities from the 1980s to the present day, and why he is inviting everyone to plant seeds in Glasgow Necropolis
COMMUNITY ACTION: Volunteers begin work on The Memorial To The Unremembered in Glasgow Necropolis
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
SINCE the early 1980s and Test Dept, Angus Farquhar’s work has been founded in collective action, and large-scale community projects. What is it that makes people act collectively?
“There has to be a good idea,” he replies. “It has to be something that sparks each person individually, so that they can give of themselves without losing part of themselves.”
The work started in protest against Thatcher. “But,” says Farquhar, “we were always on the losing side, in solidarity with the miners’ strike, the ambulance workers’ strike, the print workers’ strike. I was very involved with those at the time. It was very black and white.”
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