Three stars
The Book of Disquiet, by Fernando Pessoa, is by some, considered one of the key texts of the 20th century. Fragmentary, splintered, beautiful, meandering, plotless, it was written by Portuguese author, poet, translator and philosopher Fernando Pessoa. He wrote it under another name, Bernardo Soares, and it was first published in Portuguese in 1982, 47 years after his death (at the age of 47). It was first made available in English in 1991. Pessoa described the book, which a great deal of his life to write, as a "factless autobiography". It is a slippery, graceful, and sometimes revelatory text which considers the values of time and the individual identity.
Now at two spaces at the Briggait in Glasgow, either side of its main door, Greig Burgoyne has engaged in what he calls a "process-led, rule-based immersion in the fixed and relational that is space and time" partially inspired by that text, but also the space in which he has worked.
His piece - wall markings and scattered post-its on the floors of the otherwise empty spaces - is the result of a five day, 40 hour drawing performance. Burgoyne, in his first work in Glasgow (although he is from the city), has drawn using dryboard markers in a series of repetitive marks on the white walls. Using office materials, he made marks over and over again on the walls in organised patches, dropping the post-it notes as he went, after using them as rulers of a kind.
The large patches of multi-coloured marks - like prisoner scratching off the days on a cell wall - fizz before the eyes. The notes underfoot scatter like dead leaves: both time and space have been marked and altered.
The exhibition runs until April 17.
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