Introduction
City Swallows is a series of mosaic art works installed in Glasgow City Centre on empty buildings or crumbling walls. The mosaic swallows ‘arrived’ in Glasgow at a time when swallows were migrating to Southern Africa to escape the cold winter months in the North. Each mosaic swallow is made from broken or cut pieces from different materials which in turn contribute to the meaning and connection of the different swallows in relation to their specific selected locations.
In this article I briefly touch on the origin of the City Swallow series, the making process and the locations of each mosaic swallow. For reasons of brevity, I omit to write about the place of the swallow in Art History and the significance of the swallow in the history of cultures as a symbol of hope.
Origin of the idea for the ‘City Swallows’
In March 2023 my exhibition of paintings Nesting 2020 in the Nicolls gallery in Thornwood inspired a series of twelve mosaic art interventions nestled on stone walls around the gallery called the Thornwood Mosaics. Each of the twelve mosaics was in the shape of a bowl and measured the size of two hands cupped together. One of these bowls called Swallow was installed on the gallery wall and alluded to the fact that swallows build their cup-shaped mud nests mostly on human-made structures.
A neighbour of mine bought one of the paintings in the exhibition and then commissioned me to make her a mosaic swallow for her front door. Her birth name is Swallow and she wanted to commemorate this name of her as she had parted from using it many years ago when she got married. It was when working on this commission that the idea for making a series of swallows and installing them in the city in the vicinity of Glasgow City Mission’s building on Brown Street came to me.
I felt a certain connection with swallows since they travel far to where I was born in Southern Africa and return to the North. I wanted to install the swallows in the vicinity of Glasgow City Mission since I frequent the streets around the Mission on a weekly basis. I’ve been a volunteer art teacher at GCM since 2021 and together with other volunteers we facilitate an art class for guests in a beautiful, welcoming space. A space where art is the common language that brings us all together in a meaningful way, defying a variety of societal and cultural barriers. GCM has been helping people who are affected by homelessness and poverty since 1826. In recent years an increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers moving to Glasgow have been arriving at the doors of the Mission.
Process of making and installing the swallows
Before making the swallows I spent extra time walking through Glasgow City Centre. By walking repeatedly on various routes through the City I sought a social and embodied engagement with the city in order to perceive it beyond the immediate and visual and to allow it to reveal itself to me, opening up connections beyond itself. During this process I also searched the streets for possible locations for the swallows. I decided early on that the swallows would need to be installed at a height out of my reach and that I would need a small step ladder. Only after I had reached a stage when I was satisfied that their were enough possibilities for locations did I proceeded in making the swallows.
In making the swallows, I used different broken materials which I had collected over a few years. This included a collection of discarded materials found on the streets of Glasgow, on the West Coast shorelines or boatyards on the Clyde.
Some of the swallows were made for specific locations and others found their places on the day of installation. There was no name or explanation attached to the mosaics themselves. I did publicise each swallow in a post on Instagram later. It was important for me to take responsibility and to contextualise each one of the swallows by writing a short description. I also wanted to ‘frame’ the swallows aesthetically in their locations to show how their presence in each location had the potential to alter the viewers experience of the location.
The Swallows
Tenement Swallow was the first mosaic from the series that I installed. It is situated under Glasgow Central Station on the North side of Midland street on a red sandstone wall next to a painted mural which highlights homelessness. The mosaic is made from small pieces of red sandstone, cut with a hammer from a discarded piece of sandstone which I had found next to a pavement in Thornwood at the time of my exhibition in Nicolls.
Broomielaw Swallow is assembled from old ceramic pieces found on the shores of the Firth of Clyde and the mosaic is installed on an old wall of white glazed bricks next to the River Clyde. Glasgow’s first quay was built at Broomielaw in the 17th Century and later remodelled as a steam-boat quay. It served the working commuter and the thousands of immigrants who came over from Ireland to work in Glasgow in the mid 19th Century.
City Swallow is on an empty building next to the Glasgow City Mission building on Brown Street. The mosaic is made from slate, stone, marble and road surface asphalt. The chequered body of this swallow is inspired by the game of chess. During my pre-Covid volunteer days at Glasgow City Mission the global language of chess was a helpful way to be in community with the international guests without using a spoken language.
Friday Swallow is made from rusty metal and installed on a brick wall between barred windows on Metropole Lane. The broken chain link and the small round pieces that make up the body of the swallow (called marine ballast) are from the shoreline at Rosneath Boatyard. I found the old rusty nails that form the swallow’s tail in Maryhill. At the time of installing the mosaic I noticed that a pigeon was nesting in one of the window sill
Street Swallow is made from broken street marking paint and installed on a brick wall in the Car Park closest to the River Clyde on Washington Street nest to the Kingston Bridge.
Street Swallow 2 is made from street marking paint, marble and asphalt and installed on a brick wall on Washington Street next to stairs leading up to Argyle Street.
Blue Swallow is made with ceramic dinner plate pieces and installed on a wall next to one of the gated Arches under Glasgow Central Station on Midland street. A blue light is permanently glowing In the threshold of this specific arch to deter drug users from injecting themselves. I wrote this haiku after installing the mosaic.
Dark arch frames blue glow
Deeming veins invisible
Above wings glimmer
Sea glass Swallow is made with weathered glass found on the shores of the Firth of Clyde and installed on the broken glass windows on the side of an empty building facing Oswald Street.
Scrap Swallow is made from scrap metal and installed on the back of the old R. M. Easdale scrap metal building on Mc Alpine Street. The independent family-owned scrap merchant R. M. Easdale was established in 1875 and have moved their premises in 2023. The building is now empty, awaiting demolition.
Road Swallow is made with broken road surface asphalt and cement adhesive. It is installed on the south side of Argyle Street under the M8.
Weeping Swallow is made from a single broken shell and installed on the blistering, ‘wounded’ surface of an empty building on Ropework Lane.
Threshold Swallow is made from unglazed porcelain tiles, similar to the ones used in mosaic art door steps and entrances of 19th century Glasgow. Although many of these threshold mosaics have been demolished through the years, there are still some in the public domain.
At the time of installing this mosaic the number of people seeking shelter in Glasgow’s city centre thresholds were increasing by an alarming rate.
The City was confronted with the stark reality that many people near and far had no thresholds to cross into the warmth and safety of a home.
People’s Swallow is made from tinted cement , marble and asphalt. The bright pink colour of the cement is associated with the strapline ‘People make Glasgow’ which was coined in 2014 by Andrew Stevenson and David Whyte, co-founders of Tangent when they designed a brand for Glasgow. This mosaic is installed on a board framed by an old arch on the parking garage on Dunlop Street.
Closing Words
The swallows in this series were made in response to experiencing a deep sense of helplessness in witnessing the brokenness and social deprivation on the streets of Glasgow City Centre. The swallows were not funded and do not promote anyone. They belong to those who notice them while walking the streets. I am quietly delighted that each swallow has found its place and in the year since installing the series I have heard from people who frequent these streets that they feel encouraged by their presence.