Thinking beyond the brick & mortar gallery

The Covid-19 pandemic which saw the closure of galleries nationally did nothing to remove the necessity of art for the public imagination. The creative industries have instead been forced to mutate and use imaginative solutions that extend beyond the typical billboard, mural, and graffiti modes.

So how about a weekly outdoor gallery in a city centre location that sports both a communal spirit and a punk attitude?

Established in 2019, Dundee’s Wooosh Gallery commandeered squatters rights to the Millers Wynd carpark, a brick-and-mortar location situated across the street from the George Orwell bar and next to West End’s Community Fridge - drawing in both the night-life and day-time visitors. Founders Jek McAllister, Finlay J. Hall & Jamie Clare Doherty Donald initially formed the gallery in order to propel the art school momentum they had gained as students, as well as make the graduating experience a little less lonesome. From there it has snowballed into a platform that showcases emerging-and-emerged artists from within the Scottish contemporary scene, with artists such as Edward Summerton, Maria Tolia, Saoirse Amira Anis and Fergus Tibbs amongst (many) others displaying their work there.

Wooosh Gallery insists on an A4 format, though this can be accompanied by whatever accoutrements the showing artists feel necessary - be that artist talks, performance art, or screenings on a projector (which has been scaled so as to have an A4 frame).

The ceremony of the (relatively) weekly Wooosh sees art enthusiasts flock to the carpark and watch as the paste is applied to the bricks before heading to the nearby watering holes. Communities historically are formed by way of rituals, these are our modern-day pagans. Jek McAllister expressed their ethos:

‘Whilst satire and critique are crucial to the way we conduct ourselves, we have two conjoined mantras: “professionally unprofessional" and "fake it till’ you make it". Essentially, we wanted to keep up the collaborations of ideas, opportunities and camaraderie within the contemporary art scene.’

Despite existing prior to the pandemic, Wooosh has shown that these kind of concrete solutions appear to be more visible during the lockdown - by sheer virtue of their rarity. They have become more noticeable, because they have become more necessary. We are in need of more adaptive, grassroots alternatives, and Wooosh provides a spontaneous, community-orientated space. As the A4 paper of the last exhibition rots and rips, there is the knowledge that next week someone else’s work will appear and with this knowledge, Wooosh becomes something different than a typical arts organisation – something more like a living organism.

Wooosh’s site-specific communal space has provided people with new works from emerging artists to consume on a regular basis during a highly-irregular time, whether that’s by walking to the physical site or viewing their showings through their active and popular instagram (@woooshgallery).

There have been requests made through their social media to bring their shows to other cities. Their response?

‘Do it yourself. Make your own opportunities. If you’ve got paper, you’re fine.’

It’s the type of tongue-in-cheek reply one would expect from Dundee’s finest guerrilla gallery. And it’s solid advice too.

Words: Cheryl McGregor

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