The news just
appeared, as news does. Ivan Illich once likened change to a stone splashing in
the water. Ripples continue to spread out from this singular impact. Here the
ripples were shivers down the spine accompanied by an overwhelming grief.
After being
handed a tablet with the article open, one looked at the glowing plane with no
expectation. Was it a quirky image of a dog balancing a pint of beer on its
head? Was it some new clever gadget? Was it some other strange article that
usually gets shared for delight, fun or amazement: or all three of these? So it
was that one came to look at this illumination with no anticipation. Indeed,
there was some deflation to discover that the main body of the screen was text
headlined with The Guardian. What might this be? Then it hit: the
Mackintosh masterpiece was burning. The Glasgow School of Art was on fire. Oh
no! The shiver went through the body as the eyes watered. What has been lost?
How bad was it? What of the beloved has been dissipated; destroyed? The video
was clicked to reveal clouds of black smoke billowing out of the roofline of
the school as seen from Sauchiehall Street where crowds had gathered. Bright
orange flames could be seen raging behind the Mackintosh bay windows. What might
be left? Has the iconic library been lost? Folk were crying. This much-loved
and incredibly important building was burning. The fire started at 12:30pm,
Friday 23 May 2014. It will be a time to remember, one that will never be
forgotten.
The first images
of this building had been seen years ago in Pevsner’s Pioneers of Modern
Design, the Penguin paperback that was so influential (plates 95, 96 and 98). Here there were a
few photographs of selected parts of the school that one drooled over. One
repeatedly returned to these black and white images to absorb their beauty, to
be amazed. Future publications revealed more of this building in full colour.
They never disappointed; they only increased the intrigue. Finally, after many
years of reading about Mackintosh and his work, one got the opportunity to see
the building. It was on a quick detour in 1994 that the eyes first saw the
framed glazing, the flamboyant stones and the flowing steel. One had to pause
at Glasgow to make the obeisance: to visit the school and to see the remnants
of the tearooms. It was some years later that the opportunity to travel meant that
Glasgow could be visited again. This time the stay was days rather than hours,
and one could relax in the presence of this place. Eventually one took time to
go through the school. It was indeed an amazing building. It was a significant
structure that had been voted the most influential building of the last 175
years. Little wonder that folk were crying. But did anyone in Australia weep?
Later, after
reading The Guardian and the BBC reports, one looked for coverage in the
Australian news media and found nothing. The only report relating to art had to
do with an aboriginal artist who was ‘making art from trash on Great Keppel
Island.’ There was not one word on the fire in Mackintosh’s school. It seems
that sundry political squabbling and sport are far more important than anything
to do with art, let alone anything to do with art in Glasgow. Does no one know
about this important place? The BBC site was opened again. Yes, there was more.
Then The Guardian site was opened, and yet another report. This was big
news in the UK. The word was that even the fire fighters knew of the
significance of this building and worked hard to save it, forming a human chain
up the stair in order to limit the spread of the flames. The editorial in The
Guardian said it clearly: the whole world must listen and act. This
significant Class A building must be so well documented that all the
information for rebuilding it in every detail should be available. It must be
rebuilt: it must be.
The building is
not only the heart of Glasgow, it is an astonishing masterpiece that stood as
an icon for modernism, as Pevsner noted. It has always astonished, from the day
it was finished until today. Now the reports were saying that 90 percent of the
structure was still in tact, and 70 percent of the contents. There has been
major devastation. We owe it to the world of ideas and to the memory of Charles
Rennie Mackintosh to rebuild this school, without delay. The experience might
show us today how much we lack in our new work; how we are skimming on
self-indulgent surfaces with so little substance. Moshe Safdie once commented
on how his remodelling of an old building in Jerusalem had taught him so much,
humbled him; adding that he could never have created something so beautiful. We
need this humbling experience more than ever. Rebuilding will reveal this need,
but will we feel it or act on it? Will we change?
If Windsor
Castle can be restored after its fire, then this great building can be too. It
must be: the sooner the better. We need to protect what is there now and start
the restoration without delay. As for the students who lost their years of
work, what can one only say . . . nothing? Alas, the whole event is riddled
with a compounded sadness that accumulates as a great loss. One can only weep
for this demise and be pleased that the building killed no one. At least its
new incarnation will carry no stigma, guilt or ghosts other than the glory of
genius and the great determination to overcome this trauma. The clichés would
expect one to declare that Glasgow will be better than ever before after this
renewal. No, the loss of the original that had been seen and touched by Charles
Rennie can never be overcome. The new can only declare homage to a spirit of
the past. This must happen. This building cannot be lost. We must all work to
ensure its repair and restoration, even if Australia doesn't seem to care: or
does it not know? Is it too engrossed in itself - too insular?
There is a
lesson here for Australia too, if it will listen; if it will give a little more
time to matters cultural beyond a silly, mindless cry of “Aussie, Aussie,
Aussie; Oi, Oi, Oi!”
Unthinkable? Glasgow without its School of Art
The virtuosity of the Glasgow School of
Art means its every detail has been recorded – and it must be rebuilt
The Guardian, Saturday 24 May 2014 08.03 AEST
As flames licked through the windows at the top of the Glasgow School of Art on Friday, and clouds of smoke
bellowed through the scrolling art nouveau ironwork, onlookers faced the
thought of losing not only one of the city's finest buildings, but a pivotal
chapter of architectural history. Like a rocky Highland outcrop, the school has risen proudly above Glasgow's
handsome grid since the start of the 20th century, half baronial castle, half
rugged cliff-face. Built between 1897 and 1909, it was chiselled into shape by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who
drew up the designs when he was 28, a junior draughtsman in a big city firm.
Startlingly original, it sampled everything from Celtic ironwork to Japanese
joinery, providing students with a dazzling lesson in composition and the craft
of making. Its library, now a charred wreck, had the atmosphere of a Shinto
shrine, a densely layered thicket of dark timber posts that rose to form a
sylvan bower of brackets and beams. It took readers on a journey through
dappled light and shadow, from sepulchral booths dotted with twinkling clusters
of lanterns, to reading tables lit by three-storey high bay windows. Mackintosh
played tricks throughout the building, inverting the usual order of things. As
you ascended the staircase, floors got progressively darker, with the uppermost
level conceived as a cellar, its low vaulted passage entered through a medieval
iron cage. The building's virtuosity, at least, means that every detail has
been recorded – and it must be rebuilt.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/23/unthinkable-glasgow-school-art-fire-mackintosh-editorial
As it happened,
as reported in The Guardian:
http://gu.com/p/3pfp8
The BBC gave the
event good coverage:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-27556659
NOTE: The images in this piece have been taken from this BBC article.
There are many
more reports:
P.S.
There was one small
glimmer in The Australian. Maybe there is hope yet?:
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