Glasgow International Festival Of Visual Art // The Duchy // Pio Abad // Dazzler

Today is the first chance I have had to go to some of the exhibitions that are on for GI.
The first thing I went to was at The Duchy gallery which is on Duke Street. I was very
impressed by it. The whole gallery was decorated with the most incredibly thick, textured wallpaper.
The colours were so vivid and inviting and the whole concept was executed excellently. If you live
in Glasgow you MUST go, not just to this though, just to anything that is on. We are so lucky to have
all these amazing exhibitions on in our city for free, it seems such a waste not to go.

Here is the official blurb about the show -

Po Abad's exhibition at The Duchy investigates the historical permutations of the word Dazzler:
first, as the Dazzle camouflage pattern developed in the Royl Academy Schools to disguise naval
vessels at sea during the First World War. Then, as The Disco Dazzler, a 1980's comic book
super-heroine modelled after the Hollywood Starlet Bo Derek, who disposes of her enemies by
transforming sonic vibrations into blinding flashes of light - a disorientating function similar
to that of the Glare Mout Dazzler, a non-lethal visual disruption laser used by the U.S. Army in
Iraq and Afghanistan to serve as an 'irrefutable, multi-lingual, cross-cultural warning that they
mean business.'

Weaving all these references into an immersive installation, Abad explores the seductive strands of
aggression, deception and, ultimately, effeteness that connect these seemingly disparate histories.

The Duchy