A City Named Dog
2019
VHS / Digital video
Runtime approx. 40 minutes
Exhibited at Mission Gallery, Swansea.
In this neo-liberal era of re-development, re-generation and demolition, it is important to ask what is the ideological context for this re-building of cities, and what impact is this having on post-industrial cities like Glasgow?
The soundtrack of the film is a mixtape of songs that discuss identity, change in the city, loneliness and melancholic feelings of loss. These are love songs about place and the perpetual tension between staying and leaving, a yearning for something better, or grief for something left behind.
The solitary figure of the taxi driver is familiar as both a real and fictional character; as someone who encounters people and changes within the built environment, and knows the city as home and livelihood. Dogs are the explorers of place – the non-gendered, non-human flâneur, the free occupiers of the city streets, brave protagonists and non-verbal observers.
Iain the taxi driver lives opposite the Art School in Garnett Hill, Glasgow. His bulldogs, George and Harry, ride around Glasgow with Iain in his taxi, meeting people, watching the city and enjoying the journey.