Catherine Yass: High Wire

A multi-screen film and video installation – by internationally renowned artist Catherine Yass – High Wire was filmed at the Red Road housing scheme in North Glasgow in 2007. When it was built in the early 1960s, Red Road was the highest social housing in Europe, a triumph of the city planners’ dreams to rebuild the city.

Into the void between the planners’ concrete fantasy, another kind of dreamer, the French high-wire artist Didier Pasquette, steps out – at first gracefully, then hesitantly, and then he stops…

Speaking about the work, Catherine Yass said -“High Wire is a dream of walking in the air, out into nothing. But it has an urban background and the high-rise buildings provide the frame and support. The dream of reaching the sky is also a modernist dream of cities in the air, inspired by a utopian belief in progress.

Catherine Yass trained at the Slade School of Art, London; the Hochschule der Kunst, Berlin; and Goldsmiths College, London and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2002.  Her work features in a number of major important collections worldwide including Tate, London; Arts Council England, The British Council and the Government Art Collection and she has exhibited internationally.

The exhibition of this work is part of WALK ON, Art Walking Northumberland, a project supported by the Rural Development Programme for England, jointly funded by Defta, the European Union, and from Arts Council England.  Substantial support has also been generously given by Art Circuit Touring Exhibitions and W.A.L.K. (Walking Art, Landscape and Knowledge).  Go to www.varc.org.uk for full details.

High Wire is shown with thanks to the generous support from the artist and Artangel, who commissioned the work with Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art in 2007.