Please DO touch the artwork!

In our Balcony 1, overlooking Gallery 1, Tim Stead’s installation, Peephole allows you to fully envelop yourself, immerse yourself in the artwork. You can sit in it, touch its sides, its ceiling, and its floor. Through one, or all three peepholes, you can spy on visitors below. You can take a time out from the hustle and bustle of the city streets below or the busy galleries above to have some quiet time and simply enjoy the silence, the artwork and craftmanship of the artist.

The installation was commissioned by Julian Spalding for the 1996 opening of GoMA, along with some beautiful seating for Gallery 1. The artist, Tim Stead, is renowned for his sculptural woodcraft, furniture, and woodwork installations. Have you ever visited Café Gandolfi in the Merchant city in Glasgow or his former home “The Steading” in Blainslie near Galashiels? These are just two of other places where you can experience his work first-hand.

He created the Papal Chair for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Scotland in 1982, if you remember that, as well as the Millenium Clock in Edinburgh in collaboration with Annica Sandström, Jurgen Tübbecke and Eduard Bersudsky (of Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre in Trongate 103).

The artwork in GoMA is made from three types of British hardwood: elm, oak, and walnut. Stead was conscious of deliberately working with locally sourced materials and created art that was sustainable, embedded in local history, culture and inspired by local craftsmanship using historical techniques.

Stead was an environmentalist and has been described as a visionary for a sustainable future. His “radical use of wood” sits perfectly with today’s efforts to promote sustainability and champion environmental awareness, still stunning at 30 years old!

When you first encounter the work, it looks quite strange in the ornate 18^th century Balcony area. It is at odds with the stark white plaster and faint paint work, the delicate cornicing, intricate black railings, and flamboyant glass ceiling. Peephole has warmer, natural tones of honey, an earthy presence and inviting feel.

As you move round the balcony getting closer to the work, its shape and structure become more evident. It is reminiscent of the bough of a boat, an upturned or raised hull, if you like. The porthole-style round windows tempt you within to see what’s there and beyond. Peephole is evocative of the sea which is quite fitting as the original premise for GoMA’s galleries was to link them with the elements – fire, earth, water, and air. When you visit notice the floors at the entrances of Galleries 1 and 4. You’ll find their original names: Earth and Air galleries, respectively. Water and Fire are the former names of Gallery 2 and the basement area which now holds the Library at GoMA. This elemental idea continues with Adrian Wiszniewski’s stained-glass artwork which shifts from fire colours to earthy tones, watery blues, and light airy greys as you head up through the building by the stairs or the lift.

Although officially called Peephole, the installation in Balcony 1 is more poetically and metaphorically referred to as “a womb with a view”. Observe it from across the balcony and you can see why. Sit there a while and you will discover why. There is a very corporeal energy emanating from the work. We could also be enclosed in a whale’s belly like Jonah in the Bible story, sensing its ribs on either side. But this space isn’t terrifying, it’s quite the opposite, in fact.

Although it’s a small space, it’s big enough for at least two and wide enough for a wheelchair or buggy. Stead deliberately designed the space with accessibility in mind. Sitting in the space feels quite comforting. The work envelops you: the wood above, around, beneath, and behind; all embracing you. Distinct types of wood create different textures and tones indulging your senses. Touch the raised and lowered boughs, feel the rough and smooth, observe the alternating colour palette from the lighter, warmer tones of honey caramel to the deeper, darker richer chocolate or cocoa.

In Peephole you are taken away from the hubbub outside. It’s darker here, quieter. It sometimes feels like a hidden place, a secret place, a private space where you can feel safe, protected by the Earthy tones and textures of the wood enveloping you, enclosed + wrapped up cosy in the womb of wood.

If you ever get the opportunity to visit our studio you will find another few examples of Tim Stead’s craftmanship. Our Art Cart, including two removable puzzles and a fanned wooden boat, was commissioned by the Friends of Glasgow Museums as a Children’s Millennium Project, and like Peephole, uses elm but with a plywood frame. “Elm has a wonderful grain, with a variety of colours, ranging from honey coloured to dark brown and olive greens.” It was designed to provide storage for art materials and reference books and is still used today by our Learning and Access team to store educational resources. It was designed to elevate the beauty of the wood, its variety of grain, tones, and textures, just like Peephole.

In addition to its beauty, the Art Cart is an object of practicality. We typically always have the cart open as it is in constant use harbouring leaflets and information on upcoming workshops in our learning programme or as a magnificent children’s library, encouraging reading and looking. If needs be we can close it over, neatly hiding the compartments and concealed hinged boxes for tidy storage of materials. Closed, it presents a more sculptural object than an elaborate storage cupboard.

It’s very inviting. You couldn’t pass it without wanting to feel its smooth edges or follow the grain of the wood with your fingers; experience the coolness of the wood in contrast to the warm colour tones. It is treated with linseed oil and turpentine making a hard-wearing surface that improves the wood with age and enables the work to be touched by the visitors who frequent the studio space. The Art Cart is only really seen when the studio is open to the public (e.g. during our Saturday Art Club or if you are attending a workshop). Try to take the opportunity to see it for yourself next time you visit.

Peephole is a permanent feature of GoMA and rarely ever inaccessible. Next time you visit don’t pass it by on Balcony 1. Come enjoy a time-out and indulge your senses for a little while and take advantage of being allowed to touch this artwork.

 For further reading and finding out more about Tim Stead you can visit these links:

Galleries: Tim Stead saving part of the nation’s furniture | The Herald

Stead, Tim, 1952–2000 | Art UK

Tim Stead - The Scottish Gallery

Or I recommend this book Jones, M. 'The Metamorphosis of Wood' from Sutherland, G. (Editor) 'With the Grain' Birlinn 2005.