Maud Sulter - You are my kindred spirit
- Tickets
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Free - Drop-in - no ticket required
- Dates and times
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Saturday 23rd Nov 2024 - Sunday 30th Mar 2025
Check venue opening times
23 November 2024 to 30 March 2025
Preview Friday 22 November, 7pm to 9pm
An immersive exhibition by the Scottish-Ghanaian poet, artist, photographer, writer, curator, gallerist and publisher Maud Sulter (1960 – 2008). Curated in collaboration with the Maud Sulter Estate, You are my kindred spirit showcases the artist's rarely exhibited moving image and spoken word archives.
Sulter’s art testifies to her restless experimentation with a wide range of media. When working on a project she would consider its realisation in a number of presentational forms, including photography, film, text and spoken word performances of her poetry. This exhibition explores the interdisciplinary aspects of Sulter’s wider practice, including her entire film archive and soundscapes created for her installations.
Born in the Gorbals, close to Tramway, Maud Sulter began her career as a writer and award-winning poet, expanding her practice to include photography and visual art. Sulter’s expansive, multi-faceted practice sought to claim space for Black Artists and address the erasure and representation of Black Women in the histories of art, the media, and photography.
Maud Sulter described herself as Glaswegian Ghanaian and used the Scots vernacular to explore themes of family, diaspora, history, story, and memoir. No Oxbridge Spires (1998) features Maud videoing her family walking in Glasgow’s Gorbals, whilst My Father’s House (1996) documents Sulter’s father’s funeral rites in Ghana. Sulter constantly returned to her family album to retrieve both happy and disquieting memories of growing up in Scotland, included in her photo-series Memories of Childhood (1993), and her suite of poems of the same title. The exhibition also features archival photographs of Sulter’s mother Elsie, Glasgow’s last tram conductor.
Voice is central to the exhibition and Sulter's spoken word soundworks such as The Alba Sonnets (1995) and Blood Money (1994) feature the artist’s distinctive voice. We hear her relish for words, sounds, juxtapositions, Scots dialect and archaic vocabulary. Sulter also summons the voices of others, and gives voice to women whose lives have been unrecorded or marginalised.
Sulter devoted her career to forging new platforms for artists and her remarkable body of work continues to inspire as an active legacy and inheritance for artists working today. This Tramway exhibition celebrates Maud Sulter’s work as a ‘living archive’, and will feature a dynamic events programme curated by researcher and writer, Pelumi Odubanjo.
ACCESS
It is our aim to make Tramway as accessible as possible for all our visitors. Download our Gallery Visitor Pack with this link. A hard copy of this pack is also available from our Box Office Reception desk on request.
Header image: Maud Sulter, Self-portrait, 2001-2, large format Polaroid © Estate of Maud Sulter. Image courtesy of Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow
Accessibility guides
Read the Accessibility Guide for Tramway on AccessAble
Large Print and Braille programme material available upon request.
Some performances may also be BSL interpreted, audio described or have further assistance available. Access information for individual events is included in their event listing.
Accessible toilets
Accessible toilets are available on all three levels of Tramway, and come equipped with handrails and emergency pull cords. Please contact Tramway prior to your visit if you have any additional requirements
Assistance dogs
Assistance dogs are welcome. We can provide a bowl of water for an assistance dog. The assistance dog toilet area is located to the rear of the building.
Assistance dogs are allowed in the auditorium.
Wheelchair access
There is level access to all Tramway spaces and the cafe, with lift access to the upper spaces.
There are designated spaces for wheelchair users in the theatre.
Baby changing
Baby changing facilities are available on the ground floor
Baby feeding
Breastfeeding is welcome at Tramway
Cafe or restaurant
Full table service is not available. Food or drinks can be ordered at the counter and will be brought to the table.
No tables are permanently fixed.
No chairs are permanently fixed.
Menus are hand held only, but are clearly presented in contrasting colours. Menus are not available in Braille.
Parking
On street only
Photography and video recording
At times, Glasgow Life will be on the premises to film and take photos.
The public are only permitted to record and take photos where explicit permission has been granted in advance.
Free wifi
There is free Wi-Fi available at Tramway, which you can access by registering through Facebook or an online form. Once registered, you can access free Wi-Fi whenever you are at Tramway.
Location Map
Tramway is a post-industrial venue with a range of unique and versatile spaces, popular with private and corporate clients looking for a venue ‘with a difference’. Tramway is an ideal space for performances, exhibitions, private viewings, seminars, meetings and smaller scale functions.
Visit Tramway's venue hire web page to find out more.