PROGRAMME ARCHIVE: 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

//My Five New Friends//

By Oliver Braid

With It’s Our Playground

Featuring new commissions by: David Hoyle & Lee Baxter, Maayke Schurer, Patrick Staff,

Roxy Topia & Paddy Gould, Tether 

Supported by The Hope Scott Trust, Arts Trust Scotland and Glasgow Visual Artist Award.

 “Pretty early into the conversation he just came out with ‘maybe I don’t really love my girlfriend’…He was asking something about my parents and we were talking about my Dad and his penchant for buying wives. He instantly made the comparison between me and my Dad, like these boys being objects in a frame. I think those were his actual words…My therapist says I have no real idea how to relate to men. My mum says all men are bastards and I’m probably autistic. My dad says I should meet his new girlfriend, Danni, she’s 19 and looks cracking in a pair of hot pants.”          

 

Text from the artist’s documentation. (Available at www.myfivenewfriends.com)

 

Last year artist Oliver Braid embarked on a mission to develop relationships with the five most attractive young male undergraduates from Glasgow School of Art.  The documentation and interpretation of these encounters will form the basis for ‘My Five New Friends’.

French artist/curatorial team It’s Our Playground have been working alongside Braid on this journey to build an online database housing the archive of his relationship documentation. Following the opening of his exhibition at The Royal Standard this database will become publically accessible at www.myfivenewfriends.com, enabling the viewer to gain a personal and excruciating insight into Braid’s project.The exhibition at The Royal Standard will juxtapose newly commissioned short films by David Hoyle & Lee Baxter, Patrick Staff, Maayke Schurer, Roxy Topia & Paddy Gould and Tether who have been interpreting the evolving narratives alongside meticulously hand crafted ‘gift objects’ created by Oliver Braid, one for each of his new ‘friends’, all re-presented in a bespoke installation environment designed by It’s Our Playground.

 Reeking of Lynx, take-away food and desperation, ‘My Five New Friends’ is one part teenager’s bedroom and one part labyrinthine fantasy film. Exploring the impact of art-making on human interactions through a lens of DIY psychotherapy it opens a portal into a domain fuelled by heavy drinking and a search for happiness.