An exciting new commission just confirmed with Panel (wearepanel.co.uk) and curated by Beca Lipscombe (Atelier EB) and Mairi MacKenzie. Dressing Above Your Station, examines the role of fashion in the work, aspirations and cultural identity of the Scottish painter, Steven Campbell (1953–2007).

Hosted by Tramway, the exhibition focuses upon the depiction of fashion in a selection on Campbell’s paintings and collages, drawing links with Scotland’s tradition of textile manufacture, as well as the related story told by Campbell’s personal wardrobe and the role it played in forming and reflecting his biography. Central to this aim will be a collection of clothes by the Japanese fashion company, Comme des Garçons acquired by Campbell and his wife Carol in exchange for one of his paintings whilst living in New York in the early 1980s.

Dressing Above Your Station will take the form of a virtual exhibition designed by us with artist Rob Kennedy, including presentation through a digital twin of Tramway 2 and a physical outdoor projection. The exhibition will be formed by the digital representation of loaned paintings, fashion, physical ephemera and audio and text-based works. In this way, the exhibition intends to investigate, question, challenge and reposition constructs of fashion within contexts of place, identity and our wider culture, and through the work of Steven Campbell.

Funded by Creative Scotland and supported by isoLABS and Glasgow Life.

Collage plan c/o Beca Lipscombe.