Winnie Herbstein – Dampbusters at CCA
6 August – 4 September, 2021
CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD
Tue-Sat: 11am-6pm, Free and unticketed, Gallery
Dampbusters is the third in a triptych of films exploring the past, present and future of community organising in Glasgow.
The film centres around the work of Cathy McCormack, a housing and anti-poverty activist from Easthall in Easterhouse. In the 1980s, a collaboration between residents, architects and technical surveyors developed an innovative method to cut the dampness and high fuel costs that were plaguing the residents. After initially being turned down by Glasgow City Council, the Easthall Resident Association were successfully funded by the EU for a full retrofit and solar panel installation on thirty-six flats in the area. By the mid 90s, the retrofit on the flats were complete and the weekly fuel costs dropped from £40 to £4.
Alongside Cathy’s story weaves other examples of communities that have fought for their spaces in the city. Take Root, a women’s self build group in nineties Glasgow, spent years working towards the dream of building their own homes. They fundraised, learnt to build and negotiated land; they went to training camps and worked directly with architects. The project got close, but was dropped by the housing association due to concerns that a new equality bill would deem a housing complex built by woman to be a contravention to men’s rights. The archives are stored within the Glasgow Women’s Library and as part of the new film, the architectural plans of each woman’s house has been reconstructed into a digital landscape.
Shifting from the past to the present, the film is interspersed by Slaghammers, a woman and non-binary welding group, who are finally moving into a new space. They were set up in 2016 to provide DIY metalwork skills to those who do not feel welcome in traditional workshops spaces. The new site, which will house a metal and wood workshop, will be in a former shipyard in the west of the city. The film traces the architectural mapping of this newly-claimed space alongside discussions around the group’s organisational structure.
Looking to the future, under the watchful gaze of covid, the final element of the film will touch on the pressure facing community groups and their ongoing struggle to access space.
( Cathy McCormack’s book – The Wee Yellow Butterfly, is an autobiography chronicling the struggles of her and the local community.
Visiting Information
You can visit this exhibition by dropping in. Numbers will be managed on the door.
Masks should be worn by all visitors to the galleries, including when entering CCA and moving around in any public spaces, including toilets and shared communal areas.
A member of staff will control entrance to the gallery and maintain vigilant hygiene measures in the space, ensuring regular sanitising of door handles, and any surface areas. The gallery will be well ventilated throughout the day.
This section: Art, Photography, Exhibitions what's on-glasgow, Cinema
Filed under: Art, Photography, Exhibitions what's on-glasgow, Cinema
Related Pages
- Youth Screening: Grey Gardens at GFT
- If Only I Could Hibernate
- Fantastic Machine at GFT
- Bleeding Love at GFT
- Sometimes I Think About Dying at GFT
- Special Screenings to Mark Anniversary Year at Glasgow Film Theatre
- The Lives of Others – 35mm, Special 50 Anniversary Screening GFT
- Cinema Paradiso – Special 50th Anniversary Screening GFT
- Jean de Florette + Manon des Sources (Double-bill) – 50th Anniversary Screening GFT
- Late Night: Escape from New York
- Fellini’s Roma + Introduction
- Take 2: Kids Animations: Why’s the Sky Blue?
- Billy Connolly’s Big Banana Feet at GFT
- At the Volta with James Joyce, GFT
- B Movie.Lust and Sound in West Berlin
- One Night In Millstreet
- The Teacher’s Lounge
- Close Your Eyes
- Ratcatcher – 25th Anniversary
- Silver Haze plus recorded Q & A