Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art

Echt

Three beams of light are shining onto the left side, where there are plants, covered by a wire fence. The room is dark and at the back there is an image being projected on the wall on the right side.
Bedwyr Williams, Echt, 2014
Tramway, Glasgow International 2014
Photo: Ruth Clark
In a dark room, the spotlight is on a man, dressed in all white, lying on the floor with his head propped up on this hands. He has extremely long legs. There is a microphone in front of his face, a sheet of paper below it and a glass of some drink on his right. Behind him are five people, all dressed in black, playing instruments. On the right is a man playing the cello, drums at the back and the saxophone on the left side.
Bedwyr Williams, Echt, 2014
Tramway, Glasgow International 2014
Photo: Ruth Clark
On the left side there are many plants, surrounded by a wire fence with wooden poles holding it together. In front of the fence, the ground is covered with wood shavings, with a path cleared out, leading to the end of the room. The shadows of the plants and woden poles can be seen on the ground and the wall on the right.
Bedwyr Williams, Echt, 2014
Tramway, Glasgow International 2014
Photo: Tim Morozzo
On a floor that looks like a marked basketball court, there are multiple older people lying down and asleep in different positions around a man with extremely long legs, in all white, with a spotlight on him. There are plates of food, and random home objects surrounding the people. Their clothes and blankets are colourful. Some of the people sleeping are repeated in the artwork.
Bedwyr Williams, Echt, 2014
Tramway, Glasgow International 2014
Video still

Tramway

Bedwyr Williams is interested in the worst, worst-case scenarios and the people that get caught up in them; average sized people in over-sized situations. Echt, his major new commission for the large, Tramway 2 space at Tramway, presented a full size diorama of such an encounter in a dark forest clearing. The immersive installation included a new film depicting a dystopian future in which a fast-track feudal system has left the country divided among new chieftains.

In this new world where status is based on conspicuous consumption, hoarders are kings. They have set up their new courts in former dance halls and clubs, populated by a host of Bedwyr’s acutely observed characters.

Co-curated with Mark Beasley
Commissioned by Glasgow International.