Mick Peter

The Regenerators

There is a blue sky with a few clouds. There is an old building and in front of it there is a black and white mural that resembles a street that depicts from left to right: a house, a TV repair and hardware store with someone looking at the window display and a building in ruins. The artwork has some green grass in front of it.

There is a blue sky with a few clouds. There is an old building and in front of it there is a black and white mural that resembles a stone wall. From left to right there is some scaffolding, a oval door and more empty stone wall. The artwork has some green grass in front of it.

You can see an old building behind the black and white mural that resembles a stone wall. The mural is torn like a stone wall would be and allows the viewer to see the structure of the old building.

Through the painted window frame we see another drawn black and white mural: an office with a stone wall in the background. The boss has curly short haired and glasses and looks upset. A speech bubble emerges from them saying "WHAT IS IT?!!!". To the left there is a hunched man with glasses and a hat holding a briefcase. His speech bubble reads "Sorry boss..... it's the regenerators".

This is a closer look to a drawn black and white mural: an office with a stone wall in the background. The boss has curly short haired and glasses and looks upset. A speech bubble emerges from them saying "WHAT IS IT?!!!". To the left there is a hunched man with glasses and a hat holding a briefcase. His speech bubble reads "Sorry boss..... it's the regenerators".

We can see a drawn black and white mural of a stone wall with an arched door in the middle, with wooden doors that are open to the sides. Through the door we can see a wheelbarrow that also looks drawn with a giant bone in it that has a message "to dog". Behind this is a real brick wall with two arched windows.

We can see two walls intersecting in a corner, both with drawn black and white murals. To the left we can see a message of "war not progress" with several posters in front of it. Underneath it, there is a giant hand and to the right some shelves with several objects. We can see on the wall on the right the giant bone that reads "to dog" and a door. To the right we can see more shelves with books and other objects. Below the shelves there are giant scissors.

We can see two walls intersecting in a corner, both with drawn black and white murals. Left wall that has two Greek columns encasing a screen with a piggy bank. One person, with a backpack and a guitar, is asking "Is this the way to the Dalmarnock danger fest?". Besides him is a person with long hair and sunglasses. The third person, to their right, answers "God heavens no!.... this.... is the regenerators", while touching one of the Greek columns. On the right wall there is a curtain and paintings.

Dalmarnock Gas Purifier Shed

Mick Peter is an artist who makes playful work that investigates the symbols of power and authority using satirical and witty illustrations.

For this ambitious new work Peter, together with young people from across Greater Glasgow, created a 90m long ‘billboard’ to cover the empty façade of a historic former gas-purifying shed in the East End of the city, in celebration of Scotland’s Year of Young People. The new hoarding depicted, in drawings reminiscent of a newspaper strip cartoon, crumbling buildings from different eras, including a medieval castle, tenement housing, as well as modern flats in the process of being demolished. Peering through the windows of these buildings, visitors could see surprising and humorous scenes made by Peter and the young people, who had also imagined what public art might look like for the site. A solitary piece of ‘public sculpture’ would be wheeled out ceremoniously each day before being returned to its lockup behind the façade.

The project was intended to create a thought-provoking doubletake on the hoardings that surround building sites whilst inviting us to consider Glasgow’s architectural history and the loaded nature of the transformation of its industrial built heritage. The young people’s participation in the project was led by a core curatorial group of students from Glasgow School of Art’s Widening Participation team. These were: Luke Andrew, Caitlin Callaghan, Shannan Flockhart, Thomas Whiting, Fraser Whiting, Teagn Duffy and Kirsten McNairn.

Commissioned by Glasgow International.

Supported by EventScotland as part of the Scottish Government’s Year of Young People 2018, Clyde Gateway, Festival 2018, Matic Media & Glasgow School of Art’s Widening Participation Department.