Even though this wonderfully chipper, artist-led mini festival has responded to the gap left by the abrupt absence of New Territories in Glasgow, the energy that rackets through the Old Hairdressers is reminiscent of yesteryear Mayfests and the city's 1990 beanfeast of culture.
It's that spirit of taking a raw, flaky space and letting new young work reach out to an audience eager for contemporary responses to the world they live in.
Opening highlights? Thom Scullion encouraging folk to get hands-on with a video-game featuring hungry dinosaurs: the true interaction came in the lively debates about the ethics, influences and content of video-gaming which Scullion astutely invited. The upstairs studio space witnessed Julia Scott's savvy deployment of computer messaging to deliver hectic erotic thoughts in technicolour while saying not a word herself - a neat contrast to Chris Hall's intimate letter-reading project where using tricky words like "sorry" and "I love you" takes on thought-provoking resonances when said aloud to a stranger.
Elsewhere Foxy and Husk clowned around, their cartoon-animal appearance offset by voiced-over musings on friendship and loneliness that lure into thinking about appearances and behaviour. And suddenly their clever antics aren't funny, but a wistful, pungent reminder of vulnerabiliites we all mask. Best of all, however, was Sarah Hopfinger's These age-old present moments, a solo piece where Hopfinger's quality of watchful stillness, her use of objects – plastic bags became wings, clouds, landscape shadows on a screen – created a poetic meditation on our relationship with places, people and our selves as we grow into adulthood.
Beautifully crafted, sensitive and wise– just one reason to welcome BuzzCut's initiative.
HHHH
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