SHE was at the centre of a row after being being given £15,000 not to leave Glasgow for a whole year.

Now the artist Ellie Harrison has revealed the first fruits of her year long residency in the city.

Harrison is to publish a lengthy document calling for a radical shake-up of higher education on her website.

The text is available here: www.ellieharrison.com/practisingwhatwepreach

She is also working on projects to highlight the need to improve public and sustainable transport in Glasgow.

Since January Harrison, who is living on £8,400 of the Creative Scotland grant this year and using the rest of the money for materials and publications, has not left the city boundaries and is travelling by bicycle.

She said she had no regrets over the title or main image of her project – chips – despite the controversy it caused.

However she said she has yet to read the 8,800 comments made on social media of her project, supported by Creative Scotland, some of which were abusive.
Harrison said it was artists’ duty to provoke and pose difficult questions.
She said: “I create spectacles, I like to get people’s attention, if you are not doing that, then what’s the point? And if artists cannot ask difficult questions, then who can?"
“And also the flip side of that, is if you are not putting yourself on the line and prepared to take criticism, then you are not doing your job.”
She added: “There was an anti-art, or an anti-artist thing running through it: I think people find it hard to imagine why someone would expose their own flaws, or draw attention to their own privilege, in order to raise questions about what is going on.”
“But that is the role of the artist: if you don’t have an ability for self-deprecation and to take the mickey out of your self - and I am happy to do that.”

The first fruits of her work includes a long paper, which she is publishing online, calling for a major shake up in higher education.
As part of her year she is working on several projects, including looking at sustainable energy and transport.

She said she was appalled by the building of a new road, the £60 million East End Regeneration Route which goes through residential areas.
The (EERR) will connect the M8/M80 and M74 with a four-carriageway link and is scheduled for completion in around 2021.

Like previous stages of the road’s development, the section cuts through residential areas of the east end.

Ms Harrison said the money being spent on the road would be better invested in public transport for people in the city.
Ms Harrison said: "They are just about to spend £60m building a motorway through the middle of the east end.

“Everytime they invest in roads in this city they are perpetuating inequalities, because only 43 per cent of households in the east end have access to cars – households, not people.”

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “The East End of Glasgow has seen a great deal of regeneration activity in recent years, most obviously in some projects that allowed the city to host the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, such as the Emirates Arena, the Athletes' Village and the Clyde Gateway (aka the EERR).

"These projects were symbols of the rebirth of the East End - an area that suffered more than most during and after the era of de-industrialisation - through their delivery of jobs, training, new homes and opportunities for local people.

"The completion of the East End Regeneration Route will continue to deliver these benefits for the people of the area through creating space and connections for new homes and workplaces, something that should be welcomed by anyone with an interest in their welfare."