Scottish Left Review issue 46

In 2005 Stuart Murray produced a book of drawings called On the Street. It consisted of a series of faux-naive hand drawings of what some would consider the detritus of society - drunks, prostitutes, the homeless and so on. The drawings were accompanied by short fragments of what appear to be quotations from the characters themselves. The aim of the book was, through a cumulative focus on people we see daily in our cities but largely ignore, to raise our awareness of a 'subculture' in Scotland which is being 'disappeared'. Ever since the rebranding of Glasgow in the early 1990s there has been little space for the less shiny elements of its cultural history. The culture may remain alive in parts of the public consciousness only through satire (at best Rab C Nesbit, at worst some ad-mans idea of a comic Scots drunk) and in some literature (some of James Kelman's work).

It is therefore particularly appropriate that some writing by Kelman accompanies this book. It is also appropriate that there is a foreword by Alasdair Gray; there is a strong echo of Gray's contrariness as to what constitutes an appropriate subject for art, not to mention an echo of his sparse, almost gothic and often humorous illustrations. This time we leave the streets and head into the pubs where Murray catalogues the characters who inhabit the few Glasgow bars which have not been redesigned as 'style bars'. We have the same faux-naïve illustrations, the same life-in-an-expression reportage and the same fragments of dialogue. And it works just as well (especially the humour). Murray documents his subjects almost like a loving entomologist, and it stands as an interesting record of what sometimes appears to be a dieing culture. Above all, it is a beautifully packaged piece of art.

There is one thing which strikes me about the book, however. The characters we find are almost all middle aged men, almost all from a pre-1980s working class culture, almost all like something from a William McIlvanney novel. The effect feels almost historical, and certainly very male. It will be interesting to see what Murray does next - I would love to see him dissect the lives of the new generation of 'detritus', the young binge drinkers (male and female), the disoriented stag and hen parties, the dazed clubbers. Fragments of their lives would make an interesting comparison.