Duncan Harley

It rained and there was a bag search on the way in to the gallery space, but fortunately we had arrived late and there was no queue. The drenched security operatives cheerfully let me through since I had no bag and just a stick. A cursory glance into my companion’s crowded handbag convinced them she was no una-bomber and off we went to see the pictures. It was day one of the re-opening of the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery and a tiny sense of foreboding clouded the event – the renovation had included the discovery of plague skeletons – there were 92 of them. And the original quite splendid white-marbled staircase had it seems been consigned to the dustbin of history. Clutching our, now soggy, Eventbrite passes we made our way into what might once have been a familiar space. Various dog-tagged staffers welcomed us into the new space. Commemorative tin-badges were handed out and a quite splendid map detailing the various new gallery spaces immediately made clear that the o...