The Lighthouse is an architecture and design centre, situated in Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s former Glasgow Herald newspaper office on Mitchell Lane. I went for the first time to see the Clyde River exhibition, which closes tomorrow. Although the gallery spaces in The Lighthouse are quite small, they managed to fill almost the entire room with a wooden replica of a boat’s stern. Along the surface of the boat, there was a timeline detailing significant events relating to the Clyde. Inside the ship’s stern and along the walls, there were also videos about the Clyde, progressing its transformation into one of the world’s leading ship building areas to its modernisation which is taking place now. I thought the exhibition was very well thought out, capturing the essence of the Clyde.

As well as this exhibition, I had a wee look around the whole centre and it is a great use of space – I can’t believe I’ve never been before! I particularly liked climbing to the very top of the staircase and seeing a great view of Glasgow, from Buchanan and Argylle Street right out to Parkhead. Far off the distance, I could even make out the wind turbines at Whitelee Windfarm (the biggest operational on shore windfarm in Europe). You can hire each floor of The Lighthouse and it looked like it would be a great place for a party!

I would definitely recommend everyone to have a look at The Lighthouse as a wee break from shopping or a detour on the way home to Central. There isn’t enough there to fill a whole afternoon but the Charles Rennie Mackintosh gallery (which is permanent) is definitely worth seeing. It showcases a selection of his best works and points out the many buildings in Glasgow which he desgined.

In its 25th year, the Turner Prize competition has begun. On 6th October, the nominees began exhibiting their work at the Tate Britain and will continue to do so until the winner is announced on 7th December.

Of this year’s four nominees, two hail from our own bonnie Scotland. Glasgow-born Lucy Skaer is exhibiting her works, which include a sperm whale’s skull and 26 skittle-like objects modelled from compressed coal dust:

Richard Wright, also from Glasgow, is most well-known for his epic walls of art. For the Turner Prize, he has covered an entire wall of his gallery space in gold-leaf, as shown below:

Despite coming from the same city as one of his fellow nominees, the competitive nature of Wright has not been quashed. In fact, the night before the opening of their galleries, Wright created a new abstract mural and placed it above the doorway between his and Skaer’s exhibitions. In this way, those about to enter into Skaer’s space will be halted in their progress by Wright’s final piece.

Other than Wright and Skaer, the other two nominees are Italian Enrico David and Roger Hiorns, from London. Each of the exhibitons this year has seemed more tame than their predecessors, such as Damian Hirst’s infamous pickled shark and Tracey Emin’s unmade bed. However, of the four, David has been hailed as the most controversial, with pieces that include a glimpse at a gay man’s bottom wearing a thong-type item, some suspiciously pornographic dollies and papier-mache eggmen. Hiorns has also sparked conversations with his chemical approach to art  – he once filled a south London bedsit with 90,000 litres of liquid copper sulphate. His Turner Prize exhibitions include an atomised passenger jet engine, now a heap of dust in varying shades of grey.

The four nominees will continue to exhibit their work in the Tate Britain until 3rd January.