Duncan Campbell: A New No

The final exhibition of GoMA's 30th anniversary programme is an ambitious new commission by Turner Prize winner (2014) Duncan Campbell. A New No will occupy GoMA’s iconic ground floor gallery over the closing months of 2026.At the centre of A New No is a flip-disc electromagnetic screen, which animates graphic images using techniques from the ‘12 principles of animation’ formulated by Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson. We see rising and falling graphs, flow charts, hand drawn lines, Soviet cut-out ‘poster’ animation and flashes of moving image film. A single narrator’s voice roams the gallery- a faltering protagonist who tries to understand the screen and their relationship to it. Rather than explaining the animations, the narrator is a counterpoint to the large ‘flip-dot’ electromagnetic screen.Framed by the opulent neoclassical architecture of the former Royal Exchange, the screen is an opaque, but physical manifestation of the order of things. A version of the flip-dot technology it uses was first installed at the Montreal Stock Exchange to create a simplified picture-story of value as it peaks and troughs over time. The seductive impression of order that this creates - that markets have a vitality or life-force of their own - is a key touchstone for the work.About the artist
Duncan Campbell has lived and worked in Glasgow since the mid 1990s, moving to the city to complete a Masters at The Glasgow School of Art. In 2013 he represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale in the Scotland + Venice Pavillion curated by The Common Guild. He went on to win the Turner Prize for that work in 2014. A New No is his first major work to be shown in a Scottish institution since then and is a significant new addition to GoMA’s 30th anniversary programme.A New No was originally commissioned for Glasgow International with the support of the Sfumato Foundation and Art Fund in 2020. This exhibition, Duncan Campbell: A New No, is presented by Glasgow Life Museums with support from the Hope Scott Trust.Header image: A New No 2026, Duncan Campbell the artist. Photograph Euan Campbell