Photo: Ouroboros - The Music of the Spheres. Courtesy Centre For Contemporary Art.

Packing her josticks, Kerry Patterson went off to Glasgow to uncover some mystical secrets at this intriguing show.

As exhibition titles go, Ouroboros: The Music of the Spheres is certainly among the more intriguing and poetic.

On display at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow until Sunday April 4, this exhibition explores two ancient theories about the universe.

The Ouroboros is the symbol of a serpent or worm devouring its own tail. Used for thousands of years in a number of cultures, the symbol represents renewal, completion and the cyclical nature of the universe.

Photo: Factory Records by David Alker and Peter Liddell. Courtesy Centre For Contemporary Art.

The Music of the Spheres refers to the ancient belief that the solar system was comprised of ten spheres revolving around a central fire. Each sphere emitted a sound. The farther away the sphere was from the fire, the higher the pitch of this sound would be.

The combination of sounds produced by the spheres created a celestial harmony that spread through the cosmos.

With these concepts in mind, the exhibition sets out to bridge the gap between sound and image, ancient and modern, and to explore the nature of the universe. No small task indeed.

However, it does not attempt to offer any definitive answers. Rather, it aims to stimulate visitors to "consider the individual works on display but also to make some imaginary connections between them, it is an open field of possibilities."

The artists included in the exhibition range from internationally renowned to locally based artists, all at various stages in their careers.

Photo: Body Talk by Jim Lambie. Courtesy Centre For Contemporary Art.

Robert Smithson is represented by a video about his Spiral Jetty, a gigantic piece of land art created on the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

The vinyl record is a recurring symbol among the pieces on display. The record echoes the shape of the Ouroboros and it also refers to the musical aspect of the exhibition.

On entering the gallery the visitor encounters an extremely striking array of records hanging from the ceiling.

Inside the exhibition visitors are invited to interact with some of the pieces on show. Steven Renshaw’s exhibit encourages the visitor to use turntables to play the scratched and damaged records provided.

Possibly the most memorable work is Jim Lambie’s Body Talk. Lambie has filled one wall of the gallery with his trademark stripes created by vinyl tape.

Photo: Ouroboros - The Music of the Spheres. Courtesy Centre For Contemporary Art.

Here, the design is a black and white spiral with an eye at the centre. Two turntables sit below the design. Although rotating, they are encrusted in glitter and therefore unable to play anything.

Lambie’s spiral recalls the shape of Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, yet also touches on more modern references, such as a record sleeve Lambie designed for the group Primal Scream.

Christian Marclay’s video entitled Record Player takes an alternative look at the idea of playing records. A group of people 'play' records by shaking and scratching them with the climax of the film showing the records being smashed. The result is amusing, if not quite '’celestial harmony'.

The strength of this exhibition lies in the diverse reactions of a range of artists to the ideas of the Ouroboros and the Music of the Spheres.

The exhibition is a fascinating exploration of the ancient ideas of its title with the concepts left open-ended so the visitor can reflect on the exhibits and consider them in the context of the title.