PAR+RS Blogs

economical with creativity

Ben Spencer — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:08:40 GMT

My thoughts this month result from attending the Creative Clusters conference in Glasgow from 17th-21st November 2008 – www.creativeclusters.com. I suppose I thought this would be a break from writing about the projects under evaluation, but the majority of sessions at the conference addressed issues around regeneration and therefore, on reflection, my musings seem particularly relevant.

I attended the two ‘core’ days in the middle of the conference week and was a little naïve. On commenting that so few speakers even mentioned cultural activity in their presentations, it was pointed out to me that this was Creative Clusters’ 6th International Conference on the Creative Economy. I should have paid more attention when booking! So the event was frustrating from an arts’ perspective, but I also believe some of the references should be shared more widely.

To give you some idea of the scale of the event, some figures first:
450 delegates
256 page handbook
74 speakers
29 policy sessions / discussions
12 programme curators
7 tours and visits
5 days
5 session chairs
5 Lego serious play faclitators
4 rapporteurs
4 receptions

And five themes:
The Creative Economy in Smaller Nations
The Moving Image Goes Online
Policies for Festivity
Strategic Leadership in the Creative Economy
The Long Story of Glasgow’s Creative _Economy

The conference kicked off in Edinburgh with a day long ‘Policies for Festivals Master-class’ and then moved through to Glasgow for the rest of the week. Forgive me the lists, but it seems to be the only way to convey the scope of the event.
‘Creative Britain: The UK’s Creative Economy Programme’
‘Guerilla Movie Production: Film-making in Brazil and Nigeria’
‘Tuning In: Television, audio-visual production and regional economies’
‘Creative Government: what kind of leadership?’
‘Creative Industries in the Baltic: Lithuania, Estonia, Finland’
‘Globalised Creativity: Creative economies in developing countries’
‘Clicks not Bricks: The role of media centres in the age of clicks, not bricks’
‘Story-Telling and the Economy: … and they all lived creatively ever after’
‘Rethinking the City: Embedding creativity across city policy’
‘Building for creative Business: Building-led development for creative regions’
‘The Audience as Artist: New forms of participation in events and exhibitions’
‘Cluster Strategies: China, Ontario, Nordic region’
‘Out of the City: Creative industries in rural areas’
‘Culture-led City Transformation: Glasgow, Singapore, Gateshead’
‘Beyond the Festival Hype: How many festivals do we need?’
‘Design & Crafts: Developing capacity in traditional sectors’
‘Enabling Technologies: The impact of new technologies on the creative economy’
‘Creative Futures: New research on the future of the creative economy’

The handbook is a comprehensive reference to all the sessions with speakers’ biographies, abstracts of each session and, in many cases, copies of the presentations. This material is an incredibly useful record of the event – unfortunately not currently available online. Some of the case studies I found interesting include:
Shetland Arts
Klaipeda City, Lithuania
Creative Industries in Estonia
Crossing Boundaries
from cowtown to wowtown
Nordic Innovation Centre

The best session I attended was a ‘provocation’ by Gordon Torr, author of “Managing Creative People”, The Unfactory (Wiley UK, 2008). And I want to conclude with Torr’s thinking which is really what prompted me to write this piece in the first place. Forgive me for quoting at length.

The extraordinary growth of creative businesses has shifted the traditional focus of management from the organisation of skills and resources to the mysterious art of mining the imagination. Now the glacial predictability of corporate process has come up against the notorious unpredictability of the creative temperament, and business leaders are confronted with the challenging paradox of managing the unmanageable. The resulting clash between control and creativity is exacerbated by the myths and misunderstandings that continue to hamper our quest for innovation and originality.

Torr decries the curse of the brainstorm, the commoditisation of creative talent, the deskilling of the imagination and the startling inadequacies of management theory. Torr argues creative people are often regarded by their managers as alien species whose motivations are impossible to fathom and recognises the non-conformity of the creative temperament is particularly difficult to accommodate in structured organisations.

Torr cites research evidence into the psychology of creativity, the history of creative communities and the demographics of creativity in order to favour a reappraisal of government and corporate policy regarding the management, training and optimisation of creative talent. Torr argues that standing in the way of progress in corporate creativity are the flawed conceits of the so-called creativity trainers, such as de Bono, the entirely discredited yet universally accepted assumption that creativity can be taught and the ludicrous notion – no less ludicrous for being so avidly embraced by so many pundits – that “everyone is creative”.

Torr proposes a new approach, marrying contemporary corporate culture with the criteria for successful artistic patronage, as practiced in Medici Florence, which include: the clear demarcation of creative roles, the critical distinction between craft and creativity, the psychological and environmental circumstances that promote inspiration, a counter-intuitive system of reward, and the important notion of creative redundancy.

Through an entertaining presentation, with a total incomprehension of (and perhaps aversion to) the success of Leona Lewis, Torr elaborated on his arguments in more detail. While this is impossible to summarise, perhaps one of the most useful sections was on Torr’s description of the killers and aphrodisiacs of creativity:

killers of creativity
constraint
poor project management
evaluation
organisational disinterest
too much regard for the status quo
lack of resources
competition
time pressure
bribery
surveillance

aprhodisiacs of creativity
freedom
good project management
resources
encouragement
recognition
time
challenge
pressure

And finally I particularly liked Torr’s 10 year rule – that it takes around ten years from the inception of any idea to realising it. Sounds like a pretty accurate reflection of most capital arts projects I’ve been involved in.

Ben Spencer
December 2008

TWINS Calendar 2009

Janie Nicoll — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:45:51 GMT

The TWINS Calendar 2009 will shortly be available, featuring the work of 12 Scottish Artists as listed below:

Alex Hetherington
Amy Marletta
Cath Whippey
Hanneline Visnes
Jim Colquhoun
James McLardy
Janie Nicoll
Kenny Hunter
Lindsay Perth
Mandy Mcintosh
Rachel Mimiec
Tommy Grace

Anyone wishing to obtain a copy please send a cheque for £5.00 per copy made out to Falkirk Council, to Gillian Smith, Callendar House, Callendar Park, Falkirk FK1 1YR, along with a delivery address.

Images to be posted shortly …

Magnifying Glasses and the Golden Cow

Sarah Grant — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:08:06 GMT

Lately I have been keeping up-to-date with the Victorian Market Commission and the forthcoming Ramada Jarvis Hotel Commission.

I was fortunate to meet one of the groups from the Ramada shortlist in the form of Taiwanese duo Hsiao-Chi Tsai and Kimiya Yoshikawa; both graduates from the London Royal College of Art. They had arrived in the city a few days prior and were spending their time getting inspiration from the city in order to devise proposals for the project.

I joined the duo along with project director Susan Christie for lunch at a ‘Rendezvous’ café on Church Street The duo showed me pictures of their previous work which included sculptures made out of magnifying glasses in Taiwan and a recent commission where they instilled bright designs into the windows of Harvey Nicols exclusive department store in Knightsbridge, London. All of their previous projects seemed to focus very much on bold colours with a strong aesthetic design. They had an impressive range of projects already on their curriculum vitae having only graduated in 2006.

The duo was on their second ever visit to the city and I asked them what had captured their interest when they were walking around the city. They both had spent a lot of time looking at the older buildings in the city and the detailed architecture each possessed. I was intrigued to find out how they planned their work and how they used their visits to the city as a means to visualize a proposal design. They explained that they took many photographs on their visit here, and then would begin to draw numerous sketches and designs based on these snapshots. These drawings would galvanise a design abstracted from the initial photographs which would eventually lead to the final proposal.

Later in the week I attended a public opening within the cities Victorian Market showcasing the three final proposals for the Victorian Market Commission. I met artist Gordon Robin Brown who was on-hand to meet and greet the attendees and talk about his proposal in conjunction with Sam Barlow, their proposal a mystical design not too dissimilar from the Hans Christian Anderson Fairytales. On display were the proposals from the other two groups; a colour proposal from the trio Nicola Atkinson, Karen Vaughan and Hanna Tuulilu whom I had met a few weeks prior and a strong design proposal from artist Ekkhard Altenburger featuring a Golden Cow to feature on the market entrance. All three proposals were entirely contrasting of one another and each design I feel would not be incongruous to the Victorian Market.

I look forward to seeing which out of the three designs becomes the chosen one.

Cake Today, Scone Tomorrow

Sarah Grant — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:24:02 GMT

Sold on the promise of cake I headed into the city centre last Friday afternoon to see the BTW Cart High Tea Event in the Victorian Market. The artistic team are currently working on a commission to create new entrances for the market and as part of the process, there are several unique events planned. This was the first hence everyone was intrigued to experience….

Like some kind of sugar-enthused Pied Piper, I swooped into the cities ICA [Inverness City Advertiser] magazine office on Friday 21st Nov and enticed the four guys in the team to follow me on my pastry procession to the market.

"Come on guys – there is CAKE, cake, cake, cake, cake. LOTS OF CAKE".

Now generally you should NOT [are you listening kids?] accept invites from strange people who promise you sweets or cake but as I’m a familiar face and ICA team have promoted many of IOTA projects, they were not (or so we all thought) in much danger………. How wrong can you be?

So off we went….

Entering the Victorian Market, we could see artists Nicola Atkinson and Hanna Tuulikki busily running around in their High Tea branded aprons looking like mother ants shuffling cake after cake onto the long (and very much public)dining table running through the centre of shopping arcade. Noting multiple table settings and empty seats, it quickly became apparent that this was going to be, unbeknownst to us, a participatory event! Our plan of rocking up to the event, helping ourselves to a plateful of cake and lurking behind the scenes scoffing our faces quickly dissipated when we were met by apron-clad helpers who ushered us to our seats.

We sat down and tried to make sense of the fine china tea-set in front of us, having been cultured into a society only accustomed to ‘coffee-to-go’ paper cups.

How do you use a saucer?!

Pour tea out of a what?!

At this point some, elderly ladies who were in the market shopping – true to form – had sniffed out that cake was being served and sat down opposite us. Masking my fit of uncontrollable laughter, I looked down the table to see the four guys from ICA looking fairly startled about what was going on as they were formally presented with slices of strawberry cream cake and tried to fit their male fingers into dainty little fine china tea-cups. A somewhat camp scenario for four cool music/journos! Each of these guys sat facing a gentile retired dining companion and couldn’t help thinking this was a kind of bizarre speed-dating event for Sugar-Grannies! Not bursting into giggles was almost impossible! At the same time, though, was really great to see such an unlikely mix of folk taking part in this special event and conversing over a nice cup of tea and cake.

And so we started to eat…..and we ate LOTS of cake………

Finnish Strawberry cake, Ginger cake, Carrot cake and even Courgette cake [which was surprisingly yummy!]….mmmm those cakes were good. We even were sung to about the delights of cake while we dined. Nicola harped like some kind of ‘cake-angel’ about the virtues of cake as Hanna accompanied the song on xylophone.

A rather surreal experience, like some kind of Invernesian Mad Hatters’ Tea Party.

Could this be the start of more cake related events?

Please?

whats been happeng....??

Louise Ellen Gibson — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:26:33 GMT

Hello!
I Just thought I would let those following the blog know what has been happening since my last post! Over the last two days I have been meeting one to one with the owners of the businesses involved in “Towards Toll cross” and asking them specific questions about their business and themselves, so far I have spoken to Utah(from Joolz) and John(from John Sanderson’s butcher) and Emma(from The Tree House café), I have recorded all the “informal interviews” on my Dictaphone and I have to say, it has been great getting a better understanding of what the shops are all about! I have also been getting snap happy in the shops taking lots of images that will help me create the sculptures for the may show. I am meeting the other three shop owners tomorrow and will no doubt be full of information (and cups of coffee!)by the end of the day.
I have also been busy making other sculpture work which will contribute to my ideas for the may show, One of these is a seriously rotund businessman who looks like he’s had his fair share of business related pressures! I will pop him on the photographs for all to see either tonight or at some point tomorrow! I will also over the next wee while put some more drawing work up, that will give you an idea of how I am developing my thoughts for the sculptures for the exhibition.
Right, well, I’m off to the studio now to put some of those ideas you will soon see onto paper, hopefully I won’t ‘accidently’ find myself in the local pub(situated in Toll Cross of course) researching into the bottom of an empty glass…its so tempting now that I’ve opened my 2end door of my advent calendar and we are aloud to finally get festive!
Cheers
Louise

The End

Alex Hetherington — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:55:25 GMT

This is my final, official day in Falkirk. So would like to use this opportunity to thank participants, readers, audiences for an interesting year. The rest is silence. For now. Who knows what happened, it seems eerie and quiet, bar the sound of the workmen cussing as they replace the exterior walls of the House. I am certain Janie will blog the remainder as the calendar is still in the pre-production stage. And on that would like to thank the artists for their time, patience, brilliant work and open-spirit.

Anyway always wanted to do this Comments [0]. Goodbye, I am the weakest kink [sic].

'...big jobs?"

Ben Spencer — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:06:42 GMT

What is the difference between a project to produce an artwork for a clearly identified, single ‘client group’ and working on a project with multiple artworks for a large, disparate organisation?

In writing here, I’ve always said that the projects subject to evaluation will act as an inspiration for the blog rather than being referenced directly. In the back of mind, however, there is the niggling question of how an artist, project manager (or indeed external evaluator) can work within, or gain access to, a sprawling organisation and so I am likely to draw a little more directly on the projects under review to explore my musing.

Looking at the archive of projects on the PAR+RS web site, offers an insight into the whole range of commissioning bodies out there … arts initiatives, museums, galleries, schools, universities, hospitals, local community groups, voluntary organisations, housing associations, regeneration agencies, local authorities, commercial outlets and private companies. But such a list may indeed conceal who is actually commissioning the work. For example, the site of an artist’s activity may be a school, but is it the Head Teacher, the Parent Teacher Association, or the central education department at the local authority involved in drawing up the project brief and involved in selecting the artist? More likely it will be the project manager, leading the procurement of new schools under a ‘regional’ PPP/PFI contract.

On the one hand, I suppose this does not present a problem for the artist. A well structured project, with clear lines of communication and management structures, should support the work of an artist and make their role easy to fulfil – irrespective of the labyrinth of bureaucracy which requires to be negotiated by the project manager. But this is a sterile response to my query which takes no account of the artist’s need to understand their position within an organisation or the context in which they are working. This approach is also likely to be very isolating, to a certain extent side-lining the artist and therefore probably leading to the work being misunderstood and receiving negative responses.

The key issue seems to be the difficulty of finding that route through an organisation and gaining support for an art project and the artist’s work. A particular problem of working in a very large organisations is that there is little or no access to decision-making – a process which is likely to be driven forward through text and documentation. In some cases, an added difficulty is that the ‘client’ may span a number of organisations, pulled together for a particular purpose – a common situation in regeneration agencies – and so the people commissioning the project do not form a natural constituency. While the group may have a single objective in commissioning the work, such as the improvement of the physical environment, each contributor may measure the ‘success’ of the project through very different, maybe even conflicting, parameters. Or as already hinted at, the client may be fractured in delivering a project within a large organisation – commissioning work in a project which is being delivered by a capital procurement team – the involvement of artists may become an irritant: that precious pearl within the oyster.

This suggests the clearly identified single ‘client group’ does indeed have an advantage in managing an art project over the large disparate organisation as it is likely to develop direct lines of communication with the artist. When 63 people are listed as being involved, as with one of the projects under review, that brings added challenges and complications in pulling together the delivery of the work. Large agencies may have a single name, but most bodies are complex structures and multi-layered with Boards and advisory committees, departments of staff teams and external advisers etc. forms an entity in itself. So in reality the delivery of an artwork through a team of consultants, artists, designers, construction personnel etc. Questioned particularly on this idea, a manager involved in one of the projects under review noted however that “you have to keep pushing projects in a busy environment – really it is the busy environment which is the issue, not necessarily the scale of organisation.”

And this of course is the crux of any project development whether for a small community group or in a large agency – is the project the focus of their organisation? A community group may rely on volunteers who cannot work on a project consistently, day to day. In an organisation, how do you keep a project alive, alert and relevant when it is not central to a person’s work? How do you ensure any new project is accepted as a valuable activity and kept visible? What connections are required and how are they sustained?

There is an argument that actually a large scale organisation can benefit the delivery of an art project. Involving a large number of people, from a broad range of perspectives, and gaining their support gives the work more legitimacy. Engagement in a project also becomes a form of education and an opportunity to ‘skill up’ people – explaining the process of art making. Anecdotal feedback often notes how people enjoy being involved in working with artists and consider it a privilege, . As more people are involved learning happens – the journey demystifies the arts community and demonstrates the professionalism of artists. A further benefit of involving a large number of people in a project delivers a legacy of interested workers once the artists have moved on.

The artwork is often the catalyst to bring two cultures together, creating a space for dialogue and offering opportunities for ‘training’, irrespective of the scale of the project. There are particular benefits of a small, identified project but also significant advantages of working in a large scale organisation. Both, however, need significant energy and clear management keep the profile of the project alive, irrespective of size.

Ben Spencer
November 2008

Calendar Project updates

Janie Nicoll — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:26:13 GMT

On Thursday Amy Marletta came out to Callendar Park again and together with the generous cooperation of Irene and George Dickson, we set up a projection in the vestibule area on the ninth floor of Leishman Tower. Amy has been making a video which she wanted to experiment with, so we blocked out the windows and projected the video onto the doors, walls, and plants in a variety of configurations. I documented this with my digital camera, and got some interesting shots.

Once we had achieved what Amy was looking for we went inside and persuaded Irene to try on a pair of Gold glitter shoes, that feature heavily in the video. George was keen to try these on but found they were too small for him, which was a shame.. I also tried on a pair and very natty they were too. We took more digital images of the video playing on Irene’s widescreen TV, while I left a trail of gold glitter across Irene’s living room carpet, in my quest to get the best shots. All this gold seemed rather appropriate as gold has been a recurring theme through out the residency in artworks Alex and I have both made in “Meddle With the Devil” and “Garlands”, at the Park Gallery.

Mandy Mcintosh has lent us a rather lovely knitted tank-top for the project , which was enthusiastically received by the group at the last meeting on Tuesday. At least four residents wanted to try it on and Lottie who, up-until-now has been unwilling to get involved in this project, immediately pounced on the idea of wearing it. Irene is also a very keen knitter and brought out a huge box of knitted items for a sale of work, at the Community Centre. It was obviously many hours of work involved. For this project Alex has proposed a Falkirk Walk of Fame like the one in Hollywood.. Its making me think of the idea of a “Credit Where Credit’s Due” section for the Village Voice … or a New Years Honours List for Unsung Contributions to the Community. Irene would definitely be on my list.

Lindsay Perth and Helen Beurskens have been paired up and seem to be having an interesting collaboration, as Helen is a really lively character and apparently a bit of a hoarder to say the least. From what I hear Lindsay was having a good old rake through Helen’s record collection and I am looking forward to seeing the artwork that she comes up with. James McLardy has been teamed up with Mary Johnstone, who also seemed to strike up a good rapport. The intention is to get those artworks photographed this week, along with an interesting construction piece by Cath Whippey, a hanging painting by Tommy Grace and a sculpture by Kenny Hunter. Hopefully its all going to make an interesting set of artworks and documentary images.
Inevitably, I need to get my ideas together for my own artwork and as I get more involved in the documentation side of things its all becoming clearer what i am hoping to achieve, but as Alex likes to say “More of that later”......

Amy Marletta is involved with the artists’ collective Ganghut, who have just launched a new Project Space, at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. For more information check out www.ssw.org.uk

Welcome to the Toll Cross Exhibition Blog page!

Louise Ellen Gibson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:18:50 GMT

Welcome to the Toll Cross Exhibition Blog!

First of all I just thought id give you a wee bit of information about who I am and what I spend my days doing!

So…

I was born in Edinburgh, I am 23 yrs of age, and I am unmarried and currently live with my partner in Toll Cross in Edinburgh.

My name is Louise Gibson, I was born in Glasgow, I am 23 years of age, and currently live in Toll Cross in Edinburgh. I am a sculptor currently in my final year at Edinburgh College of Art.
Over the last few years I have been creating work directly out with the restricting confines of your typical white spaced gallery. I have done 3D non-commissioned public art in Berlin (Summer 2007) and also organized and exhibited in an exhibition whilst living in the country for 4 months last year. I have also done public art on the streets of my hometown Edinburgh. My public art is aimed at involving a un expectant audience and allowing them to experience my contemporary sculpture within their everyday life. I love to collage using mixed media in both 2D and 3D forms. At this point in my practice I am creating mainly figurative based work using various mediums, one of the most exciting ways of making sculpture at the moment for me is working unconventionally and imaginatively with resin fibreglass-ideal for durable pubic art. I have done a lot of ‘out of the gallery work’, but I also love the feeling of a large clean white exhibition space and have been involved in many exhibitions over the last few years. I have notably exhibited in The Royal Scottish Academy Scottish Society of Contempery Art Show for the last two years whilst also winning an award for my work in sculpture at college.

Anyway enough about the past, lets talk about something far more interesting, the future….

The Toll cross project;

Toll cross Public Art Exhibition and project 2008/2009

I am organizing an exhibition of my own artwork on the streets of Toll cross in Edinburgh. The show will be held in the open space outside the bank of Scotland in the heart of the area! The exhibition will directly involve 6 businesses, with each business being the inspiration for a particular sculpture.

The 6 businesses directly involved with the project are;

John Sanderson’s High-class family Butcher- 40 Leven Street
Lupe Pintos Mexican Deli- 24 Leven Street
Statement Barbers- 36 Home Street
The Tree House Cafe- Leven Street
James Morrow Home entertainment- 1 Home Street
Joolz Clothing and jewelry-29-31 Leven Street

It will be held throughout the day over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of May 2009.

After the Exhibition the work will be exhibited further on the streets of Toll Cross, outside or on top of the appropriate shop or businesses involved, or in another appropriate semi-permanent location in the area.

The Sculptures; The show will consist of 6 Sculptures made from mixed media and fibreglass. Each sculpture is a ‘character’ and a combined product of my artistic vision derived from my observation and interaction with each one of the chosen businesses in the area.

I have been, over the last couple of months regularly visiting the shops involved, and recently arranged a specific date with each, when I can take some photos of their businesses and the owners themselves, and have a more focused chat about their business and what it means to them/the intentions/aspirations etc for their shops. This is a very important part of my research, as it will inevitably feed my imagination for the collection of sculptures I am going to make for the show!

Aims and intentions (very brief);

I believe there is a lack of un commissioned contemporary street artwork in Edinburgh, despite this; there is undoubtedly some fantastic permanent bronze works, which most defiantly have a valuable role in the aesthetics of our city. However it seems a lot of them these days do go unnoticed, and many people, including myself, are confused by the relevance of these figures in certain locations. My intention for my Contempery project is to create approachable, endearing and exciting semi permanent sculpture that is relevant and recognizable in its location. I want to invite as many people of all ages from all walks of life to see the work. My work is often very colourful and playful but also has quite dark undercurrents; it depicts strong figures and has elements of street performance. I believe it will stand out against the backdrop of the grey city in a fresh new and unexpected way. I like to think that it will fit compositionally into the space and people will experience the exhibition by chance and through community advertisement. I strongly believe that to enjoy and experience art you shouldn’t have to be familiar with the art world and you don’t have to take yourself into a gallery to see it.

I am also hoping that the exhibition and project will ripple out with the initial involvement of a handful of key traders and open up further possibilities for me and other artists to make our work more accessible to the public.

Funding and Advertising;

I am working alongside the Toll cross Traders Association and they are helping me with flyers/posters and other possible forms of advertisement, if you want to be involved also in promoting the show then your ideas and input for the event is very much welcome!

I am also going to arrange a night at one of the local pubs where all those who are/want to be involved can to get together and discuss the exhibition and throw a couple of ideas around can, and over a relaxing local pint!

My Details; Louise Gibson
lovelylou2007@yahoo.co.uk
Feel free to contact me or leave a wee message on this page!

I will be regularly updating images of my working drawings/interaction with the businesses involved and chatting about the project in general! So far I have uploaded some images of my previous show in Toll cross and some working sketches and images of the shops involved and the location of the show!

Enjoy! And al be back with more updated information soon!

All the best!
Louise

Deception/Reception

Alex Hetherington — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:31:43 GMT

Collaborations between Alex Hetherington, Owen Hedges, Mikaela Skosberg, Janie Nicoll; sound, video and music at Republic Bier Halle, Sunday 9 November 2008, from 9.00pm
Featuring video from performances at Callendar House and commencing the Alt-W Award from New Media Scotland. See flyer attached as image.

Usman Haque, Super Mario and Reflexing Plants!

Sarah Grant — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:03:19 GMT

Meeting with artists in varying cafes on Church Street seems to be a frequent occurrence for me of late, and this frequency is due to the increasing number of talented creative’s visiting the city to bid for the varying Old Town projects that are live at present.

At my most recent ‘Church Street Café’ meeting I met with the latest visitor and bidder for the Ramada Jarvis Hotel project – Usman Haque who was accompanied by his wife Ai.

Over coffee, Usman discussed his interest in coral and the way in which its life-form could be cultured to grow un-naturally by ‘man’ and this had led him to consider creating a living face for the Ramada Jarvis Hotel. I recalled a time when studying in Paris when I walked past the National History Museum and being taken aback by this beautiful vertical garden that appeared to be living on the museums entrance and asked Usman if he was familiar with this. He was, and was hoping to create something not too dissimilar; perhaps on a smaller scale for the Ramada but with an ‘Usman’ touch to the creation!

Usman was very good at describing his ideas showing Susan and I sketches of their design scrawled on a napkin over dinner the night before. He said he had been influenced by a ‘land’ which features in a recent Super Mario computer game, in which the character manoeuvres its way up a Galaxy land. I had visions of little cyber men [aka Super Mario and friends] hopping up and down the face of the hotel and shooting down drain pipes as per the original Nintendo game [or am I the only one that remembers this version?]. Usman talked about the use of reactive fibres being placed on the hotel front that would move like living plants and reflex to passing movement. The night and day aspect of the design would also vary with ‘stars’ within the living creation to come alive at night; each star to have a hidden meaning.

The involvement of the community also appeared to be very important to Usman, where his proposal appeared to involve the community in the creative process to ensure that a legacy came about the project where in years to come participants could reflect on their time spent helping change the face of the Ramada Jarvis Hotel and the visual of the Old Town itself.

Announcing Twins

Alex Hetherington — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:39:58 GMT

A calendar for Callendar Park will feature 12 artists based in Scotland: a group show distributed as a calendar. The artists are:
Alex Hetherington
Amy Marletta
Cath Whippey
Hanneline Visnes
Gair Dunlop
James McLardy
Janie Nicoll
Kenny Hunter
Lindsay Perth
Mandy Mcintosh
Rachel Mimiec
Tommy Grace

Artists talking

Janie Nicoll — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:00:33 GMT

Things are moving on with the Calendar project and a few days ago we received work by post from Tommy Grace, currently based in London but who trained at Edinburgh College of Art, was involved with the Embassy Gallery and recently featured in the exhibition The Young Athenians at the RSA. He has sent us a lovely piece of work called “Fifteen Easy Pieces”. We also met up with Cath Whippey, who is currently based in Yorkshire, and who has made an intriguing sculptural work that involves a tree, an apple and a wasp that talks, unless I am mistaken….

We have done various studio visits to artists such as Hanneline Visnes and Kenny Hunter and are looking forward to receiving the works. There really is something very special about hearing how and why an artist makes the work they do…. it never ceases to amaze me how the artworks come to life in a new way when an artists explains their reasoning and interests, and the background they are coming from. I am thinking how rarely this actually happens. It has also been really nice doing this with the group, and realizing how much more informed they are and interested when they see the work explained by the person who has created it. As Mary, one of our regulars said on Tuesday “I’m really starting to get into this arty stuff of yours !!” It makes it all worth while, it really does.

Meanwhile back in the studio I have discovered a really great video camera I can access and Alex and I have been creating a Flash animation using Photobooth, a really simple to use application on the Macs. It is becoming an ongoing project, and I am really enjoying the way you can make video from photos, and the way the brain fills in the gaps and makes sense of the imagery even when obviously there’s information missing.. Its quite a punk approach to video, which is right up my street. I am feeling quite fired up with the possibilities this opens up…

On Friday I’m off to the Liverpool Biennial/ Capital of Culture to attend an a-n Magazine networking event called “The Winner Takes It All”. Fifteen artists from the UK and five from Europe have been invited to attend and take part in a discussion about how these titles benefit artists and artists networks. It’s to be based at the Royal Standard and Red Wire Gallery which are both artist run spaces. I exhibited at Red Wire two years ago so it will be good to go back and see what effect the “C of C” has had on the grassroots arts-scene in general. I seem to be representing Glasgow, so today I met with Jean Cameron who has kindly lent me documentation from the last GI (Glasgow International), which i think will be a good way to show the legacy that remains after Glasgow City of Culture in 1990. I am meeting Becky from Lowsalt tomorrow to get some props from the Secret Agent which was an experimental street performance during GI by Raydale Dower and Judd Brucke, that used Glasgow city centre as a backdrop. I thought this really exemplified how the artscene and the music scenes in Glasgow are inextricably linked and continue to throw up unexpectedly refreshing cross-platform collaborations. Long may it continue…. (Have I said that already in a previous blog!! Well I’ll say it again anyway!!)

James McLardy and Lindsay Perth

Alex Hetherington — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:34:40 GMT

James McLardy and Lindsay Perth came by to present work and ideas to the group, which was marvelous as both artists really engaged with the group. These two artists are developing work for the Twins project (with subliminal messages) and we’re really interested in seeing what develops from their discussions. I love James McLardy’s pencil drawings and sculpture work, which are intense, witty and elegantly rendered; while Lindsay Perth’s ideas about liminal (threshold) states are at once touching, intimate and intellectually intricate. Anyway “bloody marvelous” in the words of Ms Nicoll and now, back to the PhotoBooth please…

Also James has a solo show coming up in November at the Glasgow Project Room at the Independent Studios. More work on both artists here: http://re-title.com/artists/james-mclardy.asp
http://www.lippi.org

Lindsay Perth is a Canadian born artist, who has lived in Scotland since 1986. A graduate from Duncan of Jordanstone in BFA Printmaking and PostDip Electronic Imaging, Perth’s arts practice is engaged with ideas of liminal states, such as the politics of identity via cultural and societal framing. Perth’s intention is to work within littoral art spaces, often those which engage in collaborative art processes. Perth’s approach to art making includes a socially inclusive one. Although predominantly but not defined by media based work, it is an approach that is interdisciplinary including screen-based work, installation, photography and performance.

James McLardy’s work encompasses drawing, video and sculpture, which he combines in order to observe and arrange objects to suggest their gesture, narrative and authenticity. Recent sculptures bring together modern materials like MDF and silicon sealant with traditional methods and materials like wood carving, bronze casting and Tufa. Objects are not always what they at first seem, suggesting an underlying narrative or gesture. As with his drawings and video his sculpture defines a unstable relationship between abstraction and representation, the fake and the real. His pencil drawings represent a more subtle involvement with sculpture through intimacy, memory and history. They create landscapes composed of specific materials such as hair, rock, smoke, hay, bone, tree. The work has a personal quality and narratives are evoked but never spelled out – ultimately the interpretation remains open for the viewer to project their own narratives and fantasies.

popup films, Hatch

Alex Hetherington — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:13:09 GMT

Popup Films who were programmed into High Rise Cinema, Falkirk and also The Consequence at lowsalt and ESW, Glasgow and Edinburgh announced a new film screening of artists working with found footage. Here’s the gen:
Hatch
Bradford Playhouse
4-12 Chapel Street
Little Germany
Bradford
BD1 5DL
Telephone: 01274 820666
http://www.bradfordplayhouse.co.uk/home

It includes a video I made which commingles footage of a baseball game from 1968 with a voice-over of The Black Hit of Space by the Human League.