Kilmorack Gallery - Five Artists

 Until 20 May Kilmorack Gallery is showing the first of three groups of solo exhibitions. Part One presents work by Colin Brown, Annette Edgar, Allan MacDonald, Robert McCaulay and Ann Wegmuller, with smaller works by other artists.

The gallery space, the main nave of an old church, provides both atmosphere and beautiful light.

Colin Brown - selection

Colin Brown's large-scale mixed-media collages, combining contemporary imagery with text, painting and reworked surfaces, dominate the back wall. 
 While I found the larger ones a bit unfocused, the two pictured here have some striking imagery and a cohesion that is eye-catching. 

While the pieces are colourful, they seem more about surface and fun than to be making the sort of political statements traditionally associated with collage artists.

Allan MacDonald - selection

Allan MacDonald has a range of new work - oil paintings of seascapes and views of mountains, often through birch trees. A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, his paintings are increasingly sought after, and he has won various prizes. He is permanently represented at Kilmorack gallery. Some of the work is fresh and feels like it captures the spirit of being outside. However, there are works that seem to miss this spirit, perhaps relying too much on random brush strokes and familiar compositions. I preferred the smaller pieces to the larger ones. 

Annette Edgar - Spring Dance

Annette Edgar graduated in 1980 from Glasgow School of Art and has won several prizes including McRoberts Prize 1996; short listed JD Ferguson Travel Award 2000, and the Mary Armour Award PAI 2006.  She is a member of and frequent exhibitor at the RGI; SSA and VAS, as well as contributing to PAI, RSW and RSA. Her vibrant work is heavily influenced by the Fauves. I think Spring Dance is the most successful of the work on show at Kilmorack.

Eoghan Bridge - 'Contact'

There is one small piece by the Edinburgh-born, Leeds-based artist Eoghan Bridge. Much of his sculptural ceramic work is of stylised horses and female figures. This piece, of a female figure balancing a bull, is typically quirky and expressive. 

Andrea Geile

 



Edinburgh based artist Andrea Geile studied Visual Art in Hanover, Germany, and has held residencies in Orkney, Germany, France and Australia. Her sculptures are hand-made from Corten steel, a weatherproof steel that forms a protective layer which stops further corrosion. The pieces are cut out, assembled and then welded together. This piece of three cylinders was well-placed to catch the light, creating interesting shadows. I liked the contrast between the solidity of the material and its relationship with light and space.

Robert McAulay - Deserted Yard

Robert McAulay is permanently represented by Kilmorack. Many of his acrylic on board paintings on created collaged surfaces are of buildings, with tape used to create straight lines.
This piece I preferred to the more stylised and linear buildings because it has a freshness to it. McAulay tends to frame in black, which can overwhelm the pieces.

Ann Wegmuller RSA - Hedge Walk 1

Perthshire-based Ann Wegmuller's oil paintings dominate one wall of the gallery. She writes, 'Colour is very important to me. It is probably the subject of my paintings. The painting itself starts from my feeling for a place and the colour is the mood. It is like music: different sounds are like different colours.' I share this response to colour. Although some of her gouache and oils are in bright colours, this body of work is in a range of greys and whites. It has a sense of space, calm and understatement that I prefer to her more vibrant work. I also felt that her choice of natural wood and white inset frames work particularly well with these more muted colours. 

This is an exhibition worth visiting, as much for the gallery space and the way the pieces are hung as for the work itself. 

Five Artists runs from 18 March to 20 May at the Kilmorack Gallery. http://www.kilmorackgallery.co.uk/exhibitions/

3-D printing workshop

Art students had an opportunity to visit Linkwood campus for a workshop on UHI's 3-D printing facilities. I had done some research, and seen the 3-D printed jewellery work of Nora Fok. Professional technology is well-developed and the technique can be used with a wide range of organic and inorganic materials, from ceramics to cells. The chosen material is extruded according to a computer-generated model, which can be produced through scanning any 3-D object.

UHI 3-D printer in action

At UHI the technology is at the more basic end of the spectrum. The 3-D scanner is only reasonably accurate, and the only materials that can be used are plastics. That said, the main polymer, PLA (polylactic acid) is biodegradable. 

small object being scanned in 3-D scanner

scanned object

The scanner image of the small model shows some of the inaccuracies of the scanner. It is possible to take a series of scans from several angles to iron out these inaccuracies. 

However, for an art student, there is something very interesting about the limitations of the technology in replicating physical objects. 


My own work is about the role of technology, and particularly digital technology, in shaping the reality we inhabit. Although I won't be using 3-D printing to do this at the moment, it is useful to have an understanding of the technology and what it can offer the artist. 

Beamer 3

The Academy Gallery is dim, lit only by the projection of films of diverse shapes and forms, on ceilings, high walls, on glass, on 3-D objects...The first impression is of an Aladdin's cave, an eclectic mix of colour and sensation, and I am keen to take the time to look more closely. 

Luckily, as it is quiet, I have an opportunity to chat to Georgina Porteous, installation artist and Moray College Fine Art graduate. She takes the time to show me round and talk me through the various  pieces, which bring together works by well-established names as well as artists at the beginning of their careers. 

gallery plan

Frames per Second: Graham Roger, Chris Bird, Dave Martin

One of the most arresting works is Frames per Second, a film installation by artists Graham Roger and Chris Bird, with sound by Dave Martin. The pieces weaves together photography, film and sound, and is projected onto a wall of glass resin blocks made by Tain glassworks arranged on the floor. Footage combining domestic and natural imagery has been edited to run simultaneously. The effect is technically intriguing and colourful, but also provokes thoughts about concurrent lives and places, and the impact of digital imagery and technology on our experience of time. 

Ailsa Robertson

Opposite this vibrant colour is a more subdued collection of film, including work by Dundee artist, Cordelia Underhill, Porteous herself, Ailsa Robertson (Moray College graduate now working in London) and Scottish film-maker Dan Shay.The work is projected in a circle through a pane of textured acrylic, emphasising the tone and pattern of the footage. The soundtrack to Robertson's natural imagery of snowy trees includes the howling of wolves.  This oblique presentation creates a calming, impressionistic play of light and sound, rather than dwelling on meaning. 
 

Caroline Bury: Untitled

Caroline Bury describes her practice as 'experimental and dark with a humorous twist, using unusual or unexpected materials'. The disembodied head on the gallery floor, onto which grotesquely moving features are projected, is indeed part horror, part humour. In a similar vein of self-referential portraiture, a film series on the outer wall features a rather disturbing monologue by Camilla Brody about attractiveness (Possibility to Love), and slightly  Bjorkish footage of Selena Kuzman stepping through a range of natural habitats dressed as a white stag, with large white antlers. Also in this space is the first of two Micheal O'Connell (aka Mocksim) pieces, Recay 2008, featuring the voice of John Peel. London-based Mocksim's  surreal animation work investigates everyday functional processes, attempting to re-understand through tinkering with systems and inventing new routines and procedures. His key interest is in 'the mediation of human relationships through technology, its curious dynamics, feedback loops and ritualistic aspects'. The work is both intriguing and clever.

Against the far wall is running a psychedelic sequence by John McGeoch (Artsinmotion), created as a visual for a music concert. While it could work well with a live band, it feels a little too obviously computer-generated.

Sandro Kopp: skype painting

A more engaging work is Sandro Kopp's film of skype painting. The ongoing interaction between painter and subject on the split screen speaks as much about our timeless capacity to connect emotionally across time, place and race as about the wonders of modern technology.

Kopp shares the projector with the second of Mocksim's short loop films or 'simupoems' - a crumpling till receipt entitled Live Well. It is a simple but poignant commentary on life and consumerism. 

Porteous is clearly passionate about how film can connect people. She says, 'The Beamer Nights Project is a fusion of my practice as it relates to my passion for film, archive and site specific installation.  My curation of these expositions brings people together to create and celebrate projections in all its forms. This is done by facilitating original conversations and connections by triggering the widely diverse memories of people’s life experience.' 

This stimulaing show is as much a testament to Porteous' determination and hard work (she has Crowdfunded for the Beamer series), as to her enthusiasm. Given the quality of these works, they could have benefited from a little more space in a larger gallery. But it is refreshing to see new and established artists together, and this is an exciting mix.


Beamer 3 is the latest of Georgina Porteous's Beamer series, running at the Academy Gallery, Moray School of Art in Elgin from 14 March to 4 April. For more information see http://www.beamer.me.uk/

Half-Light

Half-Light is running concurrently with Nora Fok, from 14/3 - 15/4/17. This is a touring exhibition of monochromatic works from three artists with connections to  Caithness. 

Jana Emburey is a visual artist working across a wide range of media including paintings, drawings, printmaking, sculpture and installation. Her work explores the concept of time perception, memory and our transient nature. 

Originally from Caithness, jeweller Beth Legg has been strongly influenced by the remote environment she comes from and is fascinated by the quiet edges of places – a bleak remoteness which can be both beautiful and melancholic. 

Glass artist Karlyn Sutherland initially studied architecture and has a long-standing interest in the bond between people and place. With a particular focus on the characteristics of space that shape our memories and sense of attachment.

An Orkney Calendar 2014

Although this is a small exhibition, the intimate space of the small gallery gives it a sense of mystery and something 'other', which works with the pieces. The mood is understated, with an organic beauty. I was particularly struck by Karlyn Sutherland's piece 'An Orkney Calendar', regular incised shapes made of kiln-fired glass, representing the shadows of a building. It has a sculptural, timeless quality.

Monotype on Japanese Kozo 2016

Jana Emburey's delicate abstract photogravure and monotypes combine tiny etched circles with large monochrome planes. They combine line and form, delicacy and energy very successfully I think.

Restrained 2016

Northern Triptych 2015

Beth Legg is a jeweller, but her work has a sculptural element. One is tempted to wonder what she might produce at a much larger scale. I was particularly interested in 'Northern Triptych', which has a symbolic quality, contemporary, while referencing traditional materials and techniques.  

Filament science and Nora Fok

New Threads' is running at the Inverness Museum from 14 March to 15 April, commissioned by the Harley Gallery, represents a selection from the last six years of British jeweller Nora Fok's intricate textile wearables. Fok's work examines the interaction between art and science and falls somewhere between jewellery, sculpture, art, craft and textile, making it clear that such distinctions are at best artificial!

Snowflake series 2012-13

Mathematics and the three dimensional structures that underlie life’s natural forms are the starting points for these new series. The three themes are: 'Exploring Flax', which led Fok to develop a new thread combining nylon and flax; 'Magic of Nature', showing the latest pieces resulting from Nora’s continuing fascination with natural forms and nylon threads; and 'New Forms, New Technologies', in which she uses 3D printing to create sculptural forms strongly influenced by the mathematical/structural philosophy of Buckminster Fuller.

Fok says, 'The processes that I use - weaving, knitting, crocheting and knotting - turn the linear nylon into simple and complex structures, which are inspired by my fascination with the natural world and the mathematical models that underpin it.'

Knot talk 2013

There is a range of work - from linen and seed pods in organic arrangements to the high-tech plastic and nylon 3-D printed and intricately looped, almost 'space-age' neckpieces. This is a very contemporary use of textile and sculpture that has a fragile, if somewhat artificial, beauty. For example the Snowflake neckpieces, a series of intricately looped circlets in clear nylon, demonstrates incredible craft and patience. The Noughts and Crosses series (2014-15), hard plastic circlets incised with negative spaces is very clever. Yet I found the regularity of these patterns and the inflexible nature of the material failed to evoke an emotional response. The woven linen circlets and neckpieces hung with seed pods have an African tribal feel. Some appear tactile and interesting. Perhaps they need to be moving while worn on someone's body to acquire a sense of life and movement. Under glass they seem a little static. 

The piece 'Knot Talk', a body hanging of textile with knots, based on the quipu counting system used by the ancient South American Cloud People, is interesting. Fok writes of it, 'I let the knots do all the talking. The Cloud People had their way of recording personal events and information, just as we use mobile phone and the web.'

Geodesic home 2015

Hybrid 2013-15

 












I was more drawn to sculptural pieces like this organic one, and like the plastic and nylon 'Geodesic Home'. One of the most successful pieces I felt was 'Hybrid', which takes as its inspiration the Ebola virus and a pollen grain and creates a weird and intriging shape that appears almost alive. Perhaps Fok is at her best when she does not limit herself to circular neckpieces, but is able to be spatially more free?

Katy Dove

Between 7 January and 25 February there was a memorial exhibition at the Inverness Museum of drawings, collages, paintings, prints and animations by the much-loved artist Katy Dove (1970 – 2015). Katy grew up on the Black Isle, and created meditative spaces through her combinations of sound and image, and contemplative responses to colour and rhythm. She found children to be especially receptive to her work. So I took my two children (10 and 12) along, so we could share our impressions.

We were all struck by the animations in the first alcove, playing on a screen. The rhythmic music combined with abstract moving coloured shapes to create a slightly disembodied meditative sense, light rather than dark.

Her small 2-D paint and collage pieces around the gallery space were similar - simple and colourful, with an underlying sense of innocence and joy. In the back room of the gallery were large textile pieces, art quilts, again with the same childlike quality. These were not particularly well lit, but visible. I felt that the animations were the strongest pieces, and that the combination of moving forms and music was effective. 

Overall, we found the show calming and positive. I missed an 'edge' in this exhibition. However, it was relaxing to experience, and there was a real poignancy in the fact that such an obviously sunny and positive person with a sense for sharing the pleasure of art, particularly with children, had such an early and tragic death.

Alternative Realities

It was late last year that Jude put forward the idea of holding a 3rd Year show, to widespread support. Initial Professional Practice meetings, with Gill as expert advisor, identified the dates when the Academy Gallery space was available, and we settled on opening 10 to 16 February. That gave everyone time to work on pieces over the break.

The class really worked well together, with a well-organised committee, supported by the others, all communicating via a Facebook page. Facebook allowed everyone to feel informed and able to contribute, including more distance students. Everyone contributed £10 at the outset to avoid the extra hassle of fundraising. A poster was drafted, and, as the show date grew closer, a list of work drawn up, and an invigilation rota. There was close liaison with Steve the technician over health and safety.  It was agreed that personal contact details and prices should not be part of this show.

Steve warned that the allocation of spaces is often a source of conflict, but there was actually very little, and everyone was accommodating to other folks' needs. There was a range of work to be shown, including projection and installations, as well as painting and photography. Part of the success of this process was that Jude and the organising committee allowed a lot of time for contributors to put forward their needs in terms of space, light and electric sockets. Spaces were then allocated in order of need, with the most flexible last. That seemed to work well.

Steve was very helpful during the hanging process on 6 February. He was able to give very practical advice - for example on optimum hanging heights (c.58" for the centre of a piece), and on the way in which spot lighting could be used to highlight particular pieces. He assisted some contributors with hanging, and was able to introduce new ideas linked to the meaning of the piece, rather than to 'order' for its own sake. Although I have not had much experience of hanging, I felt that the whole composition of the show worked well, within limits of space and electrical sockets. Not everyone was available to hang their pieces at exactly the same time, so there was not really an opportunity to reconsider locations on the basis of how it all looked. Without too much re-hanging or calculation, however, diverse pieces were hung side by side and, in my view, worked pretty well together. There was probably scope for some improvement on show composition, but I think we did well.

Meanwhile posters were put up all over Elgin, and there was online publicity on Facebook and on the Moray College webpage, thanks to Gill. 

The opening was very well attended, and there was positive feedback on the quality and standard of the work and exhibition as a whole. Two non-contributor volunteers at the 'bar' out in the foyer did a sterling job in ensuring that people had wine/juice and nibbles, allowing the artists to talk with visitors about their work. 

The invigilation rota worked fairly well, although perhaps the table could have been more visible to visitors. It was helpful to have one evening opening, for those working during the day. More would probably have improved visitor numbers, but would have required invigilation from students with domestic responsibilities outside college, so was not practical. While I was invigilating a school group and a special needs class visited the show, as well as several individuals.

The show was taken down successfully. It was probably of a standard that it could have been up for longer, had the Academy Gallery been available. We did not collect visitor numbers, but it would be useful to share feedback from invigilators, as well as from Steve, the tutors and all those who participated in the show. I certainly found it a good learning experience, and a confidence-builder. While there was quite a bit of work involved, it was a good demonstration of the quality of exhibition that students can mount with relatively little 'expert' input. 



 

Relate North - inspiration!!

Relate North 2016 - what a whirlwind four days!

As soon as I arrived in Sumburgh on Monday and was driven to Lerwick hostel by Pat, a student on the new Fine Art degree course, there was plenty to be doing. 

The exhibition was being set up at Mareel, the main arts centre, and the nearby Gutter's Hut, a brightly painted tin building used in the past for fish processing. Artists had arrived from the Komi Republic in Siberia, from Iceland, from Canada and Lapland, and were busy in the Gutter's Hut negotiating wall and floor space for their pieces.

hanging the show in the Gutter's hut

I helped with clearing the room ready for the pieces to be hung, and discussing hanging arrangements for our Northern Exchange exhibit. We were sharing an alcove room with another exhibitor, and had to work out the best arrangement for our two monitors of film and four ipods with speakers to play the participant interviews from Iceland. Susan Timmins and her husband Davy set to work installing the wall fixings, while Roxane took me up to Shetland College for a planning meeting with the other helpers. We started to collate the delegates packs. I was responsible for organising the labels for the exhibits, using the details from the conference catalogue that had been designed and printed in Finland.

Planning meeting

The conference proper at the Museum started on Tuesday afternoon after the Arctic Sustainable Art and Design meeting. Delegates continued to arrive during the morning. 

'Dome' being erected in the  Sail Loft

One issue was finding a space large enough for us to erect the Northern Exchange replica 'radar dome', on which the thoughts and memories of participants had been recorded in Iceland in UV pen. Liz Crichton and I trialed the dome at Mareel, but there were health and safety issues by a fire exit, so we had to explore our final option - the 'Sail Loft', a stone boat house opposite the Museum. I managed to persuade a Museum assistant to help me move 3 large wooden boats to make a space for the dome, and Liz and I re-erected it there, on the flagstone floor. We had had plenty of practice in Iceland, so we were just in time to head across to the Museum for the first papers. 

The conference itself was very inspiring. Although it coincided with the election of Donald Trump, its whole focus on collaboration, social transformation through creativity, and the importance of nature and place, helped to dispel some of the the gloom over money-driven politics. The theme of Relate North 2016 - Practising Place - Heritage, Art and Design for Creative Communities, was brought into focus as more relevant than ever to today's world.  

There were many highlights. The lives and work of Scottish women film-makers Margaret Tait and Jenny Gilbertson were a feature of the first day. I was particularly interested in Tuija Hautala-Hirvioja's paper on Sami artist Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa and the way in which he used landscape drawing to strengthen a Sami sense of place and social inclusion.

That evening Liz and I worked until late bolting the UV-inscribed triangles onto our dome, and I worked around the exhibition placing labels next to the exhibits in both Mareel and the Gutter's Hut.

Ruth Beer and protest weaving

Wednesday was the longest day of papers, and absolutely fascinating. Janette Kerr, a landscape artist based in Somerset and Shetland, spoke about taking part in an artists' voyage to Svalbard, and about a northern sense of place. Professor Herminia Din joined by Skype from Alaska to talk about a wonderful multi-year collaborative project and book about using public spaces for communal winter artworks using snow and ice. Professor Vladimir Durnev from the Syvtyvkar spoke about indigenous ceramics, referring to ceramics as the 'first art from nothing'. Jaana Erkkila, Professor of Visual Arts from the University of Lapland, described creating cross-disciplinary 'Travelling Laboratories for Artistic Thinking', which have important implications for sustainable tourism and sense of place. Timo Jokela, Director of ASAD, spoke about the need for Place-appropriate public design. Ruth Beer, Professor of Visual Art and Material Practice at Emily Carr University in Vancouver, and a campaigner of long-standing for indigenous rights and environmental protection, was particularly inspiring. She is involved in a federally-funded action research project entitled Trading Routes: Grease Trails, Oil Pipelines, which uses a radical form of counter-mapping to explore the complex dynamics of resource extraction and indigenous rights. This relates in particular to the demise of the indigenous oolichan fishery as a result of river damming and development, and the recent approval of a pipeline to carry oil to the coast from the Alberta Tar Sands, crossing 30 tribal areas.  There were many other interesting speakers. At the close of the day Roxane Permar presented our Northern Exchange project, and I was one of the panel for questions.

That evening I enjoyed a curry with Timo Jokela, Glen Coutts, Mirja Hiltunen, Elina Harkonen, Susan Timmins and Davy Stane - it was good to have longer to chat and to get to know some of the other organisers better. 

Thursday was the final day of speakers and the grand opening of the exhibition. Once again the standard of papers was high, with Gina Wall speaking on the traces of colonialism in Glasgow, Mirja Hiltunen on art projects to help integrate refugees into Finnish communities, Keith Smyth on some progressive thoughts on learning as a broad public good that should not be limited to academic institutions but extending to public spaces.   

Ruth Beer knitting

Icelandic collaborative project - letters

The most inspiring paper was given about what, in my view, was the best collaborative art project of the whole event. Asthildur Jonsdottir, who had worked with us in Iceland, collaborated with five other Icelanders, artists, a psychologist and an anthropologist. Their project created links between Iceland and Shetland in a range of interesting ways. The five instigators wrote to Shetlanders by letter, asking them to describe the sights, sounds and smells of a favourite place. They took the resulting descriptions and translated them into colours and pictures, then took Icelandic wool of the right colours with them to Shetland and held a participatory knitting and story-telling event with a Shetland knitting group. The knitters used the Icelandic wool to 'knit' the colours of the places described, while being filmed telling stories. Finally, images of this event were beamed back to Iceland, where the remaining Icelandic participants put into words their emotions and experiences of the whole project. These words were read out at the symposium. The resultant installation was interactive; participants could continue the knitting process! I thought it was a wonderfully intricate and intimate way of connecting two cultures in ways that combined the traditional (letter writing, knitting, painting) and the high-tech (Facebook, email).

The final event of Thursday was the opening of the exhibition - here are some photos...

Roxane with artists and visitors to the exhibition opening

 This is a participant listening to the Northern Exchange installation, which included film and recorded interviews. Thanks to Davy and Susan for all the technical wizardry!  

All in all, I learned a great deal from the experience of being involved in helping with the organisation and running of this amazing event. The feedback on Relate North 2016 was overwhelming and positive. Very inspiring!!