Modern Languages

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 MODERN LANGUAGES – Reinterpreting the Irish Vernacular

Galway City Museum for Galway Arts Festival 11th – 23rd July 2011

The National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland 22nd October 2011 – 12th January 2012

2012 dates coming soon…

Some Press:

Review in Irish Times by Gemma Tipton:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/1122/1224307943722.html

RTE TV The View:

http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1123420 

RTE Radio Vincent Woods – Arts Tonight 7 November 2011: Year of Craft

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/artstonight/

INTRODUCTION

Modern Languages offers the perspective of five international artists and designers with an interest in craft, its history and meaning. These artists seek to re-interpret the sometimes familiar, sometimes forgotten skills of Ireland’s craft tradition. In doing so they uncover fresh significance and meaning, offering new insights into the Irish vernacular.

The premise for the exhibition came about through watching Robert J. Flaherty’s seminal 1932 film Man of Aran. It is a film steeped in the vernacular, from the fishermen’s sweaters to the dry-stone walling. But what enticed me most was Flaherty’s unapologetic use of the materials the Aran islanders had to hand. Although dubbed the first ‘Mocumentary’, Flaherty’s film is faultless in its poetic use of materials. It projects the universal idea of man’s struggle against the sea through a carefully constructed fictional reality.

These careful re-enactments of tradition against the backdrop of a harsh natural landscape made me consider the use that contemporary artists, designers or craftpersons make of traditions and known signifiers. Like Flaherty the artists in Modern Languages appropriate and re-contextualise known elements from within the vernacular tradition to better communicate their own concerns and interests.

Ciara Phillips’ work with Studio Donegal uses their traditional hand-loom weaving techniques and employs the studio’s range of existing yarns. Phillips enlisted the support of master weaver John x? to carry out work from designs developed by Phillips in consultation with Studio Donegal. During the collaboration Phillips and John x? forged a respect and understanding of each other’s ideas and techniques. In Phillips’ work with Studio Donegal the concerns of the vernacular tradition and contemporary artistic practice are shown as mutually supporting.

The contributors to the exhibition hold varying ties and relationships to Ireland. Whilst Nao Matsunaga’s initial unfamiliarity with both the Aran Islands and Irish traditions in general has resulted in a formalist interpretation of the canvas-on-frame Irish currachs, Deidre Nelson’s textile works draw on an array of cultural traditions, myths and clichés to make sense of her contemporary surroundings.

Matsunaga is a sculptor who works predominantly with clay. His hollow clay forms with apertures, combined with wooden stick legs share a common vocabulary with the slick beetle-like currach as it is carried down to the strand on the shoulders of men. For Modern Languages, Matsunaga’s response to the west coast tradition of currach-making plays fast and loose with vernacular tradition, intuitively responding to formal similarities of material juxtapositions to create idiosyncratic assemblages.

By way of contrast, Nelson’s focus is on the cultural narratives of her home country Ireland, reinterpreting its folklore with a close eye on the malleability of its traditions. Nelson’s realisation that the Aran knit was developed more as a profitable souvenir than out of practicality (the plain grey ganseys had served perfectly well for years) has led to a set of products that negotiate ideas of both ‘authentic’ Irish heritage, and the Irish heritage industry, to produce a collection of ‘souvenirs’ that link directly to the economics of both traditional cottage industry and the more recent turmoil of contemporary Ireland.

Viewed comparatively the challenges facing Irish craft traditions are in no way unique. Shetland-based Barbara Ridland takes pleasure in the endless beauty within the ordinary artifacts from her textile, crofting and maritime heritage. She acknowledges that many such artifacts remain for the sake of tourism or as collectables, their function having been replaced by more efficient and affordable objects in plastic. With the demise of the practical use of traditional artifacts a whole vernacular language has almost fallen out of use at the same time:

”Kishie, Gloy, Hjogs, Meshie, Fletchie, Cuddie, and Fettel” 

In Ireland too machines and mass-produced imports have replaced the work of the local craftsmen, and synthetic materials have replaced natural locally-sourced products. Using computer-controlled cutting to create a series of profiles which are then built up into a version of the IKEA Stefan chair, Connemara-based Laura Mays’ Stefan 4 explores the relationship between new technology and craft, and also that between the chair and the body of its user.

By re-inserting an image of the user’s body into a mass-produced artifact Mays re-inscribes into mass production the image of a unique, personal relationship. Similarly Ridland takes a dying and practically obsolete artefact, the Shetland basket-form kishie, and re-animates it, using the discarded scraps of cardboard packaging made ubiquitous by contemporary consumer culture. In this way one form of obsolete container (discarded packaging) is transfigured into the image of another (the now almost abandoned craft of Kishie).

Such transfigurations from past to present, from commonplace to unique, from material to idea and back again provide a testimony to the valuable ongoing role that traditional craft skills play in providing contemporary artists and designers space to reflect upon their role in relation to contemporary society. Modern Languages seeks to demonstrate the modern language of craft, transcending place, and employing a wide variety of materials and methods to explore ideas and concepts through making.

 

Ciara Phillips, Blankets

Ciara Phillips & Barbara Ridland

Derdre Nelson

Nao Matsunaga

Barbara Ridland

Nao Matsunaga

 

Barbara Ridland & Laura May

Nao Matsunaga

Derdre Nelson



Jerwood Contemporary Makers 2010

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Can Make & Do

3 OCTOBER 2010

Rotationalmouldedshoe (Slice) by Marloes ten Bhomer

 

 

Can Make & Do is an event organised to explore the context around the 29 makers in this year’s Jerwood Contemporary Makers exhibition shown in association with Dovecot and IC:Innovative Craft.

A panel of five exhibitors, Carl Clerkin, David Gates, Kirsty McDougall, Marloes ten Bhomer and Dawn Youll, chaired by Katy West, freelance curator and maker based in Glasgow, will speak about their exhibited work, their practice and their individual approach to making.

A panel discussion will follow the talks, which will offer the audience an opportunity to understand the various approaches taken by the creative practitioners, from process to meanings embodied in the final object.  The discussion will explore the disparate language of forms created and their purpose and meaning in our commercial world.

To coincide with the event Central Station will be launching an online ‘Collection’ for Jerwood Contemporary Makers 2010 with submissions by the participating exhibitors. The collection will seek to elaborate on the single object representing each maker in the exhibition and will show images and documentation from the makers regarding the environment in which they work, from sketchbook pages to workshop floors, from the work they make to the public environment it occupies.

Spaces are limited – please sign up by emailing info@innovativecraft.co.uk

The Speakers:

Marloes ten Bhömer
Born in Duiven, the Netherlands, Marloes ten Bhömer studied product design at the Higher School of Arts Arnhem before receiving an MA in design at the Royal College of Art in London. Marloes currently focuses on innovating footwear. Her cutting edge, distinct shoe designs offer an alternative to existing design languages and typologies. They have a design language that is built on clean lines, materials, and construction techniques that are closer to design and architecture than women’s fashion. They allow women the incredibly rare chance of freedom from conventional style clichés and codes, because they do not conform to the existing codes. Her work has been exhibited in London, Tokyo, Germany, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Melbourne and Washington and has been published internationally. She is currently setting up her independent shoe label MARLOESTENBHÖMER ®.

Carl Clerkin
Born in 1973 Carl Clerkin graduated from Furniture Design at The Royal College of Art and now works from his studio in East London. He shares his time between public commissions, such as the adaptation of ‘Long Crawly Thing’ for seating at Bowes Museum and designing products. Clerkin has exhibited his work extensively at design fairs and museums, most notably in The Uncanny Room, Pittshanger Manor in 2002, Them Indoors at The Geoffrey Museum in 2004, and most recently as a member of design collective, Ten, Bodging Milano for Designers Block at Milan Furniture Fair this year. Carl lectures at Middlesex University.

David Gates
Based in London David Gates designs and makes furniture, working speculatively for public showing and to commission on domestic, public and commercial piece. Effective, functional solutions are developed with the client taking into account the needs of the user, budget, and the nature, history and location of the site. Recent work has centred on a more three-dimensional user experience of cabinetwork and in an ongoing project Gates tries to present users with pieces that ask to be considered for their ambiguities. He usually works on one or more open-ended inter-disciplinary research projects with other practitioners centred on ideas of communication and the notion of making. Gates also teaches part time at what used to be known as the London College of Furniture, now part of London Metropolitan University, working with students on studio, workshop and theory modules.

Kirsty McDougall
Weaver Kirsty McDougall is one part of Dashing Tweeds, along with photographer Guy Hills and is a new addition to the British tweed industry. Opening up a contemporary arena for a classic quality fabric, Dashing Tweeds has created a range of tweeds for the 21st century. The Urban Tweeds range, incorporating double yellow lines are red routes are inspired by the colours of London, from the wet pavements of Piccadilly to the green parks of St. James’. Clothing involves pristine Saville Row tailoring and the latest technologies: Selected tweeds across each range have been designed as LumatwillTM. A unique weave of worsted wool and reflective yarn, LumatwillsTM appear by day only in their smart combination of colours. By night, under illumination, hidden reflective lines shine out, offering an inventive and stylish solution to attire for the pedestrian, cyclist or scooter.

Dawn Youll
Born in Sunderland in 1977 and based in Glasgow, Dawn graduated from the International Ceramics Centre at Cardiff School of Art and Design in 2008. Dawn’s practice has always centred on the exploration of a personal landscape. She says of recent work, “There is a certain feeling of familiarity that a glazed, ceramic object can evoke, this allows it the potential as a vehicle to explore the object as metaphor. In a traditional form ceramic has the ability to represent an ‘elsewhere’ in a familiar domestic setting I am interested in the shift of consciousness (whether it be a memory or a notion) that it can cause. Because the familiar allows us to make sense of our environment, I gather glimpses of it and literally lay them on the table, individual elements recorded as ceramic objects, as an investigation into how we view and interact with our surroundings.”

Podcasts of this event are available here

Pecha Kucha

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Coming Soon… 

 Pecha Kucha 7: A Christmas Special

1st December 2011

 

 

Pecha Kucha 6: Landscape or Portrait?

13th October 2011

James Rigler Architecture Parlante / Speaking Architecture A talk about Architecture Parlante from around the world, and the work of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux that inspired the term. After dropping out of a year of architecture James Rigler studied 3d Design at Brighton University before gainful employment at Architectural ceramics company, Lambs. Jacking that in he undertook an MA at the Royal College of Art in 2007.  More recently he has been summer resident at Cove Park, and liking Scotland so much has decided to stay a little longer. www.jamesrigler.co.uk

Emlyn Firth A Certain Ratio Emyln charts his relationship with classical modernism in graphic design, via various projects, over a ten year span. Emlyn is currently a Senior Designer at ISO, but is about to embark on taking his own practice – A Visual Agency full time. As well as that, Emlyn runs letterpress facility ‘The Press’ with Edwin Pickstone, and works as part of the design collective State. He also sits on the Scottish Design Alliance, and occasionally teaches at Glasgow School of Art and Caledonian University. Emlyn has won various Scottish and UK design awards, including the Roses Grand Prix and Young Designer of the Year.

Ellie Herring Streets Without Windows Ellie will be speaking about the role of shop windows as a method of framing the street, and potentially enriching our urban experience, using some of her own displays that you may recognise to explain this. Ellie has a background in textile design, an MA in Design History and is currently studying for a PhD in Architecture and Cultural Studies. Her thesis looks at the way the street is furnished, and how the use of furnishings – like benches, bollards and street lamps – reveal themes of responsibility and control in the public realm. When she is not so busy reading, writing, and commuting between Glasgow and Berlin Ellie makes the most beautiful things.

Suzy Glass & Ryan Thompson Who + Where “We wanted to use this as an opportunity to invite friends, family and colleagues to help us to explore our landscape through their portraits. We wanted to begin to build a network, to paint a picture of who we are and where we operate.”Suzy Glass is a cross-artform producer, specialising in digital work. She runs Trigger, established in April 2011 to produce creative happenings where artforms, sectors and interests collide. Prior to that she produced Central Station for ISO, a creative social network for artists, film-makers and designers. She has worked with and for a broad range of cultural organisations including the BBC, ACE, NVA, the NHM and TFL. www.TriggerStuff.co.uk Ryan Thompson is a Glasgow-based graphic designer and has been working independently as Studio Rydo for the past 2 years working for a range of clients from the music, arts and leisure industries. He is a member of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD), is a believer in uncluttered, clear, engaging design and likes Big Letters. A childhood spent in the sunshine and sand of the Middle East, contrasted with formative years being battered by Scottish wind and rain, means that he is a daydreamer and pragmatic thinker in (almost) equal measure.  www.rydo.co.uk

Brian Proudfoot Taking the long view - Landscapes, cityscapes and few other sketches Brian is a Director at Goodd Ltd which as a company has roles as as an independent contemporary design shop,  manufacturer, gallery and design consultancy. Prior to this he has worked as an environments designer for a branding consultancy in London for nine years. Brian and his colleague Tom are responsible for making available the best of international design and promoting local designers in Glasgow. Watch out for their new shop space in another WASPS Studios, opening soon on Osborne Street.

New Glasgow Society: Neil McGuire & Tom Warren 

www.newglasgowsociety.org

Neil on Tom: Tom Warren is far taller than he is wide, the BFG of architecture and activism, and interested in lots of things – not least art and design projects rooted in local concerns, but always outwardly looking. Tom is a co-founder of Streetland festival and key protagonist in the re-emergence of Govanhill Baths, and the New Glasgow Society. He is also very nearly an architect.

Tom on Neil: Neil McGuire’s is a part-time tutor in Visual Communications at Glasgow School of Art, Director/Founder/Designer at After the News Ltd. www.afterthenews.co.uk His Linkedin profile states he ha’no past’. He is a man who lives for the future! A prolific online writer, his opinions and instigation’s litter the Web. He is currently one of the vice-chairs of the New Glasgow Society.

Nicholas Oddy One Object, Four Landscapes What: A garden railway locomotive. Why: Because he likes it. Nicholas Oddy is senior lecturer in the Forum for Critical Inquiry at Glasgow School of Art and is consultant for toys and collectors’ items at Bonhams. A design historian by trade he first qualified as a ceramics and glass maker in the days when one could. Most of what he does is informed by objects encountered in the processes of collecting, therefore, in the grand tradition of Norman Tebbit, an academic research interest in cycling history and indeed much of a following career stems from getting on a bike, a 1934 Vindec to be precise. However, much though he likes them, bicycles fade beside old toy trains, one of which forms the focus of this presentation.

Laura Spring It’s Raining Men A presentation about the weather, inspired  by Laura’s  first collection of luggage that was created out of her observation that “we are a nation of weather watchers”. For the past eight years Laura Spring have been involved in the field of fashion and textiles. The early part of her career saw her working in costume design for film, TV and theatre where she developed a range of practical skills to compliment the design skills she had learnt during her degree in Visual Communication at The Glasgow School of Art. Laura spent the Summer in Cove Park and most recently was selected to be part of Charlotte Abraham’s Spotted Stand at Top Drawer which was a showcase of 12 emerging designer/makers from the UK. This led to a feature in The Financial Times’ “How To Spend It” website about her “wet weather tote bag”. Available here: www.lauraspring.co.uk Based in a beautiful studio on Albert Drive Laura gets to see glasgow weather daily in the best possible light.

 

 

Pecha Kucha 4: Current Affairs

29th January 2011 

Beatrice Colin The Right Kind of Wrong Beatrice Colin is the author of four novels including The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite (published as The Glimmer Palace in the US) and The Songwriter. Selected by Richard and Judy for their TV book programme, she has been shortlisted for a British Book Award, a Saltire Award and a Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award. Beatrice in currently Writer in Residence at Tramway.

Rob Churm THE FAMILY! Rob Churm is an artist who lives and works in Glasgow. He makes drawings and has recently begun to develop his work into printmaking. He is represented by Sorcha Dallas Gallery and has a new solo show at the gallery that opens in April 2011. He has been involved with making music in Glasgow for the past ten years. His latest group are called Gummy Stumps. Their debut album “Duds” is available on vinyl thanks to Glasgow independent label Winning Sperm Party: You can download it for free along with other great local music at winningspermparty.com

Nick Ross Nature 2.0 Nick is a young designer based between Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. He is currently working on a project that will tour Scotland in 2011 and has been commissioned to design the award for this years Arts & Business Awards. He has worked at the ateliers of designers Front in Stockholm and Tomas Libertiny in Rotterdam. He lectures in Product Design at Gray’s College of Art, Aberdeen.

Tam Dean Burn Revodoodleution Tam Dean Burn works between theatre, film, television and cabaret. Theatre works include Caledonia (NTS/EIF), The Caretaker at The Citizens, Tutti Frutti (NTS) and Berkoff’s Messiah at the Edinburgh Assembly. Films include Warhorse, Local Hero, and the Acid House Trilogy. TV appearances include River City and Taggart. Directing credits include The Play of Gilgamesh (RSAMD) and William Burrough’s Caught in Possession of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Citizens Theatre). Cabaret work includes Manifesto Club at The Traverse and Manifesto Politikal Kabaret at theTron. http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/tamdeanburn vimeo.com/tharmasburns250.com

Rosalind Masson Hands Talk My movement practice and work as a dancer engages me in questions such as: How are the hands and brain connected? How does individual information become collective and communicated? What are the implications of this as technologies advance at an ever increasing rate? Born in 1985 Rosalind studied at London Contemporary Dance School until she returned to Glasgow in 2006. Since then she has created work in collaboration with artists of different disciplines, solo work and danced for various choreographers. This year she is on the Artistic Panel for The Workroom at Tramway, the new studio for independent dance artists in Glasgow. She currently works with La Nua Dance Company and Bodysurf Scotland. In New York she worked at Movement Research learning from choreographers such as Miguel Guitterez, John Jasperse and Katie Duck. In Berlin she has been working with Arthur Staldi and Renate Graziadei at Labor Gras Studio. Scotland continues to be her base for creating and performing work fueled by the culture, art and people there.

Nick Evans Exoticism: an aesthetic activation of irreversible loss. Nick Evans is an artist based in Glasgow. Exhibitions in 2010 included Anti-Autonome at Mary Mary and Zwischenraum –  Space Between at the Kunstverein Hamburg. Recent exhibitions include Primary School at Inverleith House, Edinburgh, Abstract Machines The Tate Gallery St. Ives, and Britannia Works, Zippas Gallery and Ileana Tounta Gallery, Athens. Nick has undertaken residencies at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, European Ceramic Work Centre, Netherlands and Tate St. Ives.

Gráinne Rice A Thoroughly Modern Vampire: the urban legend of the Highgate phenomenon A brief account of the undead that stalk the streets of a north London suburb. Gráinne works at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and is a part-time PhD student at Edinburgh College of Art. She has worked variously in Glasgow as a curator, lecturer, researcher and bookseller. She is one of the directors of the Steven Campbell Trust.

Gail Tolley Glasgow and Cinema Musings on Glasgow’s relationship with cinema through ten films either made and/or set in the city. Gail is a freelance film critic, broadcaster and programmer. She contributes to BBC Radio Scotland, The List and Dazed and Confused and is part of the programming team for Glasgow Film Festival. She is also Editor at creative social network Central Station. Currently Gail is managing Cinema City – a project initiated by Glasgow Film Theatre that explores the city’s relationship with moving image. www.gailtolley.co.uk

Stewart Laing & Pamela Carter Dear Buck Stewart Laing directs and designs theatre and opera.  He is a recipient of the 2010 Paul Hamlyn Breakthrough Fund to develop and expand his Glasgow based company, Untitled Projects.  Recent work includes reviving his production of La bohème for Scottish Opera and directing Pamela Carter’s An Argument About Sex at Tramway and the Traverse.  Stewart is Artist in Residence at the Traverse Theatre this year. Work in progress includes devising The Salon Project, an immersive performance looking at 19th century salon society, for Untitled Projects; directing La fedeltà premiata for the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich; and designing Peter Grimes for La Scala, Milan. Pamela Carter is a playwright, dramaturg and director.  She founded her own performance company ek in Scotland in 2002 and has directed and written five productions for it since including What We Know at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 2010.  Other plays include An Argument About Sex (2009), and Slope (2006) both for Untitled Projects.  She is currently writing for Swedish conceptual artists Goldin + Senneby on their long-term project investigating hedge funds and algorithmic trading -The Nordenskïold Model.  Her next play is Wildlife, which tours Scotland in Spring 2011.  As a dramaturg she has worked with Vanishing Point, NTOS, and Malmo Opera House and will be working on Vanishing Point’s next show opening the Naples International Theatre Festival in June 2011.

Ross Sinclair I Tried to Give Up Drinking with Guitars Instead of God Ross Sinclair is from Glasgow and studied at the Glasgow School of Art and the California Institute of Arts. Recent solo exhibitions include Angelika Knapper, Sweden, Sinclair V’s Landseer at the Aberdeen City Art Gallery and Real Life Painting Show at the CCA, Glasgow. His work is in major collections including The Scottish Arts Council, The British Council, Arts Council England, and internationally in Switzerland, Germany, France, USA and Hong Kong. Ross is currently Lecturer and Researcher at The Glasgow School of Art.

 

 

Tramway Pecha Kucha 3: Measured Acts

27th October 2010

Ginny Hutchison This Open Space Ginny’s current practice considers public space and the influence of geography, economics, politics and history on a community’s cultural identity. Attempting to understand how spaces function, she has talked, followed, photographed and performed. This Open Space is a documentation of spaces and conversations from recent public art projects. http://www.re-title.com/artists/Ginny-Hutchison.asp

Deirdre Nelson Dangers Deirdre Nelson’s work uses hand skills in a humorous commentary on social and textile history within the contemporary gallery space and museum. Her textile work employs a variety of techniques and materials fusing traditional textile skills and contemporary reinterpretation through photography and digital manipulation. She has been artist in residence in a variety of locations from the Outer Hebrides to Western Australia creating work with local communities for exhibition. www.deirdre-nelson.com

Mick Peter Sculptural Failures and Invisible Paintings www.mickpeter.com

Kate Davis I Have Nothing to Present and I Am Presenting It. Kate Davis (b. 1977 NZ, lives and works in Glasgow) is an artist working across a range of media from drawing and book-works to film. Her practice focuses on the fragile re-calibration of representation through twentieth century art history and literature.

David Sherry Famous Cars of the Big and Small Screen. Born in Northern Ireland, Sherry is based in Glasgow, having completed his MA at Glasgow School of Art in 2000. In his art David Sherry takes a wry look at the absurdities of modern day life through minimal drawing and performance. 

Ruth Barker Family Album “It all happened long ago, and believe it or not, it is all absolutely true. A collection of photographs and family myths, all of which are as true as their telling. I tell stories all the time. There are some I was told as I was growing up.” Ruth Barker is an artist based in Glasgow. www.ruthbarker.com

Alex Pollard & Iain Hetherington Rumours Alex Pollard & Iain Hetherington are both artists living and working in Glasgow.

 

 

Tramway Pecha Kucha 2: 

Sound & Fury

22nd July 2010

Nicolas Party The History of the Obélisque de Louxor I am talking about the Luxor Obelisk at Place de la Concorde in Paris. I am talking about this because I was not allowed to talk about teapots or sausages and there was already an elephant in the room. Born in Lausanne in 1980 Nicolas Party recently completed the MFA at the Glasgow School of Art in 2009. Recent exhibitions include ‘Teapots and Sausages’, a solo exhibition at Intermedia Gallery, Glasgow, ‘The Glue Factory’ and ‘Show in a Shoe’ for Glasgow International 2010. Party is about to embark on a New Work Scotland residency at Studio Voltaire in London.

Roanne Dods Embracing Not Knowing Embracing not knowing reveals the special ingredients of some (but not all) of my favourite arts organisations in the UK. Currently Founder and Director of Rose Orange, and Co-Founder of Mission Models Money. Dods also works with Cove Park, Performing Arts Labs, and IC: Innovative Craft, was the Director of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation until last year, and chuffed to be one of the Cultural Leadership Programme’s Women to Watch. Roanne Dods is also the Chair of Battersea Arts Centre, and IC:Innovative Craft, and on boards of the Young Vic, Fuel Theatre, and the International Futures Forum. www.roannedods.com

Laura Aldridge Light and Ironic on Serious Subjects Without Frivolity  (Works and words of Ree Morton – with sounds) I wanted to do a presentation on the art of American artist Ree Morton, whose work and writings about her work I have been constantly invested with over the last several years. Fragments of her writings and her changing emotionally and critically honest relationship to her work have held something of me in them at times. She makes space within the work for her relationship to others and her relationships to places within language to unfold but with a certain hard fought ease or lightness. At the same time the work does not explain itself away, you have to come to it. These are things I admire.

I plan to read a series of notes that she wrote alongside sketches and installation plans. Morton rarely credited her original source, so it is often difficult to tell if you are reading her words, the words of others or an amalgamation of the two. This allows you to be drawn to the structure and content of what is being drawn out, the changing movement of her relationship to it, as well as your own. From the UK, Artist Laura Aldridge lives and works in Glasgow where she graduated from the MFA in 2006 and until 2008 served on the Transmission Committee. Recent exhibitions have taken place in Glasgow, Dundee, London and Zurich. www.lauraaldridge.co.uk

Laurence Figgis Return to Oz Of all the films in my childhood which enchanted and terrified me in equal measure my favorite was Return to Oz (1985); and I was shocked to discover years later that Disney’s extremely belated sequel had been such a debacle. Derived from additional stories by Frank Baum the original Oz creator, the film was directed and co-written by Walter Murch, a respected Hollywood sound-editor who previous credits included Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979). Critics blamed the film’s poor box-office performance on its scandalous digression from MGM’s classic (which is of course entrenched in popular memory). But perhaps after-all, Return to Oz should be seen less as a conventional sequel than a reflexive meditation on 1980′s decadence. Laurence Figgis is an artist and writer based in Glasgow, and previous committee member at Transmission. Previous exhibitions include ‘The Mundane Shell’ a two-person show with Sharon Thomas at the Glasgow Print Studios for GI 2008. He has been a regular contributor to various art magazines and has also written and lectured on a range of subjects including contemporary painting in Scotland and the interpretation of folklore in film.  www.laurencefiggis.co.uk 

Gregor Wright Attack Of The Real! In a world increasingly filled with alternate virtual realities designed mostly for our entertainment… sometimes reality fights back. Artist, Gregor Wright was born in Glasgow in 1975 and is represented by The Modern Institute, Glasgow. Recent exhibitions include ‘Your Clock Will Never Fade Like A Flower’ at Dependence in Brussels, 2010 and ‘Out of Space Out of Time’ at The Modern Institute, 2009. Other shows have taken place in London, Berlin, New York and Stirling. Gregor Wright is also the author of regular blog Burning Salad. www.gregorwright.com

Ciara Phillips Archival Extracts For this Pecha Kucha event I will be showing a selection of archival imagery.  Covering a broad range of subjects including food, commerce, medicine, information systems and education, I will provide the audience with a brief account of each image and/or item. Born in Ottawa, Canada, and currently living in Glasgow, Ciara Phillips studied Fine Art at Queen’s University, Kingston (BFA 2000) and at the Glasgow School of Art (MFA 2004). Recent exhibitions include Every Woman a Signal Tower at the Glasgow Print Studio (part of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2010), Ciara Phillips at Washington Garcia Gallery (2009) and Vowelled at the Glasgow Project Room (2007). www.ciaraphillips.com 

Steven Cairns The Tailor This presentation takes the form of a slide show. The sequence of slides explore a set of inter related ideas that have been of interest to me for some time. The presentation is silent. Each slide contains an image/s with a description of its significance (in text form). The layout of each slide mimics that of a pedagogic document and the presentation should echo the experience of flicking through a history book. Steven Cairns practice encompasses collage, sculpture, printmaking and video. Exploring ideas of cultural translation he uses a cut and paste approach to collage aesthetics, art theory and philosophic commentary. He graduated with an MFA from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2006. Recent exhibitions include The Associates, Dundee Contemporary Arts and Running Time: Artist Films in Scotland 1960 to Now at the Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. His solo show, “Take Me and It Back”, opens next month at The Changing Room, Stirling. Steven is co-editor of MAP.

Michelle Hannah SEIBAB Michelle Hannah is a Glasgow based artist, born under the sign of Leo in the early eighties in Alexandria, Scotland. A female from birth and raised Catholic, she has spent most of her early life being concerned with the darker recesses of the human psyche and now as the founder of The Kingdom of Muin she has finally found a true and wondrous calling.  After gaining a Master of Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art, her practice revolves around the abyss that encompasses the great themes of gothic art and science fiction, to convey terse, provocative, and morally ambiguous work, and to use this to create a complete dystopian self-image. Her mode of address is varied (photography, video, text work, performance) and is defined by the use of stylized propositions with the absence of corroborating evidence from across the known universe. May Muin be with you. May Muin make it so. www.michellehannah.org

 

 

 

 

 

Pecha Kucha 1: The Art of Speaking

22nd April 2010

Sarah Munro  joined Tramway in 2008 as the Artistic and General Manager shortly after completing a Cultural Leadership Masters at City University, London. Her previous experience includes Project Director at Artlink and Artistic Director at the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh where she helped turn the organisation into an internationally recognised institution.

Scott Myles is a Scottish artist currently living and working in Glasgow. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally in solo exhibitions including: ‘Search and Research’, Projects in Art and Theory, Cologne, ‘We Require a Response’, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe, ‘Missing Words’, Sadie Coles HQ, London, ‘ASKIT’, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich. Group exhibitions have included: ‘Contemporary Scottish Art: New Acquistitions & Loans’, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, ‘On interchange/Interludes of a collection’, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Germany, ‘Tate Triennial: New British Art’, Tate Britain, London. He is represented by The Modern Institute.

Erica Eyres was born in Winnipeg, Canada in 1980. In 2002 she received her BFA from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and in 2004 she graduated from the Glasgow School of Art MFA program. Recent group exhibitions include The Jerwood Drawing Prize at the Jerwood Space, London (2009); Bad Joke at Riga Art Space, Latvia (2009); Bitter Finals at Angstrom Gallery, Los Angeles (2008). Recent solo exhibitions include The Lunatic Box, at Prussian Projekte, Nottingham (2010); Erica Eyres at Volta Art Fair NY with Rokeby Gallery, London (2009); Erica Eyres at Rokeby Gallery, London (2008); Erica Eyres at Haas and Fischer Gallery, Zurich (2008); and I Love You But I Hate You at CCA, Glasgow (2006). She is represented by Rokeby Gallery, London.

Torsten Lauschmann was born in Bad Soden, Germany, 1970. He holds an MA in Media Art from the Zentrum fur Kunst und Medien (ZKM) Karlsruhe and a BA from the  Fine Art Photography. Forthicoming exhijbitions include the Edinburgh International Film Festival Residency, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (June). Recent exhibition include The Darker Ages at Mary Mary, Glasgow. Art Positions, Art Basel Miami Beach; Nought to Sixty, ICA, London; Arnolfini, Bristol Gallery of Modern Art. Torsten is represented by Mary Mary Gallery and lives and works in Glasgow.

Neil Bickerton  is an artist who lives in Glasgow.

Thea Stevens is an art historian who has long been obsessed with the culture of travel and tourism. She divides her time between teaching at the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Strathclyde and working as a tour guide and travel consultant.

Muscles of Joy Muscles of Joy formed in Glasgow around early 2008 with eight women members. An important focus from the beginning was in employing their voices in creating music. Tonight will be performed by Ann-Marie Copestake, Leigh Fergason and Ariki Porteous. Since their formation Muscles of Joy have performed at venues in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling, and this summer they record their first Ep, which will be released by Watts of Goodwill and Monorail, Glasgow. They will also be recording for a compilation of protest songs released by Keith McIvor of Optimo.

David Shrigley is one of the tallest artists currently working in Scotland. An anthology of his work will be published by Canongate in September. He is currently showing at Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow until September the 25th as part of the Glasgow International Festival. www.davidshrigley.com

Luke Collins Born 1979, London. Educated in Scotland. Lives in Glasgow. Artist (video et al). Works in freelance digital production. www,oscarbox.org / www.obmeela.org / @luke_collins

Fiona Jardine is currently a PhD researcher at the University of Wolverhampton in the Critical Theory & Social Practice group led by Professor John Roberts which is noted for its wide-ranging and internationally renowned analysis and engagement with models of sociability and performativity in contemporary art. The group’s research activities explore and support the encounter between critiques of art and cultural & social theory as a basis for the analysis of art’s contribution to social change. Jardine graduated in Drawing & Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1998 and from the MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2003, having previously studied Law. Her material practice increasingly moves towards print and textile design and she writes occasional reviews and articles connected with her research interests. http://fionajardine.wordpress.com/

Kendall Koppe first moved to Scotland to study at the Glasgow School of Art where he graduated with a BA in Fine Art Photography in 2001. Koppe returned to Glasgow after completing an MA in Photographic Studies at The University of Westminster in 2005. He is the founding director of Washington Garcia Gallery, Glasgow, and he has recently exhibited work at Transmission Gallery, InterMedia Gallery and with artist-run organization A.Vermin.

Kendall Koppe’s figurative works are embedded with non-descript gestures that hint at psychological spheres. His prints and photographs draw upon a surrealist vocabulary in which we find the traces of a disembodied search for belonging and unconscious states

Martin Clark Martin Clark is a Libran man who lives in Glasgow. He likes spicy food, old movies and long walks on the beach. www.martinclark.com

Pecha Kucha originated in Tokyo in 2003. Devised by architecture firm Klein Dytham it was a concept devised to enable designers to share their thoughts and ideas. Aware of their inordinate ability to waffle a strict time frame was introduced of 20 slides for 20 seconds each. While possessing a truly global appeal the ability to adapt and customise the event has made each Pecha Kucha individual and rooted in its locale. It is the collective, eclectic nature of the speakers that set the tone.

 

 

Our Objects

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 OUR OBJECTS: Contemporary Ceramics in Context

Glasgow School of Art, Mackintosh Gallery, 7th March – 10th April 2009

Hillsborough Courtroom, Northern Ireland, July 28th – August 31st 2009

Ceramics Biennial The Wedgwood Institute, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, October 2009

Introduction

This exhibition represents a broad range of concerns, styles and making schools. Episodic in its approach, the exhibits are linked by a material, ceramic, and a simultaneous regard and defiance for that material’s traditions. This is not a survey show as the construction of a comprehensive look at ceramics may in fact be impossible. I have instead chosen an approach owing much to personal taste and opinion. Works may be categorised – functional, decorative, figurative or abstract – but these categories in turn can over lap and contradict themselves. Ceramic is after all a versatile material that manifests in varying forms of varying qualities. When a definition of the genre is so elusive it may be better to consider the particularities of a range of specific, personal and at times, idiosyncratic objects.

Eight contemporary ceramicists work has been paired with an everyday industrially produced ceramic objects to highlight similarities and illustrate discrepancies that exist between new work and recognisable generic types. These ‘foils’ aim to ground each piece and offer ways into the varying schools of thought. My approach is consciously personal but is nevertheless intended to illuminate aspects of the medium’s history and tradition. The selected pieces do not illustrate absolute relationships and indeed could be cross-referenced with each other. Furthermore these ‘foils’ are affordable, accessible and relatively commonplace.  They serve to flatten the hierarchy of objects often dictated by monetary value, rarity and prestige and by showing the works alongside each other, demand a more democratic critique based on form and content.

Though similar, there is a fundamental difference between industrial ceramics and studio pottery; the autonomy upheld by the potter responsible for their own work at all stages of the ceramic process as opposed to the Fordian setup of the factory floor. The main effect of being an autonomous ceramicist is that the maker is at liberty to question the object at every stage of its conception. They must not fit the brand or kowtow to economy. They are free to borrow from existing techniques or invent new ones. This way the artist can impact on every stage of the process, and is at will to engage a critical framework that considers every aspect of the work.

In my selection inspirations fostered by the studio potter reflect their origins in a more industrial practice. Richard Slee consistently makes use of the popular appeal of ceramics, appropriating recognisable formats as social commentary for a more critical engagement with that tradition. Alison Britton extrapolates particular references, decontextualising the source of the turquoise glaze used in Sluice and incorporating it into her own particular framework. Similarly Minton Hollins adopted Iznik motifs for his early Victorian Wally-close tiles. By adopting a familiar reference in the work the viewer is enticed to consider the unknown or the new. Xavier Toubes offers us such a dialectic view of our perceived sense of form and beauty – de-formalising the figurative to imbue the work with a stronger sense of itself.

By humanising the inanimate these makers offer another strategy for understanding the world around us. James Rigler refers to the anthropomorphic qualities of a jug obliquely in Mouth.  Anders Ruhwald takes the usual stuff in our homes and creates hybrids, neither sculpture nor functional objects they are equally awkward in a gallery or home. He employs a mass-produced aesthetic: tassels and candleholders with a whiff of the DIY store about them. He rejects the predictable to create sinister shadowy works. Glasgow-based Dawn Youll evokes the stuffy parlor’s penchant for ‘Collectibles’. Her method and inspiration has much in common with the Campsie-ware Stork I have paired with her work. A View though is not simply a landscape. Modeled from an insignificant lump of clay it is enlarged and cast to resemble a mountain. Youll imbues the work, not just with a view, but a way of seeing. Estrangement and disorientation have become common backlashes to the perceived comfort of domestic ceramic production. While ceramic practicioners seem unable to break wholeheartedly with its tradition, contemporary makers seem keen to critique it.

Returning to the canon of historical ceramics makers are drawn to sentimental themes of attachment and nostalgia. Hans Stofer uses our broken discarded effects to revaluate them. He focuses on cracks and breaks, juxtaposing the accidental and the particular, highlighting the individual and personal meanings we attach to our objects that can outlive the artifacts themselves. Picking up on our cultural detritus Stofer reworks the shards into poignant anecdotes of the everyday. Similarly Barnaby Barford recycles but does not use objects to convey aspirations nor confirm emotions. His tableaux act as morality lessons for our times; fables in the Victorian sense they pick up on our social failings using  factory made figurines {I think most come directly from the factories, raher than the ol’ chazzer to present bitter parodies of themselves.

My aim with Our Objects is to illustrate the contradiction embodied in a material that can be so many things while consistently returning to a set of values dictated by specific concerns, histories and relationships. In this show the material is shown to be particular to historical rather than universal influences. Its desire to be expressive beyond function has constantly placed work in a quasi-domestic mode where the content and concerns return to de-familiarise the familiar, reinterpret the standards and remake traditional models to remain relevant cultural signifiers. Royal Doulton, by employing ‘important’ characters from history and literature set out to make “heirlooms of tomorrow” but it is the materials constant preoccupation with the incidental and everyday, the detailing of the overlooked and our perceptions of the norm that continue to imbue ceramic objects with a sense of ownership and belonging.

 

Shifting Values  By Ellie Herring

‘…all ends meet, and meet continuously’

      The “Endless” House, Frederick J. Kiesler

For many people the photocopier is an innocuous piece of bureaucratic equipment. It merely facilitates the accurate reproduction of documents quickly and efficiently in an office environment. It could be difficult to form an opinion about a photocopier, for in many cases it is simply an invisible, functional object. Broadly speaking, one only notices the photocopier when it is broken, at which point it becomes an inconvenience.

Yet in some contexts the photocopier is a subversive object, and photocopying, a political act. In Cuba for instance, the Government impedes access to printing equipment by making it either too costly or by placing restrictions on sales. There are regulations in place preventing any Cuban – except those with State authorisation – from selling photocopiers at anything other than the official – and excessively high – retail price. The reason for this restriction is, of course, that were a photocopier to end up in the ‘wrong’ hands, it could be used to print material undermining the State, potentially leading to a revolution. Thus in the context of Cuba, the photocopier poses a genuine threat to the State’s authority, and as such, is considered dangerous.

In certain contexts every object can be perceived as subversive, just as every object can be perceived to be innocuous. Whips, radios, fur coats – all are in some contexts perfectly ordinary, and in others, potentially controversial. Underpinning these contextual changes is that the object is imbued with narrative, but more importantly, it is imbued with multiple narratives. From the chair we were nursed in, the ring that unites us in marriage, to our favourite teacup – we form relationships with objects that relate specifically to events, places or people, which are significant to us in some way, but not to others. We may carry these narratives with us and yet the object itself does not. Without their context – and by extension, their narratives – the teacup is like any other generic vessel and the chair is either comfortable or not. In this sense, every object becomes our object, for it is our relationship with it that constructs its value.

And yet in another sense, this is not entirely true. Nothing is created in a vacuum, despite the increasingly fashionable approach which prioritises the subject’s interpretation over the object. To a certain extent every object reflects the context, and the period, in which it was designed and made, which means that while we are able to tack some of our own narratives on to an object, the object may nevertheless retain some identity of its own. An object can be read after all; they are great summarisers, the concretion of belief in abstract form. The object as artefact is able to tell stories about the period in which it was created and the values that period held. Unable to conceal meaning, objects betray their composite layers almost unwittingly.

The late architect and stage designer, Frederick J. Kiesler, considered these layers of meaning to be continually impermanent. For him, an objects relationship with the value placed on it was static, indeed a shift in value accompanied each object throughout its cycle of existence – from raw material to production, use to obsolescence, and finally to rebirth. Kiesler described the process of changing from one state to another, in some ways a magical transformation, as ‘the creative laws of transmutation’. These laws, he believed, upheld the objects right to a full cycle, whereby the object was perpetually in a state of motion and renewal. Kiesler did not consider the old and the new to be mutually exclusive opposites, rather he saw them as part of life’s rhythms. And after all, if life’s rhythms are cyclical, so too he deemed, were the rhythms of objects.

One such object – or rather, element of an object – reflects just these cyclical qualities. Developed in the 18th century by an English manufacturer, what is known as the ‘willow pattern’ refers to the ubiquitous blue and white pattern – commonly depicting a temple with a bridge, boat and willow tree – decorating ceramic products. An English interpretation of Chinese porcelain, the willow pattern was initially invented to promote ailing pottery sales, but now features on a variety of different objects, not all of them ceramic – including stationary, biscuit tins, oven gloves and wallpaper. Separated from its original context, the incorporation of the pattern in objects wholly unrelated to ceramics, each with their own separate material histories, the willow pattern – itself a reinterpretation – is transformed. While the complexity of the patterns history may be compromised in these new contexts, arguably it has been re-enchanted. The innate narratives of objects therefore, may become fragmented during transmutation, but they cannot be erased entirely.

Clearly, the qualities of an object – form, narrative and context – exist within a temporal frame, and are constantly being re-examined. All of these qualities are equally unstable, and yet without them the object would merely reflect a manipulation of matter. Their values change depending on who they are in dialogue with, where and when; at which point, the creative cycle begins anew.

Ellie Herring

 

Side Effects by Emmanuel Cooper

‘Some dish more sharply spiced than this

Milk-soup men call domestic bliss’

- Coventry Patmore

Like Darby and Joan the words domestic and comfort seem to belong neatly together, an unthreatening pairing that is both reassuringly conventional and totally expected. The domestic, usually taken as relating to the home or everyday life within the household, is essentially private rather than public, a place where we can exert some control, the ‘nest’ where we can relax, put our feet up, eat beans out of a tin and slop about in a dressing gown. Yet, as Our Objects makes evident, although the majority of the artists are showing work that relates in oblique ways to ‘the domestic’, they do so with a sideways look, with a twist.  The work embodies both heimlich, homely, and its opposite unheimlich.  The domestic can carry side effects.

One of the truisms of objects made in clay is that for thousands of years they have primarily been used in or around the home, whether in the bricks forming the walls, the pots used for cooking or the containers used for storing or serving food. This point is well made in Our Objects where historical pieces are paired with modern forms, juxtapositions that both affirm the presence of tradition while at the same time question or even reject its relevance to today. For Hans Stofer, the merging of past and present, nostalgia and melancholy is central to his work. In fragments of industrially-made cups and bowls he forces us to his and our relationship to tradition.

Within the canon of familiar objects some, such as the jug, have taken on iconic status; they are seen as a symbol of giving, a horn of plenty, an indicator of generosity. Think lavishly decorated harvest jugs proudly brought out when crops are collected and used to hold goodwill liquor; their presence signifies a successful crop, a time of rejoicing and promise for the future. Such ideas are referenced in Alison Britton’s form Sluice, but in a complex combination of giving and withholding, the ordinary made extraordinary.

The architectural resonances that Britton incorporates in Sluice are addressed more directly by Anders Ruhwald. The space we inhabit and the space we need are all part of a complex equation that involves as much suggestion as statement. Ruhwald merges the private and the public leaving us pondering quite were we are. Just as, when looking at his work, we might sense we have been here before, that we are seeing something familiar – feelings elegantly described by Freud in his 1919 essay ‘The Uncanny’ – Ruhwald creates the impression of memory alluding us. Even the title of his work Social Pieces of Furniture no. 6 is ambiguous, object and idea combine to tantalise the imagination resulting in an uncomfortably strange feeling.

Different ambiguities are set up by Richard Slee and Barnaby Barford. Both make direct references to tradition, to the decorative objects of the past, but do so with a combination of deference and parody. Barnaby Barford is less polite, the iron hand in the velvet glove. In Shit! Now I’m gonna be really late Barford reassembles dainty, uncontroversial figures recovered from charity shops and such like, paints and manipulates them into domestic disasters. With subtle, subversive humour Barford highlights the absurdities and pretence of modern life.

The figure, ‘the human clay’, that feature in the work of Slee and Barford are caught up in dramas, narratives that have a past, present and future. For Toubes the figure is more elusive while being more universal, more abstract and yet, paradoxically, more personal, more intimate. In She Global Toubes rejects both idolatrous traditionalism of the past and the brutal and abstract progressivism of the present. These works touch on inner feelings, on the turmoil and uncertainties of life; in rejecting a fictitious present they offer hope and affirmation for a shared humanity.

Ambiguity, the way objects can be read in numerous ways, are central themes in the work of James Rigler and Dawn Youll. Taking ordinary, everyday things as starting points, Rigler questions the way we form intimate relationships with objects to the point where they become invisible. These may be abstracted and colourful washbasins, glistening flowers/mops or garden sheds, objects that metamorphose from the known into the exotic. Like Rigler, Youll is drawn to a material that carries references to domesticity. With any form of representation recognition begins the moment we glimpse it, when we immediately feel the need make sense of what is presented, to interpret what we see, to make it part of our experience. Through the process of perception, the forging of mental associations, Youll offers glimpses of the urban environment and literally lays them on the table. Side effects can take many forms.

 

Emmanuel Cooper