Nov 252016
 

With thanks to Eoin Smith, Senior Account Executive, Tricker PR.

kadriIt’s not often that someone lands their ideal job, but for Kadri Soerunurk her dream of being part of a major cultural festival has become a reality.

Rising through the ranks of the Sound Festival, which finished it’s 2016 programme in early November, Kadri began her journey as a volunteer and is now an integral part of the team that organises the festival every year.

And after enjoying the success of this year’s festival, Kadri has even more cause for celebration – her stellar efforts have been recognised with a nomination in the Regional Rising Star category of the 2016 Aberdeen City and Shire Tourism Awards.

Moving to Aberdeen from her home in Estonia in 2010, Kadri enrolled at Robert Gordon University to study Events Management. As part of her degree, she had to gain at least 100 hours of work experience in events each year – a challenge which she completed in part by working at the Belmont Filmhouse.

But it was a chance encounter with a Sound Festival brochure in a coffee shop that led her onto the path to her dream career.

Kadri (29) says,

“I saw a flyer for the Sound Festival in 2010 and instantly knew it was something I wanted to get involved in. Even if I hadn’t needed to gain experience for my course, I would still have applied to be a volunteer. I got in touch and was offered a front of house role for the 2011 festival, taking tickets and handing out programmes.

“I missed the 2012 festival as I was studying overseas in Limerick, but in 2013 I came back and became more involved with the running of some of the festival events. Every year from then on, my duties increased and I became more involved in the organisation of the festival until I was offered a full-time position on the team.”

The only full-time member of staff on the four-strong Sound Festival team, the position of festival co-ordinator was created when the organisation restructured and Kadri jumped at the chance to embrace this new opportunity.

Kadri explains,

“My work is very varied and no two days are the same, which is perfect for me. Sometimes I’m updating the website and social media, and then the next day I’ll be co-ordinating school workshops which run throughout the year outside of the festival weeks.

“Throughout the festival, I liaise with all the artists and ensure they have everything they need, co-ordinate the logistics of all the rehearsal space required, and make sure everything is where it needs to be in the venues. I also look after the volunteers – having started as one myself, I know how important it is to keep them up to speed.”

Throughout her time with the Sound Festival, Kadri has had many amazing experiences. Her highlight of 2016 was the Freedom o(r) Speech event at ACT Aberdeen which saw musicians from Scotland, Belgium and Norway come together – along with actor Simon Callow – to create a unique performance. Seeing it all come together, she says, was a proud moment.

But one of Kadri’s greatest adventures with the Sound Festival allowed her to travel across the globe. She explains,

“Sound commissioned an opera in 2012 – The Garden – which had toured a bit in London and Berlin. Last summer, it was performed as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Made in Scotland programme, and after seeing the show a promoter from Shanghai wanted to bring it to China in 2016.

“It was a fantastic experience, and a major operation to get everyone there. I had to organised travel, visas and rehearsals for all the performers. The production was presented as a kind of dinner-theatre in Shanghai, which also brought some additional challenges, but it was a great success and an amazing opportunity to visit a country I might not have had the chance to otherwise.”

Festival director Fiona Robertson, who nominated Kadri, says that she has quickly become an invaluable member of the team. She adds,

“As festival co-ordinator, Kadri is part of the external face of the Sound Festival, and she is already hugely respected and trusted by our partners and stakeholders.

“I have rarely worked with someone who is so young, so hardworking and so talented. She contributes more than her weight in gold both in her day-to-day job, and holds her weight against us more experienced staff members in ideas for the future strategic development of the organisation.”

Kadri will face competition from Gemma Cruickshank (VisitAberdeenshire) and Craig Rochester (Eat on the Green) in the Regional Rising Star category of the 2016 Aberdeen City and Shire Tourism Awards. The award celebrates individuals under the age of 30 who have shown initiative and excelled in their tourism organisations.

The winners of each category category will be announced at an awards ceremony and gala dinner on November 25, 2016 at Ardoe House Hotel and Spa, and many will then go on to represent the region at the national Thistle Awards.

For more information about the Aberdeen City and Shire Tourism Awards, visit www.acsta.co.uk  

Follow the awards on Twitter @ACSTourismAward or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/acstourismawards

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May 162016
 

Sea [is still] Around Us 01 higher res

The Sea [is still] Around Us.

With thanks to John Morrison.

As director of The Obituary Project, a compendium of experimental salvage ethnography that transforms a daily form of narrative, Hope Tucker reframes the passing of sites, people, communities, rituals, cultural markers, and ways of being.

Peacock Visual Arts presents selections from The Obituary Project this Wednesday, 18 May 2016, 6.30pm.

She has documented shuttered bread factories, fallen witness trees, and disappearing civil rights era landmarks; animated cyanotypes of downwinders and old instructions for making fishing nets by hand; recorded mobile phone footage of the last public phone booths in Finland; written the entire text of a video out of paper clips, a Norwegian symbol of nonviolent resistance; and retraced the path of protest that closed the only nuclear power plant in Austria.

Screening programme:

Missing in the Severe Clear
USA, 2001 / 4 minutes/ sound
‘Severe clear’ is aviation slang for clear, crisp, blue skies with boundless visibility.

Vermont says goodbye to Solzhenitsyn
USA, 2012/ 4 minutes/ surveillance video/ Russian with English titles
The Russian writer spent twenty years in exile in a remote American village. This pixelation, part one of a
diptych, was shot on the anniversary of his death.

Lolo Ferrari
USA, 2001 / 2 minutes/ corrupted sound file
An obituary whittles one’s social contribution down to its barest form.

Puhelinkoppi (1882-2007)
Finland, 2010/ 8 minutes/ mobile video/ Finnish with English titles
Marking a shift in the functioning of private and public space, after existing as a sidewalk staple for over a
century, the phone booth in Finland is now extinct. A Nokia camera phone documents the passing.

Noel
UK, 2005 / 5 minutes/ sound
A songwriter’s identity remains as obscure as his motives for penning a popular American holiday standard.

Bessie Cohen, Survivor of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
USA, 2000 / 3 minutes/ sound
The last ninety years of a complex life become eclipsed by an escape from a burning building.

Big Star
USA, 2003 / 3 minutes/ sound
The map-maker grew up down the street from where the car hit the tree and rode many a Big Star cart.

Handful of Dust
USA, 2013/ 9 minutes/ mono recording from 1953
Prussian blue can be used to render images and counteract radiation poisoning.

Vi holder sammen/ We hold together
Norway, 2011 / 4 minutes/ Norwegian with English titles
A typeface formed by hand from paper clips spells out an imperfect construction of a national history as it
visualizes a period of nonviolent resistance.

The Sea [is still] Around Us
USA, 2012/ 4 minutes/ sound
Rachel Carson is dead, but the sea is still around us…this small lake is a sad reminder of what is taking
place all over the land, from carelessness, shortsightedness, and arrogance. It is our pool of shame in this,
’our particular instant of time.’ E.B. White, 1964

About the artist

Hope Tucker transforms what we know as a daily form of terse, text-driven, populist narrative through The Obituary Project, a compendium of moving image that gives new life to the antiquated documentary practice of salvage ethnography.

She has animated cyanotypes of downwinders and instructions for making fishing nets by hand; photographed shuttered bread factories, fallen witness trees, and decaying civil rights era landmarks; recorded mobile phone footage of the last public phone booths of Finland; written the text of a video out of paper clips, a Norwegian symbol of solidarity and nonviolent resistance; and retraced the path of protest that closed the only nuclear power plant in Austria.

Works from the project have screened in festivals, museums, and galleries including 21er Haus, Vienna; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Cairo Video Festival; European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück; Images Festival, Toronto; International Film Festival, Rotterdam; Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino; New York Film Festival; Punto de Vista, Pamplona; Vox Populi, Philadelphia; Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Zagreb Dox.

* Downwinders refers to the individuals and communities in the intermountain area between the Cascade and Rocky Mountain ranges who are exposed to radioactive contamination or nuclear fallout from atmospheric or underground nuclear weapons testing, and nuclear accidents.

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Feb 032012
 

With thanks to Kylie Roux.

YOUR LEANING NECK – SONG AS PORTRAIT – Steven Anderson

Based on an event from November last year at The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Your Leaning Neck is a performance project that aims to challenge institutional representations of national identity by giving voice to non-institutional values.

A silent video installation showcasing last November’s event from two perspectives will be shown in the Peacock gallery.

Saturday 18 February – Saturday 10 March 

– Live Performance

Starting off at Peacock’s gallery then moving onto the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St Andrew, visitors will be treated to a live re-contextualisation of the performance event created as a site-specific response to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s collection of portraits from the Scottish Enlightenment. Within the performance, oral tradition singers are presented alongside contemporary artists who also use their unaccompanied voice as a means of expression.

Friday 24 February | 7 – 9pm | Peacock Visual Arts | FREE 

GIG IN THE GALLERY – Martin John Henry

Recently praised by Sound-Scotland, as “one of Scotland’s finest songwriters”, Gargleblast Records and Peacock Visual Arts present Martin John Henry.

The Lanarkshire born singer songwriter is best known for fronting Scottish Rock Band De Rosa – critically lauded and championed by John Peel and Steve Lamaq – as well as writing, recording and playing with many of Scotland’s finest musicians including Barry Burns (Mogwai), Robert Johnston (Life Without Buildings), King Creosote and Malcolm Middleton.

Saturday 4 February | 8pm | £8 on the door 

RESIDENCY/PERFORMANCE – ONE MAN UNIT – Paul Wiersbinski and Wieland Schönfelder

ONE MAN UNIT is a hybrid of man and sculpture. Through a variety of outputs, audiences are invited to interact with and experience the spontaneous and unexpected developments of this creative beast, as it evolves during the artists’ two-week residency at Peacock.
You can follow the construction of this half man half machine via their daily blog on Peacock’s Facebook page. The ONE MAN UNIT will then be let loose on the public on two occasions:

Saturday 28 January – Friday 10 February

– Note: Aberdeen Voice updates Peacock info periodically, but there may be recently added events not included in this post. Please contact Peacock direct for the latest information.

Peacock Visual Arts
21 Castle Street
Aberdeen
AB11 5BQ
Tel: 01224 639539
Mob: 07947 490626
e: kylie@peacockvisualarts.co.uk
Website: www.peacockvisualarts.com
Online Print Store: www.peacockvisualarts.culturelabel.com

Oct 142011
 

With thanks to Kylie Roux.

Exhibitions:

The Black And White Show – Various Artists
Preview Friday 9 September, 6 – 8pm, all welcome!

A monochromatic medley of prints. Enzo Mari, Mike Giant, Scottie Wilson, John Byrne, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Donald Urquhart, Adam Bridgland, David Shrigley, Kenny Hunter, Rob Churm, John Bellany, Jock Mooney, Shepard Fairey and Alan Davie. Not to be missed.
Exhibition runs 10 September – 22 October 2011

Inchoate Landscapes – Toby Paterson
Preview Friday 9 September, 6 – 8pm, all welcome!
Toby Paterson’s Inchoate Landscapes draws around his newly completed suite of seven prints, creating an exhibition that sets them in the broader context of his practice and interest in the built environment.
Exhibition runs 10 September – 22 October 2011

Events:

Peacock @ Multiplied Art Fair, London
Friday 14 – Monday 18 October –  Christie’s South Kensington, London 

Peacock are one of only 40 galleries from around the world that are going to be exhibiting at this the UK’s first and only fair devoted exclusively to Contemporary Art in Editions, Multiplied Art Fair at Christie’sPeacock will be showcasing Inchoate Landscapes, a new seven-piece suite of prints by award winning artist Toby Paterson, as well as works by Kenny Hunter, Donald Urquhart and Adam Bridgland all recently completed in our printmaking workshops. 
Opening Hours –  Fri & Mon 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 11am-6pm.

FREE entry – all welcome!

IMP Presents SOUND @ PVA
Fri 28 – Sun 30 October (Fri 7.30 – 11pm, Sat and Sun 3.30 – 11pm)

A festival within a festival. Not so much boutique as ‘guest house’.

Some of the best new music in Scotland (and some from further afield) over 3 days in the intimate surroundings of our gallery.  
Tickets available from One-Up Records (01224 642662)
& Aberdeen Box Office 01224 641122/ 
boxofficeaberdeen.com

Hurricane Lamb at Duff House
Ongoing until  31 October at Duff House, Banff.

Hurricane Lamb is a collaborative project from Gray’s School of Art (RGU) and Peacock Visual Arts. Inspired by Duff House and its history, the exhibition features new work by Michael Agnew, Andrew Cranston, David McCracken, Georgia Russell, Lennox Dunbar, Paul Housley, and Donald Urquhart.
Exhibition runs until 31 October 2011

 Get Creative:

Peacock VIsual Arts – Summer Animation Classes
October 12, 19 | 10 – 4pm | age 10+ | £35/session

Ever wondered how Wallace and Gromit move? Or what makes Pingu go?
Well this summer we’re planning some animation workshops to show you just that!
Each class is £35 and a one off – but if you’re keen to keep coming back, you’re more than welcome to book on as many as you like!
Call 01224 639539 for more information or to book a place.

Open Submissions – The Winter Exhibition at PVA
It’s back! After a 2 year break, we would once again like to invite artists to submit work for the Christmas show. Previous years proved to be hugely popular, attracting many visitors and making it is a fantastic opportunity to have your work seen. And this year there are prizes on offer so even more reason to submit. Visit www.peacockvisualarts.com for more details.
Submission deadline Saturday 5 November 2011

Note: Aberdeen Voice updates Peacock info periodically, but there may be recently added events not included in this post. Please contact Peacock direct for the latest information.

Peacock Visual Arts
21 Castle Street
Aberdeen
AB11 5BQ
Tel: 01224 639539
Mob: 07947 490626
Sep 082011
 

With Thanks to Dave Macdermid.

In conjunction with this year’s Enchanted Castle event at Crathes Castle, which will run from Wednesday 23rd to Sunday 27th November, there are a number of fantastic prizes up for grabs in a new digital photography competition which is launched today. The competition is open to two age groups, namely 15 and under, and 16 and over.
You can enter both competitions online, via a link on Carlton Resource Solutions Ltd’s website at www.carltonrs.com/castle  and all entries for both categories will be visible so entrants can weigh up their competition!

The theme of the competition is ‘The North East’s Natural Beauty’ and, as Gerry Muldoon from EC organisers GM Events outlines, this can encompass a wide range of subject matter.

“Entries can be anything from landscape shots to wildlife or even the sky at night, the only prerequisite being that the image can be sent digitally.

“The winners will be  selected by Logan Sangster of Deeside Photographics in early November. 

The photographs will be on display throughout the five days of the Enchanted Castle at the Milton Gallery in Crathes and at Crathes Restaurant.  Huge thanks are due to recruitment specialist, Carlton Resource Solutions Ltd, the lead sponsor of the Enchanted Castle, for co-ordinating the photo competition and also to the organisations that have donated fantastic prizes for the winners.” 

Prizes for the senior competition include a family meal at The Milton Restaurant, an overnight stay at the Raemoir House Hotel and a £250 voucher for Deeside Photographics for a full family portrait.

The  organisers hope to see local schools getting involved and for everyone to delight in the region’s top photography talent and share their entries with their friends and family. Among the prizes for the junior competition is a new digital camera, courtesy of GM Events and family membership to the National Trust for Scotland.

The Enchanted Castle event itself will see the grounds of Crathes Castle transformed thanks to cutting edge light and sound technology and stunning choreographed effects, moods and backdrops that will be a ‘must’ for family members of all ages. 

An evening walk will take place in a truly magical ambience, and a host of complementary, themed attractions including storytelling sessions, fire breathers and jugglers, magicians and children’s enchanted craft activities, will all add much to the magical experience.

Tickets for the November event are now on sale at:
Aberdeen Box Office,
Music Hall,
Union Street,
Tel 01224 641122
www.boxofficeaberdeen.com
– and at:
www.nts.org.uk

Inclusive tickets for all the attractions cost £10 for adults, £8 concessions, £5 for Under 16’s and free for Under 5’s. Ample free car parking is available at Crathes Castle.
Full details can be found on  www.theenchantedcastle.info

In addition to Carlton Resource Solutions as headline sponsor, Scottish Enterprise, Aberdeenshire Council, Rural Aberdeenshire LEADER Programme, EventScotland, Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms DMO have all assisted in ensuring the Enchanted Castle will be one of the winter’s major events in the area.