Mar 102017
 

On of Juane’s artworks at the Union Bar, Luxembourg City. Pic used with kind permission.

By Red Fin Hall.

With only about a month to go until the ‘Nuart’ event comes to Aberdeen, the final selection of artists have been added to the added to the roster.

I am particularly looking forward to seeing Belgium born artist, Juane. 
Hailing form Brussels, the stencil artist uses ordinary people, mainly sanitation workers, as his prime subjects.

His work examines the invisibility of this profession despite the fact that their job keeps them in the public eye.

He displays them in unusual situations, always in their work gear, such as walking tightropes over washing lines, marching as Roman legions etc.

Since he used to work in said profession, one may wonder how he day-dreamed of being in the position of some of his subjects. Or, is that, like his pieces, fantasy? 

Martin Whatson comes from Norway, was born in 1984 and studied graphic art in Oslo and has exhibited, both in solo and joint exhibitions in Tokyo, London, Paris, Australia, and also in the USA. His graffiti and stencil work, using urban decay as part of his inspiration. Thirteen years into his career he will be making his Scotland debut, in Aberdeen, thanks to Nuart.

Gdynia born Mariusz Waras, aka M-City is another stencil artist. But this time with a difference.

He uses hundreds of small cut outs to make larger constructions, again using the urban environment he grew up in as his main inspiration. Being an industrial city, his work features images of mechanical origin as well as natural origin. Often his pieces are made on a grand scale, one of the largest being 85 metres in size. This very prolific artist, having created well over 700 works, is currently a lecturer in art in Gdansk.

From her first show in Loughborough in 2000 through to her latest in Madrid this year, Alice Pasquini has exhibited and worked in various cities throughout Europe as well as The Americas and China. Not only is she a graffiti artist, painter, set designer and illustrator, she also works in the 3D medium and sculptures using found objects.

She rarely sits still in her pursuit of work, constantly keeping herself busy in more than 100 cities world wide. This also is her first time working in Scotland.

The final artist participating is Isaac Cordal.

Born in 1974, this sculpture graduate was born and studied in Pontevedra in Spain. His sculptures generally are usually not on a grand scale. An examples of his work can be found on tops of bus shelter and on cornices and windows , averaging only 15cm in size. This makes the viewer work to see them. He has many strings to his bow. Playing guitar in a rock band, publishing a heavy metal fanzine and heading a digital art collective. He has also worked in the photography medium.

As well as these guests coming to Aberdeen, local artists and schools will be involved in the project during and before the Easter Weekend special event.

Note of Correction:

In my last article on Nuart, I intimated that James Finucane was the man behind this art group. This is not so.

Although he is the public face of the Aberdeen venture, he actually heads up the day to day running of the company, a position he took up two years ago. Nuart is actually the brainchild of Martyn Reed who relocated to Stavanger from Leeds over 20 years ago. Apologies for any misunderstanding relating to this.

Mar 022017
 

With thanks to Red Fin Hall.

Over Easter weekend of 14th-16th of April 11 world famous street artists, from far and wide, will be utilising various parts of the city to show their art. This brave and exciting venture is something to really look forward to.

James Finucane is the man behind NUART, the Stavanger based street art project. He hails from Stourbridge, and went to Cardiff university.

Now, at the behest of Aberdeen Council, he is bringing this exciting project to Aberdeen.

One of the visiting artists will be 45 year old movie making maker, Julian De Casabianca. His first feature length film was shot in 44 cities in 22 countries focusing on passers by. It was called Passing By and was used as an installation in Paris, shown on 40 Screens on the 4th district City Hall. He also has worked as a journalist, both in print and on television.

Joining him will be Jasmine Sidquii and Falk Lehmann going under the name of ‘Herakut’.

Herakut is a German artistic pairing – a symbiosis of the aliases Hera the painter and Akut the graffiti artist whose collaborations formed a fruitful partnership. Having worked together on various successful global art projects, these artists have merged their individual approaches influenced by graffiti and street art. 

Their artworks can be found in big cities around the world – from Toronto to Kathmandu, from San Francisco to Melbourne. Herakut’s creative art process is sensuous, savage, dialogical and storytelling. This remarkable powerful dualism creates imaginary worlds and inspires their figures with individual characters. It will be an absolute pleasure to have them in Aberdeen.

Bergen based Nipper specialises in small scale pieces, recently exhibited on doors and wall etc in Stavanger and went under the name Mission Directives. He likes to focus on public led communication and our use of the urban environment, questioning who has the authority to decide on the rights of said communication.

Staying in Europe, Portugese artist Add Fuel ( Diago Machado) is gaining a reputation with his visual and graphic art work since he started exhibiting in shows 11years ago. His humorous, stencil based street art are not only full of detail, but are intent on reinterpreting the language of the Portuguese azulejo traditional tile. 

Fontana McGee hails from Australia, although his roots are Scottish. He has exhibited all over the world from his home country to the west coast of America, via Moscow and Glasgow. Since he graduated in 2009 as a Bachelor of Fine arts, he has been artist in residence in   Ambush Gallery, Sydney, Illawarra Regional Gallery, Woolongong  and ISAD studios, Jakartah.

Scottish artist Robert Montgomery follows a tradition of conceptual art and stands out by bringing a poetic voice to the discourse of text art. Montgomery creates billboard poems, light pieces, fire poems, woodcuts and watercolors. He was the British artist selected for Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012, the first biennale in India.

Montgomery has had solo exhibitions at venues in Europe and in Asia, including major outdoor light installations on the site of the old US Air Force base at Tempelhof. The first monograph of his work was published by Distanz, Berlin in 2015.

More artists are still to be added to this dazzling and creative cast. 

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Nov 172016
 

With thanks to John Morrison, Marketing & Communications Manager, Peacock Visual Arts.

img_9047Peacock Visual Arts’ end of year exhibition and print sale ‘Printland’ opens Friday 25th November 2016, 6-8pm and then runs until the 14th January 2017, Tuesday to Saturday, 09.30-17.30.
The exhibition provides an opportunity to own a unique, limited edition artwork, or pick up an original Xmas gift at a bargain price.

Prints for sale are by local and national artists in a wide range of sizes and styles including abstracts, landscapes, portraits, illustrations, and urban art.

There will be something for everyone! All of the prints are made here in Aberdeen and prices start from just £1.

Peacock Visual Arts are a not-for-profit organisation, funded by Creative Scotland and Aberdeen City Council. All monies made are reinvested back into the artistic community.

We are based on 21 Castle Street, just off the Castle Gate, down the close next to the Barnardo’s shop. The entrance to the close is clearly signed. You can also get access from King Street on the lane to the right of St Andrew’s Cathedral and then by taking your second right.

All are welcome, entry is free, and drinks will be provided at the opening evening. We will be closed Thursday 22nd December 2016 until Tuesday 10th January 2017.

Opening: Friday, 25th November 2016, 6-8pm
Date: Saturday 26th November 2016 – Saturday 14th January 2017
Location: Peacock Visual Arts

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Aug 262016
 

Marie Velardi-Future Perfect 21st Century-2006-2015-Kochi BiennaleWith thanks to John Morrison.

Peacock Visual Arts proudly presents Lost Islands & Other Works, an exhibition of drawing, sculpture, and installation by Marie Velardi. For her first solo show in the UK, this exhibition brings together recent and significant works to consider the nature of impermanence and movement of time from various perspectives.

Within her practice, Marie employs fact and fiction to both imagine and question the future.

Works closely examine movements of the earth, such as the continuous shift between land and sea, or inhabited islands disappearing into the ocean due to rising water levels. Marie’s use of fiction to present a timeline of the 21st century as described in sci-fi literature and film, offsets our reality to incite a powerful yet playful protest about the uncertainty of our future, and the condition of the earth today.

During the exhibition, selected artists, initiatives and academics will be invited to actively respond to the exhibition to explore ideas around unpredictable worlds, landscape, and sustainability.

Marie Velardi was born in Geneva, Switzerland. She lives and works in Geneva and Paris. Her work has been exhibited in France, Germany, Belgium and Italy. In 2014-2015 she represented Switzerland at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India. She has won various awards; among them the ‘2015 Scholarship of the City of Geneva’ for her on-going research project called Terre-Mer.

Marie Velardi // Lost Islands & Other Works

Runs: 27 August 2016 – 8 October 2016
Venue: Peacock Visual Arts

Jun 022016
 

knowing_not_knowing_post_imageWith thanks to John Morrison.

Peacock Visual Arts proudly presents knowing not knowing, an exhibition of prints and sculptural works by artist Jamie Davidson.

Drawing on a three month period of research in Japan this body of new work develops visual themes explored in Jamie’s previous solo show.

The installation of prints and sculpture reflect a simplicity of form and sensitivity to material seen in the traditional architecture and craftsmanship throughout Japan.

This is particularly evident in the construction of their temples and gardens where boundaries between interior and exterior gently give way to each other. Here in the shadow between the two spaces, a crossing over, or passing through subtly evokes our own sense of being in the world.

Starting with a simple shape and by allowing the sculptural work to develop at the same time as the print series knowing not knowing recalls, in abstract form, many aspects of Jamie’s experiences whilst in Japan.

About the artist:

A Graduate of Moray School of Art, Jamie Davidson previously trained and worked as a carpenter. Inspired by the natural and built environment, Jamie’s sculptural works are also informed by his many years of experience with traditional materials. In 2013, Jamie won the Saltire Society International Travel Bursary for visual arts, which funded a research trip to Japan in 2014.

Date: 17 June 2016 – 30 July 2016
Opening: Thurs 16 June 2016, 6-8pm
Venue: Peacock Visual Arts

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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Apr 222016
 
LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 08: The Brutalist Playground is the latest work by Turner Prize nominees Assemble with artist Simon Terrill at the RIBA on June 8, 2015 in London, England. The installation is open free to the public from 10 June to 16 August at the Architecture Gallery, RIBA, London. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for The Royal Institue Of British Architects (RIBA))

The Brutalist Playground is the latest work by Turner Prize nominees Assemble with artist Simon Terrill (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for The Royal Institue Of British Architects)

With thanks to John Morrison.

Peacock Visual Arts is delighted to host The Brutalist Playground by recent Turner Prize winners Assemble, and artist Simon Terrill, exploring post-war design for play, as part of Look Again Visual Art & Design Festival.

Brutalism was an architectural movement of the 1950s-70s, which aligned with a new socialist agenda.

Buildings were fortress-like in form, often of grand monolithic scale and designed to bring function to the flow of people populating them.

As such, Brutalism was predominately found in municipal buildings, educational institutions, shopping centres and high-rise housing. It is from the high-rise housing schemes and their surrounding social spaces and playgrounds that The Brutalist Playground takes its inspiration.

By recreating the post-war playground structures in soft pastel coloured foam The Brutalist Playground is an immersive and climbable installation – fun for all ages!

The installation was originally commissioned in 2015 by the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) and is accompanied by a film made by Simon Terrill using archival images from the RIBA’s archive

The Brutalist Playground is the centrepiece of Aberdeen’s Look Again Festival 2016, which celebrates bringing the very best in visual art and design to the city.

Assemble is a collective based in London which works across the fields of art, architecture and design. Its 18 members began working together in 2010. Assemble seeks to address the typical disconnection between public and the process by which public places are made championing a working practice that is interdependent and collaborative, seeking to involve the public as both participant and collaborator in the on-going realisation of the work.

Simon Terrill is an Australian artist living in London who works with photography, performance, sculpture, and installation as well as large-scale public works involving many hundreds of participants. He began working with Splinters Theatre in Canberra and went on to co-found Snuff Puppets Inc, a travelling performance troupe.

Following a BA in Sculpture and MA in Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, he lectured in Critical and Historical Studies (2005-08) and at the Centre for Ideas (2003-08), both at the VCA. In 2008, Terrill was awarded the Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship that enabled him to spend a year at the Slade in London. Recent exhibitions include Tilt, Sutton Gallery Melbourne, The Piranesi Effect, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Balfron Project II, 2 Willow Road, National Trust Ernő Goldfinger Museum.

Upcoming is the Creative Connections commission at the National Portrait Gallery that will feature the ninth iteration of his on-going Crowd Theory project, a series of photographic performance works which have previously featured sites including Balfron Tower (2010), the Port of Melbourne (2008), and Adelaide’s Victoria Square /Tarntanyangga (2013).

He is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne and The Fine Art Society Contemporary, London, and currently lectures in photography theory at London South Bank University. In 2012, the publisher M.33 produced a monograph of his work titled Proscenium.

The Brutalist Playground:

Date: 28 April – 29 May 2016
Location: Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen.

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Dec 082015
 

The University of Aberdeen’s Elphinstone Institute has launched the 2016 Toulmin Prize, with a cash prize of £500 for the winning entry. Courtesy of Leopard Magazine.

David_Toulmin2The competition, now in its eighth year, commemorates the work of one of the North-East’s finest exponents of the short story. John Reid (1913-1998) was an Aberdeenshire farm labourer from Rathen, near Fraserburgh, who spent most of his life working long hours for very small rewards.

In odd moments, he jotted down short stories, character studies and bothy tales.

Eventually, as David Toulmin, he had a few articles printed in local newspapers. The first of his ten books was published when he was 59.

The books consist mostly of short stories and reminiscences, with his one novel, Blown Seed, painting a harsh picture of farm life.

In the later years of his life, Reid moved to Pittodrie Place, Aberdeen, and later to Westhill. He was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Aberdeen in 1986.

The Toulmin Prize is open to all amateur writers over the age of 16. The short story, up to 4000 words in length, should be concerned with some aspect of life in North-East Scotland and may be written in Scots, including Doric, or English, or a mixture of the two. Previous prize-winners cannot submit an entry.

In addition to the cash prize, the winning entry will be published in Leopard Magazine and subsequently featured on the website of the Scots Language Centre.

The award for the best entry will be made at the University of Aberdeen’s May Festival 2016, when the winning story will be read aloud by the well-known North-East writer, Sheena Blackhall.

Emeritus Professor Ian Russell, former director of the Elphinstone Institute at  the University of Aberdeen, says:

“We’re proud to be able to honour John Reid and his work in this way. His writing is powerful, evocative and witty, and he is one of the finest exponents of writing in the North-East. We have had a terrific response to the previous competitions and the standard of entries has been superb.”

The closing date for entries is the 31st  March 2016. For entry details and a form, please visit: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/public-engagement/toulmin.php

Text and photo courtesy of Leopard Magazine.

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Nov 062015
 

Lucid-Dreaming cropLucid-Dreaming crop2By Mark Fraser.

As I drift
and think awhile,
how much I miss
your tender smile.

Your kiss so warm
and gentle true;
the pain I bear from losing you:

In dreams
you meet me,
hold me fast–
hold me near until the last;
fading picture,
drifts away…
awake again-
these thoughts to stay:

I’d give the world
to have you near–
to hold you close,
release my fears;
and my wish I’d make,
so Pure and True-
is to fix the past..
cos I’m missing you:

Image Credit: Images used are cut from http://humorcials.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Lucid-Dreaming.jpg and used under creative commons license.

Jun 152015
 

Since last Saturday, June 6, Hell Yeah have taken over Peacock Visual Arts to draw a sugar loaded, popcorn poppin’, over indulgent large-scale illustration installation on the walls of our main gallery.

Poster_FINAL featHell Yeah actively encourage viewers to visit them in the gallery throughout the duration of the installation in order for you to engage with their creative process, with questions and interaction with artists welcomed.

Once the installation is complete the gallery will be closed throughout the day on Friday 26 June to prepare the space for the official Closing Party, which will feature previously unseen work
from the artists hung directly on top of the installation.

The guarded nature of the Closing Party is intended to provoke viewers’ curiosity, urge you to explore the artwork further and also offer a fresh perspective of the exhibition as a whole.

The closing party will take place on Friday 26 June, 6-8pm, all welcome.

The finished exhibition will then run until Saturday 18 July 2015.

About the Artists

Hell Yeah are two artists who work together on large-scale site-specific illustration installations as well as commercial projects. Their typical Scottish dry wit and youthful enthusiasm for life gives their work a raw yet playful mix, which can leave the viewer feeling both amused and uneasy at the same time.

Live Drawing: 6 June – 25 June 2015

Closing Party: Friday 26 June. 6-8pm. All welcome.

Exhibition: 27 June – 18 July 2015