Aug 042017
 

Peacock Visual Arts present Ignore the Management, an exhibition by Michele Horrigan and Sean Lynch. With thanks to John Morrison, Marketing & Communications Manager, Peacock Visual Arts.

For some years now, through both artistic and curatorial activities, Michele Horrigan and Sean Lynch have investigated the multifaceted nature of the public realm. With a focus on their native Ireland, their activities find and develop models that challenge the societal measures and institutional values that aim to manage and orient human behaviour in our increasingly technocratic world.

Sean Lynch presents two videos at the W OR M project space in Aberdeen’s historic Castlegate.

Latoon focuses on an unusual story of a whitethorn bush close to Lynch’s studio in Limerick. In 1999, folklorist Eddie Lenihan campaigned to have a multi million-euro roadway redirected in order to save the bush, which he had argued was an important meeting place for fairies – the bush’s destruction would lead to supernatural havoc on the new motorway.

Years later, Lynch interviewed Lenihan at the site about the dangers of fairy culture, the incessant march of progress and the hope that the bush will somehow survive this onslaught.

Also on exhibit is Campaign to Change the National Monuments Acts, a video that investigates the legal status of metal detectors in Ireland.

Following national controversy around the finding of the Derrynaflan Hoard, a medieval treasure trove uncovered in the 1980s, the state hastily placed a blanket ban on the public use of all devices used to search for archaeological objects – this legislation effectively destroyed any fledgling metal detectorist community.

Lynch advocates for a change in these authoritarian laws, where ideas of nationhood, individual freedom, and the need for new forms of community-led heritage are explored in a journey narrated by his long-time collaborator Gina Moxley.

For several years, Michele Horrigan has been following an exploratory trail of investigation around the mineral ore bauxite. Imported from Guinea in Africa into Ireland’s largest industrial complex in Horrigan’s hometown of Askeaton, bauxite is then refined and smelted to become aluminium, the world’s most versatile metal used in computer parts and engines, drink cans and airplanes.

Amongst her collection of archival and photographic material relating to this process, Horrigan presents two disparate gestures, an aluminium sculpture and a dance performance, each further questioning the role of the personal in relationship to the pervasiveness of global manufacturing.

Working at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Aberdeenshire, Horrigan made an aluminium replica of the apex of the Washington Memorial, remembering the shape given to the Masonic all-seeing eye of imperialism made from what was the world’s most precious metal in 1884. Then, in a field close to a refinery with chimney stacks divulging a steady stream of smoke, Horrigan is seen glibly re-enacting dance scenes from the 1983 movie Flashdance, where a heroine works in Pittsburgh’s mills while at night pursues her real dream of dancing.

Here, the title of Horrigan’s artwork, Stigma Damages seems pertinent. Used as a legal term to describe possible loss or suspected contamination due to environmental circumstance, both her actions seem to exist as a consequence or personal reaction to the rest of material on show, as a sensibility borne out of the disaffection of the individual against global flow and capital.

Sean Lynch and Michele Horrigan have exhibited throughout Europe and North America, including the Venice Biennale. Since 2006 they have organised Askeaton Contemporary Arts in southwest Ireland, initiating artist residencies, exhibitions and publications with over one hundred artists from around the world. During their time in Aberdeen, they will present several workshops as part of Free Press, a new publication project curated by Peacock Visual Arts, in partnership with Station House Media Unit and Aberdeen University Library Special Collections.

Exhibition: Ignore the Management // Michele Horrigan and Sean Lynch
Date: 9 September – 21 October 2017
Opening: Friday 8 September 2017, 6-8pm. All welcome.
Location: the W OR M, 11 Castle Street, Aberdeen

  • Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.
Feb 202017
 

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

Peacock Visual Arts are delighted to present Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana) by Ilana Halperin.

Following the first showing of this work at Fujiya Gallery Hanayamomo in Kyushu, Japan, Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana) will extend to include a new series of prints commissioned by Peacock.

This project marks the first time Halperin has exhibited in Japan and Aberdeen and continues a historical narrative between Kyushu and Aberdeen which began with the 19th Century ‘Scottish Samurai’ merchant Thomas Blake Glover.

For 20 years, Ilana Halperin dreamt about Beppu. In 1995, back in the urban geology of New York City, she found a book on the street about volcanoes.

A chapter on Beppu featured – with photographs of children cooking eggs on the streets, steam coming through every crack in the sidewalk, and a pool as red as blood. In New York, steam vents erupted at every corner, but these were industrial rather than natural.

She imagined a correlation between her home city and Beppu, a place with steaming vents and boiling springs, where daily life was lived and informed by a direct relationship with geothermal phenomena.

In 2014, Halperin went to Beppu for the first time on a research residency with BEPPU PROJECT. Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana) grew out of this time. Beppu is the second most geothermally active site on earth, after Yellowstone, USA. It is a primary location for the potential of geothermal power in Japan. Over the course of a year, new geothermal sculptures slowly formed in the Kannawa hot springs of Beppu.

In September 2016, Halperin returned to Beppu to take the new sculptures out of the water and install a solo exhibition at Fujiya Gallery Hanayamomo, a beautiful listed Meiji Era building. The exhibition coincided with the blossoming of the venue’s 200-year-old Mokusei tree, reflecting philosophical approaches within Halperin’s practice – thinking in time scales longer than the human lifespan.

The exhibition at Peacock Visual Arts will feature new Japanese sculptures, alongside a geothermal sculpture formed in Iceland and new works on paper commissioned by Peacock.

To employ experimental processes, field work, and traditional print-based methods, Halperin is developing a new series of work with Peacock’s Master Printmaker, Michael Waight, utilising Yame Washi paper – the oldest Japanese handmade paper in Kyushu which can last 1,000 years – in combination with hot spring minerals she collected in Beppu.

To pair with the ‘field pigments’ from Japan, Halperin visited Dr Allan Lilly, Principal Soil Scientist at The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen in January 2017, who introduced her to the National Soils Archive founded in 1934.

A selection of Scottish soil was generously donated to the project, including soil sourced from Slighhouses Farm where James Hutton, the ‘Father of Modern Geology’, farmed and began to formulate radical ideas about the age of the earth and deep geologic time. The nature of materials within these new works reflects the unique processes which formed the geothermal sculptures in Beppu, continuing the narrative of exchange between places intrinsic to this project.

Halperin and Mabon are working with the Glasgow based design studio Graphical House on a limited edition Artist Book that will mark the completion of the project, acting as a printed matter response to this ambitious and culturally diverse project. For more details on the publication visit the project website geologic-intimacy-yu-no-hana.tumblr.com.

Artist’s website: www.geologicnotes.wordpress.com

Ilana Halperin // Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana)
A new geothermal art/science project curated by Naoko Mabon (Aberdeen, Scotland and Beppu, Kyushu, Japan).

Opening: Thursday 30th March, 6-8pm. All welcome!
Exhibition runs:
31st March – 29th April 2017
Location:
Peacock Visual Arts

Curator’s tour: 22nd April 2017, 3pm

Artist’s Talk: Saturday 1st April 2017, 3.00-4.30pm
Ilana Halperin will be in conversation with Professor Tim Ingold from the Anthropology Department of the University of Aberdeen and Peacock Visual Arts’ Director Nuno Sacramento about her exhibition. This is a free event but space is limited so please book by clicking the blue button on the link below and filling out the booking form:

Ilana Halperin // Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana)

Image: Courtesy of the artist, Patricia Fleming Projects and WAGON

Photography: Sachiyo Ando

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

  • Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.
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.

  • Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.
May 132016
 

Neale Bothwell is one of several artists who exhibit at Under The Hammer on North Silver Street. The candlelit venue has hosted many group shows; Neale and I have been in group shows together there before, organised by local artist and WASPS studio member Keith Byers. This is Neale’s most recent exhibition at UTH. Suzanne Kelly interviews the artist.

Neale Bothwell oneSK – ‘There are 6 new pieces and one print which was exhibited in 2007. The work is abstract expressionism with bold colours dominating.’

NB – “I painted the new ones between last November and February this year. I found myself in a more workmanlike mode. A bit of discipline and structure to my approach. Normally I’ve tended to paint when it has felt… right like the right time. When everything is in place. 

“There was intensity to it. A more structured approach seems to have allowed me more freedom and a different kind of tension.”

We talk about the colours in the paintings.

NB – “I’ve always been fascinated by the way certain colours act with and work upon each other. My earlier works included black & white, brown & yellow, pale blue and dark brown. and even pink, gold and black. I’m enjoying using greens, blues and browns at the moment. Whatever captures my interest really.”

SK – ‘I note that in some of them, faces come out after you’ve looked at them for a while.’

NB – “It’s never intentional to begin with. If it is happening and it works, then fine. A good example of that is my piece titled “Bless My Soul” (detail, pictured). It took a long time, a lot of moving colours around the canvas. It began to feel right and start to make sense. Face, arms, all that was missing was a ‘mouth’. So I quickly finished off with a smile of sorts. Luckily it didn’t ruin the whole thing!

“Materials are affordable for me at present; I also got involved in situation at Market Street – a Chinese restaurant with lots of things lying about – it was the only place I could get any peace and quiet. We were trying to tart the place up. The materials were around.  I came upon a huge pile of big industrial cans of paints and some tinsel – and it just looked ready to go. I was in a basement, completely silent and bleak as hell.

“I was in a good mood to work in the silence and just went for it.  I exhibited it later; Peacock framed it for me.”

We talk about the disgraceful situation Peacock Visual Arts found itself in – through no fault of its own – and we both love the place and wish it well.

NB – “I was later painting in an attic, mainly using whatever colours caught my eye. I did one with tippex – sold it – very nice people.”

We talk about the print.

NB – “I was told to do collages by afriend. I thought I’d do it for a laugh but it was good advice really. I cut that image out – someone’s face – and painted it over, folded it up, tied it up with string and then 5 years later opened it up. Now it looks like all this trendy phone art that’s on the go now.

Neale Bothwell two“I’m really enjoying just moving paint around, making something pleasing.

“The red one – I just liked the colours and that’s how it turned out. 

“The green one – there was something about that one, just walking through the town – mud, rubbish, cracked pavement – passing tonnes of cranes with trucks flying about the place. 

“I went home and painted that  – I was in a punk rock kind of mood.  I put myself through the mill when I look at my own stuff.  I did one, looked at it for a couple of days, and rejected it.  But I did that one, and part of it caught my eye.  To me it’s modern, it’s contemporary, pleasing to the eye, but it’s got something going on.”

Neale talks me through more of his paintings; he painted one piece for the first time not in a silent atmosphere, but listening to music. The music impacted on how he used colour and his brush strokes. I recommend he keep using music (which I find indispensable when painting).

I keep seeing faces in these paintings.

NB – “The green one with the white bands that could look like teeth – it was a warm kind of painting going in that direction.

What informs my work? It’s colour, doing my own thing, and enjoying it. I enjoy painting; it’s a lovely experience.  It’s as close to a state of honesty as you can be is how I see it.”

We talk about some of the more gimmicky high-profile art prizes and whether or not they have much to do with painting. I mention the Glaswegian woman who got a Creative Scotland grant for… staying in Glasgow for a year without leaving the city limits.

NB – “It’s absolute rubbish; it’s little narcissistic kiddies getting it wrong every time. It’s like putting words in your painting. Gets my goat.”

We agree that a painting that needs a long explanation can’t be doing much talking itself.

NB – “The last artist in the Turner Prize nominee that I rated and thought had any gravitas was Gillian Carnegie; I remember her getting slated. Some artists lap up all the attention from the media and I don’t want to be too critical – but…”

We discuss how much craftsmanship some prizes-winning artists actually personally invest in their creations; we agree that some artists either don’t value craftsmanship in others – or pay others to carry out tasks they are not competent to do – yet want to put their name on a finished work they had little real hand in making.

NB – “I don’t even think too much about that kind of art. The artists if they are trying to make us understand more about certain things, I think it’s rather a bland way about going about it.”

We talk about Keith Byers the portrait painter who arranged this exhibition.

NB – “He’s a lovely guy; fantastic portrait painter. He’s been a great help.”

Neale Bothwell“I’m very much influenced by the punk spirit. I grew up with punk and it always stays with you. Follow your own path. And avoid people who use idiotic phrases like ‘cultural strategies’.

As for painters, I very much love the work of William Gear, Joan Eardley and Anne Redpath. Whether they influence my work, I don’t know, perhaps they do.

“They all manage to communicate the artist’s feeling in response to their subject. I think that is the best achievement for an artist. That’s what I try to do and hopefully keep it enjoyable to look at. I’d also like to thank Keith Byers and Colin at Under the Hammer for their continued support.

“I think it’s very important to show how you’re feeling at the time through your art. It’s a sweet little landscape and it worked because it was exactly how I felt at the time. I think if you can achieve getting that feeling over to the person viewing it, then that’s a success.  

“A lot of the stuff I do might be from immediate experience or some of it comes from somewhere in the past – you’re not always sure where it comes out from – I take everything I see, everything I’m feeling and just try to get it out in a certain way so if I can achieve people understanding exactly how it came about and what it means.  I think that’s the best intention of the whole thing.”

SK – ‘When you capture some kind particular feeling, some emotion and other people get it that means the art’s worked.’

NB – “It’s worked on a few occasions and it’s always been surprising people; and they’ve all been nice. I’ve pinpointed some people immediately go for (he points to a vibrant painting in the corner in reds and black).  The last exhibition there were two very simple landscapes; it was the combination of the colours I used and ‘a flick of the wrist’ – and most people went for it and I kept saying ‘the other one’s the better painting’ – people just saw it another way.

“I’m moving into more landscapes; I’m walking for miles every day with a dog; it’s a lovely environment to be in – down by the river. The movement of the land; the way the little roots of trees will form a little disjointed path; the nuances that go on – the importance of the landscape.”

Neale’s work is up for another few weeks at Under The Hammer.

  • Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.
May 052016
 

Under_New_Moons_We_Stand_Strong2With thanks to John Morrison.

Inspired by science fiction scenography and the hardware of the “control society” (Deleuze, 1995, 1990; Burroughs, 1978), Under New Moons, We Stand Strong reflects on the meaning of solidarity, infrastructural literacy, and symbolism within digital-civic governance and society.

The piece is composed of a large-scale cardboard model of a CCTV camera with accompanying bird spikes. Spikes are most often positioned on top of cameras so as to ward off birds.

On the 3rd January 2016 the CCTV camera, positioned at the intersection of Autoroute 40 and Boulevard des Sources, in the West Island of Montreal, Quebec captured a stunning image of a Snowy Owl, in mid-air. Quebec’s Transport Minister Robert Poëti tweeted about the owl on January 7, and the province later released the captured video footage and images, which went viral.

Mythical, owls are considered as symbols of wisdom and intelligence, as well as guardians of the underworlds, protectors of the dead and seer of souls. A special edition print of the image of the Snowy Owl will be presented alongside the sculpture.

Drawing on various rituals and traditions on Sat 7th May, 20.00 the public are invited to take part in a procession of paper-based CCTV cameras starting at Peacock Visual Arts and continuing through Aberdeen city centre and onto the beach, where in ceremonial fashion the models will be set on fire.

Date: Thurs 5 – Sat 28 May 2016
Location: Seventeen, 17 Belmont St, AB10 1JR, Aberdeen
Procession: Sat 7 May, 8pm from Seventeen, 17 Belmont St, AB10 1JR, Aberdeen

  • Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.
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.

  • Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.
Apr 082016
 

Old Susannah aka Suzanne Kelly ponders her betters this week, and tugs her forelock in the general direction of the wealthy who have shaped the society we have today.

DictionaryIt actually has been a dynamic and vibrant week in the Deen. With huge regrets I missed Granite, the National Theatre of Scotland’s multimedia all-star cast production that sold out three nights last week.

The night I had tickets for the driving rain drove me indoors (asthma you know). Everyone who saw it loved it.

Cast members came from the city as well, with Dame Ann Begg doing a turn, and Aberdeen Voice’s Fred Wilkinson was involved too.

Elly Rothnie helped bring us this production; she works at the National Theatre of Scotland, although in a perfect, honest, meritocracy would by now be helping to run things in a brand new Peacock Visual Arts Centre in Union Terrace Gardens.

For the many people out there who’ve forgotten what really happened – well, we don’t really do know what happened.

One day Scottish Enterprise (headed for years by Sir Ian Wood) was helping Peacock’s plans. The next day, Scottish Enterprise decided that Sir Ian Wood’s dream of a subterranean car park in the gardens, run by acquaintances of Sir Ian Wood in a private company was a better idea, with Sir Ian Wood deciding what would be built in the gardens (common good land, lest we forget).

Perhaps it’s just that I never had any formal investigative journalism training, but I’ve always had the oddest feeling that there was some kind of connection between Scottish Enterprise’s change of heart and Sir Ian. Clearly there wasn’t though – or the Press & Journal would have written about it.

Moving swiftly along, the big event coming this week is BrewDog’s colossal Annual General Meeting on Saturday. This will be my fourth (I think), and it’s going to see 6,000 people coming to the AECC for fun, froth and frolics. And of course business.

Is it possible that Aberdeen can attract people even without a granite web and before the beautiful Marischal Square complex is built? Seems so. I’ve been to the new bar, and love its menu, feeling and of course bottle shop, but I’m still more at home in the original, first-ever BrewDog bar opposite Marischal College. The Beermuda Triangle will be teaming with international beer fans this weekend; and I can’t wait.

Outside the geography of the Beermuda Triangle you’ll find Under The Hammer on North Silver Street. I’ve been in a few group shows there with Neal Bothwell over the past few years (thanks Keith Byres); Neale’s got a solo show on at present; catch it if you can.

Aside from this Aberdonian excitement, it’s been hard to find any interesting news stories this week to write about. That nice Mr Donald Trump wants women to be punished for having abortions. Then he said he wants them punished if abortion was illegal. Next he didn’t want the women tarred and feathered, but the doctors instead.

Iain Duncan Smith is REALLY REALLY SORRY

Now, he thinks no one should be punished (this may or may not have happened after a journalist asked if any of his past squeezes ever had one).

It’s exactly this sensitive, well thought through take on today’s issues that we want in a world leader. I’m sure every woman feels like I do that we’re better off having some big, strong, handsome, intelligent man telling us what we should or shouldn’t do with our own bodies. I really can’t tell you how grateful I am to Mr Trump for this.

A Guardian article is for some reason critical of The Donald, but then again, it was written by some no doubt hysterical woman

Elsewhere Iain Duncan Smith is REALLY REALLY SORRY that he’d made all those laws he rolled out. I personally thought he was just trying to get the lazy skivers out of their hospital beds and into some kind of profitable (if not well paying) work.

In an interview with Private Eye’s Ian Hislop, Smith is on the verge of tears as he slices an onion – sorry – as he thinks about a suffering mum. No doubt he’ll be devoting himself to helping people today who he penalised yesterday. It might be too late for some people, but IDS is sorry, and that’s all that matters.

Leaving behind the tedious problems of the disabled and the poor, the news this week also had some story about money laundering in Panama. What’s wrong with laundering money? I put a fiver in the wash the other week in my jeans pocket, and it came out smelling like orchid and lavender.

Panama is an interesting small Central American country known for hats and a canal. It’s motto is “For the Benefit of the World”. That’s awfully nice of them.

The country had some previous tax haven problems, sad to say.

Result! Panama was removed:

“… from the Organization of Economic Development’s gray-list of tax havens by signing various double taxation treaties with other nations.” 

That’s turned out well then.

With a little hard work, and the right relatives, you too can have an offshore bank account or two. If not, and you find yourself queuing at the job centre or being hauled up for a disability benefits review, take heart.

At least other people are doing very well indeed, and Iain Duncan Smith is sorry and feels your pain.

Sure, no one’s paying tax anymore (well, no one important or rich anyway), and the NHS and benefits are at breaking point. Still, it’s good economic news because we’re attracting business to the UK. Mind you, we’re doing that by letting multinationals based here pay no tax. But don’t worry. It’s all going to be just fine.

Did you miss David Cameron’s stirring speech on tax evasion? Never fear, for here it is.

I’m sure this moving oration won’t require any explanation, but just in case you don’t quite follow Mr Cameron when he talks of the vast chasm of difference between the words ‘avoidance’ and ‘evasion’, here are some definitions.

Tax Avoidance: (Modern English Conservative Speak) – not paying all the tax you should pay by avoiding tax.

Legal

Tax Evasion: (Modern English Conservative Speak) – not paying all the tax you should pay by evading tax.

Illegal

Treating people like children is not my intention, but it’s important that we all understand the clear difference between avoidance and evasion. I’d not want you think I was being evasive in avoiding this point, so here are some vastly differing definitions.

To Avoid: (English Verb) –

Merriam-Webster has this to say about the word avoid:

“to get or keep away from (as a responsibility) through cleverness or trickery <trying to avoid writing thank-you notes for the gifts he didn’t like>.

“Synonyms escape, dodge, duck, elude, eschew, evade, finesse, get around, scape, shake, shirk, shuffle (out of), shun, weasel (out of)

“Related Words miss; avert, deflect, divert, obviate, parry, prevent, ward (off); ban, bar, debar, eliminate, except, exclude, preclude, rule out; bypass, circumvent, skirt; foil, fox, frustrate, outfox, outsmart, outwit, overreach, thwart”
– http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/avoid

So clearly, avoiding tax is fine.

To Evade: (English Verb) –

Merriam-Webster says of the word evade :

“to get or keep away from (as a responsibility) through cleverness or trickery <people who use every loophole in the law to evade paying taxes>.

“Synonyms avoid, dodge, duck, elude, eschew, escape, finesse, get around, scape, shake, shirk, shuffle (out of), shun, weasel (out of)

“Related Words miss; avert, deflect, divert, obviate, parry, prevent, ward (off); ban, bar, debar, eliminate, except, exclude, preclude, rule out; bypass, circumvent, skirt; foil, fox, frustrate, outfox, outsmart, outwit, overreach, thwart”
– http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/evade

  • Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.

[Aberdeen Voice accepts and welcomes contributions from all sides/angles pertaining to any issue. Views and opinions expressed in any article are entirely those of the writer/contributor, and inclusion in our publication does not constitute support or endorsement of these by Aberdeen Voice as an organisation or any of its team members.]