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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Mar 242016
 

PVA IMAGE ONEWith thanks to John Morrison.

Peacock Visual Arts is delighted to present Drawing in Response.

Drawing in Response is the result of the Bethany Arts Project, led by Bethany Christian Trust, in partnership with Gray’s School of Art and Peacock Visual Arts.

Bethany Arts Project is an ambitious new art project working with local homeless and vulnerable people to help build confidence and learn new skills by participating in a series of printmaking and photography workshops.

Facilitated by Bethany’s Arts Coordinator, Caitlyn Main, and with the help of Gray’s School of Art students Aiden Milligan and David Brown, participants worked with Peacock’s printmakers to create exciting new work of their own.

The aim of the Bethany Arts Project is to enable homeless and vulnerable people to work with artists in a way that harnesses their experience, enthusiasm, and creativity, as well as increase their own self-esteem.

Bethany Arts Project seeks to challenge perceptions of homelessness and social exclusion and encourage more mutual respect and understanding across the city.

Date: 1-16 April 2016
Opening: Thursday 31st March 2016, All welcome
Location: Peacock Visual Arts

Oct 152015
 

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

TIPA_Flyer_Cover_500_3After the success of TIPA Aberdeen in 2011, Peacock Visual Arts is delighted to host ‘This Is Performance Art’ (TIPA), a 3-day series of events celebrating the history of performance art from across the globe.

TIPA is curated by Nikki Milican OBE and will run from the 29-31 October 2015. The event will include performances in the main Peacock gallery, Aberdeen City Centre, as well as workshops, film screenings and opportunities to meet the artists and hear them discuss their work.

This edition’s roster of performance artists, many of whom are visiting Scotland for the very first time, are social, political, and always questioning, with the aim of inspiring viewers to explore performance art beyond TIPA.

TIPA’s global roster includes Sinéad O’Donnell, Nigel Rolfe, VestAndPage, Ilija Šoškić, with Dragica Cakic, Wladyslaw Kamierczak & Ewa Rybska, who are all highly acclaimed artist within the field of performance art.

The 3-day event will be in conjunction with Performance Art East, Northeast, West, which is being run by Aberdeen University from 30-31 October 2015.

Tickets are available on the door, in advance from Peacock Visual Arts, or by calling 01224 639539 and cost £5 per day, or £12 for a 3-day pass. Concessions cost £3 per day and £10 for a 3-day pass.

About Peacock Visual Arts:

Peacock Visual Arts is the leading contemporary visual arts organisation in Aberdeen and the NE of Scotland, bringing artists and the public together through exhibitions‚ events‚ talks‚ residencies‚ film screenings‚ gigs and workshops to make and present art in exciting and innovative ways.

More Info: What’s on at Peacock Visual Arts October 2015

Oct 032014
 

'When I Saw You' (film still) by Annemarie Jacir - Palestine, Jordan  2012Peacock Visual Arts presents a season of Middle East/North African films and an exhibition by internationally renowned artists The Otolith Group. With thanks to Kirsty Young.

Following on from festivals in 2009 and 2011 (Cruel Weather and Breaking Point), Intelligence Report will allow audiences to delve further into the sphere of moving image work from the Middle East and North Africa.

The programme is divided into two areas: the screening of six powerful new feature/experimental films from the Middle East/North Africa (at Belmont Filmhouse); and an exhibition consisting of video installations by noted artists The Otolith Group, and a group of repeating experimental shorts by seven artists, shown at Peacock Visual Arts (Saturday 4th October – Saturday 8th November).

The exhibition in the gallery will feature an installation by The Otolith Group (Turner prize nominees in 2010). The Group is a collaborative platform that seeks to rethink the dynamics of cultural production under conditions of accelerated, unstable and precarious global conditions. The seven shorts are the recent work of seven artists from Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Palestine.

Intelligence Report is a programme of films that reveal the problem of conveying revolution (Crop) or treating trauma-in-process (Sleepless Nights). Intelligence Report attempts to arrive at some comprehension of what the present may mean by taking a different inflection of the past – as in Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You (2012) set in 1967 Jordan.

In addition to the screenings, and giving context to the work, are introductions to three of the six films.

A representative from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign Aberdeen will introduce When I Saw You (Lamma shoftak) by Annemarie Jacir (2012) on Sunday 5th October at 6pm.

On Thursday 9th Oct, 6pm Sleepless Nights (Layali Bala Noom) by Eliane Raheb (2012) will be introduced by Dr. Stefanie Van de Peer, Global Cinema Fellow, University of Stirling.

And on Sunday 12th Oct at 6pm Crop, Johanna Domke and Marouan Omara (2012) will be introduced by Dr. Andrea Teti, Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen.

Intelligence Report is is organised by Jay Murphy, a writer and independent curator based in New York and New Orleans.

The full programme of film screenings and the exhibition is available on Peacock Visual Arts website – www.peacockvisualarts.com. A printed programme is available to collect from Peacock Visual Arts at 21 Castle Street and at various outlets in Aberdeen city centre.

May 232014
 

On Friday night, the 16th of May, Aberdeen Art Gallery hosted an opening evening for adults. The verdict: huge success. Suzanne Kelly attended.

Festival-of-Museums-logo-holder-image_4x3A programme of fun, varied, creative, and thought-provoking activities awaited the many visitors to Aberdeen Art Gallery on Friday 16th.

When closing time came at 10 p.m., it came too soon.

The activities were, by and large, based around the theme of World War I.

Local historian, published writer, and my former neighbour Graeme Milne held writing workshops.

Participants selected random words pulled from an envelope and composed poems on the war theme.

The theme was beautifully, touchingly and sometimes humorously brought to life in a series of postcards Milne showed the attendees, and by the poems he read. One postcard from Christmas Day 1914 is reproduced at the end of this article.

Peacock Visual Arts had a massively popular printing workshop. Visitors queued and talked about the events, while waiting to choose from a number of famous WWI propaganda images and create their own screen print in a choice of colours of ink and paper. Alphabet blocks and ink also allowed those participating to create their own propaganda posters.

Finished posters by the score hung to dry on a line; Kitchener’s famous image was surreally reproduced in many colours. Peacock didn’t stop printing all evening.

People milled around exhibitions, tried on period costumes and posed for photos, and wrote telegrams.  Paper crane making gave people the chance to hide origami cranes in the gallery for people to discover the next day. Another popular activity was designing and making poppies.

People worked in near silence as they concentrated on making individual poppies from felt, ribbon, paper and tulle; these were mounted on rings, pins and headbands. The interactive, informative, creative, and overall fun nature of these events made the night the success it was.

Wartime sketching workshops allowed people to try their skills at quickly capturing models in army uniform. A prize was awarded during one session to Marion Black, who had this to say about the evening:

“I think there should be more things like this in Aberdeen; I think the creative art scene needs to be encouraged.  I study history of art, and there’s not that much out there for events; there’s Peacock and a few others…  we have an amazing gallery; the collection here is amazing.”

This event was part of the Festival of Museums event programme taking place across Scotland from Friday 16th May to Sunday 18th May 2014. Visit http://festivalofmuseums.com/ for details.

Before the event, Anna Shortland, the informal learning officer and event co-ordinator for Aberdeen Art Gallery, said:

“The Art Gallery is an amazing, unique place at any time of the day, and so we are confident that people will have a brilliant night.

“We know that our visitors are keen to see the gallery in a more informal and social context – having fun in a museum or art gallery is not just for children but for adults too. The line-up is sure to bring in new audiences and we’ve already had lots of interest in this event.”

The evening was exactly the sort of event Aberdeen needs: well thought out behind the scenes, and spontaneous, fun, unrestricting and educational for the attendees. More like this please!  But amid all the creating, singing and socialising, I could not forget the words on the postcard that ‘Jamie’ wrote to his mother.

His words in pencil were quite faint; the card they are on is ageing, but the sentiment of a young man at war, thinking of home on a Christmas Day, are something I will remember for a long time:

“December 25 1914 – Dear Mother, This is a board to remind (thou) it is Xmas, but as this is the day of ______ it well may be in time for next Xmas.  At any rate it will be in time for the new year or sometime after it.  We are holding Xmas day so we are getting a fed [sic] off them so we will have to make it as merry as we can. I am longing for a few lines from you soon. Hoping this Xmas you are all well, and wishing you all a  Happy New  Year as this leaves me in the best of spirits, but would of [sic] been pleased  holding the New Year at home. This is Xmas day in Italy – Jamie”

– I found myself hoping that this ‘Jamie’ made it home and saw many more Xmas days; so many never made it home again.

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Nov 212013
 

-seeninthedeen 500This Friday, 22 Nov, 6 – 8pm, Peacock Visual Arts open their new winter exhibition, #SEENINTHEDEEN – Creative Characters from Aberdeen and Beyond.

The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Aberdeen collective WLDWLVS.
The works included in the exhibition all use text and typography in some way; these include pieces by local artists Brian Ross, John Mackenzie and Neil Henderson amongst others, such as a large-scale mural commissioned for the show.

This work will be shown alongside that of established international artists Adam Bridgland, Chu, Scott Myles and many more.

It will bring together a rich variety of styles and disciplines from printmaking to graffiti.

The title, #SEENINTHEDEEN, was a quick method for WLDWLVS to start documenting the hidden side of Aberdeen that people could otherwise miss.

The inspiration originally came from graffiti, paste-ups and stickers posted around the city, however the hashtag has taken on a life of its own. It’s another way of looking at the city – these are images that won’t be found in the guidebooks but that show a truer representation of the city.

The exhibition invites contributions from residents and visitors of Aberdeen using social networking platforms Twitter and Instagram. Images of street photography from shop signs to graffiti, and everything else in-between, taken and tagged with #SEENINTHEDEEN will be displayed on the website www.seeninthedeen.com, which will itself appear in the exhibition.

Neil Henderson of WLDWLVS said:

“we’re continually surprised by the gems people find around the city and we love the range of images presented; from the serious to the absurd. It was always our intention to bring the work together at some point and when the opportunity to partner with Peacock Visual Arts came around it just felt like a natural fit.”

The opening is sponsored by anCnoc and BrewDog and runs from 23rd november to 21st December.

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Oct 232013
 

The dust has settled on the City of Culture Bid, Round One; Aberdeen did not make the shortlist. Dundee however is through to Round Two. Following a review of bid material, recent events and a visit to Dundee, Suzanne Kelly compares the two cities and offers a few observations.

Netherkirkgate

Netherkirkgate, Dundee. Photo by Julie Thompson

It was meant to be so simple to win the City of Culture bid and it was meant to be another feather in the cap of Valerie Watt, Aberdeen City Council’s Chief Executive.
She’d been at the helm when Derry won the right to be City of Culture 2013.
For the Aberdeen bid, the usual city council suspects were called in and a number of arts and culture names and experts were signed up to create our submission.

Rita Stephen, sometime secondee to ACSEF, past promoter of the City Garden Project, etc, was seen as the safe pair of hands for this task.

Perhaps this appointment is why the bid often hones in on business retention and economic issues, with ACSEF getting a mention or two. Aberdeen needed to produce a sharp, smart and creative bid.

The bid team had to demonstrate how the city nurtured talent, used existing assets and involved people. It had to demonstrate that it could come up with interesting new ideas.

High Street

Seeing as we’re not particularly good at any of these things compared to other cities, the bid was never going to survive round one.

So, how can a city down the road from us, without lots of oil money greasing its wheels, without its own ACSEF, and without a dominant uber-wealthy ruling class outperform Aberdeen?

How did we wind up with the bid submission we produced?

How does our city stack up in the culture stakes against our poor relations in the south?

Would the lusted-after Granite Web in our city centre green space have wowed the judges?

And what was wrong about Aberdeen’s proposed Gigs on Rigs?

Two bids

Dundee’s bid actively seeks input from its citizens and groups. It is well-written with sound ideas based around the arts, people, and the environment. It is clear that rather than drawing up pie-in-the-sky concepts, it drew on its resources and existing practice.

The Dundee update webpage confirms the bid proposals, some of which require a bit more effort, but the proposals are not complete fabrication.  They have the arts and culture base because they nourish their arts.

‘”Communities around the Tay Estuary

• a celebration of the environment – connecting the cities green spaces, a festival of the hills in and around Dundee, its yellow flag beach and an outdoor music programme;

• a celebration of our people – a homecoming for those with their roots in Dundee or those who studied in the City;

• a celebration of the light – shining a light on the future, appreciating the quality of light, a night light luminaire and bright minds.”

In terms of consultation, Dundee still want to hear from people with good ideas:- 

…send us ideas for inclusion in the programme.  We have limited space in the bid so we won’t be able to include everything, but we want to hear as many ideas as possible”

To consult with people, Aberdeen took over the premises of what had been an independent music retailer, One Up. One Up had been forced to close, and in its day it contributed to our culture in showcasing local and larger acts and carrying local records. Having its husk used for the City’s vehicle of what culture should be felt a bit odd.

City Square, Dundee (2). Photo by Julie ThompsonIndividuals were invited to write ideas on Post-It notes in the bid centre/One Up. I did, and there were many good ideas.

There were also notes in pure council speak; such buzzwords as vibrant, dynamic, connectivity and transformational were much in evidence.

If these words did have any power or real meaning, their overuse in every City Council report for decades in Aberdeen has reduced them to meaningless jargon.

Predictably, the culture that was put on offer excluded anything remotely controversial, avant guard, or alternative. This was going to be a corporate, conservative cultural exercise.

As to Aberdeen’s final bid submission, ‘transparency’ was lacking, even to some of those who were supposed to be writing it.

A man who asked staff for a copy of the submission at the bid centre was asked, “And who are you exactly?” He couldn’t get a copy at the City of Culture bid centre. Perhaps this was not the ideal way to win support.

Communicating with Rita Stephen and the FOI office afterwards for a copy should have resulted in the bid being emailed swiftly. In the event, it took several requests to get a copy. The first version received was redacted (ie some text was blacked out for secrecy). We’re used to this in Aberdeen.

Most worryingly, it seems only a very few people had a say in how the bid submission would be carried out or what was going into it, and it is not clear if those in charge consulted widely enough with experienced arts and culture experts before the bid was submitted. What local artists, musicians, venue owners were asked for opinions? Who wrote the submission and who read it afterwards?

Various one-off, specially commissioned events took place during the lauch run-up. Despite the Lord Provost’s speech at an open photography exhibition in the gallery in which he stated that this would be a year of culture with or without bid success, the signs are this promise is fizzling out quickly.

This photography show at One Up / the Bid office exhibited some good work, but there were far too many photos displayed too closely together.  Hundreds of 3” x 5” images, only inches apart, competed for attention. A roughly-constructed installation piece with sound inside didn’t exactly fire the imagination.

Two Environments

HMS UnicornDundee loves its waterfront featuring HMS Discovery.

It loves the lesser-known Unicorn, a beautiful, preserved frigate open for tourism and events.

The city holds events on and around the waterfront.

Its town centre nightlife seems to lack as much severe public drunkenness as dominates nights here, although it does exist, as it does in any other city.

It respects its green park. The river is for walking along, stopping at Discovery or Unicorn, or popping into a hotel bar.

A new leisure complex has been erected on a site which is being revamped. The V&A will soon be on the riverside, creating real arts jobs where the old leisure centre stood. This is regeneration.

Aberdeen chooses to ignore the leisure potential of Nigg Bay, for instance, and financially-motivated expansionists want to allow the industrial harbour to take over this important unspoilt recreational site.

What that would mean to the life – wild, aquatic and human – in Torry in health terms can’t be good. Nigg Bay has two SSSIs, not that this otherwise important environmental protection matters in Aberdeen or Aberdeenshire, as witnessed by Trump’s Menie development.

East Grampian Coastal Partnership sensibly and reasonably proposed to construct a small leisure and learning marina, but this idea seems to have been cut adrift.  North of the industrial harbour, which by some coincidence has two of Scotland’s most polluted roads – Market Street, and Wellington Road – adjacent, is the Fun Beach.

Admittedly some good events do take place nearby, but where there was opportunity for interesting seaside bars, restaurants and hotels, identikit shopping malls exist instead. Many on the seafront have no views out to sea, a waste of waterfront opportunity.

Two Cultures

High Street - City CentreDundee loves the arts. Public sculptures abound, and whilst tourists don’t visit specifically for the bronze Desperate Dan, Minnie the Minx or the wonderful dragon, these public artworks are appreciated, photographed and posed with.

The city centre was busy the weekend I visited. Many were tourists who’d come for the day. I was handed a flyer for a fashion/vintage show. A dignified, attractive, creative market was taking place.  Posters advertised bands and art events.

The best summary of what is already in place in Dundee comes from its bid literature:

  • The V&A@Dundee will generate over 300,000 visits per year and 200 jobs.
  • In 2012 there were 2,414,362 attendances recorded at cultural venues in the city.
  • In 2012 217,009 people attended festivals and events in Dundee.
  • Dundee is home to several independent creative collectives –Tin Roof Collective, Generator Project, WASPS, Vanilla Ink and Fleet Collective – with the aim of providing supportive space and resources for designers and artists.
  • Discovery, Scotland’s International Film Festival for young audiences was the joint recipient of an international award for youth cinema in 2012.
  • Dundee Rep is a leading Scottish cultural institution.  It comprises the only full-time repertory theatre company in the UK, Scotland’s contemporary dance company and a cutting-edge community learning team.
  • Scottish Dance Theatre tours internationally as cultural ambassadors from Scotland.
  • Leisure & Culture Dundee was Scotland’s first charitable incorporated organisation to bring together a portfolio of culture, heritage, library and sporting resources into one charitable organisation.
  • Creative Dundee has hosted global event night, Pecha Kucha Night events quarterly, since bringing them to the city in November 2011.  The speed-presenting format has a 200-strong audience attend each event and has had over 80 local, national and international presenters talk.
  • In 2013 Dundee City Libraries won the UK Bookseller of the Year award for public libraries.
  • The Mills Observatory is the only full-time municipal observatory in the UK.
  • Broughty Ferry Castle is managed in partnership with Historic Scotland, is an icon at the mouth of the Tay with a dramatic and bloody history.
  • Caird Hall is one of Scotland’s most popular city centre conference and cultural venues.
  • The award winning McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum collections of fine decorative art and whaling artefacts have been designated collections of national importance.
  • Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design has an international reputation for being at the forefront of contemporary research in art and design.

The Duncan of Jordanstone arts campus is a short walk both to the town centre, and the river, Gray’s School of Art  is a ten minute minimum bus ride away from our city centre.

Aberdeen has a great gallery with some outstanding work and exhibitions and we are fortunate that the annual National Gallery Portrait Awards tour stops here. The Arts Centre also plays host to a number of events and smaller groups and artists.

McManus GalleriesHowever, the city’s treatment of local arts groups in the recent past is nothing to be proud of.

News does travel through the arts community, and Aberdeen has some damage control to do.

The Granite City has at least one bona fide billionaire who makes a big show of wanting things to improve, via building in a common good land garden rather than brownfield, whilst insisting the geographic centre must be the sole focal point.

The world’s great cultural centres, including Rome, Paris and New York do not share this myopia (nor do Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee).

Sadly, when it came to saving the small, independent Limousine Bull Arts collective, none of our well-meaning patrons could find their chequebooks. This modest collective brought art exhibitions, training and studio space to Torry, a supposed priority area for improvement.

Past shows have included a dramatic historical exhibition on the effects on Aberdeen of the Second World War, a show of members’ work, and work created from some of their life drawing students. It brought people into Torry to talk about and enjoy art. The collective had to close its Torry premises due to lack of the sort of funds our city fathers might spend on a good weekend trip.

What can be said about Peacock Visual Arts and how it got so far with its vision for an arts centre, only to be subsumed in a monstrously out-of-scale City Square or Garden Project? The proposal for the Peacock centre wasn’t loved by all, but compared to subsequent ideas, the Peacock plan was the least disruptive, most affordable and most environmentally-sensitive of all.

Years earlier, the then Arts Council ring-fenced £1m or so for an arts project involving the Citadel. It was in no small part down to the then City Council’s lack of diligence that this never happened. The deadline came and went whilst the administration was inactive.

Perhaps the worst, most visible recent slap in the face for arts, culture and charity was the closure of the worthwhile, creative venture, the Foyer.

City Square Market, DundeeAll manner of good work took place here, from helping people conquer their problems to encouraging fledgling artists to hold exhibitions of their work in the restaurant.

Why couldn’t we save the Foyer?

Why couldn’t public and private money be found?

Why has nothing else come along to do the necessary work it did?

The administration, Valerie Watts and Rita Stephen, who seems to have had a large hand in preparing the bid, seem unaware that these lost opportunities, thwarted arts groups and other initiatives could have been the very foundation for an independent arts scene. The council runs arts courses and arts events.

Does it have some kind of issue with supporting non state-sponsored or patronised artist and art groups? You could be forgiven for thinking so.

For real progress, and for creativity and community culture and art to grow, the city administration might want to consider loosening its controlling, conservative hold, whilst providing reasonable, accountable financial support. In less-controlling, insular areas, you’ll find arts and cultural activity taking place without having to have a government logo stamped on every ticket and every programme.

Two Visions

Magdalen GreenDundee is encouraging people to use its many facilities, to create, to spend time in its existing contemporary arts centre.

It has a large open green space with a pavilion at the end of the Tay. No-one is seeking to destroy it and no one is complaining it is under-used.

It is a park. It is a green, healthy space. It is there for when it’s needed for relaxation or for events.

Dundee’s jute, jam and journalism tradition has evolved, and past, present and future are all valued here. The events proposed, the venues existing and the forthcoming V&A will enhance what is already there and encourage more visitors.

With its great reserves of personal wealth, helped here and there by offshore tax haven use and abuse, Aberdeen seems to have a considerable gap between the have-nots and the have-yachts.

Arts and music education for school children were cut by the previous administration. We have a mentality here, personified in some of our most successful – financially speaking – residents,  that the purpose of education is to learn how to do a job servicing the oil industry. Humanities and arts are not as much a priority here as in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and of course Dundee.

This attitude towards culture and the arts is reflected throughout most of Aberdeen.

The bill of goods we’re being hard-sold is that to fix our retail and city centre social problems, we have to build something in the only green common good land we have.  No-one seems willing to rejuvenate our considerable brownfield sites, where potential exists for positive social and cultural improvement, or encourage use of the closed Union Street shops.

Money rules here, but that is not always translated to the makers, artists, creators and arts educators in the private sector.  Those teachers, small bars, clubs, galleries, art collectives which do exist, deserve our sincere thanks and our funding.

Victoria Docks, Dundee. Photo by Julie ThompsonWhere Dundee has a host of well-thought through proposals, we had a no doubt well-meaning art student draw attention to our bid by painting himself a different colour every day and sitting in the window of a former indy record shop. Rita, or someone on her team, invented the proposed Gigs on Rigs.

With the hallmarks of an idea scrawled on the back of an envelope after a taxpayer-funded expensive four course dinner, this was never, ever going to work.

The idea was to fly bands to North Sea oil rigs, and beam the live shows back to Aberdeen, where we would pay to attend venues to watch bands play from the rigs. No-one seems to have looked into security, safety, or how bands would feel about this. I haven’t met a musician yet who’d prefer to jump in a helicopter to travel to an alcohol-free, freezing outdoor rig rather than play in a lively town and go out afterwards.

No-one seems to have thought through why people would want to pay to watch remote gigs, how much it would cost, who would prefer a survival suit and a helicopter ride to a limo filled with champagne, and so on. The unpredictable weather that often delays flights to rigs is well known in the industry – what would have happened if an act couldn’t get to a rig to perform? But ‘gigs on rigs’ sounded good at the time, no doubt.

Good Luck Dundee

I am rooting for Dundee; it would be fitting if its bid does well. Their ideas are sound, their encouragement and support for independent creatives is genuine and long-running. Their regeneration of brownfield is admirable.

If we are to have the ‘smart, successful Scotland’ that Scottish Enterprise and other quangos claim to want in their jargon-filled reports, perhaps it’s time to stop this inter-city tribal competitive capitalism, and instead to realise that all our cities need to be encouraged and helped, not made to compete between themselves.

Let’s all wish Dundee good luck, and let’s hope the local myopic, formulaic, conservative art mentality and Philistine environmental attitudes of our mandarins and city fathers may improve from watching what our close neighbour does.

Go Dundee!

Dundee’s update: http://www.wedundee.com/downloads/Dundee_CoC_Toolkit.pdf

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