Residency at Dumfries House

Today I made my way to Dumfries House in Ayrshire for a week long residency running Friday to Friday.

I caught the train from Glasgow Central to Auchinleck, where I was met by one of the Dumfries House drivers who kindly gave me the opportunity to stock up on some food by stopping off at Tesco before heading on to my destination. Dumfries House is on the outskirts of Cumnock, and the Estate covers a huge 200 acres. 

On arrival, I dropped my bags off in the Coach House Flat where I will be staying, along with a couple other artists, and made my way to the House in order to meet Charlotte Rostek, Curator, who gave me a set of keys and took me to the Laundry Building which houses the four Artists' Studios. 

 

Dumfries House

The Laundry Building (The Artists Studios)

We then called in at the visitor centre and reserved my place on a tour of the House tomorrow. 

 The Visitor Centre

While it was still daylight, I decided to begin to explore the grounds, and meandered my way along many of red gravelled paths that weave throughout the Estate. 

I saw the lodge, which consists of over 20 apartments that can be hired, and walked though the garden along to the lake area. I followed one of the larger tracks away from the House and towards the meadows where cows were grazing. 

 The Lodge

The path took me over The Adam Bridge and to The Maguire Arboretum.

The Adam Bridge

Following my exploration I met the other artists who are staying here, Nikki and David. Later I met Rachel and Michael who are sharing a studio, but are living in a 2 person apartment a little further away from the Studio.

After dinner I went back to my studio and began to unpack some of my materials and get ready to start work tomorrow.

My studio

Layer on the Wall, an exhibition by Simon Halfmeyer at the Briggait, Glasgow

Simon Halfmeyer is currently exhibiting new work in one of the project spaces at The Briggait, Glasgow. The Dusseldorf based artist approaches drawing in an all-encompassing manner. His work traverses two-dimensional and three-dimensional realms, with layers and transparency as important features in his work.

These layers can be seen in the work itself, but also in the way that the work is mounted, just as in this exhibition, the panels were installed over the parallel lines which he has painted onto the wall.

On the opposite wall he had neatly hung three wooden painted blocks. 

This intricate biro drawing had been painted over with some kind of clear high gloss varnish which transformed the painted wooden block into more seductive surface. The visible drips down the sides of the work reveal the making process and emphasise the textural qualities within the work. 

"Simon Halfmeyer’s drawings go beyond traditional boundaries of genre and format. They proliferate up the walls, extend into the room, integrate pictures, become sculptures and venture a step into the third dimension. It is an artificial jungle, a wilderness in the city. Plants and skyscrapers grow up to the ceiling, and street lights seem to disappear into a thicket of tropical foliage. The artist juxtaposes room, dimension and perception. Transparent base materials allow the viewer glimpses of the wall structures and integrate the space behind the drawing. A comprehensive picture archive from his own photographs offers models for the forms.

Simon also collates a picture archive containing cuttings from newspapers and findings, which the artist processes by hand, traces and reduces to outlines prior to scanning. He digitally uses this virtual archive for experiments in collage which, when projected onto the wall, leave an impression of a rampant jungle. The observer will be able to rediscover elements, which in another space, size or colour produce new impressions and effects."

http://www.waspsstudios.org.uk/news-events/layer-wall-exhibition-simon-halfmeyer-briggait-glasgow

Scotland Can Make It

Walking out of my studio yesterday I noticed a rather colourful pole. 

Given the little tags that are on the pole, I believe that this intervention was something arranged by Angharad McLaren as part of her 'Scotland Can Make It' project.

Scotland Can Make It! is a collection of six limited edition souvenirs, designed and manufactured entirely in Scotland. Commissioned by Panel for 2014 the souvenirs have been created by leading Scottish designers and artists in close collaboration with producers, fabricators and developers across Scotland. 

Angharad McLaren designed Home / Away, a set of two woven merino wool scarves, that are to support your team during the Commonwealth Games, as people from all nations gather in Glasgow to participate, spectate and cheer on their homeland.

Their pattern is inspired by traditional herringbone tweed – the original performance fabric for outdoor sport and activity and is a pattern that continues to form a mainstay of the internationally renowned Scottish textiles industry.

A few weeks ago, Angharad organised a 'Weavethon' event – a relay where a weaving shuttle takes the place of a baton - the race is on to weave enough colourful tweed to ‘yarn bomb’ a secret Games location for the closing weekend. People were invited to help her create the work.

https://scotlandcanmakeit.com/events/scotland-can-make-it-weavathon

The making of the Barrowland Park album pathway

I've just found a fascinating article about how Jim Lambie's 'Album Pathway' was made.
I'm drawn to the photos of the casts and see similarities between how the colours mix in this piece with my casting process for 'BRIMMING'.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2014/july/barrowlands-album-pathway-jim-lambie















Jim Lambie, Untitled 2014, coloured concrete, 103m x 3m. Public Artwork in Barrowland Park, Glasgow. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. Commissioned as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme. Photo: Stephen Hosey

Arranged like records on a shelf, artist Jim Lambie's 'album pathway' in Glasgow lists the names and dates of thousands of bands that have played the city's famous Barrowlands venue since 1983. Russ Coleman, the sculptor who worked on the Comedy Carpet in Blackpool, tells us how he turned his hand to coloured concrete...

Unveiled in the new Barrowland Park, a 'temporary urban greenspace' opposite the venue, Lambie's 100 metre long walkway cites 2,000 appearances by a range of international musicians. The artist has described the work as a homage to the famous venue and the nearby Barras market where he would often scour for records.

Commissioned as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, the pathway was developed by The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd with Lambie and landscape designer, Greg White (LOCI Design).



Jim Lambie, Untitled 2014, coloured concrete, 103m x 3m. Public Artwork in Barrowland Park, Glasgow. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. Photo: Stephen Hosey

Made from coloured concrete, the path – as with Gordon Young and Why Not Associates' expansive Comedy Carpet – contains thousands of individually made glyphs created by Coleman in his North Shields workshop. For the Barrowland Park project, Coleman worked with graphic designer and art director Kirk Teasdale to realise Lambie's original idea – their part of the process taking just twenty weeks to complete, in time for the Commonwealth Games.

Coleman has an interesting back story. Originally a 'monumental' mason and hand letter-carver, he trained in bricklaying and construction, later enrolling at art school to study sculpture. His approach to type involves thinking of it "in the wild – as physical objects," he says, and his recent work has combined these more traditional methods with new technologies; from water jet-cutting machines to digital software.



Jim Lambie, Untitled 2014, coloured concrete, 103m x 3m. Public Artwork in Barrowland Park, Glasgow. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. Photo: Stephen Hosey

"The Comedy Carpet was the culminaton of a year's work with Gordon and Why Not Associates," says Coleman, "and I developed techniques on that which afterwards I'd thought would be end of the road, really, with granite and concrete type. With the Carpet, this was type as solid objects that needed arranging in a particular way – the water-cutting maching unleashed a whole new world."

In 2013, Greg White, the landscape designer working on the Barrowland Park project was describing the pathway project to a friend who then directed him to the Comedy Carpet. White tracked down Coleman as a potential fabricator for the new pathway in Glasgow and Lambie's art production company Voidoid then contacted him about the idea – with one aspect of the proposal standing out in particular.

"What interested me was the colour," says Coleman, "because I have this long-term thing called the Concrete Foundation where its mission is to alter people's perceptions of concrete – to see it as ultimately flexible, as there are a thousand ways of using it. So this was a 'polychrome' approach to concrete. I'd Googled Jim's work and thought, 'that'd be great to work on'."



Jim Lambie, Untitled 2014, coloured concrete, 103m x 3m. Public Artwork in Barrowland Park, Glasgow. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. Photo: Stephen Hosey

The practicalities of working in coloured concrete, however, are a little more complicated. Coleman explains: "Using colour and concrete had obvious parameters: it's cement-based and alkaline; [the pathway] would be outdoors so would have to be UV stable as well. And there are only certain kinds of pigments [you can use] such as metal oxides – that's excluding organic and chemical pigments.

"Most of the coloured parts in the work are oxides of cobalt, titanium, iron and so on. Some of the colours, like the lilac and the turquoise, are very new colours that have only been developed in the last two years." These particular colours are also very expensive to produce. Ordinary pigments are around the £2 or £3 a kilo mark, while the turquoise, says Coleman, might come in at £60 or £70 for the same amount.



Coleman also cast many of the fonts used in the pathway, as opposed to cutting them out with the water jet (the latter allows more flexibility in that the fonts to be cut at any size). "There was some old traditional stuff in casting certain fonts such as Bryant, which has a rounded edge without any serifs and is easy to do," he says. "Whereas Optima or Baskerville are difficult to cast, you can't remould them as easily, they're too delicate to handle, particularly as there's a brittleness to concrete. Locked into the surrounding concrete though they're very strong."

The project used used nine fonts in 14 colours which made for a total of 126 possible combinations – and a mammoth twenty-two thousand separate glyphs.

"Normally, you might design something on the computer, then someone cuts it out," says Coleman. "But here, from start to finish, there were around 50 different processes, lots of checks and balances. For one, you have to arrange the letters upside-down and back-to-front and then cover them in concrete. It goes from 2D to 3D, then back to 2D again. It's almost like creating chaos."





Teasdale says the team made templates of the path as though it had been flipped over in the workshop. "We used tape to stick the letterforms on the templates wrong way round," he says, "and then poured coloured concrete over them, which made the stripes."

"It was about designing processes and procedures to achieve what the artist wanted, their vision," says Coleman. "It needed to look like the spines of records; like you were walking along a collection."

Coleman, who talks animatedly about the properties of concrete, points out that it was in the process of turning a PDF of type into physical lettering that then allowed other elements to come out. "In the workshop it becomes something else, it's not the precious thing on paper – but the 'process' dictates another thing. And that's the hit of the real type that’s bigger than on the page. It has its own life."

Even when put in place and cleaned of all the dust, the path was transformed once again. "We used a clear crystal quartz as an aggregate," says Coleman, "so when you cut through – they act like mini prisms."

Barrowland Park

Over the past couple of weeks, the city of Glasgow has been buzzing even more than usual due to being the host of the Commonwealth Games 2014.
Unsurprisingly, in true Glasgow spirit, the people of Glasgow rose to the occasion and welcomed visitors with open arms.

I was delighted to see the improvements that were made to the roads and public spaces around the city, none more obvious that by Glasgow Green.

The other night I was walking back from my studio to my flat when i noticed that the hoardings had been removed from an area of land that had been out-of-bounds wasteland for a few years. The area had been cleared, landscaped and a colourful path had been installed running through the centre. 

Album Pathway is a new artwork by Jim Lambie, commissioned as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, working alongside the Glasgow 2014 XX Commonwealth Games.



The stripy path was, at first, a pleasure to the eye, yet on closer inspection it became more significant. Lambie's piece draws on the history of the famous gig venue, The Barrowlands, which is located a short distance along the Gallowgate. Created by setting caste granite letters into pigmented concrete, the one hundred meters-long and three metres-wide path features the names of nearly every act that has played at the Barrowland since 1983, and includes the date they performed.



Lambie said the pathway resembles “the side view of a vinyl record collection, placed on a shelf at home.”

Perhaps that is one of the reasons why it is so popular - it is a sight so recognisable in many a home. Strolling along the pathway, it is difficult to think of anyone who is not familiar withat least a few of the bands, from Simple Minds & Blondie to Motorhead, and Foals. It has been wonderful to see a real mixture of people engaging and spending time with the work.
This makes it all the more disappointing to read that the Barrowland Park is a 'temporary urban greenspace'. I find it difficult to understand why such a place would be temporary, and hope that the public response encourages the council to reconsider its status and make it a permanent feature.


Links

http://www.velocityglasgow.org.uk/newsandopportunities/Pages/Barrowlands-Park.aspx

http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/live-and-public-art/art487877-Legendary-gig-venue-Glasgow-Barrowland-inpsires-major-public-artwork-for-Glasgow-2014

https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/glasgow-commonwealth-games-an-art-pathway

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2014/july/barrowlands-album-pathway-jim-lambie

85A at The Clyde Amphitheatre

For one night only, Glasgow Film presented a cinematic performance, where artist collective 85A – aided by musicians, circus performers, artists and filmmakers – took the audience on an adventurous voyage.

"85A are a tight-knit brood of multidisciplinary artists. With their own crossover brand of visual art, music and performance, and with 15 provocative shows since 2008, they have been establishing themselves as Glasgow's most irreverent cultural agitators. They are consolidated in their belief that work ought to reveal itself by non-conformist means: an ongoing theme being the presentation of art projects in disused buildings, forgotten spaces, and the ‘sideways’ of man’s environment…… allowing the viewer to be confronted by an alternative, hidden pathway leading through the glistening alleys of experimental-experience."

People at The Clyde Amphitheatre were invited to take part in THE HUNT FOR THE RATTUS ORLOVA, a fictionalised film shoot of an unbelievable, larger-than-life tale of an abandoned Russian cruise liner that was drifting eerily towards Scotland. Crewed only by a slew of rats and a stalwart captain, the ghost ship was the inspiration for a colossal set, docked along side Custom House Quay.

The audience was instructed to provide the sound effects (including seagulls, seals clapping and rats squeaking) throughout the fictionalised film shooting. The stage was a huge wooden ship, with an inbuilt stage to house a live band. Props were all handmade, and had a very specific, black and white DIY aesthetic.

The ‘Cargo, Camera...ACTION!’ show happened five times over the course of the day, with a different band setting the musical stage each time. 

As day turned to evening, the ship was transformed into a stunning open air cinema, with the area where the bands played becoming a projection screen. 

Four special artist commissions were screened; Games by Torsten Lauschmann consisted of archive footage with the theme of gaming and competition, Chris Leslie's film The Last of the Govan Cranes investigated Govan's shipbuilding history, Seawards the Great Ships was the first Scottish film to win an Oscar, and documents the process of creating a ship, Matter Fisher's animation told the story of a fisherman who discovered a curious ball of stuff. 

The setting for these screenings was ideal, particularly for The Last of the Govan Cranes and Seawards the Great Ships.

I had never seen the amphitheatre used for anything other than a hang-out space for scaters and Glasgow youths, so it was wonderful to experience it being used for its original function, and I really hope that more of these kind of events are scheduled.

http://www.glasgow2014.com/news/features/cargo-cameraaction

http://85a.org.uk/info.html

Blue hues

In this collage I was experimenting with limiting the colour palette to green/blues, and also refraining from drawing any lines, shapes or boundaries.

On reflection, I think I prefer a mixture of drawn lines and solid colours as in some of my other works. I think the variety of mark creates depth within the image, and makes it less predictable.

Brick City: Lego Architecture

My work is often described as playful, colourful and inviting, and one of my hopes is for the work to create a sense of wonderment for the viewer, wonderment being a feeling that is mostly associated with childhood.

I believe that it is not just children who can experience a state of wonderment, but I acknowledge that as one gets older, it becomes less accepted.

Lego is a material that tends to encourage adults to be creative, playful and imaginative. Today I visited Brick City: Lego Architecture at Rheged Centre, Penrith, where I was reminded of the joy that lego can bring to both children and adults.

http://rheged.com/brick-city-lego-architecture

The exhibition featured more than 70 models of differing sizes, the largest being 4 metres wide. Lego Artist Warren Elsmore had created lego representations of famous buildings from all over the world, including London St Pancras Station, the London 2012 Olympic Park, the Pompidou Centre, Paris, a Roman amphitheater, and the La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona.

Hidden within the impressive St Pancras station were a number of well-known characters including Harry Potter, Father Christmas, and Buzz Lightyear.



I'm sure that after visiting this exhibition, there will be many children (and adults) hunting out their own lego, eager to see what they are able to build.

View Warren Elsmore's website at http://warrenelsmore.com
 

Studio visit

I had a lovely visit to my studio, made especially pleasant by the sale of one of my recent drawings/collages.

The drawing is going in a particular location in the buyers house, and they had in mind that there would be a pair of drawings. With the initial drawing chosen, I am now going to create another collage specifically to act as a partner to the one above. 

The Make Works Directory is live!

Make Works is an independent design company that facilitates, celebrates and debates design, craftsmanship and manufacture. They are interested in materials, machines and digital technology. 

Their mission is to make it easier for creative professionals to work with industry and produce high quality work locally. To do this they are opening up access to Scottish suppliers, trades and manufacturing in ways that are useful, informative and inspiring. The first of these is the Make Works Directory - a digital service that makes sourcing factories, fabricators, workshops and facilities simple. 

What a genius idea!

Browsing the directory is simple, partly due to the different subgroups that have been created to enable you to narrow your search, for example, by location or by material.

The site also consists of production guides which provide information about the way materials can be used.

There are a few case studies, and some articles about specific Scottish businesses.

Visual Research - Zhangye Danxia landforms

Knowing my love of colour and pattern, a friend prompted me to look at Zhangye Danxia landforms. 

"The Danxia landform refers to various landscapes found in southeast, southwest and northwest China that "consist of a red bed characterized by steep cliffs". Danxia landform is formed from red-coloured sandstones and conglomerates of largely Cretaceous age. Similar in appearance to karst topography, danxia landforms are made up uplifted continental crust that has been faulted and eroded, exposing large scarps of layered rock, red in color.

Danxia landforms cover several provinces in southeast China.

 Taining County, Fujian Province, has very good examples of "young" danxia landforms wherein deep, narrow valleys have been formed. As the landform gets older, valleys widen and one gets isolated towers and ridges."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danxia_landform

Another reason I am proud of being from Yorkshire

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park wins the Art Fund's award for museum of the year


http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/newsreel/yorkshire-sculpture-park-wins-ps100k-museum-year-award?utm_source=Weekly-News&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Yorkshire-Sculpture-Park-wins-£100k-museum-of-the-year-award&utm_campaign=11th-July-2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28228750



"The open-air Yorkshire Sculpture Park has been named the museum of the year.

The judges described it as "a truly outstanding museum with a bold artistic vision".

The park, situated in the grounds of Bretton Hall in Wakefield, was first opened to the public in 1977.

Picking up the £100,000 prize, founder Peter Murray said: "We've tried so hard to develop something which is unique not just in this country but also in Europe and beyond.

"This award makes us feel we are moving in the right direction."

The park has held exhibitions for the likes of Eduardo Paolozzi, Lynne Chadwick and Ai Weiwei. Its collection of works by Henry Moore is one of the largest open-air displays of his bronzes in Europe.

The museum of the year shortlist included the Hayward Gallery and the Tate Britain in London and the Ditchling Museum of Art in East Sussex."

Draw-In - An exploration of contemporary drawing - opens Fri 11th July

I am exhibiting a number of drawings within this group show which opens on Friday night.

I hope to see you at St Margaret's House, Edinburgh on the 11th July, 7-9pm.

Plus there are a load of other events happening during the exhibition's duration.

Forthcoming Event - The Future for Culture in Scotland! - Friday 18th July - Glasgow

The Future for Culture in Scotland!

Reid Lecture Theatre
Glasgow School of Art
Glasgow

Friday, 18 July 2014 from 13:00 to 16:00


Hosted by Glasgow School of Art, this is your opportunity to hear more about Fiona Hyslop’s, (the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs), vision for the arts, screen and creative industries in an independent Scotland and to take part in discussion and debate about what this means to you.


There will be opportunities to ask questions, make statements and to share your views both with the Scottish Government and with the wider creative community.


After the presentation and Q&A there will be a chance to network over tea and coffee before the event finishes at 4pm.


For more information and to book tickets, please visit
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-for-culture-in-scotland-tickets-12102445741