Apologies to those who take the time to look up my blog for updates on the residency. Two years seemed like a long time and suddenly I have only 6 months until I fly the Timespan coop.The past few months have been engrossed with OURS youth arts work and after nearly a year and a half of putting nearly all my efforts into the kids’ projects, it’s time to pull back a little and and remember how it is I make my own art work.
Working with the youth arts group has been a challenging experience requiring all my attention and has happily led to some unique experiences for both the group and myself. The latest project is ongoing and involves leading the group through the process of curating a professional standard exhibition for Timnespan’s gallery.
So, over the past three months we designed an opportunity that would bring a Scottish based artist to Helmsdale in order to create a double sited body of work for in response to Helmsdale’s 19 Century Ice House. 200 artist requested the application pack and 52 finally applied. We spent a day going through every single application, an arduous but enlightening task that led to a short list of 6 artists for telephone interview. Amongst the 6 was one of my ex tutors from art school...I conducted the interviews (another first to add to the list) and reported back to the group.
The kids chose Chris Dooks. Chris, joined by his partner and author Eleanor Thom have been in Helmsdale for the past week conducting an intensive research period. Eleanor has been keeping a blog diary for the week, www.icehousehelmsdale.wordpress.com, which is well worth a look!
The duo return for a month in February under their own steam to develop their work in the community. It’s great to have some young artists working in the area whose skills and ethos are not unlike my own. It reminds me of time at art school, days when the dedicated artistic community that I was surrounded by were taken for granted. It’s rare to find that on any scale outside an establishment like an art school but in my own small ways I am trying to create opportunities through the project that will not only create exciting projects for other artists but also, and perhaps selfishly, create a more stimulating environment for me.
My own exhibition is in May, which will leave me free to concentrate on curating the exhibition that follows. For some time I had my heart set on inviting up to ten artists for my own curatorial project, inviting them to Helmsdale for three weeks. After unsuccessfully pursuing some extra funds to pull this off, I had to rethink my plans and decided that I for my first curatorial project, I would go for quality and not quantity. I have invited artists Anne Brodie and Yael Rosenblut to Helmsdale for one month to further investigate the site of the Ice House through their own diverse practices.
I have studied and collaborated with Yael whilst living in Chile and have been aware of Anne Brodie’s work for some time. Yael could not be more excited about coming to Scotland and given Anne’s back ground in fish farming and experiences in British Antarctica, she was made for this project!
