Three Exhibitions in one day!

18th March 2015

Iconography

by Cary Welling

Thought provoking- in these photos Cary Wellings has tried to capture `a sense that something else is being communicated` but a hand gesture is universal isn`t it? The point of a finger, an open palm but could it be that in a different time or place it had various connotations?

Wood Engraved Prints

An exhibition of prints by Joseph Sloan in the Orkney Museum.

These were inspired by the cultures and traditions of Sandy and the Aran Isles.

Tools used in wood engraving.

This one was my personal favourite
 but they were all beautiful and created with such attention to detail.

You can find out more about the artist on www.ArtVitae.com/Sloan

Art and Design Exhibition 2015

A selection of works by Orkney College students in Croys

Another excellent display showcasing fresh new talents!

Martin Turner

Hannah Gardiner

Sarah Wylie

SPS Enamelling

Thinking about art and social practice, I remembered teaching some of the Stromness Primary School kids enamelling for their Friday activities and found these photos on the schools blog page!

Some of the beautiful pendants they enamelled!

Me and a few of the girls!

I had a great time and you never know maybe these girls have been inspired
 to take up a career in enamelling or jewellery design in the future?

Generation Art Scotland

Generations - 25 years of Contemporary Art in Scotland.

This is a great website with information on exhibitions and events throughout Scotland,it also features over 100 artists!

http://generationartscotland.org/

Virtual Symposium-Art and Social Practice

Art and Social Practice-The Politics of Engagement

Friday 13th March, Orkney College

VC- over 13 sites involved from Shetland, London to New York!!

It was interesting to listen to how these artists used their various disciplines to create awareness of political and social issues and through education try and bring about change.

A key speaker was Jane Trowell the founder of `Platform` an activist group that campaigns on the social, economic and environmental impacts of the global oil industry and how she tackles theses issues through art and education.

http://platformlondon.org/oil-the-arts/

Sarah Corbetts from `Craftivist Collective` also gave a talk, as the name suggests they use craft as a tool for a slow gentle activism that addresses issues on poverty and injustice. Its a social enterprise and focuses on an audience `afraid` of `activism` but want to play their part in making the world a better place.

http://craftivist-collective.com/about/

Also giving talks were students from other universities on projects they had undertaken in their own social practices. They ranged from community gardens, creativity in care ,alcoholism, body image and much more, to many to list but all very inspiring!!

Art can make a difference!

Map Orkney Month

12th March has arrived and its my day to have the GPS for MOM!

This is what I got up too!

Invigorating morning walk, this is view from top of a very blustery Brinkies Brae.

Then round the West shore, spectacular waves!

Time for a spot of groatie buckie hunting(found 3!!)

Later a drive through to Kirkwall vai Waulkmill Bay

and Scapa beach.
Shopping then back home!

GPS showing route

Enjoyed my day, can`t wait to see the final `map`!!

Moving string picture!

Its called Asphyxia and is an experimental film project by Maria Takeuchi and Frederico Phillips that explores human movement through motion capture technology.
 When I first saw this it reminded me of the string pictures I made at school where you hammered in a load of nails round a shape and then gave the shape form by  wrapping threads round  the nails(in a certain way) but its definitely way more than that, just amazing when you add the movement!

https://vimeo.com/121436114

Ravaged Landscapes

This was an exhibition showing paintings by S2 pupils from Stromness Academy produced in response to photographic documention and artwork recorded in World War 1.

This one was painted by my niece Ellen Poke

At the time of viewing these I was the only one there, it was so quite and still in the room a complete contrast to the `noise` of the images that surrounded me. A very surreal feeling and I hope we never have to experience the horrors of these times.

Stargazing Exhibition

Bi-annual exhibition at PAC of Orkney post-graduate artists.

Really showed the different directions in which art can take you from textile, jewellery, video, printing, painting, sculpture, photography and more!

Louise Barrington-beautiful works
loved the shadows created.

Amy Firth-had a real spontaneous energy!

Mary Grieve-works in stop frame animation and builds all her own sets and props, quite amazing with a unique way of showing her film sketch, projecting through eyes of one head into the head of the other.

 There was thirteen artists in all and everyone`s works were

 great, a real inspiration!!!!

Rik Hammond Exhibition

27th Feb 2015

Rik Hammond exhibition-perhaps found (perhaps not)* in Orkney Museum

There was a series of a 150 small works in plastic sealed bags, it was a really clever and effective way  of displaying them, linking it to how archeological samples are collected.

To read a review on exhibition go to

https://naeboundaries.wordpress.com/2015/02/10/perhaps-found-perhaps-not-art-and-archaeology-in-orkney-2/

Map Orkney Month

It`s the first day of MOM!
This is a project Dan Lee from ORCA is undertaking, he`s collecting data via GPS to create a new map of Orkney from peoples everyday movements.

I`ve put myself up as a  participant so my mapping day is the 12th!

You can get regular updates on https://publicarchaeology2015.wordpress.com/

Can`t wait to see the end results!!