Past Art Exhibition
Studio 1824 - Chris Dooks
The Ice House, Helmsdale's monumental deep freeze. Once a store for salmon catch, later a coal fired fish and chip shop. Now the vaulted chamber plays host to a series of three double sited exhibitions, marking the end of two years as Timespan's artist in residence and youth arts curator for Ruth Macdougall. The first Ice House artist, Chris Dooks, is commisioned and curated by Timespan's youth arts group, OURS, led by Ruth.
For full details on exhibition visit Chris's blog icehousehelmsdale.wordpress.com
'We chose Chris out of a very large number of applicants for the Ice House commission because we liked his enthusiasm and the originality of all his ideas. Working with Chris was a good experience, he took interest in other peoples ideas and his positive attitude made things even more exciting and interesting. The sound workshop shed a whole new light on different styles of music and how they can be made. I'm sure that STUDIO 1824 will be innovative and thought provoking as well as interesting and enjoyable, exactly what is needed to bring the icehouse into the spotlight!'
Heather Macdonald, OURS
'A linguistic survey sound recording from 1964 featured Helmsdale fisherman Neil Mackay and wife Mary (nee Sutherland). A story is told and in the background, bells chime. A knitting group helped me track down the next of kin who had never heard the recordings, adding fresh elements to create a mini-album of "folktronica" with accompanying photographic cover-art. The project became a "netlabel" (DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM - www.studio1824.com), a live electronic concert, community workshops and a gallery exhibtion featuring an enormous salmon of knowledge, patrolling the ice house and nearby Gartymore.'
Chris Dooks
Exhibition Runs
Saturday 11th April - Sunday 17 May
This project is growing and growing - if you are interested in making music in the Helmsdale ice house, or any ice house for the matter, please visit www.studio1824.com for details on how to do so.
Showcase Artist - Laura Sutherland
Artist Statement
Having been brought up in the Highlands I have inevitably been influenced by the Scottish landscape. Relocating to Edinburgh has given me the opportunity to explore cityscapes in a new and exciting way. This combined with my travels to Japan, Borneo and North America has allowed me to extend my artisitic language whilst retaining a uniquely Scottish perspective. Working as a 'painter', I collage paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture to create environments, which I allow the viewer to enter.
My paintings and prints are an array of doodles, lines, colours and splashes taken from my imagination. Fuelled by my day-to-day world, my art is an interpretation of random thoughts, memories, dreams, conversations with passers by and the scattered, sowewhat disconnected ephemera that skips back and forth in the mind. I take fragments from these conversations, memories, dreams, together with fragments from the media and music. I am fascinated by social spaces, full of random people bustling around. I look and guess at who the characters in these spaces might be.
I like to examine contradictions, for example technology and nature. I do this in both my research and my practice, in my practice a bright neon colour may be added to some organic lines. I like to convey a balance between man-made materials and the natural world. The contrast between the beautiful and the ugly can be seen even in the simple differences between bright sunny colours and murkier tones. Contrasting the precision and structure of technical mark making with the scribbles and doodles that play a huge part in my work.
I am currently exploring, testing and evaluating the action and process of drawing. Rules and restrictions are applied, with the intention that the process itself can be fully analysed. The finished drawings are laboured and become compulsive. Similar components, actions and compositions recur across different works. Drawings are finished pieces that stand alone as objects but they can also become components in future installations.
I create images and structures based on the lines and marks that I use in drawing. These images/structures are easily multiplied so in a sense I create a language from which to pool forms from. I then go on to make drawing installations where it has become important to select materials that are low tech and not already loaded with an obvious function. these finished 'drawing installations' are a collage of flat shape, found imagery, works on paper and sculpture samples. I am interested in creating relationships between materials and the 'negative' spaces between them. I aim to explore these negatives and make them 'the subject' so they are no longer perceived as negative. It is not so much the individual element that is important, it is the relationship that they have with one another. It is where, how and when each element is placed within a composition that is important. My intention is to begin to question how the position or placing of different components can affect our perception of what a painting is. It is not essential for me to approach my subject with an end product in mind, my work is about challenge/testing the materials and processes to say something simple about their qualities.
Most recently I have been focusing on the idea of the 'craft' and the role of the audience within visual art. Along with installation pieces and painted interventions on architecture, I have been experimenting with book binding and low-tech printmaking techniques. I have been aiming to create objects that are accessible to the viewer in an understated way.
Designer Showcase - Andrea Butcher
I love designing and making hats, headpieces, fascinators and tiaras.
I find millinery very creative and enjoy trying out new ideas and techniques and working with a variety of materials. I also get a lot of satisfaction knowing I am continuing and promoting the long traditional craft of millinery which was becoming a dying art until a few years ago. Fortunately famous milliners Stephen Jones and Philip Treacey have made millinery fashionable and hats are appearing on the catwalk of major designers.
My hats are hand blocked using tradiotional methods as well as contemporary free form styling techniques.
The blocks (or moulds) I use are solid wood and are hand carved by a specialist block maker. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are very expensive. The crown and the rim are made from two seperate blocks and then joined together. My hats are all hand blocked and made from 'scratch', this means that I am in control of the process fron start to finish. The fabric is steamed and stretched over the block by hand, without the use of any mechanical aids.
I specialise in wedding hats and hats for special occcasions and the fabric I mainly use is called Sinamay, which has wonderfully sculptural qualities and is light and airy to wear. Recently I have developed an exciting collection called 'The Highlands Collection' which incorporates beautiful silk tartan with Sinamay and other materials. Customers can have a hat or headpiece in their own family tartan.
Hand blocked hats have a quality all of their own. A hand blocked hat has been made with love, care and attention to detail, usually with the customer in mind and retains a certain character and charm that you cannot get with a mass produced product. Mass produced hats are usually made with cheaper materials and have to be mechanically 'steamed and processed within an inch of their lives' to retain their shape.
You can buy from my collection of original designs or have a hat, headpiece, fascinator or tiara made to your own requirements.
All of my hats are individually priced, based on the time they take to make and the materails used. Because I design and make everything myself I can usually adapt designs to meet the customers personal requirements and budget. As a milliner I can offer a more proffesssional and personal service than the average retailer and a unique product which is unavailable on the high street.