Artist in Residence
New Artist in Residence – Ruth Macdougall
New Youth Arts Programme ‘OURS’
Programme –
This two-year programme is designed to engage young people in the area with a young, practicing, contemporary artist. This will be through a series of taster/introductory sessions, then primarily through a range of projects targeting particular groups and individuals. A primary objective of this programme is to work with young people in developing their own ideas and ownership of the projects.
Eg 1. a project with young people in a drop-in/youth centre to design and improve their own space.
Eg 2. a project with a group of young people to commission and curate an exhibition for Timespan’s gallery; taking roles as director, curator, technician, marketing etc.
Eg 3. Apprenticeships with 16-18 yr olds, possible considering art careers, 1 or 2 at a time, working as ‘artist assistants’.
Eg 4. a web-page on www.timespan.org.uk
Artist –
Ruth Macdougall is an environmental artist from Glasgow. Last summer she successfully completed a 3-month visual arts residency for the Mackay country group in the North Coast community of Skerray. This summer she has returned to Sutherland as Timespan’s artist in residence for the next two years. This developmental post will allow Ruth to concentrate her time equally on leading the youth arts programme and developing her own practice.
Row 2006
Artist’s Statement of Practice
Ruth Macdougall - Timespan
I am committed to exploring narratives of time and place, expressed through acts of physical endurance, with the intention of opening up a dialogue between social, historical and geographical boundaries.
My environmental art practice has developed through my experiences living, studying and working in locations as diverse as Beirut, Chile and the Scottish Countryside.
At the heart of my work is the engagement and participation of those communities amongst whom I live. As a primary source of information and guidance, I rely on evolving relationships and subtle collaborations to arrive at a work that not only tells a story but also characterises the community that tells and retells that story.
I choose to undertake the performative element in the majority of my own works, thus inescapably addressing the notion of female fragility; a relatively modern myth. Consequently, the live performances to audience and camera, which have formed the body of my work over recent years, have been described by others as having a ‘’mythic quality’’. I welcome this description.
Subsequent video installations and text bear witness to the temporal nature of my work; but myths and narratives evolve, grow, are embellished and edited by the communities for whom these myths are a work in progress.
Ruth
Insaka International Artist’s Workshop
My name is Ruth Macdougall, I am from Glasgow and I joined Timespan at the beginning of August, embarking on a two year residency that will allow me to concentrate my time equally between developing my environmental art practice and the Timespan’s new youth arts programme,‘OURS’’. Open to all interested youngsters in Sutherland, ‘Ours’ is designed to engage and develop long-term relationships with young people who have limited access to artists or galleries in this remote area; supporting them in developing and managing their own projects.
3 Artists
Having successfully completed a three-month residency in summer 2006 with the MacKay Country Group on the North Coast, returning to work in the Highlands has presented many familiar challenges. Yet, this is very much a new beginning, not only for myself but also for Timespan as an organisation. My new position coincides with the remarkable redevelopment of the museum, additional workshop, community and archive space that will benefit the entire community.
Even in its unfinished state, I find the all new workshop space to be particularly exciting. When finally completed its bright, spacious dimensions will fit perfectly with the scale and ambition of the new youth arts project, enabling its young users to expand and achieve their creative ideas.
At the heart of my work is the engagement and participation of those communities amongst whom I live. As a primary source of information and guidance, I rely on evolving relationships and subtle collaborations to arrive at a work that not only tells a story but also characterises the community that tells and retells that story.
Tribe
My environmental art practice has developed through my experiences living, studying and working in locations as diverse as Beirut, Chile, China and the Scottish Countryside. I have now just returned from Insaka 2007, a two-week International Artists workshop held in Siavonga, Zambia and sponsored by the Triangle Art Trust. In the middle of the African bush, 20 artists from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, USA, India and Scotland!, came together to exchange ideas and cultures under the banner of ‘’artists working with communities for environmental awareness’’. Many of the artistic disciplines were represented: painting, sculpture, illustration, video and photography.
The African bush provided an intense and at times, dangerous environment in which we worked alongside each other, the local tribal communities and reptiles of all shapes and sizes. The local tribes welcomed us openly, allowing us to observe their daily lives and learn more about their basic, self-sustaining and vibrant cultures.
At the end of the two weeks we held an open day on site. I exhibited a video documenting our experiences with the local tribes people. These short documents focused particularly on the female population of the tribes, who appeared to do everything: farming, teaching, cooking, and raising families. Many of the older women (understandably) complained that they suffered from back pains, and so the video opens with an amusing, yet informative lesson in several yoga stretches as taught by Aditi, our Indian artist on a hot, and slightly surreal morning in the middle of the village. The video then switches to the regular evening dancing and singing round the bonfire and the daily chore of grinding finger millet , which is then boiled to a solid substance called nshima, the staple food of Zambia.
Though seemingly quite traditional in many ways, through discussions and presentations, the African art scene at large unfolded before me, into a complex dialogue between self-expression, the value of art in society and survival as an artist. For any other artists reading this, these will appear to be issues common to all of us. However, when considered within the context of Africa and its various political and economic situations, these themes evade regular analysis. For an experience such as this to be presented internationally by a country that as yet has no art school, not only underlines the desire of Zambian artists to evolve their techniques and ideologies but also the awareness that they too have a great deal to teach.
Still Grinder
Insaka 2007 was a truly memorable experience for all the artists involved, forming firm friendships. We 20 are now a community and it is my endeavour to enable any one or all of them to complete a workshop here in Scotland. Our works will be shown together in a forthcoming exhibition in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.
The Zambian workshop provides a fascinating precursor to the workshops I intend to hold with the youth of Sutherland, beginning with a series of workshops in the October school holidays.
For a weekly update on the progression of the Timespan residency, please see. www.timespanours-ruth.blogspot.com.
Timespan Residency 2004 - 2007
Our residency programme started over 2 years ago.
A preliminary survey had shown that, if offered, communities in Sutherland, would be very happy to take part in the pilot programme and have artists working in their midst on aspects of local heritage – historic, cultural, natural and built.
The artists were selected by representatives from the community involved.
Jon Macleod, a printmaker and mixed media artist from the Isle of Lewis, was the first artist, working in Helmsdale with the local heritage. He found the history of Gartymore, West Helmsdale and the Strath of Kildonan inspirational.
Two more residencies followed. Gemma Petrie, a painter, from Skye took up a residency in Skerray, North Sutherland, based on the natural heritage of the area. Gemma produced mixed media paintings using local mosses, lichens and algae to inform her work.
Sculptor , Nigel Mullan, from the Black Isle, was the artist selected by the Golspie selection committee. Nigel used old maps and place names of the area as the basis for his work. He is producing a stone carving “The Book of Golspie” as his response to these themes.
March 2006 saw, Julian Meredith, a printmaker from Herefordshire start his residency, focussing on the natural heritage of Helmsdale Harbour. This residency included a commission to create a piece of work for the harbour area. The commissioned piece, a large fish/whale, representing the migration of whales in the North Sea and salmon to the River Helmsdale, fabricated in sheet steel, was installed on the East Pier wall in August.
Julian working on The Whale/Fish on the East Pier Wall, Helmsdale
Beatriz Pimenta Velloso from Rio de Janeiro came in July to Brora. This was a huge culture shock for her! She loved the vast, quiet, empty expanse of the beach, could not get over how few people there seemed to be about, and found sheep and their behaviour fascinating. Her film recording her response to sheep with music by Jamie Harris will be with us soon for inclusion in our Residency Exhibition 2007.
The final residency of the programme has just started. Catriona Murray, a visual artist, and Janis Mackay, writer and storyteller, are the new artists in residence. They will be based in the Strath of Kildonan. Janis mackay, originally from Edinburgh and now based in Caithness, recently completed a writers residency centred on Northlands Creative Glass, Lybster and Lyth Arts Centre. She has a MA in creative writing and is a member of the Scottish Storytelling Centre. During this residency she is looking forward to developing her writing and storytelling in relation to the landscape around the Strath of Kildonan.
Catriona Murray, prior to taking up this post, was living and working in Edinburgh, however she is no stranger to the Highlands and Islands having spent much time in the north. Her work in different ways relates itself to the landscape. Catriona has recently graduated from Edinburgh College of Art (BA Hons. Tapestry). Her most recent exhibitions have been photographic.
They will be working together to bring, they hope, some creative light to the dark winter minths and will focus their work round the Strath of Kildonan. Catriona and Janis will work with children in Helmsdale Primary School and also Kinbrace, where hopefully the young creative juices will flow with storytelling, painting, poetry, bookmaking and more. The artists are keen to involve as many people as possible in their work and will offer arts and creative writing workshops in the community. Janis recently completed a stint as writer in residence in Caithness where she worked collaboratively with other artists to give workshops to community groups in Caithness. One outcome of this project was a book “Caithness Voice” where local people who attended writing workshops soon found themselves in print! Creativity, say Janis and Catriona, is for everyone, and during their period in Sutherland they hope local people will feel welcome to join in, come along to workshops and get involved. Because the focus of the artisitic work is the Strath of Kildonan Janis and Catriona hope to gather a collection of stories and memoeies from the Strath. Anyone who has something to share from the Strath is encouraged to get in touch.
Also if you are already part of a local group and would like to invite the artists to give a arts workshop, storytelling performance, poetry reading or talk, please feel free to contact them.
Catriona Murray m 07759694874
Janis Mackay m 07974920394
Catriona and Janis will be at Timespan every Thursday morning from 10.30 – 12.30. Everyone is welcome to come along, have a warm drink and meet the artists.
They will also be at Timespan on Friday 8 December at 7.00 pm when there will be a workshop and talk. This is another opportunity to meet Janis and Catriona and enjoy some Christmas fare.
The artists hope to offer a one day workshop in Helmsdale in January to start off the Highland Year of Culture with many loca people getting creatively involved. Look out for information about this event in the local press and posters. For more information contact Meg Telfer, 01641 521845 and see Timespans web site www.
The Residency programme is funded by Scottish Arts Council, Leader+, Scottish Natural Heritage
Julian Meredith March 06 - June 06
Julian the artist selected by representatives of the community and harbour users in Helmsdale has started his residency which includes a commission for a piece of work to be sited in the area of the harbour.
Julian creates mostly large pieces by cutting fish, whales. animals, birds into large planks of elm and taking prints from the cut wood, using fine paper, inks he mixes himself and finally making the print by using the back of a spoon to create the final image. The final rubbing can often take six to eight hours.
Julian will be working in the school and in the old schoolroom at Kildonan. If you would like to speakk to Julian about his work or see him at work then please contact Meg Telfer on 01641 521845 or e-mail megtelfer@tiscali.co.uk
Extract from an interview with Julian Meredith, Christine Watkins 2005
I have always had a deep respect for people who live and work in close connection with the natural world. For me, the person who can tell the difference between a jackdaw and a rook knows something real and important - and something that's of more value to the aspiring artist than much that is taught in art colleges. My own work is an extension of my practical knowledge of aspects of the wild, and developed alongside it.
My use of elm to make prints has grown from a preoccupation that started about twenty years ago, with the disappearance of elm trees from hedges, and from the landscape. At that time I was making small woodcuts, and decided to collect as much elm wood as I could. I gathered branches from dead elms and began making constructions, twenty feet or so across, and increasingly large prints. The printmaking process impregnates the wood with pigment and paraffin, giving it an almost fossil-like quality - I've got a growing graveyard of fossilized elm planks.
The prints that I take from the blocks have a light, airy quality, the opposite to the nature of the wood itself. As the printed paper comes off the block it's a bit like the spirit of the fossilized wood. The use of the blue colour also helps to transform the earthiness of the wood, via the flow of the grain, into something more akin to water and air. Both the dark, fossilized block and the light print are an equal part of making the work, and it's a pity that it's not usually possible to exhibit both.
I'm particularly influenced by the way in which animal forms are represented in aboriginal work. It was a breakthrough when I started showing whales and fish from above, instead of from the side, as this gave my work the relevance and directness I had been reaching towards. The concerns of people are reflected in my work, although in an indirect way, because the fertility of the land and of the sea has always been the concern of human beings. If the land and sea are fertile then things are basically OK, if not then people start to feel agitated.
Fish images are somehow hard-wired into my brain - they are genetically imprinted if that's possible.
Outreach Residency Project
The Golspie and Skerray residencies ended in December. Both were very successful. Both impacted on the two communities in a positive and dynamic way. Both worked with local school children, Secondary and Primary and with the wider community.
Nigel Mullen
Resident in Golspie, Nigel used mapping and the old place names as the basis for his work in Golspie. Nigel is currently working on a piece of sculpture based on his time at Golspie.
Gemma Petrie
Gemma in Skerray used the Natural Heritage of the area and in particular mosses, lichens and fungi for her sources. Gemma had her studio in Tigh Hughag, a renovated original croft house in the centre of the community. People were able to drop in at any time to see her working and her work. Local residents and artists enjoyed this and found it very rewarding.
John Macleod December 04 - April 05
The artist selected to get Timespan’s residency programme rolling, proved to be a popular and inspirational choice for Helmsdale. Jon Macleod, 37 has lived in Lewis for almost ten years. He has no favourite media, preferring to select the one which best suits the ideas at hand.
This flexibility provided some wonderfully original results on a large mural project at Helmsdale Primary School. Children were given cameras to take photographs of people and places which mean something to them, so a composite village identity can be built up. In addition, Jon worked with a mothers and toddlers group and also some senior citizens.
Says Jon “All the projects made good progress. I’ve really enjoyed my time in Helmsdale which proved to be far less daunting that I had at first feared. Being a temporary resident gave me a good excuse to talk to people about all kinds of things and the response has been very good.”
According to Meg Tefler Timespan’s arts co-ordinator, this is due to Jon’s general approach. “We were all delighted with the way in which he quietly and so quickly become part of the Helmsdale community. It’s a terrific challenge for someone to come in from the outside and encourage people of all ages to get involved with creating their own ideas and artwork. But Jon is very responsive and sensitive to any suggestions that people make and has a way of building on simple ideas and making them happen. It’s very exciting to watch.”
Jon’s final exhibition based on his sense impressions of Gartymore and the Strath Kildonan is called Lost Sheep of the House. “The playwright Stephen Poliakoff talks about “seeing history through a half opened door”. This is how I have viewed my work over the winter months. I have seen glimpses, layers of history, memory and meaning in the places and people of the area” Jon Macleod.
Infused with colour, the symbolic and photographic references within the final pieces are for the viewer to recognise and interpret in their individual, personal way. The overall impression is of a magical place full of memories and shadows of the past that are of great significance in the present day.
Also being exhibited is an example of the work Jon produced with the local school children, large murals based on their favourite view in the village combined with portraits of themselves. These works will eventually be displayed at the school.
