Clanjamfrey and Others

by Ruth Barker, 14 Sep 2009

Hello,

Busy week last week, as in addition to my PAR+RS duties I was preparing for the opening of Mark Briggs’ exhibition at Washington Garcia, and preparing my script for a new performance I’m working on at the moment. Then on Friday I went up to Inverness for the Clanjamfrey event co-ordinated by Inverness Old Town Art as part of Re-Imagining The Centre.

The Clanjamfrey was great, a really fantastic couple of days and I was very glad I attended. Most impressive was the way that the discussions surrounding the formal presentations evolved so successfully – something that I’d tentatively attribute to the scheduling of the Philosopher’s Salon event early on in the programme. I missed this event as I was still installing the WG show on Thursday (more about this later), but from all accounts, after a slow start the Salon became a genuinely vibrant space within which a great many ideas were voiced. Having it on the first day of the Clanjamfrey really allowed it to become a catalyst rather than a space to consolidate or close down ideas, which was certainly useful I think. Another successful aspect was certainly the way that short presentations by specialists form multiple fields (not just visual arts) were grouped around particular questions. This again opened up fertile space for rethinking and questioning. I thought it might be useful to just stick up the programme so you can see the range of speakers. The highlight though (not that I’m biased!) for me was certainly the Keynote presentation by Neville Gabie, which PAR+RS was able to sponsor. More on this later, as I hope that we’re going to get a transcript of Neville’s talk up on the site. Remember too that these presentations were framed by the work that we were able to see in the city itself, from Matt Baker’s permanent 3 Virtues, sited right in the centre of the Old Town itself, to Ginny Hutchison’s ephemeral gold leaf Seven Sunsets and many more besides. More informantion, as ever, from the IOTA site

INVERNESSIAN CLANJAMFREY
Town House, Inverness 12.30 – 17.00 Friday 11th September 2009.

13.30 Welcome and Introduction: Marie Mackintosh
13.35 Introduction to the afternoon: Alastair Snow

Session 1 – How do you draw something the won’t stand still?
13.40 Matt Baker (public artist)
13.55 David Alston (author and historian)
14.10 Philomena de Lima (author, Director of Centre for Remote and Rural Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands, and private consultant advising of race equality strategies for public agencies).
14.25 Panel discussion and questions / comments, chaired by Alastair Snow.

15.10 – 15.30 Coffee break.

Session 2 – Am I Standing At The Centre of the World?
15.30 Claudia Zeiske (Director of Deveron Arts)
15.45 Sam Harrison (Director of Open Ground place-based education project)
16.00 Rev Peter Nimmo (Minister of Old High Saint Stephen’s Church, Inverness)
16.15 Panel discussion and questions / comments, chaired by Alastair Snow.
17.00 Close of day

Inverness Cathedral 9.30 – 13.00 Saturday 12th September 2009.

9.30 Introduction to the morning: Alastair Snow
9.35 Jan Hogarth (Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association)

Session 3 – Whose Voice Needs to be Heard to make it ‘Public’?
9.50 Duncan McLean (landscape architect and urban designer with Land use Consultants)
10.05 Ruth Macdougall (environmental artist based in Glasgow)
10.20 Panel discussion and questions / comments, chaired by Alastair Snow.

11.00 – 11.20 Coffee break

11.30 – 13.00 IOTA Keynote presentation: Neville Gabie, introduced by Ruth Barker (PAR+RS). Produced in association with Public Art Scotland.

Phew!

So, other than that, I was also helping out artist Mark Briggs and curator / director Kendall Koppe installing Mark’s show at Glasgow artist run gallery Washington Garcia. I’ve posted the press release below, but would (of course) encourage you to pop down if you can as it’s a really great exhibition. I’ll be invigilating tomorrow (Tuesday) so do introduce yourself if you’re passing. I love Mark’s work for the way it appropriates and transforms fragments and moments, but also seems to endlessly defer them. There’s something almost erotic sometimes in the way that his work never seems to reach a conclusion. Let me know what you think.

I also went to see the opening on Dani Marti’s exhibition in Glasgow on Thursday night last week (timed, I suspect, to coincide with the launch of the new Trongate 103 building). This, you may remember, is the work that was effectively censored from the Gallery of Modern Art in the city, apparently because elements in the City Council feared bad publicity from Dani’s frank depiction of HIV positive gay men (see earlier blog posts for details). I found the work moving, and at times uncomfortable viewing. Perhaps surprisingly, the film I found hardest to watch (I confess I didn’t make it to the end, and had to stop) was the film of Dani himself talking about his own life, and his approach to making work. Dani’s asked me to write a critical essay about the work, so when I do so I’ll post it here (with his permission, of course). Dani’s show is on till the 10th October at the Parnie St venue. Pop down if you can.

I’ve also been working quite a bit on the script of The Deer Woman, a new site specific work that I’ll perform for the first time at 2pm next Saturday 19th September. The work will be part of Temporary Nature, a project curated by Allison Gibbs that will take place on the wasteground opposite the BBC Building at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. Allison describes the site beautifully in her press release, mentioning that “A former fragment of the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival, the site, now part urban rambling ground, part social drop out space, exists as a rare interstitial landscape within the city; neither true wilderness, nor tended parkland.” I’ll post details in the PAR+RS events listing as soon as they’re finalised. Come on down! Hope to see you there.

More later,
R

---

GOOD
LOOKING
LOOKING
GOOD

Mark Briggs @
Washington Garcia
Arch 24 (Unit 13)
Eastvale place
Glasgow, G3 8QG

Preview: Saturday 12th September 2009, 7 – 10pm.

Washington Garcia is delighted to present Good Looking Looking Good by Mark Briggs at Arch 24 Eastvale Place.

Briggs was awarded the highly competitive Washington Garcia Residency 2009, and has spent the summer months developing a new body of work within the gallery space. Good Looking Looking Good marks the culmination of an intensive period of reflection and production, which we have been excited to support.

During the residency, Briggs has expanded his interest in appropriating the moving image through drawing and video. Responding to his unique surroundings Briggs worked with the projected image, sound and indoor pyrotechnics. Throughout this new body of work, pre-existing source material has been manipulated, re-recorded or transcribed, allowing repetition to become a language that encompasses the acceptance of absurdity. Through glimpses of visual narrative, Briggs offers a series of displaced encounters laced with a blend of nostalgia and eroticism, which he describes as “sometimes confused, often compulsive, mostly disorientating.”

A commissioned essay will accompany Good Looking Looking Good from artist and writer Darren Rhymes.

Notes For Editor:

Washington Garcia
Arch 24 (Unit 13)
Eastvale Place
Glasgow, G3 8QG
Preview: 12th of September 2009. 7 – 10 pm
Exhibition Runs: 12th of September – 19th of September 2009
Gallery Hours Tuesday – Saturday 12-6pm or by appointment

• *Please note the limited exhibition run *
• * We are no longer open on Sundays unless by prior arrangement. *

Artist Biography:
Mark Briggs was born in Colchester in 1977, and resides in Glasgow since the completion of his MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2008. Recent exhibitions have included group shows in Artnews Projects, Berlin; Bezalel Academy, Tel Aviv; and A Vermin, Glasgow. He describes his time as Washington Garcia’s artist in residence as providing “an opportunity to allow for freedom of investigation into working methods and practices.”