ContemporaryArtETC… Diploma Show at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.

ContemporaryArtETC… are delighted to present images from the current HN Diploma Show, XX – Collective.

XX – Collective, the first ever Contemporary Art Higher National Diploma Exhibition is on now at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and features drawing, painting, sculpture, video, photography and performance.

Private View of XX – Collective at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop Tonight

ContemporaryArtETC.com in association with Edinburgh’s Telford College are delighted to announce the opening of XX – Collective at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop this evening.

XX – Collective is the first ever HND Contemporary Art Practice Grad Show anywhere in the world and is the culmination of the collective efforts of the qualification development team, teaching staff and most importantly students over the past 4 years.

The exhibition features , painting, video, sculpture, drawing and performance by 9 artists each of whom present their unique view of the world.

Opening at 6pm this evening the exhibition will run daily from 10 – 6 until Wednesday the 3rd June

ContemporaryArtETC… student exhibits in City Art Centre

An artwork by HND Contemporary Art Practice Year 2 participant Sarah Wilson has been selected for the annual exhibition of Visual Arts Scotland which opened at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh last night. The exhibition offers a rare chance to see some of the best painting, sculpture, printmaking, jewellery, ceramics, glass, textiles, furniture and photography in Scotland all under one roof.

This is a great honour for Sarah who’s work was selected from among 750 submissions many of which were made by professional artists and degree graduates. It is testimony to the quality of the work produced by participants on the ground breaking course at Edinburgh’s Telford College that Sarah is exhibiting in such illustrious company.

The work, which was produced in response to a course brief, is brass plaque mounted on wood with an engraving of the definition of the Lex Sumptuaria an ancient Roman law outlawing the public display of wealth during times of economic hardship.

The exhibition is open daily until 19th March

City Art Centre
2 Market Street. Tel: 0131 529 3993

Newcastle Visit

Gavin Robson introducing HN CAP to the Hatton Gallery

Tour of the studios. Newcastle Uni

Paul Diamond in the Workplace

Newcastle Uni; Long Gallery featuring work by Paul Diamond.

Intro talk at the Workplace Gallery Gateshead

Newcastle Uni printmaking studio

Sarah with tea at Newcastle Uni

Intro talk at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Gateshead

Ben Fallon at the Workplace Gallery

The images above are from our recent day trip to Newcastle with our colleagues from the HND Vis Com Illustration course. First stop was the Fine Art School at Newcastle University where we were greeted with light refreshments and an excellent introduction to the courses and facilities by admissions tutor Gavin Robson.

After a quick lunch the next stop was the Workplace Gallery which has re-located to new premises in a former post office. The gallery can be found in the shadow of the iconic Gateshead multi storey car park designed by Owen Luder Partnership 1964 and was made famous in the classic 1970’s british gangster flick ‘Get Carter ‘ featuring Michael Caine. Workplace is a commercial gallery run by artists and it represents a portfolio of emerging and established artists through the gallery programme, curatorial projects and art fairs. The current show FEEDBACKER by Peter J. Evans features drawing, sculpture and performance over 3 floors and is very much worth a visit before it ends on 20th Dec 2008.

On then to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art for an introduction to the institution and the George Maciunas Fluxus exhibition which brings together the largest collection of Fluxus work ever exhibited in the UK. The extensive exhibition continues till 15th Feb 2009 and is supported by a range of online resources available through the Baltic Archive.

Finally we herded back on the bus for a moonlit and frankly baltic pit stop at the Angel of the North our final destination on the itinerary before our return to Edinburgh.

ContemporaryArtETC.com at Edinburgh’s Telford College would like to thank everyone who contributed to a great day out of the studio Mike from Hunters Coaches of Loanhead who’s good humour and patience was very much appreciated.

For more information regarding the places we visited click on the links above or visit the recently added Art e-Map of Newcastle in the links panel.

Caravan of Horrors to premier new work.

ContemporaryArtETC are pleased to announce that a new video work by staff member Alan Holligan will be premiered in the Caravan of Horrors at the Collective Gallery Edinburgh.

ONEZERO projects returns after an extended break to bring you ‘Caravan of Horrors’ the first outcome of a research project looking at the influence of Horror on Contemporary Art.

Caravan of Horrors will take place on Thursday the 30th of October in the Mobile Picture Salon which will be parked outside the Collective Gallery on Cockburn Street.

Onezero will be screening 5 works by:

Beagles and Ramsay
Alex Hetherington
Alan Holligan
Juri Ojaver
Catherine Street

Caravan of Horrors is running in conjunction with the launch of issue two of Fools in Print ‘AKA Tomfoolery’ as part of New Work Scotland 2008

ContemporaryArtETC.com meets Tracy Emin

Contemporary Art ETCs’ Sarah Wilson met Tracy Emin at the recent press launch of the artists first retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.

If you have never heard of Tracey Emin where on earth have you been hiding.
Tracey Emin is one of the best known artists working in Britain today. Born in London in 1963, she is a central figure in the generation of Young British Artists (or YBAs) that emerged in the early 1990’s and has produced some of the most memorable, compelling and iconic works of the last 15 years. Her autobiographical, confessional art has tapped into the mainstream of public consciousness, and has contributed to an unprecedented surge of interest in contemporary art in Britain.

Emin studied at Maidstone College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, and has had major exhibitions around the world. She became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2007, and in the same year was selected to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale, the largest and most prestigious event in the art world calendar.

Unfortunately her notoriety means that practically everybody has heard of, or has formed an opinion about Tracey Emin and her work. A huge percentage of her work is biographical, we all know about her abortion, her rape and most of us have seen her slovenly made bed surrounded by used condoms, fag ends and dirty laundry – when it was entered as a contender for the Turner prize and exhibited at the Tate in 1999 tabloids ran competitions to recreate it using teenagers bedrooms stating the unoriginal “I could do that”.
Tracey spoke of her education, apart from passing her driving test every exam she ever sat was to further her knowledge of art. Although she destroyed most of her work after getting her degree it was not an act of defiance, it was merely because the college had nowhere to store it and she did not want them to destroy it for her.

Emin happily posed for photographs at the Press View and after a quick race through the exhibition there was a questions and answers in the room with her tapestries hanging in huge frames.
The exhibition is fascinating, it is a collection of 20 years work, there is a room with a wooden rollercoaster made in 2005 entitled “It’s not the way I want to die” and rooms containing huge tapestries of blankets. There is a huge collection of her mono-prints and some of her video work and neons. It takes up the entire ground floor of the gallery and is the first major UK retrospective exhibition of work by Tracey Emin. This exhibition brings together loans from private and public collections around the world.

We were introduced to Simon Groom the director of the gallery and Patrick Elliot, the curator. She talked about the logistics of hanging such a huge collection – it is an exhibition that has been 4 years in the planning (they were putting the finishing touched to it as we arrived), work had to be acquired from private collectors across the globe and shipped to Edinburgh. The gallery had supplied her with a model of the gallery space so she could work out the best overview of the layout – she kept the model and now stores buttons in it!

The tapestries had to be removed from the frames as they were too big to get through the main gallery doors but finally seeing them all together in one small room was brilliant. She talked about how (obviously) “all the work is about me” but explained that she was hoping to achieve a transferrance of ideas from her work – like with the tent – “when you crawl inside and look at everyone I ever slept with, you will come out thinking of everyone you ever slept with”.

She said that the course she did in philosophy was the best training she could have done for her art – as they are all about her ideas – I asked her about her plans for the meercats she made for the London plinth – she laughed and said that it was a bit of a joke really, she likes meercats and didnt expect her idea to be one of the final ones chosen she was glad it didnt win as she did not want to be remembered as the meercat woman and anyway, large sculptures scare her! And there was me believing the spiel that had accompanied the idea, that meercats are lookouts and would protect the city etc – she just likes meercats!

What people seem to forget is that Tracey Emin is a Contemporary Artist, her installations are the result of lengthy trial and error and are representational of the “idea” – the bed was a response to a certain time in her life, just because it wasn’t painted by Van Gough does not mean it is not art.

Press responses have been pretty obvious, “celebrity is more important than real achievement, self revelation more gripping than anything created by talent and a considerable imagination” perhaps if journalists were not so lazy and looked at the art from a contemporary point of view then Tracey Emin would actually be given the credit she deserves.

Tracy Emin 20 Years continues at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh until November 20th.

Sarah Wilson is currently in the 2nd Year of the HND Contemporary Art Course at ETC

Edinburgh Art Festival is no damp squib.

Rain couldn’t stop play last night as the Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) officially launched with a decidedly damp street party in the heart of the capital. Among the beer, burgers, ice cream vans and a rather wonderful reincarnation of Karen Carpenter; the great, the good and the nicht so gut, of the Edinburgh art scene took turn in shaking off their umbrellas in the doorways of the Collective, Stills and Fruitmarket Galleries before re-deploying them for the journey through Advocates Close.

Now in its 5th year the festival offers another ambitious programme of more than 130 contemporary visual art exhibitions and events throughout the cities museums, galleries and temporary spaces. This years festival features established artists including Tracy Emin and Richard Hamilton as well as emerging talents from around the world.

Throughout the coming month contemporaryartetc… will bring you news and views from the festival. We would also welcome your contributions written or visual. If you would like to submit images or text please send them to:

contemporaryartetc@googlemail.com

you can also leave comments on any of our posts.

Regards

ED.

www.edinburghartfestival.org

Contemporary Art ETC 1st Year Exhibition

Contemporary Art ETC in association with North Edinburgh Arts Centre are delighted to announce the opening of Page 1 of 2 the first year exhibition.

The Exhibition runs until 13th of June and is open dailly between 10 am and 5pm.

” To exhibit in such a well respected and professional community based art centre is a fantastic opportunity for the students to engage their practice with the local community “

Alan Holligan (Course Leader)

Underlined: HN Diploma Show @ ESW

After a highly successful opening event the show ran until the 28th of May. The exhibition was well received and was well attended by family friends and members of the Edinburgh art fraternity. The Staff and students would like to thank the following people for their contribution and continued support:

• Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
• Ben McLeish
• Breave
• Mandy Purdie
• Benjamin Fallon
• Chris Walker

PLEASE CLICK ON A PHOTO TO VIEW A LARGER VERSION

Install 2008

The installation of this years HN Diploma Show at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop began in ernest today with a flurry of activity and anticipation. It was a beautiful day to working outside and everyone was in fine fettle. We are all looking forward to getting things finished up tomorrow in time for the opening.

Please come and join us from 6pm-8pm at ESW and afterwards at the Village Bar

Last of the Public Artists

We are delighted to announce that the Private View of the last ever HN Public Art Diploma Exhibition will Take place on Friday the 23rd May 2008 at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop Please see below for details.

During the installation we will bring you upt date news and images of progress and events.

AV Festival 2008

The 2008 AV festival opened last week with a gala event featuring performances of John Cages’ Variations VII and Yokomono by Staalplaat Soundsystem.

AV Festival is an international festival of electronic arts featuring visual art, music and moving image. A biennial event, the festival takes place in Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough in the North East of England. It consists of concerts and performances, exhibitions, film screenings, seminars, symposia, workshops and other special events at many venues across the three urban centres of the North East.

AV Festival 08 has the theme of Broadcast and runs from 28 February – 8 March 2008 in venues across the North East.

John Cage: Variations Vii

Staalplaat Soundsystem: Yokomono

LINKS:

http://www.avfestival.co.uk/about

http://www.johncage.info/

http://www.staalplaat.org/site/

Transloco: Artists Talk

Artist Talk by TRANSLOCO

2pm Saturday 24th November

WASPS Patriothall Gallery, Hamilton Place, Stockbridge

Join artists Lesley Martin, Jenny Outhwaite, Francesca Nobilucci and Nicola Rodger for a discussion about their current exhibition.

Transloco is a show of new works presented in association with Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, 25 Hawthornvale, Edinburgh, EH6 4JT
Tel: +44 (0) 131 551 4490 Fax: +44 (0) 131 551 4491

www.edinburghsculpture.org <http://www.edinburghsculpture.org/>
myspace.com/edinburghsculpture
edinburghsculpture.wordpress.com

Supported by the Scottish Arts Council and the City of Edinburgh Council

Telford Graduates Feature in Contemporary Exhibition “Trans Loco”

Two graduates from the HND Programme at Edinburgh’s Telford College feature in an exhibition of contemporary art the Patriothall Gallery in Edinburgh. Lesley Martin and Nicola Rodger  graduated from Edinburgh’s Telford College (ETC) in 2004 before gaining direct entry to the 2nd year degree at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA).

“Trans Loco” brings together the works of four artists who graduated form ECA earlier this year. All four artists have worked collaboratively in the past and and are close friends sharing ideas through discussion and practice whilst also developing their personal interests.

List of Artists:

Lesley Martin, Francesca Nobilucci, Jenny Outhwaite, Nicola Rodger.

The exhibition is open daily at the Patriothall Gallery, Stockbridge, Edinburgh, until the 28th of November

The exhibition is presented by the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

http://www.patriothallgallery.co.uk/ 

http://www.edinburghsculpture.org/ 

http://www.myspace.com/edinburghsculpture 

Art e-Facts 64

The Venice Biennale is one of the most important events in the art world calendar. Happening every 2 years, this year is the 52nd edition with Robert Storr an American curator, critic and artist acting as director and has been titled ‘Think with the Senses, Feel with the mind,’

The exhibition consists of 2 main parts the Giardini and the Arsenale. The Giardini consists of 30 pavilions each acting as representation for different nations and a large Exhibition Hall featuring a group show curated by the current director. The Arsenale houses the ‘Aperto’ exhibition also curated by the director, which operates as a more thematic space showing generally younger artists not represented by the pavilions in the Giardini.

Aside from the 2 main sites there are collateral events taking place all throughout Venice including pavilions for the countries not included within the Giardini.

This year the show runs on to the 21st of November and some of the highlights include Sophie Calle representing France with a project based on an email a boyfriend sent her to break up with her, Russia whose pavilion was filled with a dizzying array of high technology, and the Lithuanian pavilion which presented some nice calm minimalist work which provided some much needed relaxation after the sheer spectacle of the rest of the event.

Courtesy: B. Fallon

Art e-Facts 60

MONUMENTA is a new contemporary art event providing leading international artists with the opportunity to engage with the great steel-and-glass nave of Paris’s Grand Palais, through the creation of a series of totally new installations. Reflecting the extraordinary dynamism of the international contemporary art scene, MONUMENTA is a unique opportunity to discover the work of some of today’s greatest living artists.

Anselm Kiefer, Richard Serra and Christian Boltanski will create the first three installations in the MONUMENTA series. Renowned international artist Anselm Kiefer, presented the first work in the series – a spectacular, entirely new installation – from May 30, 2007. MONUMENTA 2008 will feature the American sculptor Richard Serra, followed by one of France’s leading artists, Christian Boltanski, in 2009.

Recently renovated, the Grand Palais is a unique space, in Paris and the world. Created for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the Grand Palais is an architectural treasure on a vast, monumental scale. Its immense glass roof soars to a height of 60 meters beneath the central dome, and the nave extends for over 200 meters at ground level, covering a surface of some 13,500 square meters in a single span. This historic venue is the setting for an array of leading cultural events.

www.monumenta.com

Roche Lobe Variables: Exhibition

An Exhibition of collaborative works by Karen Kirkwood & Ewan Robertson at The Park Gallery Falkirk.

Exhibition opening 1pm 3pm on Saturday 1st September.

Roche Lobe Variables is a series of collaborative drawings by artist, Karen Kirkwood & Ewan Robertson. The works are generated by a cumulative drawing process where images are exchanged and re-worked several times until a state of agreement is reached.

T he work combines aspects of each artists’ own practice and is a facinating exploration of the drawing process.

The exhibition also includes paintings by Karen and sculpptures by Ewan.

The artists’ will discuss their work at and Artists’ Talk on Wed 19th Sept 2pm – 3pm

Exhibition runs untill 27th October

theparkgallery

Opening Times Mon – Sat 10am – 5pm & Sun 2pm – 5pm