Guest Post: Rebecca Milling, RSA artist-in-residence

Guest blog post from Rebecca Milling:

I have been lucky enough to receive funding from the Royal Scottish Academy Residency Scheme, to spend time at North Lands Creative Glass. I am learning the art of scientific glass blowing so that I can make glass sculptures which have required skill to produce before I take photographs which capture the instant of their destruction. My latest series of work has involved building glass structures from off cuts of picture frame glass, in an attempt to build as high as possible without any particular thought or skill attributed to the construction.

Week 1 – July 2013
I’ve never travelled as far north as Lybster before so the six and a half hour drive up from Edinburgh was filled with excitement and anticipation of what I was going to discover during my first week learning the art of scientific glass blowing. Arriving to find huge and fully equipped workshops with Michael Bullen, an enthusiastic and dedicated technician, I was not disappointed at the mind blowing potential of what could be achieved!

Trying to focus on my original plan, I was very happy to meet my tutor, Ian Pearson, an expert in his field and immediately keen to point out to me that he can make anything out of glass – just say it and he will make it! Ian loves to show off his prowess working in the flame as I looked on wondering what I had let myself in for.

However, Ian gave me little time to back out and I was turning, spinning and blowing in no time

Ian was not keen on the large metal hammer in my photographs and so made me a glass one in about 10 minutes proving his point that he really can make anything!

I was left to my own devices on days 2 and 3 faced with this workbench, many glass spindles and Ian’s instructions hastily scrawled on a notebook the day before.

I set to work and as you can see came up with these uneven/organic glass forms

I became fond of them and gradually, especially after another day’s teaching, they became smoother and I started to feel a bit more in control of the limitations of my newfound medium. It also became evident that the scope to play with reflection and distortion in the glass shapes was going to be a key element for future photographs. I returned home with a car full of distorted and wonky glass tubes – some better than others!

During my first week, I also took the opportunity to drive the 30 miles north to John O’Groats one evening and then to the most northerly point in mainland Britain – Dunnet Head. Castletown Harbour was well worth a visit too.

Week 2 October 2013
Having spent time in the studio back home where I’d been able to experiment with what I had made during my first week, I returned to North Lands with a mission to make as many organic shapes as possible with smooth unridged bubbles to get best effects for reflection and distortion. I had ordered various tube widths and varying wall thicknesses of tubing to try and get different sizes when blowing.

I had asked Ian to leave spindles out for me so that I could get to work immediately. I was also keen to try working with soda tubing as well as pyrex. Soda tubing breaks much more easily than pyrex tubing so I wanted to put this to the test considering that my ultimate intention was to smash my sculpture, it seemed logical to work with the material which would smash most easily and hopefully dramatically.

Ian was a little taken aback at the prospect of working with soda but game as ever and delighting in the inevitable regular explosions which came from working with a more unstable material. I enjoyed working with the soda and liked the extra malleable qualities of it and how it retained its heat for longer.

It must be noted that when faced with a large metal hammer being thrown at the blown thin walled organic shapes – both pyrex and soda smashed just as well and it was impossible to tell the difference!

I spent 4 days blowing glass and had eventually taken over the workshop with my efforts.

Ian made me an awful lot of spindles to blow and I also gave him the challenge to blow large and even elongated bubbles so that I could experiment with regular reflection.

A team of happy helpers turned up at the weekend and we set to work first of all in the sheltered courtyard taking photographs against black velvet and also in the garden of the house shooting with the dusk sky as a backdrop.

Please see www.rebeccamilling.com Reflective Construction to see more of the final images from that week.

I have again come home with a car full of glass and am planning my next adventure to North Lands in 2014.

THE PLACE AND THE WORK: Master Classes

2014 Programme: The Place and The Work

Making art works in relation to place is the focus of our Conference and Master Classes this year; acknowledging how artists and their work connect to their surroundings, landscape, architecture, history and social context.

CLASS 1: Petr Stanicky

The Unique Genius Loci of the Space.
27^th August – 4^th September. Cost: £895 (9 day class – includes course fees, materials and evening meals)

“A reflection of the unique genius loci of the space. Sculpture, objects or installation. The idea is to let the unique qualities of North Lands’ surroundings influence the art works. Be open to nature, face new qualities of light, scale and let all of this influence artworks.

This will be a unique opportunity to access the hotshop in the middle of a remote landscape and to work with all kinds of techniques which hot glass offers. It will be an ideal situation to create, discover and open new paths in an artist’s work.”

Hot glass techniques will be experimental and developed according to the concepts of the class participants. Work will be researched in different media such as drawing, photography and model making. Some experience in hot glass techniques is beneficial. There will be a gaffer to realise ideas into glass for those with limited hot glass experience.

About Petr Stanicky:
The breadth of Petr Stanicky’s work is reflected in his rich and diverse studies in the Czech Republic and the USA. At the AAAD in Prague he studied sculpture, specialising in stone carving and glass in architecture; he graduated in 2000. By 2007 he had been teaching sculpture at the arts academy for 4 years when he decided to immerse himself in a study of the figure, joining a masters program at the New York Arts Academy. From there he gained experience working on sculptural projects in Jeff Koons’ studio. On returning to the Czech Republic he chose to lead a new masters program in glass at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. He describes the ethos: ‘Working in the studio makes students perceive the unity and the close relationship between human beings and nature. It helps them perceive and understand the substance, the colour and the space. It helps students exceed the limits of their perception beyond the entity designed and delimit it within architecture.’

Stanicky is an artist working from a wide material knowledge and extensive skill base. He allows himself the freedom to move between representational and abstract art, traditional and non traditional materials but always with academic rigor. His work has been widely exhibited in Europe and debuts in the UK this May at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland.

CLASS 2: Helen Maurer & Angela Moore

The Lie of the Land
30^th August to 4^th September. Cost: £650 (6 day class – includes course fees, materials and evening meals)

“Over the course of six days we’ll be looking at the relationship between images and objects, setting up a series of exercises using glass, light and the landscape to generate material. Expect to be projecting into fog, distorting the landscape though glass and working with the elements.  The emphasis will be on using low-fi production methods and experimentation.

Participants will need to bring their own camera and to both document experiments and produce images as the final outcome. There’ll be opportunities to collaborate within the group, to share skills and generate new ideas.  In our experience this has been surprising, taking us to unknown territories and now to the Highlands and beyond!”
This class is site specific open to glassmakers and artists of all media.

About Helen Maurer:
Helen Maurer’s early studies were in Visual and Performing Arts at Brighton University. Later she studied glass at Central St Martins School of Art and the Royal College of Art. She is represented by Danielle Arnaud gallery London and also works on site specific commissions. She collaborates with other artists, choreographers and musicians. Maurer was awarded the Jerwood Prize for Glass in 2003 for her unique approach to glass. “Where possible I like reconfiguring existing things, finding participants for the scenes that I create, almost like auditioning actors for parts, objects are brought in and out of my constructions. Ideas come from experimenting with materials, for example projecting light through objects to create shadows.” Her work often starts with a tableau of varying scale which is projected into static or moving image, defining the space it is placed in. Recently her work has been developed by filming the optical effects discovered during its construction and projecting this as part of the work.

About Angela Moore:
Angela Moore is a photographer known for her high profile campaign photography connected to the art and design world. Her work is used in magazines worldwide and includes highly innovative projects for Frieze Art Fair, Vitra, Kvadrat, SCP, Tord Boontje, the Design Museum and Modus. Her sensitive understanding of the contemporary image and culture has led to the current demand for her work. She has photographed cookbooks for Heston Blumenthal, Canteen and Nigel Slater and extensively for Swarovski’s Crystallized publication. Angela’s work has been exhibited in Thessaloniki Museum of Photography and Monat der Fotografie, Vienna. She studied design at Goldsmiths College of Art in London, the city in which she still lives and works.

Helen and Angela first worked together on a commission for the Pump House Gallery where they started their ‘Bad Magic’ project. They went on to create work for the Swarovski magazine, Crystallized, which involved visually interpreting the ‘Trends’ pages. They share an interest for illusory and distorted images, a quirky low-fi aesthetic and an interest in the effects of light and projection.

CLASS 3: Kristiina Uslar

Influences, Layers and Columns.
9^th September- 17^th September. Cost: £895 (9 day class – includes course fees, materials and evening meals)

Estonian artist Kristiina Uslar will lead a class focused on pâte de verre: “In my class I would like to teach how to make multilayered glass objects using the pâte de verre technique and to introduce different layer connections using columns. The result should be a combination of fragility, airiness and strength. The soul of the object should be influenced by its surrounding environment, individuals and emotions. Our surroundings shape the person inside us.

Glass – such a versatile and contradictory material – large and light, small and heavy, strong and frail, transparent and opaque. For me it is the most suitable mediator between wonderland and reality. Exploring this, participants will make their own works in pâte de verre. They will take inspiration from the area, its cultured scenery and nature.” For this class a basic understanding of mould making and kiln working in glass is necessary.

About Kristiina Uslar
Kristiina graduated from the Estonia Academy of Art in 2003 where she later taught in the glass department. She completed an MA in 2007 in which she focused on the construction of Roman cage cups, this open net structure is evident in her own works. Using pâte de verre she takes a historical process with qualities she describes as tender and fragile, and subverts them by making bold and decisive forms with an industrial reference; organic and mechanical at the same time.

“My intention and goal was not to restore the technique but to study and develop it toward artwork and through this to gradually unfold the variety of ways in which the technique can be innovated.” The unexpected transformation of material also takes us from the historical to the contemporary. Kristiina Uslar is a glass artist who, by reinventing a process, has brought new life to it. She describes glass as “the most suitable mediator between wonderland and reality.”

She lives and works in Estonia and has been exhibiting her work in Europe, the USA and Japan since 2001. Her work has been acknowledged in various glass awards and is held in many major collections.

CLASS 4: Richard William Wheater

Are You Experienced?
9^th September – 17^th September. Cost: £895 (9 day class – includes course fees, materials and evening meals)

“A Jimi Hendrix Album title? A prospective employer’s question?

A game changing challenge! Set by an artist to participants of a 9 day workshop.

Expect what was stationary to be on wheels. Expect the four walls of a studio to be cut like an umbilical cord. Expect adventures in hot glass and neon. Expect to fail, many times.”

This class will be a unique opportunity to work with Richard William Wheater to combine furnace glass and neon. Participants will work in the studio and in outdoor locations. Some experience in hot glass techniques is beneficial.

About Richard William Wheater:
Richard William Wheater gained notoriety for an ambitious project in 2008 titled ‘Them and Us’. Touring the UK with his mobile furnace he hot sculpted indigenous glass birds in their natural habitat, he then released them into the air in a ritualistic act, which both freed and destroyed them. An artist/performer committed to the act of making and the science of materials, his work is also ephemeral transitory art, involving place and people. It is always beautifully recorded. In recent years an in-depth study of neon has involved equally image and media aware events such as ‘12 months of neon love’, in which a highly visible neon bill board announced declarations of love, lines from popular songs which changed once a month. Other neon works made and put into action with groups of people aim to unite people with landscape as did his recent ‘Land to Sea’ project. Installations have been both site specific and gallery based. Wheater might start with making an object but it extends further.

As a communicator, designer and artist he wants clarity and accessibility in the medium. He is highly qualified in glass making, art and teaching. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art, Alfred University USA and the University of Sunderland. He lives in Wakefield, UK.

HOW TO APPLY
Master Class places are juried and places given by our selection panel.

To apply:
First send in your booking form. Click here to send your booking form
We will then contact you and ask you to send the following:

• A brief CV outlining your previous experience.
• A short statement (max 1 page A4) outlining the benefit of the Class to your artistic practice.
• 10 images of recent work, please include title, date made, dimensions and techniques used.

For more information email Grace at info@northlandsglass.com or call 01593 721 229

The Place and The Work

 

2014 International Conference and Master Classes.

The Place and The Work Conference will be held on Saturday 6, Sunday 7 September. Class sessions run 27 August – 4 September and 9 – 16 September. Making art works in relation to place is the focus of the North Lands Creative Glass Conference and Master Classes 2014; acknowledging how artists and their work connect to their surroundings, landscape, architecture, history and social context. We see more interactive public art, more artists responding to and working with communities. Artists are making works that respond to weather, nature or urban environments, to political discourse and social situations. It seems that some artists and public demand less autonomous disconnected sculpture favouring instead a more connected vision. We ask questions about what it means to experience remoteness, how this and being in a place away from home affect an artist’s work. What influences the particularities of a landscape can have and what it means to collaborate with artists in close proximity, to work intensively with no distractions and to embrace or reject the surroundings. What can happen when we go beyond our familiar studio environment and step outside into a bigger picture? What does it mean to be a glass specialist in this place, at this time? More details for the Classes and Conference programme will be announced shortly.

Photo credit: James Ross

Conference 2013. ‘The Real Thing: Beyond Stereotyping’

This year’s Conference will be held on Saturday 7, Sunday 8 September. It explores cultural identities and features Master Class leaders along with notable international speakers from the world of arts and culture.

What delegates from the 2012 Conference said:

‘Esoteric, informative, thought provoking…your whole program inspires creative thinking’ – Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend

‘Thoroughly enjoyed, highly informative and diverse lectures’ – Amanda Simmons

‘There was brilliant combination of speakers with diverse points of view’ – Jacqueline Poncelet

‘Each time I welcome the mix of speakers and particularly enjoyed the theme this year…the conference is very worthwhile and I find that the themes are relevant to me and that I gain a greater insight not only into what is happening in glass but in the wider art scene’ – Rose Watban

‘It is intellectually and artistically stimulating. Plus a great chance to network with other professionals and catch up with friends’ – Victoria Scholes

You can book your place through our website

Here is the full programme:

SATURDAY
9.15 Welcome, Opening Remarks
9.30 ‘Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World’ – Keynote Presentation.
Judy Rudoe FSA has worked at the British Museum since 1974, specialising in jewellery, together with 19th and 20th century decorative arts. This lecture, drawn from her latest book Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World, is the result of 30 years research, together with Charlotte Gere. Web resources produced a vast amount of totally unexpected information on jewellery with fish scales or live glow-worms or electrical batteries that enabled a death’s head to gnash its teeth and roll its eyes and why there was a craze for Colorado beetles in 1877. Queen Victoria’s own choice of jewellery was enormously influential, so what might seem a narrow subject acts as a key to our understanding of the Victorian age – its mourning rituals, its politics, its nationalism – all are embodied in its jewellery. Judy will focus on what jewellery meant to the people who wore it, in both public and private spheres, on the layers of meaning that jewellery could convey and on its function as a symbol of national identity, in particular the recreation of tradition in Scotland.
10.30 Morning Coffee
11.15 ‘Change and the Solitude of Detail’. Deborah Cocks (Master Class Leader) says: ‘As participants know, when a workshop begins there is a flurry of learning new techniques, acquiring new ideas and new friends. Then sometime, usually on day three, a quiet descends on the room as each of us works within our own space and thoughts; solitude within a group. It is a wonderful meditation where the new is added to the old. I think life is like this. We embrace or reject change, reflect on what has passed and retreat into the detail to make sense of it all. I hope what I make reflects this intricacy. I think this is where my talk will start.’
12.15 ‘Standing in the Maze’. Judy Tuwaletstiwa is a writer and a mixed media painter. Her paintings have been exhibited internationally and are part of numerous private, corporate and public collections. She says: ‘I grew up with immigrant Jewish grandparents in multi-cultural East Los Angeles. I lived many years in the woods of Northern California and on The Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona. I now live in New Mexico. In the elemental landscape of the vast southwestern desert, a thin membrane separates the daily world from the world of the unconscious. I shall talk about that world and how I use what we all share…personal memory, cultural memory, biological memory, ethnic memory, mythic memory…to create the vocabulary that forms my art. I shall also discuss how glass has become an essential part of that vocabulary during the past year as Exchange Artist with Bullseye Glass.’
13.15 Lunch
14.30 ‘A Future for Mali’s Past’. The typical mud brick architecture of the city of Djenné is highly important for the cultural identity of the local Malian people and also recognised as of worldwide importance by UNESCO. It is listed as a World Heritage Site. Thus Djenné is not only awarded the international status it deserves, but the preservation of its monumental architecture becomes a common responsibility. In order to preserve this vulnerable architecture, constant maintenance and restoration work is essential. In addition, it is important that local knowledge of mud brick construction is not lost, and that the local people are made aware of the significance of their unique heritage. The Museum of Ethnology and the Malian Ministry of Culture have been working together since 1996 on the restoration of the architectural heritage in Djenné. Through restoring this historical architecture and providing work for local masons, the future of this remarkable cultural heritage is ensured for both Malian and foreign visitors to Djenné. Dr. Annette Schmidt studied Prehistory at the University of Leiden. She led an international excavation in Dia (Mali) and since 2002 she has been Curator of Africa at the Museum of Ethnology, Leiden.
15.30 ‘Weaving glass’. Anne-Lise Riond Sibony (Master Class Leader) says: ’Deep down, my work is not about glass, it is about weaving. My threads are material and immaterial. They are, for instance, emotions, memories, paintings, colours, volumes and many techniques… I weave together these threads that are of fundamentally different natures. As my work proceeds, some get the upper hand and others fade out, but all contribute to the fabric of glass and of meaning from which my pieces are made.’
16.30 Tea at Waterlines Visitor Centre, Lybster Harbour
18.00 Exhibition Preview: ‘Made In Lybster’. An exhibition of new works from the North Lands Creative Glass Collection of Contemporary Glass.
20.00 Dinner and Conference Party

SUNDAY

9.15 ‘From Mantelpiece to White Cube, Progression or Circumstance?’ Richard Slee (Master Class Leader) says: ‘This presentation will trace the ambitions and circumstances during my now long creative career. During this time I have travelled from producing a mural in Macedonia to initiating an ornament amnesty art event at an art fair in Middlesbrough. Have I shaped my practice or has my practice shaped me? In an art world where diversity is celebrated is the specialist maker still special?’
10.15 Morning Coffee
10.45 ‘The Art of Modern Tapestry’. Since it was founded in 1912, with weavers from William Morris’s workshops, Edinburgh’s Dovecot Studios have produced tapestries and rugs ranging from traditional wall hangings to experimental textile art. Often these have been made in partnership with famous painters. The success of this collaboration between artist and weaver has varied throughout the century. An artist might expect a design or painting to be ‘simply’ translated into textile, by matching colours and echoing brushwork. At best, however, weaver and artist can together evolve a new work in which the spirit of the initial design enters a quite new and sometimes unanticipated, even magical, dimension. Curator and historian, Elizabeth Cumming, explores the nature of modern tapestry and that crucial artist-weaver relationship via a range of tapestries designed with British and American artists from Graham Sutherland to Louise Nevelson, Eduardo Paolozzi to Frank Stella.
11.45 Demonstrations in the Alastair Pilkington Studio
13.15 Lunch
14.30 ‘Recorded Influences’. Eeva Käsper (Master Class Leader) says: ‘The theme of influences has accompanied me for several years. By mapping the influences which guide and affect us, we can better recognize their impact to our creative work. For me glass is the material of endless possibilities. My works are based on personal experience and are influenced by intermediate states of consciousness that are as abstract as the form I have chosen to express them. Fascinated to discover and record the states of mind that have originated in an emotional memory, my works of glass often describe a fragile contemplative environment of perception.’
15.30 Summing-up by Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass, Corning Museum of Glass.
16.00 Concluding remarks

The 2013 Conference is sponsored by Corning Incorporated, USA & Bullseye Glass Co

Glass Skills Classes

We have new Classes for 2013:

LAMP WORKING
11 – 13 march
Cost: £300

Ian Pearson will lead a three day introduction to the art of lamp working (using gas/oxygen torches to blow, manipulate and join glass tube and rod).

Ian has been practicing the skill known as lampworking since 1961, and is an acknowledged master of the craft bringing a mix of outstanding technical knowledge and creative flair. For many years a scientific glass blower creating highly complex laboratory equipment, Ian now uses his blend of ancient craft and modern technology to make art objects and gifts at his studio Glass Creations in Thurso.
This class is suitable for all skill levels and abilities.

CONTEMPORARY GLASS PAINTING AND LAYERING
27 – 31 May
Cost: £550

Jeff Zimmer will lead a five day class about creating three dimensional images on glass using both traditional and photographic approaches.  The class will exploit the transparency of glass and layer techniques and images to collage and create a sense of space.  Hand painted enamels, photo-sensitive sandblast resists and printed transfers will be used.The experience will be enhanced through discussions and presentations. There will be discussion about how creating a 3-D image affects its content and our experience of it.

The course will be of interest to individuals looking to expand their practice into a new dimension.  Those with experience of image-making on glass will learn to see their work in a new way while those new to painting on glass will learn the both the basics of the craft and novel applications.

SCULPTURAL FLAMEWORKING TECHNIQUES
5 – 9 August
Cost: £550

Led by Carrie Fertig, this five day technical course will use the bench burner and hand torch to build skills for making sculpture in clear borosilicate glass. The course will cover general health and safety of the studio, torch, canisters of gas, and the flameworker, as well as building your own studio.

The course will teach use of the hand torch to enable larger-scale work. New assignments each day will build on and refine the previous skills learned. This course is suitable for all levels of experience.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY VIA OUR WEBSITE

For more information email grace.macbeath@northlandsglass.com

or call 01593 721 229

Hot Glass Residency Opportunity

HOT GLASS RESIDENCY: 1 April to 10 May 2013

Deadline: 16 November 2012

North Lands Creative Glass is offering a six week residency for four talented artists working in hot glass. We are looking for artists who have an interest in exploring new forms of making, or ways of working, through collaboration. The residency will offer the opportunity to create work and collaborate with other artists while also developing new techniques and ideas. This opportunity will allow you to enhance your own practice while working within a peer group to share and gain further skills. Artists-in-residence benefit from a comprehensive range of facilities in the Alastair Pilkington Studio.

The selection panel will make the residency awards by 14 December 2012

This residency is supported by Creative Scotland.
This opportunity is open to artists worldwide.

For more detailed information:
http://www.northlandsglass.com/whats-on/residencies
E-mail: info@northlandsglass.com
Telephone +44(0)1593 721229

2012 International Conference: Give and Take

There’s still time to join us for the North Lands Creative Glass 2012 International Conference. Taking place on Saturday 8, Sunday 9 September, the programme explores conceptual and stylistic exchanges over time, between different cultures and media.

You can still book a place through our website or email info@northlandsglass.com or call 01593 721229

We hope to see you there!

The full programme:

SATURDAY
9.15 Welcome, opening remarks
9.30 ‘Postmodernism’ – Keynote Presentation. Jane Pavitt is Head of the History of Design Programme and Dean of the School of Humanities at the Royal College of Art. Former Research Fellow at the V&A, she was responsible for many exhibitions. Her presentation will outline the thinking behind the V&A’s 2011 exhibition Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 in relation to ‘Give and Take’, the conference theme. Postmodernism was the first exhibition to explore the international impact of the style on art, design, architecture, film, video and performance.
Spanning a broad range of subject areas including fashion, craft, graphics, furniture and product design, the exhibition research aimed to uncover the histories behind the conception, making, dissemination and reception of postmodern artefacts and images. It explored the complex and often controversial debates within these design disciplines in the 1970s and 1980s. She will explain the research processes behind the exhibition, exploring postmodernism’s potential to foster interdisciplinarity, and the continuing legacy of postmodernism for design today.
10.30 Morning coffee
11.15 ‘Interventions in Nature’. Angela Jarman says: ‘ My work has always been influenced by the natural world, and the biological aspects within it. I’m trying to create pieces which have a sense of beauty, but which also have a quality about them which makes them slightly strange and disturbing, a lurking sense of unease, something uncomfortable, sinister.’ In her lecture Angela will offer an insight into her work, her sources of inspiration and her thoughts about glass as a material.
12.15 In a change to the advertised programme, Rupert Faulkner who is Senior Curator, Japan, in the Asian Department of the V&A will speak about the current V&A display ‘Kitty and the Bulldog: Lolita fashion and the influence of Britain’. The display explores the way in which British fashion – notably Victoriana, Punk and Gothic – has influenced the development of Japan’s ‘Lolita’ style, a cult fashion movement whose defining feature has been its preoccupation with cuteness, or ‘kawaii’. Rupert’s publications include Japanese Studio
Crafts: Tradition and the Avant-Garde (1995), with an exhibition of the same title. He is often a jury member at domestic and international ceramics competitions.
13.15 Lunch
14.30 ‘African Aesthetics: Beauty and Ugliness from Sub-Saharan Perspectives’. Ever since the early 20th century, when the European avant-garde started to show interest, African art has been increasingly appreciated in the West for its aesthetic qualities. But how do Africans themselves evaluate their artistic expressions? What counts as aesthetic quality in the eyes of the original producers and users of the masks and figures that have so fascinated the West? In this lecture we will be considering African conceptions of beauty and the ways these are realised in works of art.
Attention will be given to the relationship between aesthetics and ethics as well as to the religious function of beauty in African cultures. The discussion will also focus on the reverse of beauty, addressing the contexts in which intentionally ugly art forms function in traditional Sub-Saharan African societies. Wilfried van Damme teaches World Art Studies at Leiden Univerisity and African Art at Ghent Univeristy. He is an Extraordinary Professor at Tilburg University.
15.30 ‘Give and Take’. Jacqueline Poncelet will talk about the need to Give and Take in the context of public art commissions. She will give examples from the different projects she has undertaken over the last 14 years. No two projects have been the same. They have varied in every possible way from the size of the project, the materials, the context, the relationship to the commissioning parties and the time taken to complete each one. The only constant has been the need to Give and Take.
16.30 Tea and Lybster Harbour – for demonstrations of traditional skills and ‘Glass Games’ events
18.00 Opening of the Scottish Glass Society Exhibition.
20.00 Dinner and Conference Party

SUNDAY
9.15 ‘Fashion loves Art: A Passionate Affair’. Remember Yves Saint Laurent’s brightly coloured Mondriaan dresses of 1965 and the ‘OpArt’ mini dresses of the 1960s? They are vivid illustrations of the centuries-long love affair between fashion and art. Couturiers are past masters at capturing the contemporary ‘Zeitgeist’ in their designs, while artists have frequently used clothing as a way to give all-round expression to their aesthetic ideas. Madelief Hohé, Curator of the exhibition ‘Fashion loves Art: A Passionate Affair’, will explore some of the major themes in the show. From the 19th century, contemporary art has been strongly influencing fashion. She will discuss the reasons why that development has played so important a part in shaping identities and, specifically, how it is related to the increasing influence and freedom women now enjoy in society. Madelief Hohé is an art historian, author and curator of the Fashion and Costume Department at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in The Hague. There she has curated a number of exhibitions and has been responsible for the related publications.
10.15 Morning coffee
10.45 ‘Conceptual Mingling in the Space of Glass’. Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend says: ‘Painting and firing of glass is a very old craft usually associated with stained glass, religious architecture and a narrative tradition. What greater, relatively obscure field of historic convention to transgress! I have always been a painter dealing with the “space of glass” no matter what permutations the work has taken. My conceptual approach to painting on glass is a paradoxical one, a hybridization of unlikely methods, styles, and imagery that reflect on the complexities of life. There is the thought that at a certain point the contradictions portrayed in the work cease to be perceived as conflict and create a logic of their own. This presentation will reveal intention, sources and (probable) meaning in my glass constructions and paintings.’
11.45 ‘Glass Games’ events and demonstrations
13.15 Lunch
14.30 ‘I am in motion’. Paul Marioni says: ‘I have a surrealist’s attitude and work with the medium of glass for its distinct ability to capture and manipulate light to create an illusion. Most of my work has been figurative and about human nature: what we do, why we do it, how we ornament ourselves, our heroes, historical moments, humour, sexuality, exotic and/or lost cultures, and a constant questioning. My work is often and purposefully left open to interpretation. I don’t want to tell the viewer what to think, but rather cause them to think. Science is used to explain, I believe that art is meant to evoke and engage.’
15.30 Summing-up by Tina Oldknow.
15.45 ‘Glenfiddich’. Glenfiddich Distillery is a Speyside single malt whisky distillery owned by William Grant & Sons. Founded in 1886 by William Grant, whose ambition was to create the ‘best dram in the valley’, 120 years later the distillery is still owned and run by the fifth generation of the same family. Glenfiddich malt, in its distinctive triangular bottles, is sold in 180 countries worldwide. Since 1970, the Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards have honoured distinguished writing and broadcasting on food and drink in the UK and, from 2002, Glenfiddich has funded an international Artist-in-Residence programme with participants from all parts of the world. Bert Macor will discuss the distillery’s history and dedication to craftsmanship, concluding his talk with a tasting. Dutchman Bert Macor is the Senior Guide of the Glenfiddich visitor centre, and a passionate ambassador and connoisseur of malt whisky. He owned a wine and whisky shop in the Netherlands and has lived in Scotland since 2006.
16.30 Concluding remarks
The 2012 Conference is sponsored by Corning Incorporated, USA

Highland Inspiration

We were delighted to recently host two nine-day international symposia at North Lands Creative Glass. For North Lands it is wonderful to have the chance to host and work with instructors, artists and students with such great enthusiasm, motivation and dedication and we hope to see you all again very soon.

The first was a Student Symposium; ‘Highland Inspiration – Location and Self’ with students and instructors from three schools: The Alberta College of Art + Design, Calgary; the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY and the Montana State University School of Architecture, Bozeman. The students valued the input of the instructors enormously; Natali Rodrigues, Michael Rogers and Tad Bradley, along with Jane Bruce were kept extremely busy and everyone seemed to enjoy and gain a lot from their experiences.

The second was a Symposium for artists exploring ‘Highland Inspiration – Location & Perception’, led by Jane Bruce assisted by Lee Mathers. The artists were invited to focus on an experimental and open-minded approach to working and utilise drawing, model making, and the prototyping of forms, to test and question their ideas against the Caithness environment, the goal being to deepen and intensify current work or push it forward into new directions.

Both Symposia benefitted from local co-ordination for facilities and outings by our very own Joanna Garrett, better known as North Lands’ Master Class and Conference Co-ordinator.

Photographs by kind permission of Symposium participants Linda Norris and Rachel Elliott.

A little catch up post

Time seems to have escaped us and it’s been a while since the last blog post, so a little catch up is needed.

Since May we have seen our Artists in Residence depart to their distant homes, Michael Bullen, our Studio Technical Manager and talented artist has delivered a very successful Skills Class: Glass Painting Techniques and we are currently coming to the end of a nine-day International Student Symposium; ‘Highland Inspiration – Location and Self’ with Michael Rogers and Jane Bruce.  Students have come from The Alberta College of Art + Design, Calgary, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, and the Montana State University School of Architecture, Bozeman.

Mixed-media Artist Residency – call for applications

4 September – 23 November 2012

North Lands Creative Glass and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop are working in partnership to offer a nine-week residency for four visual artists. We are looking for two sculptors and two glass artists who have an interest in exploring new forms of making through collaboration. A high level of experience in hot casting processes either in metal or glass is preferable.

This residency is part of Creative Scotland’s Creative Futures programme

More information and application details on our website