Crafted Selves: The Unfinished Conversation
Curated by Cat Dunn and programmed by Fife Contemporary, the exhibition Crafted Selves: The Unfinished Conversation …
Tag: contemporary craft
Crafted Selves: Curator Tours
Curator Cat Dunn speaks with artists from Crafted Selves: The Unfinished Conversation on the day of its opening at St Andrews Museum, Saturday 14 October 2024.
Join one of two tours through the exhibition on the day, with Curator Cat Dunn speaking with artists Ashanti Harris at 2pm, and Joy Baek at 3pm. Hear the artists discuss their work in-person; what drives their craft, and how does it reflect their dual-identity as artists working in Scotland today?
Ashanti Harris is a visual artist, teacher and researcher. Her work includes dance, performance and installation and focuses on the social implications of the movements of people across cultural and historical borders.
Joy Baek is a Korean artist based in Glasgow. She uses her ceramic and metal-work installations to elevate the voices of marginalised women in Scottish and Korean society.
The exhibition Crafted Selves: The Unfinished Conversation takes its title from a continuing discourse between curator Cat Dunn and the 13 Scotland based artists featured. Working in sculpture, painting, ceramics, textiles, installation, moving image films and creative writing responses, the artists all in some way carry a dual identity. Many have a sense of their own self born from having a cultural heritage which is both Scottish and one which is rooted in another cultural home. The exhibition also explores other dualisms and expressions of identity, including artists who express their sexuality, disability, or trans and non-binary selves through their work.
Saturday 14th October 2024, 2pm or 3pm
Free | Suitable for ages
St Andrews Museum
KY16 9DP
Header image: Ashanti Harris, Emi Ori Cse in Copper. Photo by Matthew Arthur Williams
What a Whirlwind!
It has been an extraordinary time for Fife Contemporary.
Sitting in my home office after the remains of a thunderstorm, breaking a period of unprecedented hot and dry weather across Fife and the whole country, this seems a good time to be taking a short break, and allowing a bit of time to reflect on my first four months at the helm of Fife Contemporary.
Can it really only be four full months? Well, yes it can, but it feels that even by the standards of Fife Contemporary’s unusual history this has been a fairly unique time for the organisation. With the retirement of Diana Sykes, leaving after 34 years, having seen the organisation through its many changes and incarnations. This is a time to look back and celebrate, but also a time to renew, welcome some exciting and energising new team members, and look to the future.
Having lived in Scotland since 2010, I had only known and worked with Fife Contemporary through its current incarnation – as an organisation operating independent of a venue, and collaborating with artists and partners across Fife to deliver a rich variety of visual art and craft programming.
You can see from Diana Sykes’ last blog post for this website that she has left quite a legacy: steering the organisation through existential challenges, since the closure of the Crawford Arts Centre in St Andrews in 2006, by embracing new directions and maintaining a reputation for high quality art and craft programming which has impact far beyond the borders of Fife.
Like many who have admired the work of Diana and her team over the years, I have always seen Fife Contemporary as something quite extra-ordinary, achieving impact significantly above its size and beyond the borders of its location. So, no pressure then….
Where to start?
Time to take a deep breath. When I joined at Easter, I already knew I couldn’t take this as a slow start and gradually get a feel for the organisation’s nuances and current activities. Too many things were already changing! Fife Contemporary was about to see another longstanding and invaluable team member, Susan Davis, retire, and the organisation’s offices where still closed due to ongoing refurbishment, meaning everyone on the team is still having to work remotely.
Yet the ambitions for the organisation to develop an updated website to continue as our ‘virtual venue’, to reinvigorate projects which had needed to pause due to Covid, and to build a new programme of exhibitions and off-site activities remain pressing. So I have dived straight into a process of recruitment and we are hugely lucky to have recruited some great new team members, whose energies will help Fife Contemporary achieve its future goals.
We have also found an exciting new partner in St Andrews Botanic Garden, who have generously offered some office space to share, giving us a base for a few days per week to work in person. These feel like the ground is well prepared for us to plant some new creative seeds as well as tend the projects we are already running.
The most important people…
But the most important part of the community which makes Fife Contemporary such a vibrant organisation to work for, is the art and artists who we work with. It has therefore been one of the greatest pleasures of the first four months to be able to connect with, and meet as many different Fife-based artists and makers as I can. This has all been part of a project to reconnect with Fife’s creative community, and find out what help artists across the region need to assist their creative and professional recovery in the post-pandemic world.
This project was the brain-child of our brilliant Artist Development Officer, Stef Cheong and has been supported by Creative Scotland and managed through the talents of textile artist Claire Heminsley. There is still a chance to get in touch with us to have your voice heard as part of this project.
Along with artists, another vital part of our creative eco-system are the independent curators who we have employed over the years to deliver our exhibitions’ programming and off-site projects. It was great to meet with Mella Shaw, the fantastic curator who produced REsolve, our exhibition at Kirkcaldy Galleries which closed in May. This involved the delivery of our trusty tool and packing kits to the gallery ahead of the de-rig, and a chance to meet the OnFife team based at this great gallery space.
Coincidentally, a report written by Stacey Hunter and commissioned by Craft Scotland shows how important the work of independent curators are for the craft sector as well as for visual art. The lack of pathways to developing curatorial careers that it highlighted is something I am keen to address in our future programme. There will be an opportunity to learn about developing a career curating craft as part of our future continuing professional development programme for artists, as well as in our programmes for young people being developed this autumn. In the meantime sign up for our talk with invited guest, and jeweller turned curator and researcher, Cat Dunn, in October. Cat has been a joy already to work with and an inspiration to talk to: expect more announcements for our work together soon.
Partnerships…
Producing programmes with partner venues and organisations allows our work to be seen and engaged with by many people who are not regular gallery or museum visitors. Popping down to the beach in Kinghorn I was able to see a workshop led by Annie Lord for Kinghorn Ecology Centre, and it was fantastic to experience the work of Seb Chaloner and Lesley Acheson at the Falkland Estate, still looking great and attracting attention one year on.
The next generation…
As well as the practising artists working across Fife, one of the great excitements of this role is supporting Fife Contemporary’s work helping invest in and support the next generation of artists. With the support of the Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust, our Summer School is helping talented teenagers across Fife to learn directly from artists about the work they make, the creative process and the experience of going to art school.
Talking about art school… wasn’t it great to see degree shows at DJCAD, ECA and GSA all present ‘real’ exhibitions again? We all had the chance to see graduate work in person again, and for me, working with Stef Cheong to select candidates for our Materialise programme has been another highlight of my work so far.
Materialise offers the chance of ongoing development, platforming and networking for the next generation of graduating artists and makers. This year’s cohort will be announced soon and you can see online showcases for past graduates here.
So much more…
Revisiting our Trail of Thought at the Falkland Estate and connecting with the innovative work of the Botanic Garden in St Andrews, is inspirational for so much of our future programme. Coming out of a period of quite unprecedented weather, my upcoming focus will include renewing our Environmental Strategy and our Artists’ Environmental Sharespace. And increasing access and diversity in our programme, affording the pleasure of connecting to our equalities’ partners at Fife Equalities’ Forum, and Fife Centre for Equalities, and Pink Saltire amongst others. Oh… and feeding this all into developing our next five-year plan!
Fife Contemporary is already keeping me on my toes, yet it already feels like home – onwards and upwards!
Posted in Fife Contemporary Blog
Nexus
We’ve had much anticipation with Nexus, waiting for the many pieces of work to arrive from the 20 participating artists. None disappointed and will benefit from multiple visits to Kirkcaldy Galleries to look closely and enjoy the details!
Rajesh Gogna, ‘Architect #4’ and ‘Architect #6’
An interesting point is that approximately half the artists made an item (or items) of new work for the show – something that we hadn’t initially expected. Look out, for example, for Jane Adam‘s Blue Albert Mobile; Michael Brennand-Wood‘s ‘Thoughtform – Rhythm is a Dancer’; Rajesh Gogna‘s ‘Architect #6’ (and altered ‘Architect #4’); Janet Haigh‘s ‘Patchwork’; Zoë Hillyard‘s ‘Moon Shadow Vase’ and ‘Kiln Cracked Series – Katharina’s Bowl’; Genevieve Howard‘s ‘Autumn in Paris necklace and bracelet’; Ruth Leslie‘s ‘Heddle pendant’ and ‘Heald brooch’; Lynne MacLachlan‘s ‘Double Cone Arm Piece (yellow-red)’, ‘Spiral Arm Piece (blue gradient)’, and ‘Oloid Arm Piece (blue-pink)’ – all supported by an Inches Carr Trust Craft Bursary, and premièred in Nexus; Romilly Saumarez Smith‘s entire selection of work, all newly made for Nexus; and Adi Toch‘s ‘Red Sand Bowl’ and ‘Dimple Bowl’. In addition to these, Anna Lorenz and Jacky Puzey both remade work to include in the show.
We are immensely grateful to all the artists taking part in Nexus for loaning us such incredible work and are sure that visitors will find a huge amount to look and be amazed at. Our partner organisation, Ruthin Craft Centre in North Wales, will be looking forward greatly to receiving the exhibition later in 2018!
For an artist’s perspective on Nexus, click on this link to Janet Haigh’s blog post in which she succinctly and very insightedly gives her views of the work. She makes very perceptive links between different artist’s work, and if you’d like to read about how much painstaking effort (and agony!) goes into producing many pieces of artwork, read her post of how ‘Patchwork’ came about.
Zoë Hillyard, ‘Moon Shadow Vase’
Janet Haigh’s ‘Patchwork’
Posted in Fife Contemporary Blog
A/W 2015 treat Store range online shortly!
Here’s a wee pic of some of our gorgeous new craft items, just about to go live on treat Store!
Join us at Iain Burnett Highland Chocolatier (145 South Street, St Andrews) on Friday 27 November between 5.30 and 7.30pm to launch the new range properly!
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Treat – only one more day
Hard to believe there is only one more day left of FCA&C’s first pop-up shop.
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We're open!
Yes, the doors opened this morning on FCA&C’s first pop-up shop and it was lovely to see so many interested visitors (and customers!) on our first day. Lots of oohs and aahs too!
Continue reading “We're open!”
Posted in Fife Contemporary Blog
Treat – ready to go!
As the clock struck 5pm we realised we were ready! There was nothing left lying on the floor in boxes, no extraneous packaging to be seen anywhere in fact. Even the clutter round the desk was de-cluttered! Amazing – FCA&C’s first pop-up shop ready to do business.
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Treat set up – day 2
Another hot and busy day on the first floor of J & G Innes. I think all the visitors we’ve had today have commented on what a lovely space it is – and indeed it is! Unpacking has been going apace, in tandem with pricing – this is really the exciting time, seeing everything coming out of its packaging and trying to put it all somewhere that shows it off to its best advantage. I think there will be more of the same tomorrow…
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