Inverclyde Culture Collective Questions Of Democracy: Craig McCorquodale

Our political culture increasingly moves in a direction that appears deeply deleterious to the democratic process. Things that once shocked us now appear commonplace. Attempts to smear marginalised groups, elevate so-called ‘wedge issues’ or perpetuate disinformation and moral panic. Consider the hysteria around drag queens reading stories to children. It is no mistake that these campaigns are being waged in libraries. Globally, it’s consistent with a concerted attack on intellectual freedom, the culling of books from school reading lists and the suppression of children’s rights. The first thing that fascists do is burn the books. They know that libraries set us free.

Approaching the residency invitation, I am interested in observing this moment through language and the relationship between words and power. Working across all Inverclyde library sites, I will assemble a group of local linguists, readers, wordsmiths, word collectors and bookworms to embark on a multiform process inspired by the French literary movement, Oulipo — characterised by imposing constraints or arbitrary rules upon the artistic process. Or, as the Oupipians would say: rats who build a labyrinth from which they can escape. I’m looking forward to working in a way that is site and social-responsive, making artwork along the way with many people.

The process will culminate in a 24 hour performance event on the last day of August, where a cast of local people annotate Inverclyde with a series of words, phrases or statements. For each hour of a whole day, including all the way through the night, words will appear on billboards, on the ground, on flags, on the radio, out of speakers, on public buildings or monuments — from Tower Hill to Gourock Pool — in an epic experiment around democracy, libraries and language

About Craig McCorquodale

Craig McCorquodale is an artist working across a range of forms, but mainly performance. He thinks of performance as a kind of combat sport — vivid, capricious, bound up in spectacle. This means a distinct understanding that art allows people to transcend their everyday selves. That we can come into contact with the miraculous. He has particular interest in collaborating with people who might never have done anything like this before. He has made work in theatres, galleries, nature reserves, churches, building sites and rooftops with embalmers, eight-year-olds, teenagers, a 100-year-old, butterflies, construction workers and the men in his family. He positions his work within a canon of artists working with expanded social practice in contemporary art — with its dialogue, risk and beauty. The images that ask us to recognise our own humanity in the struggle of another. As such, Craig’s work searches for social sculpture and presents each body’s ability to be multiple, ordinary and ecstatic. In 2021, Craig was awarded the Jerwood Arts Live Work Fund and is currently being supported by Battersea Arts Centre and Tramway in the development of new work. In recent years, he has worked with National Theatre of Scotland, British Council, La Teatrería and presented Commissions at Wunder der Prärie Festival at Zeitraumexit, Lyra/Craigmillar Now and Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto. He has worked with Quarantine, Mammalian Diving Reflex, 21Common and has toured internationally to a range of places, including Ghent, Zürich, Milan, Chicago, Brighton, Australia and New Zealand

Inverclyde Culture Collective Re-imagining The High Street Residency: Amy Kim Grogan

Through the "Re-Imagining The High Street" residency Amy will be considering ideas of alternative economies, notions of exchange and ideas of the "public" within art.This will be done through the utilisation of the construction and mirroring of the cycle of a shop stores life and its stages running from its opening to eventual closure.Amy will be inviting local community groups and members of the public to participate in a range of workshops as well as extending invitations for the programming and usage of window space and display.\

About Amy Kim Grogan.

My name is Amy Kim Grogan, I am a Scottish sculptor that just recently graduated from the MFA programme at the Glasgow School of Art. Prior to my MFA I gained a BA(hons) in Sculpture and Environmental Art from the Glasgow School of Art in 2017. My work regularly stems from disrupting and/or emphasising overlooked objects and acts – all arise from a fundamental interest or an occasional discomfort on my behalf. I relay my curiosity through increased scale, multiples and material. Collectively, all pieces exert absurdity and often humour.

During my Masters the majority of my research and creation focused on Public Art. This new method of placement began due to an artistic conflict that took place within my practice over recent years. The closure of galleries, the lack of interaction and the restriction of practical facilities demanded a re-evaluation of my sculptural practice. I spent the last year exploring spaces out-with the conventional gallery space; miniature galleries, online platforms and virtual exhibitions. None fully satisfied my appetite. I still craved a conventional experience without the conventional space.

Inverclyde Culture Collective: Beacon Arts Centre Performance Residency 2023: Althea Young

This residency will be used to research and develop a new production for children and young people with complex support needs which aims to tour in schools and community spaces. Situated in a giant nest, the work explores the curious world of magpies (scientific name; Pica Pica) and their desire to investigate and mirror their surroundings, collecting shiny things along the way. 

The magpie carries a bad reputation with the superstitious in Scotland, thought to bring bad luck. Here we follow a lonely magpie, eager to be liked. Pica Pica will explore a story about the ways we long to defy stereotypes and be seen for who we really are. This research and development will focus largely on inclusive and eco-friendly design, accessible modes of story-telling and participatory performance practices.

About Althea Young

Althea is a performance maker and facilitator working in the intersections of contemporary performance, choreography and theatre. She graduated from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a first degree in Contemporary Performance Practice, winning The Avrom Greenbaum Player’s Award for Direction. A large portion of her work is made with and for children. She co-created Cumbernauld Theatre’s 2022 Winter show for young children and babies Life of the Party and has just attended Aprilfestival in Ebeltoft, Denmark as a delegate with Imaginate. 

Althea has been lead artist on Cumbernauld Theatre’s youth theatre and ASN groups, and has also worked with company 21 Common making performance in schools. Her work is particularly concerned with accessibility in both ASN and medical contexts, where she facilitates dance and performance oriented projects. Outside of her work for young audiences, Althea makes choreographic text based performance focussed on themes of global crisis, inequality, grief and joy. When she is not making performance Althea is a writer focussing primarily on performance and climate crisis.

for more information about Althea Young please visit: https://theworkroom.org.uk/members/althea-young/

Inverclyde Culture Collective: Beacon Arts Centre Performance Residency 2023: Sally Charlton

Sally is working with a group of pre-teens on a performance project based around fame. As part of Sally’s research, she’s interested in working with young people who have a desire to be famous and/or have a specific idol they obsess over. The process will interrogate where the desire for fame comes from and why we connect so deeply to our idols.

Desire for fame is often interrogated by psychologists around the world as rooted in low self-esteem, narcissism and neglect. But Sally’s work seeks to unpack a more nuanced view of this, one that questions whether some of the drive for fame is underpinned by completely understandable desires for children; a desire to live an extraordinary life, to feel important, to be good at something, to be loved, to be seen. Is that all so bad?

About Sally Charlton

Sally Charlton is a Glasgow-based artist and researcher working with live performance, <ilm and participatory performance. She is a graduate of the Contemporary Performance Practice BA at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Sally often uses autobiography as a starting place, paralleling personal and global timelines and using the physical body to connect with wider political and cultural landscapes. She feels that viewing your own life against its political backdrop permits clearer understanding of both the self and the wider world.

In her participatory practice, she’s interested in how the bringing together of people’s experiences provides a gateway to understanding the modern world. Her work focuses on <inding a universality in the human experience, both for her audiences and participants. Through liveness, Sally sets out to create fertile communities in the face of violence and rampant individualism.

For more information about Sally Charlton please visit: https://www.sallycharlton.org/

Artist Development Bursaries 2023/ A Tree With Many Leaves : Ieva Grigelionyte

A tree with many leaves is a residency project dedicated to the themes of loneliness, isolation and desire for companionship that can accompany motherhood. Emerging from her recent experience of giving birth to and caring for a son, which resulted in many hours spent looking longingly through her bedroom window at a bay tree, Ieva will be stitching together a tablecloth from bay leaves, which she will then use to host a gathering of mothers as a culmination of her residency. The project draws attention to domestic symbols such as tablecloths and bay leaves that speak to the simple wholesomeness and comfort of our living spaces but which at the times of early motherhood can feel out of reach. Bay leaf wreaths from ancient times have signified occasions of triumph and victory. However this project will shift the focus towards the process of making the ‘wreath’ and the maker herself, creating new meanings behind the more commonly known symbolism of the bay leaf

Ieva Grigelionyte is an interdisciplinary artist currently living and working on the West coast of Scotland. Using diverse media, such as sculpture, food, design and participatory performance, Ieva creates site-specific work which investigates land and reimagines its landscapes in sensory forms. The outcome of her work is often a multisensory food sharing, offering emergent rituals to be completed by participants with their presence and involvement. Ieva is intrigued by the meal as a complete social phenomenon which links nature, culture and the human body. To unfold these ideas further Ieva employs taste as an artistic medium and has a long experience of experimenting with ice cream, which she infuses with weeds and other plants to recreate textures and flavours inspired by the landscape and other unexpected concepts. With her work Ieva seeks to connect people to their immediate surroundings by opening their eyes (and mouths) to flavours and produce that grows invisible and unloved all around us.

For more information about Ieva please visit https://object-choreography.co.uk/

Artist Development Bursaries 2023: Stella Rooney

Using the medium of analogue moving image and audio recording, I will examine the experience of deindustrialisation and the changing nature of work within Inverclyde. I will research archive material, with the hope of drawing upon local resources such as the McLean Museum, to uncover sites of interest within Inverclyde. I will also gather my own research material through reflective conversations with local people. A potential area of interest is the tech sector, particularly IBM as a former mass employer in the Inverclyde area.I intend to research sites of former industrial significance within Inverclyde, using my Super 8 camera as a lens to record and reflect upon their standing today. I will also use audio recording equipment to record my conversations with local people, inviting reflection on personal and collective memories of industry.

About Stella Rooney

Stella Rooney is an artist and organiser living in Glasgow. Working across photography and moving image, her practice is a point of engagement with collective histories. Her process involves considered research in tandem with the production of new material through interviews and image-making.  Stella is interested in exploring the physicality of film through experimentation with analogue and hand processed production methods. This process lends itself to a handmade form of filmmaking informed by taking care towards both the film and the subjects.  Stella invites discussion on personal and collective memories of labour. Aiming to provoke conversations which do not dwell on nostalgia, but instead use local histories as a basis for meaningful reflection and learning. Through understanding past struggles, she situates the politics of today within a historical context, aiming to identify past, present and future points of solidarity. 

For more information on Stella and her work please visit https://www.stellarooney.com/

'AI' - Africans in Inverclyde - Artist Residency

During the residency Jideofor Muotune, aka Theafrowegian, will produce photographic and audio/visual content based on the stories of Africans in the past, present and imagining their future in Inverclyde. The content will be presented through interactive and immersive exhibits at venues tbc. which may include the Watt Institute, Beacon Arts Centre, Rig Arts and James Watt Marina. The content will engage African or African diasporic communities in Inverclyde with a focus on building digital capacity around 'authentic storytelling'. The residency will have the added output of encouraging nuanced inclusive debate around the legacies of slavery in Inverclyde.

ABOUT JIDEOFOR MUOTUNE

Jideofor Muotune is a black man, and his pronouns are he/him. Born in Lagos, Nigeria and brought up in Glasgow, he is fiercely proud of his dual identities. He is a multi–platform content creator producing radio feature and drama, podcasts, music, and short form video. He cares deeply about the arts and believes that cultural experiences are crucial to the well-being of individuals and communities. He has an inclusive, multicultural, multi-generational approach to all the content he creates. As an independent creative producer, Jideofor has recently launched a platform The Afrowegian with the aim to use different art forms to encourage nuanced debate about race in culture in Scotland. 

Jideofor’s artistic background is in music. He co- founded Scotland’s most successful independent dance label Soma Records, co-writing and co-producing Slam’s landmark release Positive Education. He was also part of the team that discovered Daft Punk. 

He is passionate about equality, diversity and inclusion and believes that ‘You can’t be it, if you can’t see it’. 

He is developing an immersive, interactive, multi-platform storytelling practise after a successful artist residency at The National Theatre for Scotland, developing a piece around one of the UK's first black politician's - Bernie Grant - and his request for the return of looted Benin Bronzes held in Glasgow's museums.   

Inverclyde Culture Collective and Inverclyde Cares No One Grieves Alone Residencies: Laura Bradshaw and Steven Anderson

Researching the ways grief, loss and legacy live alongside us in an everyday way is the fundamental exploration of this residency. With a renewed focus on the objects, mannerisms, movements, stories, turns of phrase left to us by those we have lost can bring an awareness of our connectedness to our lineage and ancestry. Through this residency Laura Bradshaw and Steven Anderson ask how might these legacies support our sense of identity, wellbeing, and our place in the wider community?

Building on their individual work with grief and ancestry this project sets out to make a collaborative performance at the intersection of their individual practices.

In this residency the artists are working individually to gather their personal inheritances then deepening understanding of these through collaborative working, with a purpose of amplifying the often overlooked points of connection we have to a loved one.

Laura and Steven will present a new performance work as part of the No one Grieves Alone Programme.

About Laura and Steven

Laura Bradshaw is a mother-artist working within performance, movement and dance under the name Scrimshaw Projects. Working with the autobiography of the body, intuitive movement and practices of embodiment Laura makes performance works for theatre and dance spaces, galleries, healthcare contexts and outdoor spaces. She develops creative movement processes which invite a connection to the living, present body in relationship with other and environment.

Current projects by Scrimshaw Projects include the development of A Telling – a ritual dance/ storytelling performance exploring pregnancy and loss, the development of a series of works that think about the role of carer creatively and choreographically; and Machinery’s Handbook, a performance based on instructions for machinery translated onto a company of intergenerational performers,

Laura graduated from BA (hons) Contemporary Theatre Practice at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and MA Dance and Somatic Wellbeing at University of Central Lancashire.

Steven Anderson makes site specific collaborative art projects that bring together visual art and performance approaches within gallery and healthcare contexts. Exploring the potential of idiosyncratic behaviours within institutional environments, he has developed projects with organisations including the Anatomical Museum Edinburgh, Talbot Rice Gallery, Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Steven was awarded a contract by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in 2019 for which he created Live Arts in Public, an innovative programme of live performances in hospitals across Glasgow and Paisley.

Steven graduated from Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art and the MFA at DJCAD Dundee

www.scrimshawprojects.org

www.stevenanderson.info

Inverclyde Culture Collective and Rig Arts OPEN STUDIO’S Residency: Alice Dansey-Wright

Alice Dansey-Wright is a visual artist and designer with an interdisciplinary practice. She uses drawing as a thinking and figuring out process and she does this in an intuitive, abstract and symbolic way. She is fascinated by playing with scale, illusion and trompe l’oeil and applies her work to mural painting, textiles, set design, ceramics, jewellery and most recently 3D model making.

She has worked in the community and participatory arts sector for over ten years and she regards collaboration and co-design as central to her practice.

Alice will begin her residency working in collaboration with young people on OPEN STUDIO'S to explore idea's of scale, model making, scenography and the possibilities and potentials of "studio practice". She will also be looking to connect with the broader Inverclyde Culture Collective partners as a way to view and practically explore these themes in a variety of ways.

You can find more about Alice's practice via the following
www.alicemakes.com

Inverclyde Culture Collective: “Exploring Health, Illness, Disability and Long term Conditions” With Health Improvement Inverclyde: Aniela Piasecka

Aniela's residency situates itself within the Creative Practice in Health and Social Care strand we have been developing across the last two years. Through the residency "Exploring Health , Illness, disability and long term Conditions" they will seek to begin their research through considering understandings of chronic pain. Working also with participants and health professionals to consider ways of listening to and articulating different experiences of bodies in Flux.

About Aniela

Aniela's practice spans dance for galleries, film, digital technologies, unconventional performance spaces and theatres; it also includes facilitation and teaching and is nearly always collaborative. Using the notion of psychogeography as a point of departure, works often delve into the relationality between bodies and the space/s they occupy.

"My understanding of performance is shaped by being an artist with a chronic illness which manifests as pain and fatigue. Increasingly I create to understand this reality, to process and articulate the experiences of a body in flux. I am invested in work that can assist the body and encourage human connection and have been researching methods for supporting bodies that aim to take into account pain as a facet of existence, working with it rather than against it."

For further information about Aniela:
https://theworkroom.org.uk/members/aniela-piasecka/

Inverclyde Culture Collective: Galoshans 2022 Artists: Jideofor Muotune

As part of Galoshans 2022 Jideofor Muotune presents a Greenock version of The Galoshans Play, projected onto the walls of the Beacon Arts Centre.

All the characters have been adapted to feature black, brown or mixed race people living, working or with strong links to Inverclyde. The adaptation has been devised through community consultation.

Further Information on Jideofor and their practice can be found

theafrowegian.org

Image Credit: Theo Drew Amechi Muotune

Inverclyde Culture Collective: Community Practice Residency on Grieve Road Inverclyde

Introducing Ben Vardi, who will be taking up one of three community practices residencies on Grieve Road. He will be creating a participatory framework to allow local people, organisations and initiatives such as Grieve Road pantry to contribute towards a local podcast he will curate.

About Ben
A half Chilean, half Scottish DJ Producer based in Glasgow. His sound is a blend of Latin sounds. Afro. Global bass and dancehall.
Focused on bringing high energy. uplifting sets while his productions seek to push the boundaries of genres and make
connections between cultures. In 2022 he's focused on working with leading Salsa musicians. Scottish & Mexican vocalists to create some never heard before combinations.
Recent appearances include Havana. Mexico City & the Scottish festival circuit
Hot off the back of an extended trip to Mexico in early 2022. he's got a fresh bag of records straight from the tropics.

The message is unity.

music is the weapon.

Strictly heaters

Inverclyde Culture Collective: Outdoor Arts with Clyde Muirshields Regional Park: Irene Evison

Irene will be creating a participatory woven tapestry installation, drawing inspiration from the industrial heritage of Gourock and Port Glasgow, and the natural heritage of the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park. The artwork will be created over the course of the residency, inviting local community members and passers-by to get involved in the weaving. Its materials will be natural resources: wood, wool, hemp.

About Irene Evison
I am a tapestry weaver. Inspired by the natural world, one of my favourite things is sitting somewhere outdoors ‘weaving the view’, distilling key elements of what I see to create a tapestry in just a few hours. When I look at the tapestry afterwards, I’m reminded of the birdsong, breeze and sense of wellbeing that I experienced while I was weaving. My creative practice also includes much more in-depth studio-designed pieces, each the product of many hours, days and weeks of planning and weaving. I exhibit and sell my work locally, regionally and nationally. I love inspiring other people to be creative through the medium of tapestry weaving, often through participatory outdoor weaving experiences, but also through workshops, community projects, online networks and projects. I’m based in the Scottish Highlands, where the landscape and nature around me provide rich material for my work. I am a keen trail runner, using the time outdoors to mull over tapestry designs, ponder weaving problems and gain inspiration for future work. With a colleague, I run Nearly Wild Weaving, and I’m involved with the British Tapestry Group committee and the editorial team for Tapestry Weaver magazine.

https://nearlywildweaving.wordpress.com

Inverclyde Culture Collective: HSCP and Creative Practice Residencies:

IFIT Criminal Justice and Throughcare: Sian Yeshe

Sian Yeshe, who will be taking up residence with "IFIT Inverclyde" a criminal justice and throughcare organisation. Her residency is part of a series of projects born from conversations with Health and Social Care Partners exploring the relationship between these contexts and creative practice. Sian will be working with individuals and workers within IFIT, utilising film and moving image to consider the thematic space of the two month period of re-entry into communities within Inverclyde.

Sian Yeshe is an emerging artist from and based in South West Scotland. Sian explores people based narratives through a practice founded in documentary film and installation. Using visual and audio narratives she facilitates the communication of issues faced in often underrepresented communities. Wishing her work to be approachable she rarely shows in gallery’s, preferring to create physical installations in situ and release work digitally. It is her hope that her work can not only uplift the communities she engages with but also shine light on the diversity of life within these communities

www.sianyeshe.com
@sianyeshe_visual

Inverclyde Culture Collective: Community Practice Residency with Barnardo’s Inverclyde : Amy Bruning

Amy Bruning is Inverclyde Culture Collectives Artist In Residence working with Barnardo’s Inverclyde to explore the connection between participatory art, animation and trauma informed environments as part of our community practices residencies. As an artist Amys work focuses on themes of healing and cathartic art methods. She is a mixed media artist who specialises in animation and painting. She also designs jewellery, homewares and textiles. Amy's work has a distinct colour palette of various pinks. Her work is layered, tactile and playful. She creates paintings, animations and installations that evoke comfort and warmth in her audience. She graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art in 2018. Her work has been featured in Vogue Italia, The London International Animation Festival, The World Animation Festival Varna, and several other festivals. Her work has also been featured in several collectives, publications, and exhibitions.

Instagram @amybruningartist

Website https://www.amybruninganimation.com

Inverclyde Culture Collective: Outdoor Arts with Clyde Muirshields Regional Park: Noel Griffin

“In my multidisciplinary, practise, I examine our complex relationship between nature, humanity and technology. My work considers the entanglement of natural systems with the creation of human history and progress. My work is always a result of a period of research into a broad range of topics, where I establish connections with seemingly unrelated narratives. Through dissecting and re-contextualising this research, I aim to imagine new futures and experiences of our place in the world. I am interested in finding a state of inbetweenness in the work, which often exists between two opposites, whether that be between the natural and synthetic, the original and copy, growth and decay, past and future or truth and fiction. My work takes on diverse forms, such as living systems, objects, films and technologies.Traditional forms of making such as casting and mould making and printmaking are combined with contemporary digital fabrication, scientific experiments and natural transformations. I set up systems or conditions for the work to exist and leave the work to play out itself, transforming, mutating and evolving over time.”

My project will explore the story of Clyde Muirshiel’s past, present and future, through research into its natural history and its entanglement with human activity. I will particularly focus on the Rhododendron Ponticum, a non-native alien species which is of great threat to the biodiversity of the park. During the residency, I will generate a series of prints of the Rhododendron Ponticum using a largely forgotten 19th century process known as the Woodburytype. As part of this project, I will research The Watt Institution’s vast collection of Herbaria, many of which have been collected on the site of the park.

Website: www.noel-griffin.com

Instagram: @noel_griffin

Inverclyde Culture Collective: HSCP and Creative Practice Researcher: Samantha Macgregor

Born in Scotland, Samantha Macgregor originally trained as an architect, which led to her studying as an apprentice at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. That experience has informed her views on organic architecture giving her a lifelong appreciation for the environment, which can still be found today in her work around climate change and eco based art practices. She would describe her arts practice predominately as participatory in nature and informed by a “learn by doing”, approach. With over twenty years of working with the arts with community groups of all ages and abilities, she has a wealth of experience to draw from which informs her approach to devising workshop. For several years she worked as in arts development and creative learning, gaining an understanding of strategy and partnership working. Since 2017, she has worked as a freelance artist and workshop facilitator and most recently she has trained as an arts psychotherapist and is hoping her work continues to explore participatory arts within communities, with a particular view to improve the mental health and the well-being of participants.

As an artist and art therapist, issues around mental health are of particular interest to me and is reflected in my interest in how the arts and access to the arts may improve people’s sense of wellbeing. As a community artist my practice is predominately participatory in nature, with the focus on making art with people rather than for people. As a researcher, I have used art making as a way to encourage conversation as people tend to relax making it easier to open up a discussion. My strength as a researcher is my ability to observe and respond to clients and groups through their art making and the conversations that arise. Being process led, means not always knowing the final product and through this willingness to not know, there is a possibility of reflection and reflexivity, which is heuristic in nature.

Inverclyde Culture Collective Emerging Artist Development Bursary: Maya Rose Edwards

Maya Rose Edwards (b.1999) is a visual artist and creative facilitator from Yorkshire who has lived and worked in Glasgow for the past 4 years. Identifying as both Queer and Neurodivergent, Edwards champions accessibility for diverse audiences and encourages an approach to the creative arts that is ‘importantly different’.  

 Following a non-mainstream education, they adopt a hunter-gatherer approach to artmaking. A semantic magpie that reads objects and uses language like Lego bricks. Always in series or cycle, closer to madness than reason, their work exists as aesthetic encounters that induce double takes in passers-by. Edwards creates works to displace the hierarchy of perception back to the realm of the pedestrian 

 Graduated from Sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art in 2021, Maya has exhibited at the UK Mexican Arts Society in (London 2021), the Royal Scottish Academy’s Annual Exhibition (2021), Origin Arts Festival (London 2018) and has been selected for the RSA New Contemporaries.  

What will you be exploring through the bursary?

“A Law of Common Fate” is an alternative guide to bird watching. Viewing the bird as both the messenger and the wayfinder, the tap at your window and creak of a weathervane; This participatory arts project will encourage locals to approach community as a murmuration - a unified whole formed from multiple parts with common direction.

Inverclyde Culture Collective: Established Artist Development Bursary: Rudy Kanhye

Rudy Kanhye is a French BIPOC artist of south asian and portuguese origin, curator and environmental arts producer. Kanhye holds an M.A. in curatorial practice from the Glasgow school of Art (UK), an M.A. in Fine art from the University of Leeds Beckett(UK), a postdiploma in architecture from the University of Leeds Beckett(UK) and a B.A. in Fine arts from the National superior school of art, Dijon France. He was the assistant curator for the Sharjah exhibition /seconds in Dubai in 2013. He curated and published books with Grizedale arts center and Artists Laure Prouvost or Ryan Gander among others. Kanhye is also part of the incidental unit initiated by Barbara Steveni(UK), and the study center for group work initiated by Caroline Woolard(NY). He created with Angus Farquhar the Harvest festival in SWG3 in 2020. Rudy is based in Scotland

Rudy’s practice uses food as a lens and tool to observe landscapes in transformation. He lives and works out of Lybster, Edinburgh and Hawick, UK. Through his own work and with FLK, he seeks to rethink the structures of food production, commodification and communality. He does this through participatory art interventions, curatorial projects and research, creating sensory and site-specific eating experiences. His poetic narratives of the journey from seed to table unpick the concept of ‘local’. His work is multi-disciplinary, strongly visual and often collaborative`

What will you be exploring through this development bursary?

Covid-19 has illuminated how pressing the issue of access to healthy food is for communities throughout the country. Not only have individuals encountered tighter purse strings due to job loss and lay-offs as a result of the pandemic, people with pre-existing chronic illness face higher risk of contracting the virus in public. Apart from affordability and public health pressures, even before COVID-19 outbreak; formerly redlined neighborhoods disproportionately lacked access to healthy food retail options such as farmers markets.

It becomes clear that it is more than ever important to recreate a space for possibilities. A space for people to share and to meet again. Space matter, especially in post covid time. I will explore in the residency the blurring of lines between art and life and offer a more theatrical and social—and more enjoyable—experience focusing on community food

Further information about Rudy can be found here: rudykanhye.do.uk

Inverclyde Writer in Residence: Katharine Macfarlane

Katharine Macfarlane is an award-winning Scottish poet and educator whose lyrical poetry is rooted in the history, landscape and folklore of Scotland. With a passion for creating connections, celebrating communities and championing underrepresented voices her work explores themes such as identity, tradition, environment, relationships, parenthood, violence and journeys.  

 She was the Scottish Slam Poetry Champion 2020 and placed third in the World Cup of Poetry in 2020. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and journals with a full collection of poetry published in 2021 by Speculative Book. 

“Katharine’s poetry is warm, empathic and beautifully performed, and her connection with live audiences is incredibly special. She is a gifted writer with a true passion for communication.’ 

What will you be exploring through the residency?

Throughout the lifetime of the Culture Collective residency I will be exploring the power of poetry as activism with communities across Inverclyde. Poetry, particularly spoken word, enables self and community reflection and expression and can provide a powerful voice for marginalised or previously silenced groups whilst inspiring audiences to act on issues relevant to their own lives and communities. Inherent within this is the ability for poetry to contribute to mental health and wellbeing as a form of mindful self-reflection and creative expression. During the residency I will work with individuals and community groups to shine a light on some of the unheard stories of Inverclyde and showcase the wealth of creative talent that exists across the region

Further Information about Katharine can be found here: http://katharinemacfarlane.com

Inverclyde Artist In Residence: Martin O’Connor

Martin O'Connor is a performer, poet and theatre maker from Glasgow. Martin creates text-based performance, participation projects and spoken word. His solo work includes The Mark of the Beast (Platform), Building a Nation (Glasgow Life), and Theology (The Arches).  

Recent writing and directing credits include Gossip From the Forest (Magnetic North), Èirigh (Theatre Gu Leòr/ BBC Radio nan Gàidheal), Turntable (with MJ McCarthy and Red Bridge Arts), editor of the book for An Audience With...(Janice Parker Projects), Submarine Time Machine (National Theatre of Scotland). Martin is the current director of the Tron Theatre Young Company and is Progression Associate for Toonspeak Young People’s Theatre. 

 Martin was the recipient of the 2018 Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship hosted by Playwright’s Studio Scotland in partnership with the Royal Lyceum Theatre. His research was based around the tales of Ossian by James Macpherson and he is currently developing a new performance Through the Shortbread Tin: An Ossianic Journey.  

 Previous Artist in Residence roles include Glasgow Life Creative Communities (Pollokshields), Firefly Arts, National Theatre of Scotland and Children's Hospices Across Scotland.

What will you be exploring through the residency?

Martin will be working in as the Artist in Residence for Inverclyde on a new socially-engaged performance porty project. Martin will be working with residents of the area, local history, schools and venues to create a new sound piece exploring personal histories, employment and historical industry of Inverclyde.

Further information about Martin can be found here: http://www.martinoconnor.info

Inverclyde Culture Collective Creative Researcher: Sarah Longfield

Sarah Longfield is a facilitator, transformational coach and creative producer, with a background in theatre and participatory arts practice. Sarah was Artistic Director of Toonspeak Young People’s Theatre for 13 years.

As a coach she trained with Animas Centre of Coaching and is an Associate Credentialed Coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She works with private clients and delivers interactive group programmes.

Recent facilitation clients include Tate Galleries/National Galleries of Scotland - for a webinar on Co-Production, Cartoon Saloon - an Oscar nominated animation studio who Sarah is working with to develop a new outreach programme and train some of their animators in facilitation skills, Jump Cut Films, Inspiring Scotland and Engage.

Her creative producer roles are wide ranging, including most recently a public engagement programme for the National Trust of Scotland around the archaeology of illicit whisky.

Sarah is also a cultural entrepreneur having founded several arts focused social enterprises, including Mrs Magooty which produces craft retreats and workshops to address issues of social isolation in older women.

Through her time with Inverclyde Culture Collective she will carrying out creative research into the strengths and weaknesses of culture in Inverclyde and the impact of Covid-19 on the sector. She will be working with a broad range of approaches and participants to inform her emerging research and identifying points of change that can be practically implemented going forward.

More information on Sarah’s practice can be found here : https://www.sarahlongfield.co.uk

Galoshans Established Artist Bursary: Greer Pester

Greer Pester (she / her) is a visual and social multidisciplinary artist currently based in Glasgow , Scotland.

She graduated with a bachelor degree in Fine Art from Edinburgh College of Art in 2010. Since then she has exhibited and delivered creative and educational programmes at home in the UK and internationally .She has participated in Residencies in the UK, Senegal and Mexico . She has strong ties to Mexico after living in Mexico City for 4 years. 

What will you be exploring through the residency?

For Greer's residency she will be exploring the themes of life and death and the emotions triggered by these natural processes. She will be doing this from two strands of influence ; One - the angle of the climate crisis and grief and ways we  reconnect with our value systems and work on processing the emotions that overwhelm and prohibit us from caring and changing our behaviours , 2 - looking at the Guatemalan kite making practice of 'Barriletes' -during the days of the dead festival in Sumpango - that involves communities coming together to build giant colourful kites together using tissue paper with various graphic symbols and political statements , remembering the dead and honouring states of grief.

 She'll be exploring text and creative forms of activism for Bashful Radicals in both her social and visual practice , building large gentle protest kites and encouraging movement towards practices that make us feel like more connected and reflective humans as part of the natural world.

Galoshans Emerging Artist Bursary: PLAYMOBILE + Kristýna Ilek

Playmobile works primarily in non-conventional arts spaces such as streets, parks and nightclubs to create work that is constantly in relationship with the everyday world around it. They are interested in listening to the voices and bodies that inhabit these spaces, human and non-human, and exploring both the connections and differences between them.

Kristýna Ilek is a dramaturg and a researcher from Prague. Recently, she finished an MA degree in Dramaturgy at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on tangible manifestations of affects in different settings, such as nature or ritualistic spaces. She is interested in the ways that affects shape spaces and make different bodies, human or other-than-human, act.

Together, Playmobile and Kristyna combine their interests to create environmentally-informed outdoor theatre from recycled materials and waste.

What will you be exploring through the Bursary?

Through our bursary we will be looking to create The Museum of Missing Myths. During a series of workshop we will experiment with fun and easy writing, drawing, and craft activities to gather memories and stories of mythological sites in Inverclyde. We will be looking to work with recycled materials, asking local people to bring objects that could be included within this. There will be a focus on local spaces and myths to reflect on the idea of 'missing' and lost things.