ecoartscotland

Su Grierson – Corresponding from Fukushima Province, Japan

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Japanese do seem to be obsessed by food endlessly photographing their meals and we have been asked to take photos of what we eat in our Northern countries. This is my Fruitarian Christmas pudding awash with Brandy. I think the Kitakata speciality is noodles!"Japanese do seem to be obsessed by food endlessly photographing their meals and we have been asked to take photos of what we eat in our Northern countries. This is my Fruitarian Christmas pudding awash with Brandy. I think the Kitakata speciality is noodles!” (Photo with permission Su Grierson)

Su Grierson has kindly agreed to send ecoartscotland regular updates during her 10 week residency in Kitakata, Fukushima Province, Japan.  She is circulating this introduction.

I am now trying to get myself organised to go to Japan next Thursday. I am doing a 10 week residency based at Kitakata in Fukushima province. It is quite a way from the devastated coastal area but I am told we will be working there and with some of the displaced survivors. The project is funded by the Japan Foundation but I think the actual programme will be worked out when we get there. It seems we will also be working with the beautiful Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art.  I will be working with 2 Norwegians, a sculptor and an architect and one Japanese artist with the overall theme of ‘Spirit of North’.

Making work for an exhibition seems to be the main thing but I have a feeling that the very generous funders might have their own expectations which we will find out about later! Watch this space – well you can literally follow my trip by signing up here to Chris Fremantle’s ecoartscotland network. He has offered to put out occasional reports from me which you will be able to find here or if you join up then they will come directly to your email address.

I think this project is part of a wider plan trying to restore normal life and spirit generally in this area and also to get a different picture of Fukushima out to the wider world. I am well aware of some of the more negative recent press, and of course that name Fukushima will always be synonymous with Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear meltdown, but I will hopefully try and find out for myself just what the situation is now.

It has just started snowing in Kitakata so its a question of how many thermals I can get in my case, but at least they make good packing for cameras, laptops and all the other paraphernalia I can’t manage without.

As part of my Survey exhibition and book at Horsecross in Perth next summer (Opening with Sunday Brunch on June 30th – all invited!) I have been commissioned to make a new work for the 22 screen Wave at Perth Concert Hall and I’m hoping to use that as a way of linking Fukushima and Perth.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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RIP Beatriz da Costa 1974-2012

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Roger Malina just notified the Yasmin list of the death of Beatriz da Costa after a long and courageous battle with cancer.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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Collected Works 2012

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From EcoArtScotland/Reblogged from Liberate Tate Blog:
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Floe Piece (2012)

Arctic ice, canvas, light, water

“The fact that BP had one major incident in 2010 does not mean we should not be taking support from them.” Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate.

On 14 January 2012 Liberate Tate carried out another unofficial performance highlighting Tate’s complicity in BP’s ongoing controversial oil extraction practices around the world. At 6.30pm at the Occupy London protest camp at St Paul’s Cathedral four veiled figures dressed in black lifted a 55kg chunk of Arctic ice onto a sledge and walked it in procession across the Thames on the Millennium Bridge and into the Tate Modern Turbine Hall.

Read more… 983 more words

 

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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The Oil Road reviewed

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PLATFORM have been at the heart of a critique of corporations and carbon for more than twenty years.  They have entered into long term partnerships with environmental ngos, appeared at Glastonbury, commissioned and created artworks, as well as produced books and films.

They have also founded a business that delivers micro renewable solutions for businesses and homes in London.

Their latest book, following on from the hugely important The Next Gulf, is The Oil Road, reviewed recently in the Guardian.  The Next Gulf focused on Shell’s involvement in Nigeria.  The Oil Road is focused on travels that Mika Minio Paluello in particular made along BP’s Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline from the Caspian to the Mediterranean.  Exploring oil from experience on the ground is always more revealing.  These books are always well researched, historically informed, thoroughly post-colonial and fascinating.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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Collapse

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Reblogged from CHRIS FREMANTLE:

Billy Klüver reminds us of Jean Tinguely’s work on collapse in Artists, Engineers, and Collaboration Klüver-Billy-Artists-Engineers-and-Collaboration (published in Culture on the Brink: Ideologies of Technology, A Manifesto for Cyborgs. Bender, G. and Druckrey, T. (Eds) Dia Center for the Arts, Discussions in Contemporary Culture Number 9. Seattle: Bay Press, 1994).

Jean Tinguely came to New York City in early 1960. On seeing the city for the first time, he decided to build a large machine that would violently destroy itself in front of an audience in a theater, throwing off parts in all directions.

Read more… 260 more words

Speaking of collapse, Unclear Holocaust is a feature-length autopsy of Hollywood’s New York-destruction fantasy, gleaned from over fifty major studio event-movies and detourned into one relentless orgy of representational genocide. It is the unrivaled assembly of the greatest amount of capital and private property heretofore captured in one frame, that, with unfathomable narrative efficacy, suicides itself in an annihilatory flux of fire, water, and aeronautics.

 

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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Donald Trump links wind farms and the Lockerbie disaster

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We received this email and thought it was worth highlighting,

Has Donald Trump sunk to a new low? On Friday, he splashed two full-page adverts in Scottish newspapers linking new wind farms to the Lockerbie disaster – and called for people to email Alex Salmond with their opposition. [1]

It’s hard to imagine what was going through his mind when he agreed ads which said:

“Tourism will suffer and the beauty of your country is in jeopardy! This is the same mind that backed the release of terrorist al-Megrahi, ‘for humane reasons’ – after he ruthlessly killed 270 people on Pan-Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.”

Trump thinks that he can buy opposition to wind farms by flashing his cash to push misleading information. But what if we could turn the tables on Trump and show him that for all his money, he’s no match for people power?

Together we can flood Alex Salmond with messages of support for renewable energy and make sure that Trump’s plan backfires. It takes two minutes to write to Alex Salmond – click here to get started:

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/m/74c053e8/2d527884/5ea13b2c/4678e28f/236853858/VEsE/

And do you know why Trump is kicking up such a fuss? Because he thinks a new wind turbine test centre will ruin the feel of hisluxury golf course on the Aberdeenshire coast. He’s throwing everything he’s got at trying to stop the planning application from going through.

But there’s huge potential for Scotland to become a world leader in green energy, bringing new jobs for Scots and more investment for the economy. [2]

Click here to tell Alex Salmond to make sure the Scottish Government take up every opportunity to unlock our green potential:

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/m/74c053e8/2d527884/5ea13b2c/4678e28f/236853858/VEsF/

38 Degrees members have a strong history of standing up to big money. Big companies sponsoring the 2012 Olympics were hoping for a windfall from tax dodging during the Games – until we got them to promise to pay taxes on their Olympic profits.

And we’ve stood up to Trump before. Along with the campaign group Tripping up Trump, we stood shoulder to shoulder with brave local residents when Donald Trump wanted to evict families from their homes in Menie. [3]

Click here to take two minutes to email Alex Salmond now:

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/m/74c053e8/2d527884/5ea13b2c/4678e28f/236853858/VEsC/

Thanks for being involved,

Marie, Becky, Hannah and the 38 Degrees team

NOTES

[1] Scotsman: Donald Trump ‘sick’ for using Lockerbie in a rant against wind farms http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/donald-trump-sick-for-using-lockerbie-in-a-rant-against-wind-farms-1-2693006

[2] The Paisley Daily Express: Trump links wind farms with megrahi http://www.paisleydailyexpress.co.uk/renfrewshire-news/scottish-news/2012/12/14/trump-links-wind-farms-with-megrahi-87085-32430473/

[3] Read more here: http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2011/02/22/weve-tripped-up-trump/

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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To Life! eco art in pursuit of a sustainable planet

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Linda Weintraub has produced an excellent series of books on arts and ecology – they are toolkits and learning resources suitable for people who want to know more or engage groups in arts and ecology.

The most recent just published by the University of California Press is To Life!  The blurb is here Linda Weintraub: To Life! and you can purchase it here University of California Press.  Other titles are here.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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The High Water Line: The New Yorker

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Eve completes the Manhattan portion of the line near the West Side Highway & West 14th Street. Photo: Hose Cedeno (Permission Eve Mosher)

In 2007 the artist Eve Mosher, interested in climate change, followed the 10ft elevation above sea level around Brooklyn and then Manhattan.  She called the work High Water Line.  She used one of those push along carts that are used to mark football, baseball, rugby and other pitches with chalk (in the US called a heavy hitter, believe it or not).  The New Yorker magazine carried the story post-Sandy.

Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground, Gaining Wisdom started from the question, “The waters are rising.  How can we retreat gracefully?” and the first works that the artists produced were the re-drawing of the UK coastline at the 5m, 10m and 15m marks.

Artist Chris Bodle did a similar exercise in Bristol – you can see documentation here.

Bill McKibben recently said that where artists cluster around issues you know something important is happening.

He’s been quoted as describing artists as ‘the antibodies of the cultural bloodstream”.

“Artists”, he says “sense trouble early, and rally to isolate and expose and defeat it, to bring to bear the human power for love and beauty and meaning against the worst results of carelessness and greed and stupidity. So when art both of great worth, and in great quantities, begins to cluster around an issue, it means that civilization has identified it finally as a threat.” (thanks to Roanne Dods/Clare Cooper for this quote)

Please comment with other examples of artists marking high water lines.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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Year of Natural Scotland

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Bing across the road from the Dalmellington Iron Works. Photo Chris Fremantle

2013 is designated as the Year of Natural Scotland.  We know that the Scottish Poetry Library is planning a programme around this theme, and Creative Scotland are partnering up with SNH for a conference.   We’ve listed below some information which we’ve been able to pull together.  Of course, like Homecoming, this is about tourism, but maybe it could be more?

If you want to tell us about projects or programmes you’ll be running during 2013, or resources that you think might be useful to share, just email us chris at fremantle dot org.

EventScotland listing of Festivals currently signed up to programme Year of Natural Scotland events.

Scottish Natural Heritage has grants programmes geared up for the Year of Natural Scotland.

Creative Scotland’s Creative Places Awards for projects outwith the major cities during 2013, with a special emphasis on the Year of Natural Scotland.

Creative Scotland are also planning a major conference to highlight the ways that artists and creative practitioners affect the way we imagine natural Scotland.

Scotland’s Rural Network wants to know what the top 5 nature based things that each local authority area has to offer.  Help them by making suggestions for your area.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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The New Children’s Museum in San Diego: TRASH

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TRASH, Photo provided by New Children’s Museum

The New Children’s Museum in San Diego is doing a major exhibition on trash.  The following is their introductory text.

The artists in TRASH, each with differing prerogatives and intentions, share the common desire to draw attention to an invisible issue that increasingly dominates our lives. Did you know that in the United States, annual production of waste has tripled since 1960? That the average American produces 4.5 pounds of trash every day? In this exhibition, our mission is to change how we see trash, and changing perspective starts by asking more questions.

How do we decide what is trash?
How does your trash impact the lives of others?
How can we imagine new possibilities, and a new future for our trash?

For nearly 100 years, artists have chosen to work with trash to create a tangible connection to everyday life and to reject the idea that making art requires precious or expensive materials. Today artists are also passionately interested in the environmental impact of their materials. Through their transformation of trash into art, our artists encourage you to envision trash as more than waste needing disposal. They want you to see possibilities where others see waste.

The future starts here at NCM. We want to empower kids to act as the agents of change at home, and we look to kids to find the new approaches, new ideas, and new solutions that will change our future.

TRASH is organized by The New Children’s Museum and is made possible by the generosity of Laurie Mitchell & Brent Woods, Farrell Family Foundation, SDG&E, Lynne & Glenn Carlson, Maryanne & Irwin Pfister and Fernanda & Ralph Whitworth. Support is also provided by The James Irvine Foundation, Nordstrom, the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the County of San Diego’s Community Enhancement Program, and NCM members and Annual Fund donors.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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