Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

AIRetc… Samantha Dick

Over the last 5 months as Artist In Residence (AIRetc…) in the Art & Design Team  Samantha Dick has made significant impact and having successfully gained a role as part-time Learning Assistant it seems likely that impression will be last well beyond their tenure as AIR…  Samantha started with us in September 2019 and within days was giving an excellent talk on her journey through Edinburgh College as a students and on to Glasgow School of Art to HND Contemporary Practice.

It wasnt long before Samantha was working very closely with the CAP team and students by joining tutorials and group crits offering great advice and support to everyone. It wasnt long before they were maticulously planning a series of workshop examining “The Body as Material” through which the participants and Samantha explored the potential of their own phyisicality as well as that of the spaces and circumstances they were in.

The second of the 3 workshops took place at our partner organisation in Newhaven at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) (see above) and the works developed by the participants was presented at North Edinburgh Arts Centre (NEA) our partners in Muirhouse. (see below) For most of the participants it was their first experience of performative artwork and for Samantha it was their first experience of developing and delivering a workshop of this kind yet the standard of the work was very high indeed and testiment to the quality of the workshops and the confidence developed by Samantha’s approach.

Many people would take time to relax and take stock after such an intensive set of workshops and outcome but for Samantha it was time to capaitalise on the experience and the confidence and energy it gave by immediately starting work on new work for their first solo exbition at the recently opened hubCAP Gallery at Edinburgh College.

It has been an absolute pleasure to have Samantha Dick as our first AIRetc… of the 2019 – 20 academic session.

www.samanthadick.co.uk/

Breakfast, lunch and dinner. The inspirational Lee Miller

When #CAPetcAlumni Julie Duffy and Hayley Mathers developed a common interest in the life and work of, artist, photographer, model, muse, cook and host Lee Miller neither had imagined that within a couple of years they would be giving a talk on their collaborative practice to a packed out Hawthornden Lecture Theatre at the Scottish National Gallery, but this week that’s exactly what they did. 

Although the collaboration started just 2 years ago the artists have known each other since studying with us on the HND course at the former Edinburgh’s Telford College from 2005-2008 before heading on to Duncan of Jordanstone College or Art & Design (DJCAD). Post-graduation Hayley took a role as chair of the acclaimed Generator Projects in Dundee and Artist in Residence at SWG3 in Glasgow. Julie returned to Edinburgh taking up a studio at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) as well as role curating the organisations TANK gallery/project space.

In Sept 2013 and Sept 2014 in what became something of a full circle both Hayley and Julie respectively joined us once again at Edinburgh College Granton as resident Artists on our #AIRetc… programme. During their time they developed both their individual and collaborative practice which you can view on the AIRetc… website: https://airetc.wordpress.com/

The collaboration has spawned a number of object based works, themed culinary events and workshops including a birthday party for Lee Miller, featuring party hats which have become something of an emblem for the project, and childrens workshops at local primary schools.

The presentation this week at the Scottish National Gallery was excellent and stimulated great responses, ideas and very high praise from the audience. Despite being something of a punctuation mark for the project we are all hoping for a next chapter.

The exhibition Lee Miller and Picasso runs until 6th September at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

CAP1 ESW Residency

A few weeks ago it was the turn of CAP1 to take up residence at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. Although an annual event for 7 years this was only our 3rd year in the new Bill Scott Sculpture Centre as part of our formal partnership with ESW. Since the new premises opened in June 2012 ESW and the college have had a formal partnership which has ESW designated as an Edinburgh College Employability Centre. The partnership allows students to undertake their Introduction to Sculpture course in a purpose built professional studio & workshop environment for the research, development and production of sculptural practice.

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As well as the formal sculptural practice developed during the residency a number of Professional Practice events took place including wood workshop induction and a talk by ESW Curator of Research Dan Brown who spoke to the residency participants about the facilities, history & philosophy of ESW as well as the education, exhibition and residency programmes. Other events included a studio visit with studio holder Kate Ive and a talk by RSA/ESW International Residency winner Norbert Delman whose exhibition Sweat / Suffer / Success was open in the gallery space. All the talks took place in the new multi function research space at ESW which is flexile enough to have round table talks and discussions as well as presentations. Having access to the space and resources meant we were able to have our annual Moving Image event curated by #exCAPer and regular guest lecturer Benjamin Fallon which was held over two evenings at ESW.

Next May we will return to ESW with CAP2 for their Diploma Exhibition by which time the second phase of the multi £million capital project ‘Creative Laboratories’ will have been open for 6 months and we are looking forward to spending a week working and exhibiting in the new spaces.

Click on the links below to see  blog posts by CAP1 ESW Residents:

Szabolcs Fricska:  http://sfricskacap.tumblr.com/post/101630305745/the-week-that-we-spent-at-the-edinburgh-sculpture

Yulia Vitten: http://iuliiavittencap.tumblr.com/post/101836631621/my-final-sculpture-from-the-week-at-esw-and-small

Magdealen Gunkowska: http://mgunkowskacap.tumblr.com/post/101166933302/my-experiments-with-plaster-and-construction

http://mgunkowskacap.tumblr.com/post/101171457022

Elena Cheltsova: http://echeltsovacap.tumblr.com/post/101429925954/esw-day-3-modelling-with-plaster-thought-of

Freya Taylor: http://freyataylorcap.tumblr.com/post/100831352454/collaborative-installation-lots-of-fun-i-was