Launch event features mix of performance, music and colourful contemporary textile designs
Last night saw the launch of an exhibition of cutting edge visual art and craft featuring a dozen established and emerging Scottish artists and makers.
The Spring Show Making.Art exhibition is at Green Hill Gallery, Kulturschoepfer, from now to 25 April and is organised by Spring Fling – Scotland’s premier contemporary visual art and craft open studios event.
The exhibition is about collaboration and shows how craft making in Scotland, far from being limited to the world of tradition, is at the heart of contemporary art.
Yesterday’s special preview featured a colourful performance work which was a collaboration between visual, installation and textile artists and featuring original new music from Scotland.
Leah Black, Spring Fling Director, said: “Right now there are some exciting collaborations between Scottish artists and makers. This exhibition offers Berliners a taste of what’s happening in Dumfries and Galloway, which is one of Scotland’s most creative regions. We hope it will really challenge people’s perceptions of the relationship between visual art and craft.”
The Spring Show Making.Art is funded by EventScotland, an agency of the Scottish Government, as part of the 2015 Year of Food and Drink, and Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Major Events Strategic Fund.
The preview was followed by a collaborative performance work called Making with Cloth by visual and performance artist Denise Zygadlo, international textile designer Morag Macpherson and installation artist Katie Anderson.
The 12 makers and artists taking part in the exhibition include established international names such as glassmaker Amanda Simmons and willow weaver Lizzie Farey.
Spring Fling has organised a series of other events and activities during the exhibition. These include:
● Print Studio Zine, with Katie Anderson and Sarah Stewart, 4th April, afternoon.
The artists will create a temporary print studio in the gallery and produce a limited edition run of postcard-sized zines. These will be made in response to our first impressions of the city. The zines will reflect their our rural backgrounds contrasted with our immediate responses to our urban context.
● Make Your Own, with Shona Guthrie and Suzi Plunkett, 4th April, afternoon
Join Shona and Suzi in a workshop to create and take home a bespoke mixed media wall piece. By using a selection of Suzi’s unique designs laser etched onto wood and a range of cherry blossom and pearl rivets, participants will need nothing more than a little imagination to create a personalised and unique piece of art.
● Finnisage, 25th April
Closing event, drinks by donation, with audio visual presentation and short talk about how Spring Fling came to Germany by Kate Brehme – freelance curator and organiser of the Making.Art exhibition.
The exhibition comes ahead of the main open studios weekend, featuring 94 artists, which is in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland, from 23 to 25 May.
