Alan's workshop at Braeview went well

The group of pupils responded well to working on paper first and taking over the walls as they got stuck in - here's some photos

well done Alan - any other schools out there interested? get in touch

Clare Thornton's own blog

Clare has her own blog where you can see info about her recent projects including as part of Craftivism at Arnofini
http://www.clare-thornton.blogspot.com/

Joana Bastos artist's site

This artist does interesting work which relates to cleaning and other jobs, flick through the pages of her site at:

http://www.joanabastos.com/

View from your desk

Work in Admin or an Office?

Get involved in Pippas project by sending us a view from your desk. It could be the view out your window, a view you love or one you would like to change.

Send photos to ninetrades@dundee.ac.uk

Photos thanks to Caroline Peters, Ramanee Peiris, Daryl Smith, Jonathan Weyers & Louise Soutar

6 Projects Selected

The final six artists have been selected and we are looking forward to the development of their projects. Those selected were:

• Clare Thornton who will work with a range of tailors, outfitters and other textile related trades to collectively research and produce objects and/or live social events.
• Chris Dyson who will work with an industrial company to put on and document a drive-in cinema event.
• Debbie Lawson who will create an artwork involving fellow journalists that is not just physical but also escapist and surreal.
• David Yu who will create an installation inspired by conversations between staff and patrons in a pub or bar setting.
• Ange Taggart who will work with those involved in childcare and support to develop a performance were play is a key concept.
• Pippa Koszerek who will work with secretaries to explore the tools of their trade through a lunch club which will result in a series of artworks .
  

Artists Selected

Excitingly Stage 2 of the project is now underway. Seven artists have been shortlisted to develop a detailed proposal. David Yu (Cocktail Bartender), Debbie Lawson (Journalist), Ange Taggart (Childcare), Mark Brogan (Market Research), Pippa Koszerek (Secretarial), Chris Dyson (Welding) and Clare Thornton (Tailor) were all successful. Proposals deadline is 6 November and commissions will run from December to June.

Ben Robinson and his colleagues have now installed their beautiful screen prints at the meeting room at HBoS and will be on display until 23 October.

Elke Reinhuber event in New South Wales

Experimentum Mundi

Experimentum Mundi

8 September 

The Space

Employers, artists, participants of the Nine Trades and DJCAD students attended a fascinating performance by Experimentum Mundi. Composed by Giorgio Battistelli, who wanted his music to reflect life, sixteen Italian artisans, including cobbers, knife grinders, bricklayers and coopers, play the tools and materials of their trade. The noises blend into a symphony of sound, conducted in a musical score by Battistelli.

Cheryl, crack screenprinter and call centre worker taking part in Ben Robinson's project, commented that to understand the tradesmens' activity as music she kept on watching the

conductor, and then she could follow each section as a piece of music. Eggs were cracked, shoes re-soled and the foundry sent flames to the roof. 

Experimentum Mundi was brought to Dundee through the 'Sharing the Festival' strand of Edinburgh International Festival. 

DCA Critical Action Group

Hi there,

 

We are starting a new project at DCA called Critical Action Group, which I thought you might be interested in. This project will be running from 6-7pm every Wednesday evening from September 30^th-4^th November. Could you pass this info on to anyone in your group who you think might be interested?

 

We would like to stimulate more debate around DCA's exhibitions. With the formation of the Critical Action Group we are supporting the expression of diverse discussion, independent thought and the voicing of various perspectives. Our aim is to build up a group of visitors who can critically engage and produce opinions and interpretations about an upcoming exhibition that will be presented in the DCA gallery, the Thomas Hirschhorn show It’s Burning Everywhere, which is running from 19^th September to 29^th November 2009. Hirschhorn's artwork is controversial and thought-provoking, and incorporates many meaningful and socially important themes into the context of conceptual art. We would like to investigate these themes in an effective way, considering their real-world context with people who are interested in exploring them.

The project will consist of discussion groups about various themes in the artist’s work (for example: genocide, alienation in Western society, consumerism, media images), which will include talks from invited speakers. The group will then get a chance to view Hirschhorn’s artwork and create their own audio interpretation material to support it, giving the public an alternative perspective on the exhibition.

The project is open to adults aged 18 and over. Don’t worry if you have no experience with art – we are asking you because we believe it will be a more stimulating project if we can establish a diverse group of people who like to chat about thought-provoking topics, are eager to learn a bit about contemporary art, and are interested in world issues. Through this project we hope participants will get to meet lots of different people, enjoy themselves and learn something new.

We have only 8 places available for the Critical Action Group, so are asking anyone who is interested in joining to get in touch with us as soon as possible. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me – I would be more than happy to discuss the project with you.

Thank you and hope to hear from you!

All the best,

Suzie Scott

^{DCA Education Coordinator}

^{Phone: 01382 909237}

^{Email: community.education@dca.org.uk}

 

First print class finishes up in Ben's project

The first group of HBOS call centre workers / artists have finished their printmaking class and produced their prints. I think they all enjoyed it and we had some cracking comments like : 'It's really good and I would recommend it to everybody' and 'really enjoyed myself'. The work that they produced is great. There is one print which features a spider here by Cheryl (above), during a conversation after the class Cheryl expressed the view that ' there is a bit of an artist in everyone' which I think is true and certainly has been the case with this class. There are lots more photos of the class's accomplished work on Ben's blog.

Fiona, our first apprentice, and Ben were taking lots of photos which could can see here and on his blog.

The next group starts next week!

Be-A-Happy-Worker:-Work-to-Rule!

We heard Antonia Majaca an art historian and curator from Zagreb speaking during the Edinburgh Art Festival Curators Research visit talks at Stills on the 6th August. One of the exhibitions that she has curated is : Be-A-Happy-Worker:-Work-to-Rule!

http://www.landofhumanrights.eu/eng/project/zagreb/exhibition-be_a_happy_worker-2008.html

http://www.g-mk.hr/program/Be-A-Happy-Worker:-Work-to-Rule!/272/

Their space is interesting as it used to be a 'workers cultural centre' for labour organisation. 

PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR POST

We are advertising for a new team member for Nine Trades of Dundee:

PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR ‘Nine Trades of Dundee’   Closing date: 26 August

Grade 5 (£19,645pa), Fixed Term Post

3 days a week between September 2009 – July 2010, Plus 2 days a week during evaluation period August 2010 – Sept 2010

Further details and an application pack are available from the University website: www.jobs.dundee.ac.uk please also include a CV and covering letter along with the application form.  Alternatively, contact Human Resources, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN, tel: (01382) 384817 (answering machine).   Please quote Reference number AAE/2882

Info about the project and the opportunity are also on our website www.ninetrades.com

Post funded by The National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council’s Inspire Fund

We enjoyed the Bob and Roberta Smith exhibition we had been to yesterday in Edinburgh (Part of Edinburgh Art Festival). The text of the painting's is taken from an article written by Steve Bierley, tennis correspondent at the Guardian, who reviewed Louise Bourgeois' 2008 show at the Pompidou Centre in Paris for a job-swap feature in the paper.

http://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/article/19159-bob-and-roberta-smith-this-artist-is-deeply-dangerous/

( If you visit the show in the very un-shed-like 'Hawke and Hunter' at the top of Broughton Street you may want to extend your enjoyment of the facilities by visiting the very plush lavatories!).

While googling Bob and Roberta Smith I came across this great blog entry which relates to Fraser MacDonald's project: 

http://www.shedworking.co.uk/2009/01/bob-and-roberta-smith.html

The main blog itself has a lot of lively posts and opens up a world of sheds: 

http://www.shedworking.co.uk/

Print Crew get stuck in

Last night the newly coined Print Crew, workers from HBOS Call Centre met with their colleague Ben Robinson, Nine Trades of Dundee artist, for their first session at DCA Print Unit. Ben had asked them to bring in doodles they made at work whilst on the phone, to use as their starting point. One worker, Carol, repeatedly likes drawing around anything circular. Horse-loving Lisa had drawn a recent tumble from a horse. The arrows, she later realised, are what she draws when customers ask for money to be transferred. Ben's Apprentice Fiona, a 3rd year student from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design was on hand and the lovely Claire from DCA had all cleaning their screens like seasoned pros by the end of the evening.

Fraser MacDonald and Friarton Waste Management Depot

We visited the impressive Friarton Waste Management depot in Perth to view the proposed location for Fraser Macdonald’s Garbologists HQ hut. Above the main depot is the Friarton Recycling Centre and the rather excellent Web Walk which is an educational route for schools to see the history of recycling from Stonehenge to present day. 

It looks likely that the hut can be sited on a gravel area in front of the Web Walk and to the left of the red Ford Fiesta springing out of the hillside in a style reminiscent of the Berlin-based artists, Elmgreen & Dragset and their 2003 work ‘Short Cut’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Short_Cut.jpg

The Perth depot is next to a river and has apple trees growing next to the Web Walk. 

 

Thank You to The Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee

We have just received a donation from The Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee, the historic association that we took our inspiration from and are looking forward to having many more links to over the course of the project. Here is a link to their website http://www.standrewschurch.btinternet.co.uk/Nine_Iincorporated_Trades.htm   and here is a video of Innes Duffus introducing us to the Dundee City Archives ( including the amazing lockit books) where a lot of the artefacts are kept.

Michelle Allard Website

This is a link to the website of a Canadian artist, Michelle Allard, who got in touch with us after seeing our opportunity listed. This artist makes interesting sculptures, often repurposing common manufactured and household materials such as polystyrene, plastics, carpeting, cardboard and office paper. Michelle’s trade work is gardening and landscaping.

www.michelleallard.com 

www.dundee.com 'One City, Many Discoveries'

If you want to know a bit more about Dundee – you might want to take a look at the new city website : http://www.dundee.com/ 

Dundee has the new by-line ‘One City, Many Discoveries’ and this website illuminates  the city’s many faces from arts to gaming to life sciences.

Critical Network

Many thanks to Critical Network for posting up our Nine Trades of Dundee Call for Artists. They have got lots of other interesting information there too.

http://www.criticalnetwork.co.uk/home.php

 

Sunday Express comments of art!

A good example of a widely held misconception about the majority of artists’ wages is the Sunday Express’ reaction to Anthony Gormley’s bid to create a living monument ‘The Fourth Plinth’, in particular focusing on the artist Jo Roberts ( www.joroberts.net ) who was one of the participants

THE FINE ART OF WASTING £1.1BN

LAUGHABLE: One of the living statues in the much‑derided Trafalgar Square project.”

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/114834/The-fine-art-of-wasting-1-1bn

“The Sunday Express findings prompted Shadow Arts Minister Ed Vaizey to signal last night that there would be a major shift in attitude to arts spending if the Conservatives came to power.”

Jo’s own account is at http://oneandother.co.uk/participants/JoRoberts

The Artist Placement Group - started in 1966

The Artist Placement Group (1966 onwards, becoming ‘Organisation and Imagination (O+I)’ in 1989) 

http://www.tate.org.uk/learning/artistsinfocus/apg/overview.htm

“The idea of Artist Placement stemmed from a group of UK artists, and was guided by John Latham and initiated by Barbara Steveni, who were experimenting with radical new forms of art. Directed by Steveni, the APG pioneered the concept of art in the social context. From the outset their notion of ‘placement’ acknowledged the marginalised position of the artist and sought to improve the situation. By enabling artists to engage actively in non-art environments, the APG shifted the function of art towards ‘decision-making’.

Acting outside the conventional art gallery system, the APG attempted, through negotiation and agreement, to place artists within industry and government departments. The artist would become involved in the day-to-day work of the organisation and be paid a salary equal to that of other employees by the host organization, while being given the new role of maintaining sufficient autonomy to acting on an open brief. These placements resulted in a variety of artists’ reports, films, photographs, interviews, poetry and art installations. Artists of international repute, such as Keith Arnatt, Ian Breakwell, Stuart Brisley, George Levantis and David Hall, had important placements or early associations with the APG.”

-Tate Learn Online

Plan 9 - Bristol

Plan 9, based in Bristol is an contemporary art initiative run by artists, curators and writers. Plan 9 has a gallery space, project space and studio's. The programme is run by Plan 9 members, who either organise/curate exhibitions and events themselves or invite other artists and curators to use the space. 

They have a lot of interesting writing about being an artist and worker at:

http://plan9tradeunion.blogspot.com/ 

Check out their publications like ‘ Industry and Idleness’

http://www.plan9.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110:industry-a-idleness-introduction&catid=6:critical&Itemid=8 

http://www.plan9.org.uk/

‘Factory Direct’ - artists into manufacturing

‘Factory Direct’ (2001-2) organised by The Arts Centre of the Capital Region in Troy, New York State was a two year project bringing 16 contemporary visual artists into the manufacturing environment in order to make work that was inspired by processes, products and the histories of the factories.It was curated by Paul Miyamoto, Michael Oatman and Rebecca Shepard. Michael Oatman took up residency at a company that makes coin-operated binoculars for sightseers, accompanied employees on their 5 a.m. repair runs to tourist sites. Mark Dion & J Morgan Puett worked with ex-employees of the closed down Marvin-Neitzel, a manufacturers of nurses uniforms. Their work “Nurse Grimm, Night Nurse” was the last uniform designed and made by the corporation after 155 years of industry. Kathleen Brandt worked with Maximum Security Direct utilising their products made primarily for prisons in an installation that commented on this closed world.

There is not too much on the Internet about this project but thanks to Caz McIntee we have the catalogue so come and borrow it if you promise to return it!

Crafts South - linking practitioners with tradespeople

Crafts South based in Adelaide, Australia is one of the first international organisations that we became aware of in relation to artists and trade skills. Trades (2007-8) was a project linking contemporary craft, design and visual art practitioners with tradespeople. Eight artists were selected to undergo a period of cross-industry skills immersion with trades practitioners, whereby new work was developed and produced in response to this process. 

http://www.craftsouth.org.au/projects/trades.html