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