Congratulations to Martin Boyce on winning this year’s Turner Prize.

We’ve been extremely privileged here on Central Station to have had Martin join us on the site. We’ve pulled out a couple of features here so you can join us in celebrating this brilliant win by a brilliant artist.

In February 2010 the Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre exhibited Martin’s No Reflections. The artwork was re-housed at the DCA after being created for the Venice Biennale 2009. It just so happened that Central Station was holding a Pop-up event in Dundee during the show, and when Martin told us that he would come and talk us through the artwork we were chuffed to say the least – as were the members who joined us that day. Here is an account of Martin Boyce’s artist talk at our Dundee Pop-up.

Later that year, Martin participated in a discussion for the closing of the International Book Festival for the release of Sarah Lowndes’ book Social Sculpture: The Rise of the Glasgow Art Scene. We took the opportunity to speak to Martin Boyce before the event about his experiences of studying and working in the city. Here is the result of that conversation.

If you missed the announcement, you can see it here.

To see some photos from our day in Dundee with Martin Boyce, look here.

Martin’s winning artwork is still on display until Jan 8, 2012. Look here to find out more.

There is nothing in this world more wonderful than seeing a breeding programme succeed. I remember the day I was told the Gelkies may not survive another year, on this day a small part of me died.

I remember when I was little, I used to count the days till spring when my mother and I would go to the park looking for Gelkies. Their beautiful flashing colours and unique interactions would have me enthralled for hours. The older I got the less Gelkies I saw. The loss of my dear mother and my decent into adult life strayed me away from those simpler times of Gelkie spotting, I’d almost forgotten those times. Then, when the news hit the headlines that Gelkies were now an endangered species my heart skipped a beat. I thought of my mother.

Luckily the tragedy developed no further due to a brilliant scientist and truely good man by the name of Professor Yann Seznec. He, like myself, had fallen in love with those magical creatures at an early age and had made it his mission never to allow the demise of the Gelkies. Now thanks to his years of dedication and hard work, the Gelkies have now started to be reintroduced back into the wild.

I thank him dearly for what he has given the world and hope than when my boy is old enough and the sun is shining high in the sky I will once again be able to say that today is a good day for Gelkies.

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To find out what Dundee Popup was all about or to read more reviews & blogs  from the day, click here.

[Brochure a collaboration by Lyall Bruce & Johanna Basford]

On Sat 6th Feb 2010, Censta and members went on Dundee Popup, a tour round the city’s creative people and places.  Artists, designers, illustrators, film-makers all gathered for a day of behind the scenes studio tours at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Duncan of Jordanstone and WASPS, private artist talks with Martin Boyce and Daziel and Scullion, plus an exclusive preview of the soon to be opened McManus Gallery after a 4 year refurbishment.

Members were blogging, tweeting and documenting in stills each part of the day, so you can take the tour for yourself.

As well as a day for members, and the city’s creatives to meet and discuss their work and practice, Dundee Popup created some LTD edition artworks. Censta members  SooperDD and Johanna Basford worked together to produce the booklet detailing the day, and Superfly worked with artists from the site to create a poster gallery round the city. Read more about it here.

To top it all off, we had an evening of talks from members, followed by wine and some rather fine Central Station cakes, created by Nikki McWilliams.

To see some of the photographs from the day look here. Read the rest of the blog to find out more about the day, and click here to find reviews and thoughts by the members who joined us.

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What? A tour of the creative world of Dundee, Central Station style. Private talks, tours and presentations. As well as lots of members meeting & discussing.

Where? Dundee

When? 11am – 8pm Saturday February 6th

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[SuperFly poster by Jen Collins - part of a series]

11am:
Meet us at the Reception entrance of Duncan of Jordonson College of Art & Design. We’ll have a quick chat…and then the tour begins. Join us for some or all of it and come visit us at The Rep for a coffee stop.

11:30am options:
i) See the new exhibition at Cooper Gallery, Public Image, accompanied by a Curator talk & listen to sculptor student Julie Duffy talk about her practice

ii) Meet some graduates from DJCAD who’ll talk about how they’ve got themselves noticed since leaving

iii) Have a private tour of Dalziel + Scullion’s studio space

1pm options:
i) Go to Generator Projects for a private talk and tour

ii) Go to WASPS for a private studio tour

iii) Go to a screening of a film selected by Martin Boyce, with a live soundtrack by saxophonist Raymond MacDonald (please note there is a charge for this event & booking is necessary)

2pm options:
i) Get a rare private walkround of Realtime Worlds

ii) Have an exclusive peek inside the newly renovated McManus Galleries

3pm options:
i) Pop along to The Visual Research Centre

ii) Go to the DCA Print Studio for a private tour

3.45pm:
Hear an exclusive Martin Boyce talk about his No Reflections exhibition at the DCA

5pm options:
i) See the SuperFly Pop-up exhibition at the Hannah MacLure Centre

ii) Hear Yann Seznec talk about his Gelkies exhibition at the Hannah MacLure Centre

iii) Take a look at Handmade Heaven’s handmade wares at the Hannah MacLure Centre

6 – 8pm:
Join us for This is… Sit back and listen to a selection of our members giving quick-fire presentations about their work & practice. Then a chance to chat, mingle, drink and nibble

[Cupcakes by Nikki McWilliams]

I got to meet Superfly Guy who I have exchanged several emails with and circulated info to our students about his projects in the past.

I have been thinking about how the links made can be maintained but my daydreaming has now gone further than that: As I was recounting some of the day during a conversation today with someone who was not able to come it made me think could the Popup Tour happen again next year…..It took a lot of work but it was work done together and benefiting from what each other was doing. It was a collaboration and will hopefully nurture further collaboration. We have Open Doors days and I suppose the Dundee Popup Tour organised by Central Station was a hyper equivalent of that with social media involved! Anyone else interested in doing it all again next year?

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To find out what Dundee Popup was all about or to read more reviews & blogs  from the day, click here.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day, it was ab fab. I loved whizzing around some of Dundee’s finest “arty farty” landmarks, sometimes on foot (hardly) but mostly being driven around in the luxury of a well heated mini bus. What a joy it was to be greeted with chocolate & crisps by Genny, just what was needed to sustain the fast pace of the day.

It all kicked off @ DJCAD where we were greeted by those fine folk from Central Station. The blank looks were a bit disconcerting when introductions were made, but that changed to squeals of delight when instead of using your “Sunday” name, you mentioned your profile user name then recognition set in. So there we were – Sooper Double D, htothep, tartanbaffies & a few others with strange sounding profile names that I didn’t catch getting to know one another. As mentioned later on in the evening, it won’t be long before our passports will ask for such details & you will only be recognised from your choice of avatar.

Introductions over, we were split up into our appropriate groups & off we ventured. My day began with the DJCAD Graduate Showcase, easing me into the tour gently, listening to 3 different & excellent talks while lounging around on the big leather settees. A big thankyou & mention must go out to Jeanette Ginslov, Catt Lee Marr & Jo Hodge (who I have linked here, so go visit their work). Their enthusiasm shone through as they talked about their work & ideas despite the early morning start.

The next stage of my tour took me to Meadow Mills Studios, better known as the WASPS Studios, housed in a former jute mill in Dundee’s industrial heartland. Once more we were kindly greeted & promptly split into manageable groups. It was great to to see into this artistic community where artists, designers, painters, jewellery makers & illustrators all work alongside each other in what is truly a magnificent space. It had that bohemian touch, where each individual personalised their own working space giving a little bit of insight into their personalities. My gratitude goes out to Genna Delaney & Nicola Morrison (jewellery designers) & especially to Lindsey Gardiner (illustrator) who’s work I really admire. Thanks for letting a group of nosey parkers quiz & pry into your working lives & environment.

For the next stage, I had missed the chance to book the exclusive McManus Gallery Tour (fully booked), but to my delight I was told to tag along & see what happens. When my name was added to the list I could have jumped for joy, 4 years this magnificent venue has been closed to us Dundee folk & visiting it on that day was like greeting an old friend. Having that sneak peek was one of my highlights & I can’t wait for the reopening on the 28th February. Please check Gillian Easson’s blog spot for a more in depth account of the tour. Kerri McGowan, our tour guide for the day, was the most perfect person for showing us around as you could feel the love & passion she had for this fantastic building & almost had us running late (which I’m sure some of us wouldn’t have minded).

So from the old to the new, next stop the DCA Print Studios (check out Jon Gill’s blog spot for more info of tour). Being a lapsed member, it was good to be back in familiar surroundings. Scott Hudson, our guide was as enthusiastic on the day as he was a year & a half ago when I was last in the print studios. He explained all the print processes the studio had to offer & was full of encouragement – I think he had an excited group queueing up for membership as I decided it was time to take the weight of my feet & head for The Rep for a nice relaxing pint – (well I had to get myself ready for the evening events laid on later!!)

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To find out what Dundee Popup was all about or to read more reviews & blogs  from the day, click here.

But I will blog about one more thing from the day, which was the tour around the DCA’s Print Studio.

It proved a fantastic opportunity to check out what facilities they have to offer and what classes too. I never knew you could get workshops in Japanese Woodcut Printing!

The example work they had on display was lovely and really inspired me to consider screen and/or lino printing it up at this studio. I remember dabbling in it in college and naively looking into the prices of owning a screen-printing machine. So, I got the impression that this is a really good environment to develop those skills, amongst talented professionals.

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To find out what Dundee Popup was all about or to read more reviews & blogs  from the day, click here.

Realtime Worlds the awards winning game studio makers of Crackdown invited a select few people from Central Station to visit their studio and have a tour.

Colin McDonald gave a great introduction to the studio and let us in on some interesting stats information about how a studio that size starts and runs down developments that last somewhere in the region of 4 years.

As you might imagine the studio in Dundee employs quite a few people, for their latest game APB, which should launch in 2010, they currently have about 200 full time staff working on the game, though the studio in total is about 300. These developers, designers, artists UI experts etc have mostly been sourced from Scotland but about 40% of them have been brought in from around the world as good people are hard to find Colin explained.

Colin then led us out of the board room, where he had given us the intro, and we passed banks of Xboxs, PS3s and a full Rock Band setup. First stop was the testing area, here there were banks of game testers driving, running and most definitely shooting their way around San Paro, the city from APB.

This room was quite amazing, not only did each member of the team have a couple of monitors in front of them, but on 2 of the walls there were 4 meter projected views of the game shown.  On the other walls large screens showing what I can only guess were game stats and information about exactly what was going on in the virtual world at that time.

We then moved up to the sound studio areas where apparently on some days you see the unfortunate site of some poor chickens being punched to record sound effects for the realistic sounds of fight scenes. Colin also explained that some lucky sound engineers, when the studio was working on Crackdown, went out on location around the world to record sound for the different gangs.

Onwards and upwards we made our way up a few flights of stairs to the area where it seemed everything else happened. At Realtime Worlds rather than the teams being split by discipline, everyone is mixed up so concept artists, designers, animators and developers all work in pod type areas of maybe about 15 people. These teams work closely so they are able to share ideas on the part of the project they are working on.

This is where our tour came to an end, I’d really like to thank Colin and the guys at Realtime Worlds for taking the time to let us in to their studio and show us around. As a big fan of Crackdown (the reason I got an Xbox!) it was great to see where the magic happened and to get some insight into their new game APB which does look fantastic.

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To find out what Dundee Popup was all about or to read more reviews & blogs  from the day, click here.

Jon Gill has, by his own admission, a bit of an obsession. Fly Posters. Those little bits of information design normally posted illegally on any available city centre space before being removed and disposed of by the council.

It was during a trip through the centre of town when Jon came across some building work where partitions were erected to filter the shoppers into a bottleneck that led him to his idea. Wouldn’t it be great to use this space as a free gallery for art and design that the whole public could appreciate.

This was a few years ago and at that time Jon used his idea as the basis of a project but never took it any further. It wasn’t until last year when he heard about the NEoN Digital Arts festival in Dundee that Jon resurrected the idea and did some exploration.

He discovered that in Dundee fly postering is legal, sort of. There are designated permanent fly postering spaces and when ever there is building work being carried out there are temporary spaces erected on the protective partitions put up by the builders. These spaces are run by a small company, Street Advertising Services, who rent them out at affordable prices to people that have something to say.

Jon got in touch with the company and presented them a simple proposition. They have spaces for rent that sometimes sit empty. He would run a competition to have artists submit designs and Street Advertising would sponsor the print and allow him to use the spaces. That way they get advertising and he gets his public gallery that he would use to showcase emerging creative talent.

So, thats what happened, last year in October/November the first Superfly exhibition that contained artwork from 7 artists from all corners of the UK went up around the streets of Dundee and was by all accounts a rather good success. Jon even made it onto the news.

Now with Central Station in Dundee Jon has had a chance to use more of the artwork he was sent and create a new set of posters that have brightened up the streets of Dundee again in the run up to yesterdays event. This time he has created some miniature packs containing each of the designs which people can buy to brighten up there own walls.

You can find out more about the designs that Jon chose for Superfly and for the Central Station Dundee Pop-up over at his website.

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To find out what Dundee Popup was all about or to read more reviews & blogs  from the day, click here.

My first foray into Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) was straight into the bowels of the building, as we went down the stairs into the Visual Research Centre (VRC). The VRC is dedicated to practice-led research, and is home to research staff and doctoral students from the Schools of Design, Art & Media.

As a researcher by trade, I am fascinated by archives and research led spaces. It’s such a luxury to have time and space to sit and take in work, theories or products – in a quiet space and in a considered manner, rather than the throng of information that google offers up when carrying out a search. (And the folks at team Censta know what a web lover I am, so that’s a fairly strong comment coming from me!)

We visited 3 spaces at the VRC.

First the Rewind Micro Cinema. A collection of early artists videos, ranging from the 1960s to 1990s. Rewind has catalogued and preserved the works, which are now available to view in a dedicated room at VRC. A small white cinema, with space for 2 or 3 to cosily sit and enjoy an afternoon of secluded viewing. It felt almost like a white washed spanish villa inside, with white curtains and feeling like being cocooned in a serene space. I watched, or listened to one piece, Clapping Songs from Tina Keane (1979 so very much drawing me back to an age that would have me knowing these songs too). I needed to leave, as we had more to visit on our Dundee Popup tour, but would recommend a few hours spent in the VRC to anyone who enjoys immersing themselves in the work.

What also struck me about the VRC was the way in which Rewind has preserved the works. The practitioners who produced the videos have been interviewed to find out where the work was displayed, how it was installed – was it a TV installation, at a festival etc, so the original screening can be recreated.

The Rewind works do tour, but you can also book in time to go and view the videos at the DCA. Get in touch with the Duncan of Jordanstone folks, or visit theRewind site.

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Photo Credit: Ross McLean

We also visited the Centre for Artist Books, and had a peek into a Phd installation about to be unveiled this week, but you’ll have to wait till my next installment to hear about those. As even an internet addict has to go offline sometimes!

Thanks very much to Laura Simpson for the tour and talk.

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To find out what Dundee Popup was all about or to read more reviews & blogs  from the day, click here.

I can’t wait till the McManus Galleries opens, it looks amazing! and the DCA print studio is fantanastic, I’m hopefully going to do a Etching class soon.

Well done Central Station, I’m looking forward to the next Pop Up Tour!

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To find out what Dundee Popup was all about or to read more reviews & blogs  from the day, click here.