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This year sees the opening of Shetland Arts’ much anticipated music, cinema and creative industries centre, Mareel in Shetland’s capital, Lerwick. There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the opening of what will be the most northerly venue of its type in the UK and, for me personally, it’s particularly exciting because it offers a real promise of a bright creative future for Shetland.

image by Mark Sinclair

This future will include audiences enjoying concerts in a purpose built venue; education and production facilities available to the public; and a dedicated cinema with two screens and films shown seven days per week. I’m aware that a dedicated cinema may not sound like much to someone living in the UK Mainland, but such a resource in a community like Shetland is totally indispensable.

While Mareel will act as a hub to Shetland’s exciting creative scene, this unique venue only begins to scratch the surface of what Shetland has to offer.

 
image by Shetland Arts

Traditional Shetland music is well known and played throughout the entire world, but the very best way to experience authentic traditional Shetland music is by visiting one of Lerwick’s pubs, The Lounge, on a Wednesday night when local and visiting musicians alike all gather for an impromptu session.

image by Chris Wright

One of the most exciting developments in the contemporary music scene right now is the Shetland Young Promoters Group – a group of young people who work together to put on and promote their own events throughout the Isles.

Northern Focus Parkour is a group of young people in Shetland that has come together because of Parkour, Free Running and Tricking. NFPK has nearly 40 active members in the community and more wanting to join every week.

image by Shetland Arts

The Garrison Theatre shows a mixture of amateur and professional productions from local groups including Shetland Youth Theatre, Serpentine Drama, Islesburgh Drama Group and a range of different types of dance groups as well as occasional national touring productions.

image by Jono Sandilands/Shetland Arts and Crafts

The Shetland Arts & Crafts Association is a group of craft-makers who run a number of innovative projects such as The Craft Trail which is an excellent and comprehensive introduction to part of Shetland’s creative scene. The Craft Trail facilitates public visits to artist and designers studios, allowing a rare close look at the source of Shetland’s craft-makers’ creativity.

Veer North is a professional association of visual artists set up in 2003 in order to provide a supportive and professional network for artists in Shetland. Their members try to encourage debate while also developing opportunities for artists in Shetland and beyond.

Shameless self promotion time: Also check out Co:Lab – a collective group I am involved in. We meet every week to work on projects together to motivate one another on the never ending quest for creative satisfaction outside our 9-5 jobs. Plus its good fun!

image by North Rock Gallery

image by North Rock Gallery

image by Bonhoga Gallery

Some other great creative points of interest in Shetland including Shetland Museum and Archives , Bonhoga Gallery, North Rock Gallery and Vaila Fine Art. All these venues offer great opportunities to view and buy local, national and international artwork, as well as shopping for great gifts for friends and family.

If you are out and about Shetland then you will need to refuel and there are some great places to do this and get a taste of some fresh local food at the same time. For restaurant food, my top choices are The Scalloway Hotel and Monty’s Bistro, Lerwick. My favorite for pub grub is at The Pierhead Bar and Restaurant in Voe, a brilliant picturesque town, which serves great local food. And for a takeaway

Frankie’s Fish and Chip Shop is the most northerly award winning fish and chip shop in the UK and rumour has it, staff can name the fishing boat that caught your dinner!

Shetland must have the highest amount of festivals per head of population in the UK, if not in the world! Here are a few, I’m sure there’s more.

Up Helly Aa
Shetland Jazz Festival
Shetland Folk Festival
Shetland Nature Festival
Fiddle Frenzy
Shetland Blues Festival
Peerie Willie Guitar Festival
Shetland Accordion and Fiddle Festival
Thomas Fraser Memorial Festival
Shetland Wool Week
Wordplay Book Festival
Screenplay Film Festival
Christmas Craft Fair
Shetland Food Festival

As you can see – we love festivals! That’s 14 every year, so if you plan to visit Shetland at anytime of year, you are spoilt for choice to indulge in some of our creativity!

More about Shetland Arts
For more information about Shetland go to www.SHETLAND.org

Feel free to add any comments or suggestions about your experience of the arts scene in Shetland below.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

Ideas and movements change direction here as rapidly as new Berliners arrive at Tegel Airport.  The huge migration of creative blood in Berlin’s direction over the last 10 years has acted as the oxygen flow that allowed Berlin’s unique cultural landscape to blossom.  Berlin exists in a perpetually restless, unmade state. Contrasted with London or New York,  which are oft-referred to as the art world’s market place, Berlin would rather see itself as a laboratory. A place to experiment where the usual financial pressures of a capital city are looser, and the gallery system places less commercial expectations on the artist.

Berlin’s turbulent history is too long, too complicated and involved to delve in to here, but it is clear it has provided a vacuum with fewer rules and conditions than most creative centres, a vacuum that creatives have endeavoured to fill over the last two decades. I’ve been living and working here for just over a year, and during that time I’ve found myself continually redefining my expectations.

Instead of writing a vague sweeping reduction of what Berlin is today (Something someone who has spent a lot more time here than me, could do a lot better) I thought i’d talk about a few of my favourite cultural spots.  Spaces, groups and exhibitions that have become highlights of my cultural experience in Berlin.

MMX is an open art venue run by a small group of artists, lead by Berlin photographer Jonathan Gröger. Existing for one year only in one of the last un-renovated buildings in Mitte’s gallery district, the non for profit group host exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, and performances on a weekly basis.  MMX really reflects Berlin’s increasingly social focus on exhibiting, creating an environment where people eat, drink and interact surrounded by work of all kinds.

Their recent show “Out of Control” has attempted to draw connections between the artist-curator relationship, leading the gallery in some unexpected directions.

Each week an artists exhibits, the week after, the same artist selects and curates their replacement, for six continuous weeks. Each artist justifies their decisions and motivations for their work, and the choice of artist they selected to replace them.  Leading to some bizarrely appropriate and irregular matches from week to week, eventually finding a synchronous logic by the end.  My favourite being Ivonne Dippmann’s colossal wall illustrations in the court yard area seen below.

The fact MMX will exist for one year only reiterates the temporary nature of Berlin’s art scene, rarely providing opportunity for complacency.

‘Salon Poppulaire’ is a bit of a Berlin secret. An exclusive meeting point for conversation on art and neighboring topics, for the convergence of different ideas, positions and contexts. Organised by the curatorial group ‘The Office’,  they Invite a host of different speakers to extrapolate on a theme, be they artist, curator or writer. They not only provide interesting speakers and topics, but the setting is one of west Berlin’s most renowned galleries.  Topics such as ‘Discussions on friendship’  or “Faith and Money in art” take on a new surreal value when discussed in a space casually populated with artworks by Berlin’s Zeitgeist.

One of Berlin’s more blockbuster attractions over the summer was  Olafur Eliasson’s huge show at the Martin-Gropius Bau, ‘Inner City Out’ .  A grand homecoming of sorts for Eliasson in the most auspicious of locations. Although not a Berliner by birth (Like a great deal of Berliners), Eliasson has lived here for some fifteen years and not only helped define the art landscape of Berlin in that time, but has instigated and guided the redevelopment of Berlin’s more traditional Art School, UDK, in to a more challenging and relevant education institution.

The Exhibition is comprised of 28 individual works that vary in size and scope, most of which are specifically created for the Martin-Gropius Bau. Focused on a playful dialogue between the confines of the interior, the expanse of the city, landscape and architecture, the body and how the self is experienced in these contexts.

Site-specific works within the gallery are tied to a variety of associated pieces scattered throughout the city, amplifying Eliasson’s central motif, the mirror.  When walking through the show (which can be experienced from two different beginning points) there is a moment where you become suddenly aware of how confounded, and inside out your senses have become. Reaching a climax in the form of a gargantuan kaleidoscope, from floor to skylight, that pulls the viewer into a dizzying architecture of infinite reflections.

Inner City Out proved to be one of the Martin-Gropius Bau’s most sucsessful shows of the last few years showing that the Berlin population has an appetite for block buster contemporary exhibitions, alongside the usually safer more traditional shows like their recent  LeCorbusier or Frida Kahlo exhibitions.

Auto-Kino! a show developed by British artist Phil Collins and Siniša Mitrović featured at the Temporäre Kunsthalle this summer,  presented a rotating program of artists’ videos and a varied selection of classic films. The difference being that the temporary gallery space was transformed by a graveyard of second hand cars creating a stationary indoor drive-in cinema.

The set-up playfully reevaluated the form in which video art is typically encountered, replacing its austere contemporary trappings with an almost extinct format of engagement. Featuring over 100 separate video works that take a tour through every major development in the cinematic language from the 1920’s onwards. Focusing largely on the base emotional wiring of the moving image and the notions of representation and authenticity that are intrinsic to the cinematic mode.

It was one of my favourite shows of the summer, and along with the his work in the Berlin Biennale and his recent film “”I Am My Mother” shown at Daadgalerie, Phil Collins has really transitioned well from Glasgow to his new base, Berlin.

I hope that small selection of my favorites of the last few months gives you a small idea of the scope of what is available on a weekly basis in Berlin.  This city continues to be a supportive habitat for artists of every level. The vacuum shows no signs of being filled any time soon.

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

This is her creative scene.

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Belfast is a buzzing little city attracting global events such as MTV’s  European Music Awards  and brands such as Hollister whilst remaining true to its indie roots.

From music, to art, to food there is a real pride in anything that can be stamped with a ‘made in Belfast’ tag.  For me, my creative scene can be found throughout Belfast from the bars and coffee shops, to festival and parks.

Belfast has some of the best pubs in the world. The Duke of York is ‘the’ arty hangout, a traditional old man’s pub, with traditional Irish Music and lots of dark corners. It always has a great buzz about it. On the first Thursday of the month ‘Late Night Art’ takes place, galleries open late, new shows are previewed and lots of cheap wine is drunk. Come 9 o’clock the galleries close and everyone heads to the Duke for a pint.

Duke of York

If you fancy a quieter drink, then the Garrick is the place to be. A great bar with an even greater selection of beer and board games. A pint and a game of Jenga is my favourite way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Runaway Go
It’s fair to say that over the years Belfast has produced an eclectic musical overture from the Undertones, ‘Teenage Kicks’ to Van Morison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’. Whilst the past is great, the future is better and in a couple of weeks the EMA’s are coming to town, what’s really exciting is the coinciding Belfast Music Week programme which is designed to showcase local talent. Some of my favourite local bands that are doing well for themselves include, runaway GO, Cashier no. 9 and Pocket Billiards. My favourite place to hear great new music is the Glasgowbury Music festival -it’s just a pity it only happens once a year!

Belfast Children’s Festival

For visual inspiration you can’t beat the Ulster Museum, Belfast Exposed (photography gallery) or Ormeau Baths (contemporary art gallery).  I’m really excited for the opening of MAC next year, the largest purpose built gallery in Belfast.

And I guess I can’t really talk about my creative scene without talking about Belfast’s blooming brilliant Festival Scene. Every month a new one springs up. My picks are the Belfast Children’s Festival – amazing, mind blowing international theatre. Out to Lunch festival, happens in January tickets cost a fiver and your lunch is included- what’s not to love! Finally I have to also mention the Cathedral Quarter Art’s Festival, brilliant programme, great venues, and lots of craic.

I guess the only problem with living in a city that is so happening is that it’s hard to get your head down and actually do some work!

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

I’m just discovering stuff as I go along. And I will be sharing it all here – I’m not just looking for new venues – but general creative stuff that is happening in the city. Meeting up with like-minded people and uncovering all that goes on. So this blog will have a slant towards music and music photography but could feature anything that’s interesting and creative. Like my new favourite venue in the Oost (east): Delicatessen – which is a cafe/bar/gallery/movie theatre – all in a compact and delectable space.(http://www.delicatessenzeeburg.nl).

After walking past it many-a-time and never actually going in (tsk, tsk), I uncovered the delights of this little venue, mainly thanks to the art-and-general-good-stuff listings of Unfold Amsterdam, a very useful website and a free poster publication with top tips on what’s happening in the city. http://www.unfoldamsterdam.nl/art-listings/

It was on a random Thursday when we had a bank holiday for Hemelvaart (Ascension Day) and I went on a ‘Musical Tour of the East’ which was organised by the good folk of Delicatessen and the many people that helped make this a very special festival for a samll group of 25 people. We took off walking the streets around the neighbourhood, no idea what was going to happen or what we might see. And I thought I might just include some of the shots here that I took to document this expedition. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, I think you’ll get the idea – the first ‘stop’ on the tour was in someone’s living room where we climbed in through the window. And we also stopped at a school, a fantastic old-fashioned printing workshop, a house on my street, and then back to Delicatessen for some poetry and more music. Anyway, on with the photos…

The starting point:

Stop #1 (performance by Lady Lady and the Boy, in the boy’s living room):

Stop #2 was at the printing workshop (http://grafischwerkcentrum​amsterdam.nl/). The generosity of the organisers and hosts was second to none, with drinks and nibbles and ice lollies (and deck chairs!) laid on at many of the venues (well, this was the only one with deck chairs…). The band that played here was Meet Pip:

Stop #3 - We tried to get Gloria (our tour guide) to tell us where we were going next and she explained how it was TOP SECRET until the very last moment…. rumour had it though that we were headed to my street… and yep, sure enough, here were were a doors down from where I live, where our host was hanging off the balcony to welcome us with the man behind it all Bas (from Deli). The performance here was of NYC singer-songwriter Andrew Vladeck:

Then we were off again to Stop #4 - to be entertained by the Showdog duo:

And after a bit of a detour we were welcomed by Bas at Stop #5 (a school I think)  and local band Uinko Eerenstein:

And before we know it, we’re back at Delicatessen for poetry (Joshua S. Baumgarten) and music (The Bellbines):

So, that’s a whistle-stop tour of Amsterdam Oost! Discovering this sort of event is an ace way to find out more about the city and I’ll be on the look out for other such events. For now, Delicatessen is the home of my new Dutch class that I started yesterday. So, these things always lead onto other things. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Cheers,
Carmel

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

Papergirl is coming to Manchester. Papergirl is an art project from Berlin where in the style of American paper-boys, rolled art pieces will be distributed by bicycle in the streets of Manchester to random passers-by. You can submit as many pieces or copies as you like before 1st September.

But what are you going to submit? Here’s our essential guide to Manchester.

Start the day off with some breakfast at Koffee Pot.  The art maybe on the shutters but the food is good and you’ll need bags of energy for the day ahead
[Koffee Pot, 21 Hilton Street, Stevenson Square,Northern Quarter, M1 1JJ]

Pop round the corner to Magma to indulge in international design magazines and books. Check out Papergirl Berlin in Urban Interventions, featuring 256 pages of personal projects in public spaces.  Try to resist spending a month’s wages on books and t-shirts. Instead opt for an issue of boneshaker magazine, full or articles, stories and anecdotes about people doing great things with bicycles (look out for issue 3 in October).  Don’t forget to pick up a free copy of Article magazine on the way out – made in Sheffield, Article features art, design, music and urbanism.[Magma Books, 22 Oldham Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester M1 1JN]

Further down Oldham Street you’ll find Mooch N4, a small gallery representing some of the best emerging street artists. Their current show ‘Natural Selection’ is a series of work on canvas and pieces of salvaged wood, by Sheffield based Faunagraphic and Rocket01. The exhibition closes on Saturday 14th of August. Pop round for a brew and a chat Wednesday-Saturday, 11am-6pm.
[Mooch N4, 88 Oldham Street, Northern Quarter, M4 1LF]

Check out Papergirl Manchester artist TXLW exhibition at the Chinese Arts Centre. TXLW describes her work as evolving, endearing, sporadic and predominantly image based. Notes to Self visitors are invited to write a note to self and place it in a TXLW bird box. Pick up a TXLW handscreened notebook with recycled paper whilst your there.
[Chinese Arts Centre, Market Buildings, Thomas Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester,M4 1EU]

Now you’ve found your inspiration head down to Fred Aldous to pick up some materials. Established in 1886, you’ll find everything you need to turn your ideas into art.
[Fred Aldous, 37 Lever Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M1 1LW]

So your pockets are busting with art materials and you could probably do with re-fuelling. Go straight to Common for some food*, drink, art and music. Get out your sketchbook and start working on your Papergirl Manchester submission, whilst checking out the exhibition ‘An Apple A Day’ by DR ME.

*I recommend the veggie chilli.
[Common, 39 to 41 Edge Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1HW]

It’s time to print your Papergirl Manchester submissions at Hot Bed Press, where the printmaking facilities cost just £2.00 per hour to members. Hot Bed Press is a not-for-profit open access print workshop, dedicated to supporting anyone with an interest in printmaking. Facilities include equipment for screen printing, etching, drypoint, collagraphs, relief printing and other related processes. They also host a series of courses and workshops.
[Hot Bed Press, Printmakers' Studio, 1st Floor, The Casket Works, Cow Lane, Salford, M5 4 NB]

Now you have created your Papergirl submission, drop it off at Nexus Art Café where you can enjoy some tea and cake, take a look at the latest installation and take part in the events from crafternoons to life drawing.
[Nexus Art Café, Dale Street, M1 1JW]

Now you have submitted your work to Papergirl Manchester await details of the upcoming exhibition and distribution. To find out more visit http://papergirlmanchester.tumblr.com/ 

Or join us on facebook or follow us on twitter.

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

I went back home to see my family in Finland in the end of June, and spent a few days with my sister in Turku, which is currently European Capital of Culture 2011. This is what I saw and did.

Due to Turku being Cultural City of Europe there are plenty of cultural things to see and do. Although, even when the city has less than 180 000 people, it has tons of museums and galleries and vibrant artist community already anyway. Turku 2011 is just bringing it all to the attention of tourists.

Flux Aura which is part of Turku 2011 has brought Finnish and international environmental art by the banks of River Aura. It features 12 different artworks situated in the river, in nearby parks, on and under the bridges, in buses and paving stones. I saw four pieces of work whilst just wondering around: The Sea Frills (under a bridge and made out of thousands of reflectors), Balancing (flock of large elders in the river), Flowerdrops (made out of recycled plastic) and Motive Ships (soft sculptures hanging from the trees by the riverside reminiscent of votive ships in old churches). I was a bit disappointed to miss Candy Chang’s Career Path which invited passersby to reflect their life journey by filling in blanks in sentences on the pavement.

Riverbanks are a hub of activity during the summer months. There are people drinking (it’s illegal to drink in public in Finland but the police doesn’t mind just as long as you can behave yourself), having naps, having picnics and even dancing…

The main venue of Turku 2011 is Logomo -a brand new, so new infect that it’s still under construction (it won’t be fully completed until 2014), cultural centre near city centre (and literally two minute walk away though a foresty path from my sister’s house). The building used to be owned by Finnish Railway and sort of reminded me of Tramway in Glasgow (although Logomo is absolutely massive). Logomo has 4 different exhibitions at the moment all lasting until the end of the year: Alice in Wonderland, Tom of Finland, Fire! Fire!, and Only a Game. There are also 2 pieces on loan from Kiasma.

Alice in Wonderland was supposed to have ‘a loose narrative with a wide range of international artists using lens-based maid, who lead us to consider what is present’. We thought it was a little bit too loose and disjointed. I really enjoyed works by Hanna Haaslahti (Real-Time Family picked up most recent photo uploads from Flicrk, and Space of Two Categories had a small child dancing in your shadow – when you moved the little girl moved too), Jan Mancuska, Tuomo Rainio (I ended up looking at his artist book for a while), Nelli Palomaki, Alain Paiement, and Trish Morrissey. I wish I had had more time to appreciate Christian Marclay‘s Looking for Love.

Tom of Finland exhibition was supposed to be a retrospective of Touko Laaksonen‘s lifetime work. It wasn’t. We were really disappointed by the curation and lack range of work on show. We would have wanted to read more stories behind the works, where they were published and so on. Now we just got a tiny room with walls covered with pictures of naked/seminaked men, and a documentary running in the corner of the room.

Fire! Fire! was also a disappointment. We were expecting a comprehensive exhibition about fire that happened in Turku in 1827, instead we got rooms filled with bits and bobs connected very loosely with fire (from barbecues to old fire engines). In the entrance hall there was also a football exhibition by UEFA and I ended up seeing some famous footballers’ tops and playing videogames. Even considering that Logomo was a disappointment made even more bitter by the cost: it cost 18 euros to see all the exhibitions.

Museums and exhibitions are rarely free in Finland. I could have also gone to see David Shrigley animations in Turku Art Museum, but the cost of 8 euros stopped me. I found myself thinking why should I pay 8 euros when I can see his work for free back in Scotland. I also found myself thinking that my attitude is probably wrong and it is good to support art museums, centres and galleries.

Another thing I missed was Art Saunas : four saunas designed by different artists and constructed in different areas of Turku. What I made sure was that I didn’t miss any of the ordinary Finnish woodburning saunas though: I took plenty of advantage of them.

When my sister was showing me around the city, she also took me to the Turku Main Library. It’s a beautiful, welcoming building which combines the old building and new multimillion euro extension which has state of the art borrowing systems, cozy reading corners, computers, wifi, art exhibitions… It made me really jealous and a bit bitter to think what the libraries are in UK and what they will become in the near future. You could see loads of people just hanging about, reading, chatting to each other, kids browsing books whilst sitting on beanbags…

I just couldn’t resist taking a photo of the PIzza place where you can now get Beckham Special due to certain famous footballer ordering pizzas from there whilst he was in Finland having an operation.

What’s a creative scene without places where you can go and meet your friends? Hmmn, not sure other than not much fun, but Turku has plenty of pubs and bars to choose from too. You have your trendy bars in the city centre, and more clinical family restaurants. But nothing beats having a drink on board one of the boats (they don’t move anywhere other than side to side making you tiny bit queasy if you’ve had one too many). We spent quite a while one evening having a couple of drinks and just people watching, and as it doesn’t get dark until around midnight, time seems to fly really fast. You also have your old man’s pubs which haven’t changed their interior or clients for over 30 years, your artier places where all the famous actors and other creatives went 20 years ago, and your a bit rough pubs where the arty, but not so famous folk go these days, and old school buildings which have been converted to pubs with massive beer gardens… So many excellent pubs, so little time, and definitely so little money as drinks aren’t cheap in Finland.

Every time I’m in Finland I need to visit a shop called Televisio. They store bags, jewellery, and clothes from Finnish designers and labels such as Globe Hope, IVANAHelsinki and Dead Birds & Lion Heart. And again, I couldn’t resist buying myself a couple of bags and jewellery. Turku has also several other design and vintage shops, and independent record and book shops. The streets have character due to shops being so varied. Of course you see the chain stores too, but it is so much more fun to spot the more unique shops with their more individual products.

You can still also see remnants of recent Eurocultured event.

On my last day in Finland I visited the big Medieval Market – an annual festival in Turku. It was boiling hot, full of people, and had so much to see. A group of actors dressed in medieval clothes were wondering amongst all the people, staying in character. It made you feel like you were in the middle of some sort of absurd play. Also all the vendors had to be selling more traditional wares. I really enjoyed it (minus the soap makers’ stall with hooves and fat on show and the roasted pig) and spent hours just walking about.

I finished my day by going see a puppet show ‘John Eleanor’ about an English medieval crossdresser. I absolutely loved it. It mixed fact and fiction (mostly fact, pointing out the bits that might have not happened), and it was amazing to see such a talented puppeteer at work: I can’t quite look at hands ion the same way ever again. It had been roasting at the attic where the play was shown, and after I left at 10pm (and it was still warm enough not to even wear a cardigan) I went to get some ice-cream and watched some people playing music in one of the parks. It was a lovely way to finish my holiday.

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

Well, perhaps not one really BIG daunting prospect, but lots of little teeny tiny daunting prospects – learning the language, the application for residency, does one pay tax here or back in Scotland, affording to live here on the money I make, whether to have money paid into my Scottish account, or whether to have a Swedish Account, should I make myself more expensive here, who to talk to about such things, clearing up debt back in the UK, paying off Student Loans (or not paying them if not making enough money), maintaining work relationships back in Scotland and convincing previous clients, employers, buyers that living in Sweden will not be an obstacle should they wish me to work/supply art for them.

There’s also the fact that I’m a 32 year old woman, with no capital aside from a rather large collection of artwork, and a heap load of stuff gratefully hoarded in my parents’ attic.  (Seriously, there are over 100 boxes, portfolios, sentimental items in there – should they insanely decide to move house in the next year, I’m stuffed. No amount of cheap Ryan air flights are going to cover that bitty beast – picture that bent grey old hag from the Jim Henson film Labyrinth with all her belongings on her back…).

So how did I end up moving to Sweden anyway?  Well, I guess it all started when a very good friend of mine Charlotte, who’s Swedish, asked a group of us if we wanted to go to Berlin for the 20^th anniversary of the wall coming down. I had just completed a great couple of well paid projects and thought ‘F**k it, I deserve a ‘trip’ somewhere, and this would be an amazing event to draw. It would be a good reason to test-‘draw’ the drawing application on my NOKIA phone too’.

Long story short, I came to Berlin, stayed with Charlotte’s Swedish friend who part-owns a holiday apartment there. His name was Mattias, he was greatly intrigued by my drawings and I guess by me too. That was back in 2009.  I’ve now just moved in with him here in Stockholm – the commute was killing me. J

It’s a decision that feels right to me, but there are also a lot of other issues on my mind. Is he the one? Am I right for him?  Do I want to have children? How does his IT job, where he gets up at 6.30am and goes to bed about 10pm, fit in with my propensity to get up around 9.30/10am and head to bed at the earliest 1am?  Can I as an artist be inspired when imposing a 9-5 working regime on myself?  Will I hate him for ‘making’ me work more sensible hours just so I can see him some evenings?  Will I hate it if I don’t get to see him as much as I want to?  How can I contribute to this relationship equally if he currently and more regularly makes WAY more money than I do?  Should I get a part time job? CAN I get a part time job if I don’t know Swedish?  Is it going to take away from my job as an artist, or might it improve my Swedish to better aid getting creative work?  Is Stockholm too young, hip, corporate and image conscious for an aging, chubby, broody mare like me?  Where indeed is the creative scene, and do I want to be part of it?  Indeed, what creative scene was I part of back in Scotland, and really, does anyone actually care?

Gads, enough of my neurosis!

But nay, there are supporting facts.  My parents are getting ‘old’, I’m suddenly getting more conscious of staying in touch with friends and loved ones since it appears that if they haven’t got married off, are having kids, not getting out much because of the costs of mortgages, having a family, pets, affected by spending cuts, redundancy, house possessions, then they’re in a different country, or very sadly, they’re dying.  I feel like Rip Van Winkle suddenly waking up to an old new reality. Why in God’s name did I not start saving money, investing for when I’m old and grey, why did I fritter all my money on good times, travelling and creating my art?  I can thankfully be honest that I have frittered most of my money on creating my art, and surviving in the times when my art has not been making any money. It better all be worth it.

(I had an image for here in my head, but unfortunately it stayed there).

I moved to Glasgow 3 years ago after living at my folks for 2 years while I set myself up as a fully fledged visual/documentary artist. I got to do a lot of really exciting things, draw a lot of great original live music, theatre and other miscellaneous events, find new technologies for drawing, and discover so many new and wonderful people to collaborate with – mostly in the last 7 months of my stint in Glasgow…Before all that I lived in Taiwan for 3 years, so I should be better prepared for heaving myself off to a place of different culture, learning a new language, experiencing a different climate…

So here I am, starting again in not only a new city, but one where just finding out how to get a simple giclée print (never mind getting a cocktail for under £9!) is an arduous task.  I have however already started making contacts in the past year of visits, particularly regards the original music and arts scene having drawn Lustmord, Lloyd Cole, Florence & The Machine, The Black Heart Procession, and favourite gig so far here – Mogwai supported by RM Hubbert – great to see these awesome Scottish counterparts.  Regards Sweden’s stars, well my biggest ambition so far is draw any re-incarnation of The Knife, Fever Ray in particular.  In general, I’m just looking forward to learning more about the music and arts scene of the country that is the third in the world for exporting music and who’s design industry is legendary.  (I’ve also yet to see the original Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson although I managed to rip through the books)

I’ve also discovered Platform Stockholm – a collective of artists and a hub of creativity not too far from where I’m staying. I’ve signed up to various galleries and plan on doing a ‘gallery crawl’ sometime very soon. Moreover, I’ve made some great Swedish contacts and friends both at home in Scotland, and here – well, I guess it’s definitely my second home now – and am actually really looking forward to the wealth of potential projects to be involved in between the two countries, remembering that it’s only a cheap Ryanair/Norwegian air flight away (must also remember to do good deeds concerning the environment for every carbon footprint I make!).

I guess I should also mention that I got to draw at last year’s prestigious Polar Music Prize for Björk and Ennio Morricone – that was certainly one of the highlights of my life, Björk in particular being one of my all time idols, and experiencing the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra first playing Ennio Morricone’s music, and then hers – both of them sitting about 8 seats away from me with the Swedish Royal Family – absolutely awe-inspiring.  Here’s a picture of Robyn singing Björk’s Hyperballad.

And, (suppresses stupid girly blushing giggle) I have the total unbelievable honour of getting to draw this year too, though this time I’m actually ‘officially’ documenting. I shall also be drawing no other earth shattering combination than the (swoon!) Patti Smith and the incredible Kronos Quartet.  I shall play it cool though.  (Cough). I’ll be drawing them do their talks the day before, which the Polar Music Prize affiliates will then make into prints to be presented in gift bags to all the music/arts/art glitterati attending the ceremony. What a way to get introduced to the Swedish music and arts scene!

So I guess I have nothing to grumble about. AT ALL.

Nonetheless, here I am fervently settling in as much as possible, being domesticated (just did two loads of washing, drying, folding), made the bed (I mean, who DOES that? Isn’t art more important??  No. I need my bed made mathematically neat before I can progress with my creative day – seriously).  I’m doing it from the ‘confines’ of my new abode, a very tiny south facing 2^nd floor bed-sit that I have to state is more than self-sufficient and very cosy.  It has the most glorious pine tree right outside so that all you can see is the sunlight shining through a spectrum of colours, shades, densities, textures which in turn create the most interesting reflections on the wall. This sunshine wakes me in the morning, which is helping me adjust to the same waking hours as my other half.

I’ve also been cycling, swimming, walking, camping, jumping into lakes, SUNBATHING for goodness sake! All giving me bag loads of happy energy, something I wasn’t great at experiencing back in Scotland. Sweden is also one of the best nations for parenting since both parents get a much better equilibrium of maternity and paternity time – I’ve never seen so many dads out with kids of all ages. In fact, I’ve actually seen more dads with kids, than mums. So if having a family is one of the things that happens – it’s definitely not on the cards just now while I set myself up – I should have a lot more support to be a ‘working mum’.  Not that I know what that will comprise of being a freelance visual artist/documenter/sometime art educator.

All I know is, moving myself and my creative practice to Sweden is a great unknown, but I have the artistic licence and luckily the belief/support of those closest to me to make the leap. I’m not doing it on my own, and what creative successes I do have are pretty much down to my own sheer bloody-mindedness to never give up, do the best I can and keep on drawing.  This relationship was founded on drawing, thus will continue being fundamental.  Just like I did when I started my stint in Glasgow, I will keep drawing, wherever I am, whatever I am doing…Everything is my creative scene.

Keep an eye on my progress here – http://drawingsweden.wordpress.com/

You can also see a bigger archive of my drawing the live original music and arts scene in Scotland here – http://www.jennysoep.blogspot.com

Keep abreast of random twitters here – www.twitter.com/jennysoep

Like me on facebook here – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jenny-Soep-Drawing-The-Experience/162856643761735

ALSO!! Last few days to check out my solo show at the Arches if you’re in Glasgow – until this Sunday - http://www.thearches.co.uk/events/arts/jenny-soep-drawing-time-and-attention-an-audience-member

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

New York has a certain “tough love” way about it.  It takes its residents and beats them down unrelentingly.  Those who make it through the city’s trials become stronger and with a sense of pride for being tough enough to last.  These “trials” come from all sides.  Long, quick paced workdays for barely enough to cover rent, cramming oneself into a full subway train like a sardine every morning for the commute to work, the constant buzz of life and the jungle of concrete and stone that covers every inch.

For people in the creative field, it can be even worse.  Battling for the single job that hundreds of other equally qualified artists also applied.  Why do it, you may ask?  It’s definitely a love/hate relationship, but the question I aim to answer is not why, but how.  So here is an animator’s perspective on surviving in New York.
For me, escapism is the most important way to cope with city life.  It’s about finding a way to seperate myself from the stresses that surrond me.  Without doing that, I would have surely given up and left the city long before now.  So these are the places that I go to find a little time away.

Parks
It may not sound that special, but when the only “nature” we can get near to is a couple block square with some grass and trees, it really does feel like a different world.  A few steps into Central Park and the tall trees block out the skyline and within a five minute walk of a subway, you can fool yourself into thinking you are no where near the city.  For a less populated area, Prospect Park in Brooklyn is the way to go, mostly frequented by the nearby residents enjoying the fact that Manhattanites are afraid of leaving the island.  But whether it is Central Park, Prospect Park or one of the many other small parks that are scattered throughout the city, it’s one of the best places to be able to sketch.  Sketch something other than the rigid grid of streets and buildings.  It’s a place to get a feel for nature, while still staying a stone’s throw from public transportation.  The people in them, excited to feel grass under their feet as well, become much more animated and grerat subjects to draw or paint.

Bronx Zoo
One of my favorite places to escape from city life is the Bronx Zoo.  It’s easy to get lost in this massive area filled with animals (just ask the cobra) and far enough from the hustle and bustle that the constant city noise is no where to be found.  Come spring, there are always people setting up zoo visits to go sketch as a group.

American Museum of Natural History
The natural history museum is another great place I’ve found to sketch, although the rooms can get a bit dark depending on where you are.  There is something for everyone here from dinosaurs, to ancient artifacts, to animals.  And the best part of these animals is they stay perfectly still for you.

Dr. Sketchy’s
Although it’s not just a NYC thing, Dr. Sketchy’s anti-art school was started here.  Their bi-weekly burlesque drawing sessions are figure drawing sessions in a less rigid atmosphere.  It tends to be a group of like-minded illustrators and artists there as much to socialize as they are to draw.  And like many other social events in NYC, it takes place in a bar which helps with its relaxed feel.

MoCCA
The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is a great organization that hosts various events throughout the year, bringing a variety of amazing speakers.  They also have a yearly comic art festival every April, which may not make you rich, but provides a great opportunity for artists to show off their work and network with each other.  I participated this year with some friends and we all decided that if we got nothing else out of it, it gave us a deadline to get a finished piece of work done by.

And finally, what about those times we can’t escape the city?  There is no other choice but to try and make the best of it.  On those long commutes, we pull out our sketchbooks and go to town!  The subway is the best place for finding people people holding a pose for a good amount of time.  And whether it’s the partied-too-long type, the confused tourist, or the irritated commuter, there never fails to be some interesting poses.

Although I may be living in New York mostly so I can be an artist, it’s that same art that lets me relax and enjoy New York despite its tough love.

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

Mexico City is like no other I have ever experienced.   A city of extremes drenched in traditional values yet radically liberalised in recent years. A vast sprolling metropolis with ample breathing space.  The world’s richest man lives and walks amongst some of the poorest.  Perhaps it is it’s antiquity or turbulant past or the gentle hum of the city but something takes hold and resonates inside you long after you leave.

There are over 22 million people living in the city, making it the third largest city in the world.  I travelled the equivalent distance of Glasgow to Dundee, Dundee to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to Glasgow to view one art gallery.  Euthanasia is legal. Every Sunday morning the current mayor, Marcelo Ebrarad, closes the main motor thoroughfares to traffic allowing cyclists and skateboarders free access to the city’s roads. Venders sell hand-cooked crisps (better than Kettle Crisps) on the street corners. Mexican’s eat chilli lime and salt with everything.

Galleries and or sights of interest in no particular order:
Roja Artspace, House of Gaga, OMR, PerrosNegros Palcio De Bellas Artes, Teotihuacán, Arróniz, MUCA, Coyoacán, Museo Frida Kahlo, Museo Léon Trotsky, Ciudad Universitaria Biblioteca Central, Espacio Escultórico, Galería Nina Menocal, Torre Latinoamericana,  Cuauhtémoc, Museo Nacionel De Antropologia, Condesa y Roma.

I also made a zine entitled Chilli Lime Salt which you can download here.

an installation by artist Morelos Leon Celis

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

But for your consideration this is a description of the communities which form the San Francisco visual arts, an overview published in the archives of Shotgun magazine, which now forms part of the brilliantly composed online publication Art Practical: What Defines the Bay Area Visual Arts Community

To describe San Francisco will be for me a description of the very active engineers of my experiences here; most often these individuals are my friends, but nevertheless they have assisted in the ‘scripted’ narrative that that has facilitated or enabled my ‘screenplay’ here of denizen, transient, ghost, hallucination and authentic pseudonym:

David Cunningham Projects
Enter Slowly at The Lab, curated by David Cunningham features the work of European artists Anna Barham, Cath Campbell, Maud Cotter, Laura Gannon, Alexandra Navratil, and Linda Quinlan. Cunningham’s space, DCP, in Folsom Street is now closed, but during its short-lived (2007-2010) incarnation, it presented a sumptuous array of screening, performances and shows formed from Cunningham’s interest in the trajectories of vivid and immersive aesthetics bonded to conceptual variations on gender, queer and performative procedures best seen in his screenings of Kenneth Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle, which includes the films Scorpio Rising, Invocation of My Demon Brother, and Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, the psychedelic group show Jigsawmentallama, featuring Grant Worth, Sonja Nilsson, Ryan Trecartin, Jack Smith and Kalup Linzy, the video installation of selected works by Lukas Beyeler and the radical The Fall and Michael Clark themed group show, residency and performance re-enactments I Am Kurious Orange, guest curated by the independent curator and elegant operator, artist Anne Colvin. Enter Slowly for The Lab, situated in the Mission offers artists “preoccupied with the ways in which architecture, language and memory function as framing devices and filters deployed in the manipulation of perception and the construction of ‘meaning’”.

Ishan Clemenco, Afterlight and Leaving Colours Time
Clemenco’s current solo show Leaving Colours Time at Noma Gallery in Maiden Lane (a gallery sitting on a narrow street filled with expensive boutiques: Chanel, Hermès, Marc Jacobs, and YSL) is a considered, authorative, minimal installation, a hybrid inquiry on colour, sound and space: chalk lines, powdered residue and vivid colour gels evoke a process of fragile ‘instrumentation’. A former composer Clemenco lifts a sonic atmosphere onto pure iridescent surfaces, a notation on sound as architecture best seen on a transparent role with white and orange lines framing the clutter, offices, buildings and exteriors outside of this deliberate, serene mechanism. On the 8 January the gallery launched an accompanying 10 inch vinyl recording, pressed onto lurid yellow vinyl, feature two tracks: Afterlight and Untitled (typewriter) dedicated to the Danish composer and frequent Beuys collaborator Henning Christiansen and the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. Afterlight is a fragment of a cycle work using found pianos discovered in old churches, theatres and music rooms, where the instruments were found to have “atmospherically’ tuned themselves. The reverse side is a recording of an old typewriter engaged in a wordless communication. Together these works deliberate on the materials of their making and engagement: void technologies (vinyl, typewriters, clockwork film cameras and optical gels) reasserting their value, tuning themselves to the resonances (beyond the bulk and burden of the digital, simulated or saturated) of quiet seductiveness.

Karla Milosevich and Right Window Gallery
Right Window is part of a species of artist-run spaces in San Francisco and elsewhere that provides a platform for ingenuity, emergence, experimentation and assumes a flexible immediate and considered curatorial track. Occupying a space and window, to present 24 hour activities: video, performance, installations, it is run, with some fervor by a group of artists, curators, musicians and writers, a model in multi-tasking and self-empowerment: Dodie Bellamy, Katie Bush, Craig Goodman, Cliff Hengst, Scott Hewicker, Kevin Killian, John Koch, Cheryl Meeker, Karla Milosevich, Paula Pereira, Jocelyn Saidenburg, and Wayne Smith. I  have a particular affinity to Milosevich’s interests and forays  into the genre and phenomenon of ‘covers’ pop bands and the appeal of the pop video, the amateur video as artwork seen in her collaborative gendered alternative recreations of songs from The Fall, Scritti Politti, Kraftwerk and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The correspondence of pop and punk cultures framed by visual art DIY and DJ cultures and lo-fi aesthetics remains a tendency in my practice and one that I explored with a number of artists, including Milosevich, at my group show Heavy Influence at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in 2009.  Meanwhile her recent series of Cyanotype videos, places video portraits of her friends and colleagues into the language of blueprints and altered chemically stimulated, photographic processes and manipulated perceptions. Screened at night they echo “another unusual characteristic of the cyanotype is its regenerative behaviour: prints that have faded due to prolonged exposure to light can often be significantly restored to their original tone by simply temporarily storing them in a dark environment.”. She uses this ‘characteristic’ and these technologies to regenerate through the screen her relationships to these individuals using the process as a restorative construct. They inhabit similar concerns to the blue-infused photography of Catherine Yass and the relationships, complexities and intricacies between the individual and a broader social, cultural map of the works of Gillian Wearing: “I’m always trying to find ways of discovering new things about people, and in the process discover more about myself.”

Christine: Green Fingers: Israel

Anne Colvin
Colvin, an Edinburgh-born US-based artist and independent curator best known for her gallery space Tart, which brought artists like Douglas Gordon, Duncan Campbell, Graham Fagen, Stephen Sutcliffe and Luke Fowler for the first time to the Bay Area, her contribution to No Soul for Sale, New York, and a sequence of events contiguous to her publication series Skank Bloc Bologna – inspired by Semina, a free-form journal published sporadically by artist Wallace Berman and his circle in California in the 1950s and 1960s – continues to push the envelope with a recent series of presentations at the Berkeley Art Museum’s L@te Friday Nights programme. Here she has presented, in a broad socially-minded circumstance, a reenactment of Jack Goldstein’s Two Fencers (1977) by Laura Glass and Keith Tsang, members of the Cal Fencing Club, The Greens, a Scritti Politti cover band with local artists Cliff Hengst, Scott Hewicker, Kota Uetsu, and Karla Milosevich, The Beast in Space—a 1980s Euro-sleaze space saga, unearthed in the basement of a condemned Bologna porn cinema and Fool Me, the voice issue of Fools in Print—a Scottish artist-run press edited by Lucy Keany and commissioned by New Media Scotland. Colvin summarizes: “I create experiences that draw on sources such as literature, music, and film. My video and photo-based work and hybrid curatorial projects explore psychological investigations in time and the deconstruction/construction of the image… Be prepared for outrageous outtakes, meditative moments, stunning sojourns, raucous rituals, earnest explorations, sonic surprises, and eccentric egos.”

Margaret Tedesco, 2nd Floor Projects
Similar to Alhena Katsof’s A. Vermin project artist and curator Tedesco presents exhibitions in a back-room in her apartment. She presents solo exhibitions and group shows accompanied by editions, prints, writing by a corresponding cultural producer. Recent shows include paintings by Bruno Fazzolari, photography by Daniel Minnick, drawing and collage by Matt Burroso and video by Nao Bustamante and editions by the likes of Larry Rinder.

SFMoMA and Yerba Buena
Currently at the Museum of Modern Art is The More Things Change which “draws from their collection to present a range of works made since 2000, offering a selective survey of the art of the last 10 years and a thematic and psychological portrait of the decade. Revealing the museum’s collection as a seismograph of shifts in contemporary culture, this continually evolving exhibition considers how the past persists in the present and how art engages with the world at large.” Collaboratively curated across the museum’s different departments, it is sequenced across themes of fragmentation, fragility, entropy, metamorphosis, and reconfiguration, its highlights include works by Rachel Harrison, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, and Pae White, elsewhere in the museum’s current survey of its 75-year histroy are gems by works by Tom Marioni, Marilyn Minter and an elegant sound piece by Bill Fontana. Across the street at Yerba Buena Centre for Arts is a show dominated by a “reversal the role of the audience from that of spectator to subject, exposing the dramatic mechanisms underlying public gatherings of people. By focusing the viewer’s attention on the characteristics and behaviors of individuals in a group environment – body language, facial expressions, attitudes, gestures and actions – the artists challenge our perceptions about participation in civic life.” Audience as Subject offers up mainly video work, the highlight being Stefan Constantinescu’s film, Troleibuzul 92 (2009), which features a man on a bus making several phone calls, which are threatening and abusive, in view of the other passengers, this fictional staged performance, entraps these passengers into an unwilling, uncomfortable “theatricalization” of a normally mundane journey. Alongside this show is an overview of Los Angeles-based Mexican artist Yoshua Okón‘s video installations which are “built on improvisational narratives created by the artist and his collaborators, mostly non-actors willing to participate in a game of social chance that may easily spiral out of control.” The best piece in this uneven show is Hipnostasis (2009), a collaboration with Raymond Pettibon which explores the subculture of old hippies and beach bums from Venice Beach in Southern California, it depicts individuals existing out-of-time, registered by 60s disillusionment, drug and alcohol dependency and a refusal or inability to function “appropriately”, these individuals sit on the rocks at the beach antagonistically anti-authoritarian, underscoring social collapse in the territory of accelerated superficiality.

I would also, finally, like to mention Jessica Silverman’s amazing space Silverman, the deft programming at Triple Base and Ratio 3, and to the writing at Stretcher and Art Practical.

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where your members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.