5 years ago I had the opportunity to work with Google glasses. I suggested that art students could use this device for curating their artwork for a student degree show.
The student would select suitable buildings and campus locations to 'pin' their work. Outside walls, inside gallery spaces... anything that could associate the work in a campus-based location allowing anyone to enjoy the work using a suitable VR headset.
Now more than ever this seems so relevant.
What do you think? Get in touch giraf87projects@goooglemail.com
During lockdown, I came across a photograph on the Living Memory Association Facebook page of a large group of Madelvic Wire Works employees - all male - taken at a formal dinner event in 1965. The photo had a cinematographic quality which reminded me of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
For this new video I reused photographs I took a few years of the derelict car factory, as well as video of a mixed media work entitled ‘The Works’ I created last year. I added the new soundscape ‘Husk’ created by musician/composer Harry Bongo with whom I have collaborated on numerous occasions.
The video evokes the eeriness this derelict building represents, grasping the forgotten sounds of workers’ conversations and the drafts blowing through the broken windows and doors, now all boarded up.
The Madelvic Factory is on the ‘at risk register’ of Buildings in Scotland, and a ‘Listed’ building on the national register.
For my latest project I worked with the artist Ian Reddie who started producing abstract work well over a decade ago now, but has been inactive in recent times for personal reasons. The idea was to present a retrospective of all the paintings, a chance to review where it all started and how his output changed over the years. This would allow him to take stock and decide on his next move.
I commissioned Edinburgh-based musician/composer Harry Bongo to create a sound tracks suitable to accompany Ian's paintings. The sound had to evoke a dessert setting, bleached by the sun, rugged, desolate, but also beautiful and introspective.
Ian's work is very much landscape focused, imaginary landscapes that appeal to the emotions and feelings. A trip to Arizona and Monument Valley in 2019 gave a chance to re-interpret some of his previous work.
From Ian's website: Ian has consistently developed his abstract style since the beginning of his artistic career. After exploring screen printing and digital collage, he began painting in mixed media. Oils, marble dust, concrete, grit and jute are amongst the materials he has used. Texture is a vital component of his style, with surfaces and colour being worked and reworked, scoured clear and covered over again. Elemental forms cut through these tactile landscapes, creating humanist reference points in the universal chaos of existence. Dynamic tension is created by the relationship of form and space, the exploration of edge – the boundary at which states alter; solid becoming void; the definite, ambiguous.These works invite the viewer to respond at an emotional level; to find their own orientation, and create their own personal narrative.
Check Ian Reddie's website here
Check Harry Bongo's website here
Despite planning for a number of art exhibitions at granton:hub in January-February this year, we then hit lockdown and the closure of Madelvic House.
A quick re-think about what I could do next and a Zoom meeting with some of the artists, made me decide to make some videos, as an online exhibition alternative.
For the video about photographer Paul Cunningham, I collaborated again with musician Harry Bongo who produced a new sound track entitled 'Scapes'. I had already selected some of Harry's tracks (from his Album Harry Bongo, 2015) for some of the other granton:hub videos, but Harry was keen to come up with some new ambient music. And I wanted to have more of an input too. So Paul sent around 40 photos, and I decided to make a selection to create a tour, with Scottish landscapes, rivers and lochs, and then the Forth Railway Bridge, harbour views and Edinburgh city centre, at night. The ambient track mapped very well on the photos. Have a look and let me know what you think via artingranton@grantonhub.org.
photo above showing the 'Art in Granton' exhibition in October 2019
In February 2020 I am kick-starting granton:hub plans for a new programme of art activities. If you are interested in using our facilities for an arts-related event then please do get in touch with Gina Fierlafijn Reddie via e-mail artingranton@grantonhub.org.
We have organised successful exhibitions and workshops in the past with excellent footfall for the latest October 2019 exhibition 'Art in Granton' which resulted in many artists selling their work.
Granton:hub room can be hired out to individuals and groups. We are interested in collaborative initiatives with other community groups who share our aims of promoting the arts.
This installation was on show during the Art in Granton exhibition on 25, 26 and 27 October 2019.
It was site-specific created in the staircase of Madelvic House which used to be the office building of the Madelvic Electric Car Factory and, afterwards, United Wire. The listed factory next door is now increasingly under threat, boarded up and awaiting an uncertain future.
I set up this AV installation to draw attention for planners and council representatives, to take action and come up with plans for this building, and the Gasworks Holder number 1, just down the road. Both are on the 'At Risk' National Register of Buildings.
The discarded building materials, the rolled wire, the bricks and wood left behind, the blown in autumn leaves all refer symbolically to under-realised development plans for this fantastic heritage building.
The music by Edinburgh artist Harry Bongo creates an atmosphere of emergency, with the crescendo of subtle tones, rising into a tempo of despair and urgency.
The video entitled 'Down to the Wire' is also available for viewing and represents the audiovideo interpretation of a walk down Granton, featuring the three mixed media paintings: Granton Gasworks Holder number 1 The Works and Forthquarter All are available for sale, e-mail giraf87projects@gmail.com
A video with music from Harry Bongo is part of the exhibition
‘Down to the Wire’ is a film about the sensory experiencing of an everyday landscape. The assemblage of photography, mixed media paintings and music evokes urban encounters, reiterated, and representing the multiplicities of a walk.
Granton Gasworks is a well-known local landmark and even a navigator for ships in the Firth of Forth. Lesser known is the Madelvic Motorworks factory, now in a derelict condition, hidden, and its fascinating story of producing electric cars in 1898 is almost forgotten. Both structures are on the ‘at risk register’ of Buildings in Scotland, and on the ‘Listed’ buildings of the national register.
Gina Fierlafijn Reddie produced this intimate visual experience incorporating the use of metal wire and nails to remind the viewer of the rich industrial heritage of these sites. The fragility of the artefacts symbolises the fragility of the buildings. The wires remind us how industry had a grip on these urban sites, holding it in place [at first enveloping] but now also delicately securing their presence and memories, before potential collapse. The music creates an atmosphere of emergency, with the crescendo of subtle tones, rising into a tempo of despair and urgency.
There is no time to waste and developers and planners must, after years of uncertainty, come up with proposals for both buildings that will suit the expanding Granton community.
The paintings featuring in the video are displayed below. They are based on a collaboration with artist Ian Reddie.
