Author: Katie Anderson

Cooland

Post author By Katie Anderson
Post date July 17, 2015

From Matt Baker

When the earths crust thickened and cooled deeply, it cracked and four avenues dropped neatly in lines: four invitations for four rivers – Annan, Nith, Dee and Cree. Water washing soil over the rock posted another invite – for a beast to graze the land, to break it with footprints for germinating seeds and to re-fertilise it with their dung.

We know the coos, slabbed together on a cold, damp morning their breath hanging together like the breath of the earth, or contented and dispersed across a summer field chewing in deep rhythm. We know them as part of the oneness of our place.

Our land is pasture land, home to a kinship between humankind and cookind that has spawned a million inventions with milk, meat and leather.

Our coos have been our wealth, their mobility precious in times that you couldn’t hide a field of barley from ancient raiders. Always moving from winter to summer pastures and to market over Nith, Annan, Dee and Cree.

Humans moved too, in tough times we spread far across the seas and as migrants found their feet they called for their coos to follow. Great Uncle Jimmy raised shorthorn cattle in Wigtownshire to send on boats to the Argentine. The canny exiles sent us meat home in cans. Corned beef is still the favourite food of one of Jimmy’s daughters and the other drank unpasteurised milk straight from the farm all her days.

We are Nithraid and this land is where we bide, so we race the tide up our river to release the salty spirit of Coo.

Nithraid was concieved as a public artwork to activate the riverside in Dumfries in the summer of 2013, and bring new focus and people down to celebrate the Nith. Now in it’s third year Dumfries is preparing to welcome sailors up river to the heart of the town when Nithraid 2015 will sail into town on Sunday, 2nd of August. Nithraid is free and open to all to attend, and last year saw crowds of 4,000 lining the banks to watch the winning boats cross the finish line. Find out more about this years Nithraid here

The discussion is open, and we invite contributions to our artistic conversations – whether you have been involved in Nithraid in previous years, are interested in the changing face of public art and when a sailing race is also an artwork, please get in touch via the comments box below or to send your contribution please email [email protected]

Tags Musings, Nithraid, Nithraid Poetry, Salty Coo, Writing

Musings

The Land of the Salt Cow

Post author By Katie Anderson
Post date July 16, 2015

From Tom Pow

THE OLD MEN TAKE THE SALT COW DOWN TO THE RIVER TO DRINK.

THE OLD WOMEN REMEMBER WHEN THE FIELDS WERE FULL OF SALT COWS.

THE YOUNG GIRLS WATCH AS THE BOYS LEAP OVER THE BACK OF THE SALT COW.

THE YOUNG MEN SADDLE THEIR SALT COWS IN PREPARATION FOR WAR.

THESE THINGS BEING SO, CAESAR SET OUT FOR THE LAND OF THE SALT COW.

Senes vaccam salsam ad fluminem ut bibat ducent.

Aniculae quando vaccae salsae agros olim operibant recordorantur.

Puellae pueros qui super salsam vaccam salient vident.

Iuvenes parati bellum suscipere vaccas salsas sternent.

Caesar his rebus factis ad terram ubi vacca salsa habitat discessit.

Tags Musings, Nithraid, Nithraid Poetry, Poetry, Salty Coo, Tom Pow, Word, Writing

Musings News

Vacca

Post author By Katie Anderson
Post date July 10, 2015

From Mark Zygadlo

Tags Dumfries, Nithraid, Nithraid Poetry, Poetry, Salty Coo, Writing

Musings

poem thing.

Post author By Katie Anderson
Post date July 6, 2015

_PSN5923lowres — Image: Oriel Marshall – Nithraid 2013.

from stan bonnar

poem thing.

here it is. informal – but from the heart of me.

this is what i’m thinking… that we must not lose the deep meaning of nithraid… for after all, we sweated blood to get this far…we must affirm nithraid in the flow of world art with every action… that is our responsibility to art and people.

the main point is of course to show dumfries to the wide world as a place where things are happening. but if we are to show the art world that socially engaged public art is THE way to go, then we must show them that we have resolved the problem of the redundant art object.

here it is… the cow… the cow delivery system… the nith… the we the people… the thing of things!

what are we saying?

we are saying that this cow thing is alive and well and living in dumfries!
it was once a linguistic object – but here and now it is a liberated thing!

the reason it’s liberated is because we gave the art object the voice of a thing, and that thing is everything!

the dumfries nithraid cow is the THING of our imagining.

it is what we are and always were.

we are the nithraid thing.

nithraid is the liberating of the object once known as ‘cow’.

first we cover it in salt because salt imbues and confirms the cow as once-an-object standing in reserve of our existence (for our use as required).

but then, as the cow sinks into the river nith, we the people sing a mooing song… moo.. moo… moo…

the salt is washed away to reveal the new precious thing in the context of things.
and this act deconstructs and disrupts the limitations of our own object-centric thinking.

stan

Tags Dumfries, Guest Blog Post, Nithraid, Nithraid Poetry, Poetry, Salty Coo, Stan Bonnar, Word, Writing

Musings News Project Updates

Reclaim The High Street – Sign Language

Post author By Katie Anderson
Post date June 9, 2015

It’s interesting how obsessions grow. A current obsession is for signs, hand-painted and home grown. We’ve been holding onto our sign-free frontage, The Stove as under new management and a growing, changing space in the town.

The face of our high streets and high street signage has of course changed dramatically, with the introduction of mass-produced, nationwide branding and the loss of independant retailers bringing a change to the landscape and language of our streets.

Photo 08-06-2015 00 56 23 — Even RS McColl’s had nice signs at one point! (Look closely)

mobstr 1 — My Product Will Enrich Your Status In Life from Mobstr

Also popping up in our social media stream this week has been the phenomena of ‘ghost-signs‘: the remenants of old signs, shops, businesses and brands, gone and almost forgotten within our urban landscapes. At first thought we couldn’t place too many in the Dumfries-scape, but on closer inspection are starting to see them cropping up around town:

This one on Buccleuch Street, double layered signs? Anyone with any notions of what these signs may have been, or any other good sites around the town please get in touch!

Where are we going with this? That is of course, all to be revealed. Guid Nychburris Day is fast approaching, and over the next week the town will be gearing up for the annual festivites on the 20th of June.

We will be holding a hands-on sign-themed event and workshop during our first Saturday Drop-In, so drop by between 12 noon and 4pm on Guid Nychburris Day and get involved! It will be suitable for all ages and abilities and free to participate!

Keep an eye on our events calendar for more details here

kid acne 1 — You Couldn’t Make It Up from KidAcne

Tags 100 High Street, Dumfries, Guid Nychburris, Open House

Musings News Project Updates

Beyond Doubt Into Love

Post author By Katie Anderson
Post date June 1, 2015

What would Dumfries say?

Sometimes things start small.

Whilst working with the Young Stove to imagine what The Stove could be, this popped up. The Stove would really have quite a lot to say. What about the rest of the town? If the old buildings in Dumfries could speak, what would they say?

If the old brig would speak, what stories would it tell?

Would it shout loud, or whisper quietly to a neighbour? We thought it best to ask around.

Responses flooding in, and orange speech bubbles floating around town (what would Rabbie say, sat with his view of the High Street?), what places have the loudest voices? Voices started to come thick and fast, helped along by Herald Moxie and a band of merry Young Stovies.

Want to see more speech bubbles? A selection are available here

What speech bubbles could we stand up for? What voices could we wear?

There comes a time when it is good to call in an expert. Our expert on hand, was talented and patient printmaker and artist Sarah Keast. An island of calm amongst apparent chaos, the Stove was a ship sailing in a wild afternoon of frenzied t-shirt printing.

And still we printed on. We ran out of t-shirts, did a quick t-shirt run, printed more t-shirts and ran out of ink before the afternoon was through, printing nearly 140 t-shirts in four hours. The Young Stove showed themselves to be an unstoppable tide of creative energy.

Beyond Doubt Into Love may well be a t-shirt for a moment in time. One things for sure, they are a rare and precious commodity, created by our community, and if anyone has a large mens in the neon pink – we’ve had a request for one.

This is less of an end, and more of a beginning – keep an eye out for speech bubbles: once you start noticing them, they tend to pop up all over the place…

#GetDumfriesTalking

Tags Beyond Doubt Into Love, Blueprint100, Community Art, Conversation, Dumfries, Open House, Reflections, Screenprinting

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