What is your earliest memory? My earliest memory is from when I was two years old, on holiday, when my dad got me a fishing net. He convinced me that the plastic fish were real, and I tried to eat them.
What drew you to The Stove? What interested me most about The Stove is that everyone is on the same team—it’s like one big family striving to make things better for everyone.
Which person do you most admire, and why? I admire anyone who can go through a huge ordeal and still manage to smile at the end of the day.
What time of the day do you like most? I love seeing the sunset. It’s so relaxing, and I find the softer tones of light more calming.
Share your hopes and dreams for The Stove? I hope The Stove continues to thrive and becomes the main attraction of Dumfries and Galloway.
Sara’s work at the Mill on the Fleet during the Young Stove’s Not to be Sold Separately exhibition
What’s something that you found yourself enjoying that you never thought you would? I walk a lot and still find so much joy in it.
Which film changed your life?Ratatouille—I imagine all the little rats in Dumfries cooking away while the chefs are distracted.
What keeps you in and around Dumfries? The Stove and my family.
What’s been the most exciting part of the Stove process for you? Seeing the building come together and the development of the Young Stove.
What songs do you carry closest to your heart?Blue Velvet—my dad always sang this to my mum.
What do you consider your greatest achievement? My daughter.
Where’s your favourite place to be in D&G? The Stove.
What makes you happiest? Paintings that work out.
Tell us your passion? My art and my daughter, Daisy.
The Young Stove’s first collective exhibition, Not to Be Sold Separately, will open at The Stove on Friday, 11th September. The opening will feature performances, live art, and installation events. More details about Not to Be Sold Separately will be shared soon.
Are you aged 16 to 30 and interested in the arts? Find out more about the Young Stove.
Tell us about your creative process? I start with mind maps, followed by lots of drawing onto photos with markers and cutting and layering papers and fabrics. This helps me figure out a concept that looks good and begin turning it into something tangible.
What is your earliest memory? My third birthday, although the only thing I can remember about it is the cake. It was covered in every kind of sweet a three-year-old could dream of, and it must have been a truly unforgettable cake to have stayed in my memory above all else from that time.
What drew you to The Stove? The desire to be part of something with a bigger purpose.
What time of the day do you like most? Early morning—it feels fresh and new.
Would you share three words that you love? Reduce, re-use, recycle.
What’s something that you found yourself enjoying that you never thought you would? Exercise and neutral colours.
Who, from throughout history, would you like to sit and have a good chat with? Andy Warhol—our shared passion for sugary food and minimal answers to interview questions would make for a fascinating conversation.
Pre-Owned collection. Part of Not to Be Sold Separately – Young Stove exhibition at the Mill on the Fleet
What’s the best piece of advice you have ever received?“You’ve got the inspiration. You just have to bat away the naysayers and stay focused. Life really is too short. No one’s around on this planet long enough to fully understand what’s going on. At the risk of sounding too morbid, we’re all scared little kids—from childhood to old age, all the way to the day we die. Imagine 80 sweets, then imagine that many Christmases or birthdays—it’s not that many, really. Take your life and run with it. It’s yours.”
I had to dig through three years’ worth of Facebook messages to find this, but it had a huge impact on me at the time.
The Young Stove’s first collective exhibition, Not to Be Sold Separately, will open at The Stove on Friday, 11th September. The opening will feature performances, live art, and installation events. More details about Not to Be Sold Separately will be shared shortly.
Are you aged 16 to 30 and interested in the arts? Find out more about the Young Stove.
Tell us about your creative process? I’m still trying to figure out what my process is. I tend to start by gathering things that inspire me and then focus on what catches my eye. I suppose I take the process as it comes—I go with my gut feeling more than anything.
What drew you to the Young Stove? The upcoming artist event last summer. A friend told me about it, and I went—it was the first time I’d seen an artist-type event in Dumfries and Galloway, so I was excited.
Which person do you most admire, and why? Nicola Sturgeon. I love Nicola—I admire how she stands up for Scotland and how down-to-earth she is. She’s not superficial like most politicians.
Would you share three words you love? Buzzing, kale, biddy.
Share your hopes and dreams for The Stove? I’m not sure, but I’d really love to see it flourish across all of D&G and beyond. I’d also love for The Stove to gain more recognition locally for everything it does.
What’s something that you’ve found yourself enjoying that you never thought you would? Bingo! I’ve always hated numbers, but my family goes every week, so I’ve joined them on occasion. Surprisingly, I’ve found it’s quite weirdly fun—haha.
What film changed your life? I’m not sure if any film has truly changed my life, but maybe Legally Blonde. I love how Elle suddenly excels—it’s actually quite motivating to watch, haha.
What’s been the most exciting part of The Stove process for you? I’d have to say Parking Space. I absolutely loved that event—it was really, really interesting.
What makes you feel alive? Midnight car journeys and visiting new places.
What songs do you carry close to your heart? I’m on and off with songs, but I’d say We Bros by a group called WU LYF.
What’s your dream for the artists in D&G? For them to receive more recognition. I feel D&G has so much to offer in terms of its artists.
Who throughout history would you like to sit and have a good chat with? Elizabeth I—she might be a bit intimidating to talk to, but I think she would be absolutely fascinating.
What instrument would you play if you could instantly master it? The harp, or perhaps the art of making music from glass cups.
What would you consider your greatest achievement? Surviving a six-hour journey on a bumpy Stagecoach bus while carrying a box of delicate glass—and none of it broke, haha!
Where’s your favourite place to be in D&G? Portpatrick—it’s such an idyllic and beautiful coastal town.
What’s your favourite piece you’ve produced? Creating a collection of glass vessels with glass artist Amanda Simmons. I’ve never had many opportunities like that, and it really opened my eyes to what’s possible out there.
What five books do you think everyone should read?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The BFG by Roald Dahl
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
What makes you happiest? Travelling—especially car journeys, but I love train journeys too. Good food.
Tell us your passion? Most creative things! Art, though I’m not sure exactly what yet—but definitely something within the field of art.
The Young Stove’s first collective exhibition, Not to Be Sold Separately, will open at The Stove on Friday, 11th September. The opening will feature performances, live art, and installation events. More details about Not to Be Sold Separately will be shared soon.
Are you aged 16 to 30 and interested in the arts? Find out more about the Young Stove.
What is your earliest memory? I remember being in the flat with Mum and the radio playing a song with brass instruments. It was night-time, and the kitchen was yellow. (It was usually yellow at night and blue-grey during the day.) This might have been in winter. We were making a pizza with a smiley face on it—it tasted disgusting, and we laughed.
What drew you to The Stove? Sauron.
What’s your favourite place to be in D&G? Kirkbean—the woods, the fields, the river with the cave.
What’s been the most exciting part of The Stove process for you? I suppose the most exciting part is seeing a variation of ideas and being involved in intriguing discussions with all these different artists. Meeting new and fascinating people with great imaginations has been a brilliant experience.
What instrument would you play if you could instantly master it? The Ocarina of Time.
Would you share three words that you love? Sing, treasure, lux.
Tell us about your creative process? Sometimes it’s hectic, sometimes it’s structured. I’d say it’s a balanced combination of the two. When I’m certain of what I’m doing, uncertainty may suddenly arise and spur on an unexpected avenue. If I’m not sure where I’m going, I’ll just wander blindly until my right hand grips the banister a split second before what could have been a plummeting journey down the staircase. Sometimes I take that plummet too. Beneath all the chaos, I am quite orderly… or maybe it’s the other way around.
What’s the best thing anyone’s said to you? “Eyes down.”
Tell us a joke? (At this point, we had to pause the interview as Sullivan began breathing into a paper bag, body contorted, rocking back and forth in a most awkward manner.)
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever got? “Keep going.”
Tell us your passion? My passion is to express myself, so I’ll do that to the very best of my ability. On those formidable lazy days, I’ll drag myself into action kicking and screaming—it’s the least I can do for myself.
What’s your dream for the arts in D&G? Uninhibited imagination (with bells on).
The Young Stove’s first collective exhibition, Not to Be Sold Separately, will open at The Stove on Friday, 11th September. The opening will feature performances, live art, and installation events. More details about Not to Be Sold Separately will be shared shortly.
Are you aged 16 to 30 and interested in the arts? Find out more about the Young Stove.
Months of planning, budgeting, and—most importantly—creating had led to the Young Stove finally making their debut on the art scene of Dumfries and Galloway. Not to Be Sold Separately, our maiden voyage into exhibiting as a collective, launched on the 3rd of July and was met with a wave of excitement and glowing feedback.
As a group of eight young artists, each with contrasting styles and creative visions, coming together to form a cohesive show seemed like a daunting task. However, rather than becoming an obstacle, it turned into one of our greatest strengths, resulting in a vibrant and diverse collection of work that reflects who we are as a group.
Installation day brought its own challenges. With only a matter of hours to transform a beautiful yet unconventional space—complete with complex lighting—and to install all our work before opening that same evening, the pressure was intense. The learning curve was steep, as our experience ranged from seasoned exhibition veterans to those of us (myself included) who had never exhibited publicly before. Yet, remarkably, we pulled it off without a hitch! Having complete creative control and taking responsibility for hanging our own work proved to be an invaluable experience, one that will undoubtedly shape how we approach exhibitions in the future.
Not to Be Sold Separately closes on the 26th of July and will travel to Dumfries to be reimagined and reopened at the start of August. With a new space, fresh pieces, and even more artists added to the line-up, it presents an exciting opportunity to redevelop and build on the success of the exhibition’s first leg. Mill on the Fleet has been a fantastic opening venue. Transplanting a thoroughly modern, edgy collection of work into such a historical and characterful building has resulted in a glorious, colourful discordance—truly symbolic of the Young Stove.
Vacca! The strange case of the lost locative. The Cow, subject and object as symbol. After Bonum, and Beckett (ablative, or is it genitive?)
Vacca, (the)Cow nominative, Vacca, Oh, Cow, vocative, Vaccam, you cow, accusative, Vaccae, of (the)cow, genitive, Vaccae, to or for (the)cow, dative, Vacca, by, with, from, or in (the) cow, ablative
Remember that? Of course, it would have been Mensa, table, when we of a certain generation of the modern era were learning the first declensions; female gender singular. The Latin primer, being an expression of the late classical form, omitted the locative case of colloquial or early Latin. Ah, that hushed and subtle tongue.
Oh, the locative, (vocative case, denoted by Oh… as in: Oh, Caesar… or an exclamation mark, as in: Christ! Look at the time…) the locative! It must not be forgotten for it describes the rightness of place and the infinite distance of one location from another. It was reserved for speaking of small islands alone in the Mediterranean; no archipelagoes here, no chains of thought, no Peloponnese or Balearics, no reefs, no connections to the mainland by causeways impassable at high tide, or bridges or small ferry boats. No, and no barren rocks.
The locative speaks of being separate, of being appropriately self-contained, and it can refer to being in the earth, to death and burial, that is, to humiliation. Or, to being at home, at the hearth, focum, foc, and being in the field or fields, when that had some meaning. Specific, you see, to a state of being in place, self-sufficient, separate, discrete. If they had thought of it then, on line, on the net, would be a perfect locative; in a state of separateness described by the place—the net.
Being in a State of Grace? The Cow’s case: (genitive surely; the case of the Salted Cow, but…) Our cow’s argument is locative.
Oh, Locative, (vocative) You obsolete case; you last fragile threads of pre-classical illumination, Be exhumed in this ritual
And roar your bovine craving at us for the case we are losing from the locative field. But, pitiless grammar will not bring the bull. You shall die fallow, unfertilized In the shallows.
Cleave then, oh beast, With your split hoof and state your case, Standing up to your classical canons in it. After all, This is the sharp season of your atomized shit. Homunculus eyes focus on a darker green field. Yes, pump it out, boys. More shit, more grass, more beef, more milk, more shit, more grass, More gas, yes. More, more, more. That is our locus, our focum vivendi, our domicile, And we are such classical agrarians. It is the locative case of Shit.
Cow! (Vocative) You are sacrificial, you see? To the modus, (modo, to or for the way, dative case) to the modus, While the grammar of thought, the rules of understanding Are wiping this island from the charts. But some pre-classical urge, some visceral memory knows An identical ritual killing takes me too. Letting go so much for the sake of so it is a sacrifice alright, And we, in our improved datives, are sensible of thy gift, oh Cow, And preserve thee, black and leathery, from a hook somewhere We can no longer quite describe.
Salt beef, my life. Oh, holy shit.
Salt beef at Blum’s on the Whitechapel Road, And the long walk home through the pre-classical period When we were emergent, Or what passed for young, and understood where we were. But Blum’s, oh my dears, is gone. It was, not is And in its place, I leave my dybbuk. For we too are ephemera, Singing our hearts out In the locative case.
Nithraid was conceived as a public artwork to activate the riverside in Dumfries during the summer of 2013, bringing new focus and drawing people down to celebrate the River Nith. Now in its third year, Dumfries is preparing to welcome sailors upriver to the heart of the town as Nithraid 2015 sails into town on Sunday, 2nd August. Nithraid is free and open to all, 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 year’s 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, or are curious about how a sailing race can also be an artwork, please get in touch via the comments box below. Alternatively, to send your contribution, please email [email protected].
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