Excitement is building in stove central as we prepare for Parking Space this weekend, which sees the stove taking over an underground car park in Dumfries for two days.
Expect the unexpected, bring a warm coat, a torch, your skateboard…. we’ll provide the rest.
The Stove’s AGM-like-no-other will take place on Friday 17th October in the NCP Southergate car park from 6pm and is open to all, including non-members.
The AGM will be followed by a discussion evening over food, where we will be having a closer look at Situations’ New Rules of Public Art and the evolving role of public art in Dumfries and wider afield. We are pleased to announce that we will be joined in this by Stephen Pritchard of Dot to Dot Active Arts, and Alex Wilde and Hannah Brackston of Open Jar Collective.
The AGM and discussion evening are free to attend, but please RSVP to [email protected] for catering numbers.
Parking Space will run throughout Saturday 18th October, from noon until 10pm.
Level 1 – Street Games (noon – 4pm)
Level 2 – Open Skateboarding
Level 3 – Moving Image Installations (as part of South West Picture Show), including: Mirrorlands – Mark Lyken and Emma Dove
Level 4 – Gab Cab by Stove Artists in Residence, Mark Lyken and Emma Dove
Level 4 – Parking Space Cinema – a programme of artist films on the theme of popular protest and civic action. Film screenings will include: Nae Pasaran – Chappin’ – How to Start a Revolution – UCS 1 (fly on wall documentary about Clydeside shipyard work-in 1971)
Level 4 – Parking Space Cinema – 2pm Shell and 7pm Dogtown
All events are free, and will be announced over the coming days via our social media on facebook, our blog and twitter
A Public Celebration of the River Nith in Dumfries
September 2014 saw the second running of The Stove Network’s Nithraid. The project has two elements a) ‘dangerous sailing race’ from Solway Firth up the Nith into the centre of Dumfries and b)artworks and interpretative works that invite the public to discover anew the river and the spaces around it while they wait for the boats to arrive.
The stunning weather was a mixed blessing as the sailors ended up having to heroically row or paddle most of the 14 miles upriver. Nithraid organisers apologise for the previous incorrect posting of the results of the 2014 Nithraid. They should read:
Position
Name
Boat type
Cargo
Time
1
Roger Blamire
Wayfarer
Tobacco
02:40:50
2
David Sleggs
GP14
Wine
02:59:39
The 2014 event should be remembered as extraordinary, not least for the dogged determination of the two crews who persevered to the finish in completely calm weather. Both teams refused assistance and rowed the entire course in the sweltering heat to an heroic finish. All other entrants disqualified themselves in accepting outside or mechanical assistance but distinguish themselves for their efforts under a fierce sun. Other participants include:
Position
Name
Boat type
Cargo
Time
n/a
Jim White
Cornish Crabber
Tea
02:42:21
n/a
Crawford Johnstone
Enterprise
Cinnamon
02:47:27
n/a
Frank Birkett
Mirror
Timber
02:55:19
n/a
KKBT Sea Cadets
Gull
Chocolate
03:00:17
n/a
Mark Zygadlo
Wayfarer
Lemon
03:01:39
n/a
Steve Cochrane
Hobby 405
Salt
03:02:58
n/a
Helen McConnel
Mirror
Sugar
03:09:30
n/a
Ross Mcglennon
Enterprise
Slate
03:10:37
n/a
Alex Rigg
GP14
Coal
03:11:06
Encouraged by the success of the first staging of Nithraid, The Stove Network upped the scale of things for 2014. The ‘Salty Coo’ made a re-appearance with a new salty coat, and was paraded through the streets with a specially assembled Balkan Street Carnival Band and newly commissioned music from local musician Ruth Morris. The car parks beside the river were transformed by an eclectic street market, a scale model of the river with model boats charting the race, skateboarders, BMXers and rollerskaters. Visitors were also offered the chance to make their own Nithraid pewter button and these were cast on site with our bicycle powered foundry – designed and operated by Stove members Katie Anderson and Uula Jero. Also The Stove’s ‘Herald’ Moxie DePaulitte was in attendance with different groups she had been working with and all the background on the ‘why?what?where?who?’ of the Nithraid.
The ‘Salty Coo’ was hoisted aloft on a specially design ‘Coo Delivery Mechanism’ (designed and made by member Mark Zygadlo) and as the boats arrived they deposited their ‘art cargo’ onto the CDM. Josh from the winning boat was given the honour of lowering the Salty Coo and releasing it into the Nith.
Nithraid takes place on the highest tide around the Autumnal Equinox as this ensures sufficient depth of water for the boats to navigate the river. The salt on the Coo celebrates the highest point that salt water comes up the river at high tide (to the Caul below Devorgilla Bridge) and the Coo itself is released into the river at the spot where livestock traditionally forded the river in crossing between Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrightshire.
People lined the Nith up the entire route with 300 at Glencaple and over 4000 in Dock Park, Mill Green and the Whitesands, all enjoying the carnival atmosphere and activities. The feedback has been incredibly positive with people unanimous about the potential of the riverside areas in Dumfries to become a major public meeting space and attraction for the town. Nithraid is part of The Stove Network’s ongoing project to actively engage people in the future of their town by staging events in underused public spaces and encouraging the idea that ‘Dumfries is what we all make together’
Dumfries Artists Collective, The Stove Network have been shortlisted for the prestigious Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum (SURF) Awards for 2014. Launched in 2003 these awards have become the benchmark for best practice in urban regeneration in Scotland.
The Stove Network have been shortlisted in the Creative category which highlights best practice in arts-based projects that contribute to local regeneration efforts. The Stove Network have been nominated for their pioneering work in placing the arts and culture at the heart of regeneration efforts in Dumfries and in particular for their ‘innovative and exemplary arts practice in the context of national cultural and economic strategy’.
Commenting Stove Curatorial Team Member Matt Baker said – ‘It is huge for us and for Dumfries itself to be getting this national recognition for what is happening in the town.’
‘The Stove Network works in close partnership with other arts organisations locally such as Big Burns Supper, Moat Brae, Theatre Royal and Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre as well as DG Unlimited. SURF understands about partnership and this recognition is for all of us. The public really began to notice a buzz about the arts in the town after Dumfries was shortlisted as Scotland’s Creative Place for 2014 – the Creative Dumfries project was a massive communal effort by everyone connected to the arts and regeneration in the town’
‘Currently we are unable to use our premises on the High Street whilst DGC carry out essential accessibility improvements. Unfortunately these works have been subject to significant delays and this has curtailed the projects that we have been able to do over the last few months. However we hope people will have seen the potential of our work through events like the Nithraid in September, we are gathering an amazing group of people around our organisation – so just imagine what we will be able to do when we are fully functioning in 100 High Street!’
In June The Stove Network worked with more than 40 local groups and individuals to create a ‘people’s charter’ for the town which they launched as part of Guid Nychburris celebrations. The launch included members of the public hurling wet sponges from the town fountain at giant banners that changed colour when wet to reveal the Charter.
BMX and skaters take to the Whitesands as part of Nithraid 2014
On September 13th the artists staged the second running of their Nithraid event which saw more than 4000 people reveal the potential of the town’s riverside carparks as public space with an artist’s street market, roller skating, skateboarding and BMX. Nithraid is a ‘dangerous sailing race’ in which sail powered craft negotiate the river NIth from the Solway Firth into the centre of the town on the highest tide of the year.
The winners of the SURF Awards 2014 will be announced at the Radisson Hotel in Glasgow on 2nd December.
Howdy, my name is Mark Lyken and I’m an audio and visual artist who until very recently, 10 days ago in fact, was based in the sunny South Side of Glasgow. Regular collaborator – artist filmmaker Emma Dove – and myself have moved down, lock, stock and barrel full of equipment to Dumfries to begin a joint six-month public art residency for the lovelies at the Stove Network. We’ll be posting regular rambling updates, sharing discoveries and hopefully stimulating discussion over the course of our time here.
Now the thing about residency applications is that at the point of writing it’s dangerously easy to suggest relocating for the duration of a project largely because the part of your brain that deals in that kind of reality is sporting sunglasses and sipping Mojitos, quietly confident that it’s highly unlikely your application will be successful. This is the same part of your brain you’ll find waving it’s metaphorical arms in a blind panic when you get a call from Matt Baker actually offering you the gig.
I’m joking of course, (mostly…) in actual fact the move down the road went like clockwork and by Saturday afternoon we were unpacking the very last box, chucking a tent, torch and radio in the car and heading for the Sanctuary 2014 event at Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park. Although we were a bit knackered post-move it was a really inspiring event with a relaxed vibe, sound-tracked over the course of 24hrs by a multitude of different roving radios all tuned into The Dark Outside FM broadcast from the hill top Murray’s monument.
All the different models of radio being carried around added very interesting modulations and directionality to the music being received. You might for instance walk past a stationery boom box with decent bottom end with your own trebly handheld radio and become a momentary human high pass filter as you moved in and out of someone else’s earshot, Doppler effects abound – in short, marvelous. There is something about listening to (largely) electronic music when surrounded by very large swathes of nature (or better yet a forest if you happen to have one handy) that seems very fitting. I know it works equally well in urban environments but I do love a bit of electric with my organic. I imagine this is why wooden paneling on synthesisers just feels so damn right.
But I digress…. Personal highlights for us was catching Jeff Barrow of Portishead fame, along with fellow Drokk band member Ben Salisbury, playing a short live performance (that slotted into a ten minute space in the Dark Outside FM playlist) in front of Robbie Coleman’s circular blue neon “enclosure” sculpture (with added dive-bombing bats.) Throughout the night Glasgow label Broken 20’s TVO Orchestra and Erstlaub, along with friends and audience members, performed a partly improvised, partly self-generating set from 10pm to 6am. Yup, that’s 10pm to 6am. Unfortunately it was a cloudy night so you couldn’t see the stars but that didn’t make the location and the event any less epic. Roll on the EAFS Environmental Arts Festival in 2015.
So, down to business. “Who the hell are you two and what are you doing here?” Well, our collaborative practice involves film, music, sound art, painting and sculpture, which gives us a number of ways to respond to an environment, place or situation. At the core of our work is an interest in exploring relationships to place. Our most recent work – “Mirror Lands” a film and sound installation for the “Imagining Natural Scotland” initiative – explored the delicate balance between nature, industry and rural life on the Black Isle in the Highlands. This piece focused around the local area of the University of Aberdeen’s Lighthouse Field Station in Cromarty, finding radically different relationships to place even within that small geographical stretch. During our short time here to date, we have found that events and connections seem to be spread across a much wider area and we have been wondering how that might affect peoples over arching ‘sense of belonging’.
We have always had a vicarious relationship to Dumfries and Galloway through a large circle of friends in Glasgow originating from D&G. What seems to single this bunch out from other friends, other than a worrying tendency for fire poi, is a stronger than average connection with home. Whether that is simply popping “down the road” for the weekend or just in general conversation, home seems to be ever-present. We are at the very beginnings of our project but the idea of migrations to and from Dumfries feels like an interesting starting point.
What drew us to the Stovies in the first place was their refreshingly broad definition of public art and true to that initial impression our remit for this project is wonderfully open, the only real proviso being that the work should be relevant to the people of Dumfries. Our process is a very intuitive and socially engaged one and we work best when there is time to gather as much material as possible and see what emerges.
Whatever form our research and final work takes, it will debut at the opening of The Stoves HQ and Creative Hub at 100 High Street Dumfries, once renovations are complete next year.
It feels like we have arrived at a very exciting time and we hope we can add to this growing buzz. More project-specific guest blog posting to follow and hopefully see you at the Stove’s “Parking Space” event on the 17th and 18th of this month.
everyone had a shot of firing up the foundry with pedal power
The Stove Network’s Trading Journeys began with artist Alice Francis and her fine friend Douglas setting off for Wigtown
Alice and Dougal travelled the highways and byways of Galloway for three days to get to Wigtown
Passing through Creetown
Meanwhile in Gatehouse of Fleet some serious outdoor science was underway
Artist Phoebe Marshall explains the finer points of bramble and apple jam making
Charcoal making was also on the agenda….crucial to what was to come in Wigtown
On the Morning of 27th September Uula, Lorraine, Arny and Inti were first on the road – pedalling the bicycle powered foundry through the Galloway Forest Park towards Wigtown
Meanwhile in Creetown the Ferry Bell was decked out with it’s flags
…the Bell was rung
…and the boats were launched
carrying their precious cargo of charcoal, the boats headed for Wigtown following the long disused route of the Creetown-Wigtown ferry
Word was getting around in Wigtown
Alice and Douglas had arrived in Wigtown and made a standard from the tins they had collected
The Wigtown Showfield was transformed into a Trading Journeys Camp
Where you could drum….
….compose a ballad with ‘Stove Herald’ Moxie and her troubadours…..
…..make a mould for one of the 45 Wigtown Spoons under the close eye of artist Katie Anderson….
….make jam……
…..eat jam with scones and tea…..
Then the boats arrived at Wigtown Harbour
It was time for the Trading Journeys procession to move everything we had gathered from the Showfield to the Town Centre
One of the boats joined in
…so did the foundry and the horse and cart…
…the procession arrived at County Buildings and made camp once more
Will explained what would happen next
everyone had a shot of firing up the foundry with pedal power
Dampers and Jam were cooked
the moulds people had made waited patiently
when the scrap aluminium melted in the foundry it was poured into the moulds
Katie knows how long to wait….
A Wigtown Spoon fresh from the mould
freshly cast spoons waiting to be claimed by the people who had made the moulds
One of the first finished spoons – cleaned up by its owner……the wee copper tags had edition numbers 1-45
This beauty was made by our new friend Helen who had travelled all the way from Manchester to be part of Trading Journeys!
The mysterious Spoon Dancers brought the day to a spectacular climax
The Trading Journeys Young Team who had been part of things all day – joined the Spoon Dancers for their exit stage left
HAPPY DAYS!
Photography by: Kim Ayres, Matt Baker, Colin Hattersley, Will Marshall and Colin Tennant
Our third intrepid traveller, Uula Jero will leave Balmacllelan on Saturday morning, picking up keen cyclists at New Galloway and making their way down to Wigtown, passing through the picturesque Galloway Forest Park. If cycling is your thing, you are very welcome to join Uula at New Galloway. If you are interested please send us a quick email to [email protected] and we’ll pass on the necessary details.
Uula will be somewhat unmistakable as he brings with him, not just one of his amazing cargo bikes, but also a pedal powered foundry! Remember the charcoal that the boats are bringing from Creetown (see earlier post here), the foundry is charcoal fueled and the creetown charcoal will contribute to the heat necessary to melt and cast our very own Wigtown spoons! (more about Billy Marshall and his spoons here)
One of our early foundry tests. We do not reccomend coal as it is a bit too much for our liking! Image thanks to The Hidden Mill
Early test pours in Balmaclellan
The spoons will be cast in front of a live audience outside the Wigtown County Buildings as part of Trading Journeys on Saturday evening, the 27th of September. We are making a very limited edition of spoons, so if you would like your very own Wigtown spoon come along to our spoon mould crafting workshop during the afternoon. Workshops will take place from 12 noon in Southfield Park, and are free to everyone.
Our foundry had it’s first outing as part of our Nithraid earlier this month in Dumfries, where we cast Nithraid buttons! Image: Galina Walls
Mould making workshops as part of Nithraid 2014. The moulds are made from cuttlefish if you are interested! Image: Galina Walls
We will also be holding drumming and flag making workshops in preparation for our procession prior to the spoon pour. The procession is open to all to join in.
