Looking over the next few weeks on Our Norwegian Story so far – The project kicked off on June 17th the with a wonderful array of specialities from Norway as well as this side of the ocean for our Recipe Swap and Market. Those who turned up shared stories over warm waffles with Norwegian blueberries, Kransekake and some scotch favourites like Chranachan, writing down some recipes for you to enjoy at home.
Saturday the 17th June saw us join Dumfries’ annual Guid Nychburris celebrations with more waffles, cinnamon buns and a special Norwegian Market kindly put on by Alex of Edinburgh based Nordic Affar – www.nordicaffar.com – where you can buy all the Norwegian classics from Brown Cheese to Salted Liquorice.
More food to come at Septembers Scottish/Norwegian film Shorts and Pot Luck night on September 15th at 7pm, information to follow.
September 3rd sees The Stove’s fourth staging of Nithraid, a fun family event that takes place on and around the river. Nithraid is a celebration of the town’s long relationship with its river, highlighting the way the Nith connected Dumfries to the rest of the world through trade, goods (including Coos) and sail power. It is created and produced by The Stove Network and is part of the groups mission to make creative opportunities for local people to be involved in the future of Dumfries
Matt Baker, lead artist on Nithraid, says, “It’s really exciting to see the event continue to grow and change with each passing year, for 2016 we’ve been overwhelmed by the support of local businesses and community groups – Dumfries is definitely pulling together for the Nithraid! New for 2016 we have the inclusion of Coastal Rowing and we’re also very lucky to be able to offer such high quality food produce, as well as a range of arts and activities on the Mill Green.”
The daring sailing race, starting from the Solway Firth and sailing right up the River Nith into the centre of Dumfries, is made possible by one of the highest tides of the year. While waiting for the boats to arrive, The Stove invites you to enjoy the ‘arts and food village’ at Mill Green, opposite the Whitesands, from 12 noon until 4pm. Join in with art activities and demonstrations for all ages, listen to acoustic music, visit a mini market of local food producers, as well as watching the procession of the legendary Salty Coo, starting from Dumfries High Street down to Mill Green, where the winning skipper has the honour of lowering the Coo and releasing her into the river.
Stunning sonic and light installation to visit Dumfries, Dundee and Glasgow from 7 September. The large-scale work will illuminate lanes and public places in Dumfries, Dundee and Glasgow with an animated flock of origami-style birds suspended overhead in celebration of the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016.
Composer, sonic and visual artist Kathy Hinde will be bringing her stunning sound and light installation Luminous Birds to locations across Scotland this autumn.
As a key event in the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016, the sight and sound spectacular will illuminate public spaces in Dumfries (7 September – 14 November), Dundee (12 September – 19 November) and Glasgow (16 September – 16 November) as hundreds of origami birds flock overhead. Luminous Birds is designed and hand-crafted by Cryptic Associate artist Kathy Hinde and encourages members of the public – from commuters to day-tripping families to night owls winding their way home – to ‘look up’ and appreciate their day-to-day environment. The innovative design of the mechanical birds (created from paper, plastic and metal) will transform their surroundings using synchronised lighting and spatialised sounds that create the effect of birds flying overhead. The action of many birds, flocking together, is one of nature’s most amazing phenomena – an ultimate act of cooperation, hundreds moving together in harmony. “I’m particularly excited about showing Luminous Birds in Scotland during the autumn because many birds will be on their migration passage at that time, with huge flocks of Barnacle Geese resting near Dumfries and Pink Footed Geese further north near Dundee.” said Kathy about the work premiering in Scotland. “I want to create the effect of birds flying just above people’s heads, through alleys and lanes right in the heart of towns and cities, highlighting some of the many beautiful aspects of bird flight, through light and sound.”
Cathie Boyd, Artistic Director of Cryptic said: “We are delighted to be able to show the work of Cryptic Associate Artist Kathy Hinde on such a large scale, with Dumfries and Dundee being inspiring firsts for Cryptic. We are developing dynamic relationships with new partners and communities across all three locations and further afield – encouraging everyone to come and experience this mesmerising event.”
Especially for Dumfries, The Stove has commissioned musician and composer Stuart Macpherson to create an accompanying sound work and performance artwork, that will pop up during and around Kathy’s Luminous Birds. More information on Stuart’s commission coming soon! Luminous Birds is a free, non-ticketed event, to be viewed after dark; it opens at The Globe Inn, Dumfries High Street on 7 September, with further flocks appearing at The Howff, Meadowside, Dundee on 12 September and Kingarth Lane next to Govanhill Baths, Glasgow from 16 September. Celebrating its historical design as both a water tank and dovecote, the Mackintosh Tower at Glasgow’s The Lighthouse will also host the birds from 20 September up to 8 January, encouraging visitors to journey upwards through evocative soundscapes before reaching a flock of birds fluttering and chirping in harmony at the top.
The installations will feature an accompanying free workshop programme led by Kathy Hinde, encouraging members of the local community to create their own origami birds. In Dumfries, these workshops will take place as part of Nithraid, The Stove’s annual boat race and river festival on Saturday, 3rd of September.
Snapshots – a fast paced photography competition was first conceived by blueprint100 member Elli – invited competitors to challenge themselves and their camera to a day of exploring the town through different topics in the form of a photography marathon.
2 Hours, 12 Topics, 12 Pictures
In the run up to the competition, photographer and Stove member Kim Ayres joined the blueprint100 Open Tuesdays, to offer help, hints and inspiration to those interested in taking part.
An ambitious 20 participants raced off at 10am, keen to win the ‘golden camera’ that was first prize, and most returned bedraggled and worn out and in need of coffee!
The judging panel was comprised of Kim, stove curatorial member Martin J O’Neill and Elli herself, who spent the following two hours judging all of the images that had arrived back at the Stove.
Image credit: Kim Ayres
Following on from the competition, Martin hosted a workshop with blueprint100 members developing narratives from the collected photograph sets, to work into short pieces of poetry and prose in the run up to the next Brave New Words.
Those of you who attended our Norwegian Skill Share, Dugnad at the beginning of the month may have met our new artist in residence, Kirsten Bertelsen, who has joined the Our Norwegian Story team.
Kirsten Bertelsen (b. 1966, Denmark) lives and works in Copenhagen. She graduated from MA Psychology at University of Copenhagen, Denmark (1991-1998) and BA (Hons) Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College, UAL, London (2012- 2015).
She setup Gesamtkunstwerk Aps (2008-2015), an independent cultural agency specialized in strategic development of arts institutions, and their relationship with local communities. She has worked in association with the Danish and Scandinavian Arts Councils and is currently working on a 10 year/long term art trail in the region of Sör Tröndelag in Norway.
Over the last 3 years, she has developed a project in Norway, working to link young London based artists with the region Sør Trøndelag north of Trondheim. Every summer four artists travel to the island of Stokkøya to work for 4 weeks. The residency is part of a long term plan to ignite the area, instilling a sense of belonging amongst the residents on the island, which will hopefully encourage younger generations to come back and settle when they have graduated with their degrees from universities in the bigger cities.
Exhibitions include Strangelove Moving Image Festival, London (2015), Metaphoinica Film Festival, London (2015), The Kings Cross Curious Festival, University of the Arts, London (2015), One to One Charting the Personal Terrain, The Rag Factory, London (2014) and In Between States, Mile End Art Pavilion, London (2013).
Norwegian Skill Share – Rope Making and Knot Tying with Cluaran. Image: Ronnie Galloway
As an artist, she has a strong interest in the role art can take outside the bigger cities and how artistic methods can contribute to an investigation of values about place and about belonging. She takes pleasure in research both from reading, and studying archival material, from talking to experts, and from listening to the stories of local people. Kirsten is from Scandinavia, and has been working intensively in Norway making her a great asset as Our Norwegian’s Story artist in residence to help bring this part of Dumfries’ story to life. So if you have any questions or stories please do get in touch. She will be living in Dumfries for 2 months during Autumn, and she will be very happy to meet you.
This years Nithraid sees us welcome a new team of young interns to help kick-start our now annual sailing race up river and into the centre of Dumfries. First up is Euan Macrory, a musician from the town and joining the event production and marketing team. We asked Euan to tell us a little more about himself and his music:
I am a musician that is driven by giving opportunities to other performers and artists. I hope to contribute my part to the Dumfries music community by encouraging new performers and hopefully allow people to try music as a hobby even if they never have, purely so people can discover a new passion. My main passion at the moment is combining genres and changing music. This has involved me taking genres that are not always perceived as exciting, like traditional folk and combining it styles like funk, flamenco and jazz. In the future I hope I can encourage a rise in the interest of the Dumfries music scene and try to change music.
I was drawn to Nithraid because I wanted to try being part of the organisation of an event so I could participate in events from a new perspective. I have been a performer at events but I am looking forward to experiencing events under different circumstances and gaining new skills in fields that present unique challenges and rewards.
Nithraid 2014 – Procession and Nithraid Band
I think Dumfries is a town with a lot of potential. I think it has a really nice local community that you struggle to find in other areas. I believe that with our close community values we can make a modern town with more reasons for young people to stay here and build careers.
The most exciting part of the Stove process for me is the involvement it permits. The stove opens up a wide variety of opportunities for people to get involved in, including different types of workshops and events for activities that people would not consider if the Stove was not offering these unique opportunities.
Five books I think everyone should read are Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck, The Symposium by Plato, How to Ruin Everything by George Watsky, If On a Winters Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
There are so many songs that I couldn’t live without but if I had to name a few it would be Santeria by Sublime, Emily by the Bill Evans Trio and just every song by a spoken word poet and rapper George Watsky.
I never expected to enjoy volunteering in a charity shop as much as I did. Honestly when I started I thought it would be a fairly quiet standard shop job but I had so much fun and made so many great memories from it.
My passion is music, it means so much to me and it always has. I couldn’t see my life without it.
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