It’s interesting how obsessions grow. A current obsession is for signs—hand-painted and homegrown. We’ve been holding onto our sign-free frontage: The Stove, now under new management, is becoming a growing, changing space in the town.
The face of our high streets and their signage has, of course, changed dramatically with the introduction of mass-produced, nationwide branding. The loss of independent retailers has also transformed the landscape and language of our streets.
Even RS McColl’s had nice signs at one point! (Look closely)My Product Will Enrich Your Status In Life from Mobstr
Also appearing in our social media stream this week is the phenomenon of ‘ghost-signs‘: the remnants of old signs, shops, businesses, and brands—gone and almost forgotten within our urban landscapes. At first, we couldn’t identify too many in the Dumfries-scape, but upon closer inspection, we are starting to notice them cropping up around town.
This one on Buccleuch Street—double-layered signs? Does anyone have any idea what these signs may have been, or know of any other good sites around the town? If so, please get in touch!
Where are we going with this? That, of course, is all to be revealed. Guid Nychburris Day is fast approaching, and over the next week, the town will be gearing up for the annual festivities on the 20th of June.
We will be holding a hands-on, sign-themed event and workshop during our first Saturday Drop-In. Drop by between 12 noon and 4 pm on Guid Nychburris Day and get involved! It will be suitable for all ages and abilities, and participation is free.
Whilst working with the Young Stove to imagine what The Stove could become, this thought arose: The Stove would undoubtedly have quite a lot to say. But what about the rest of the town? If the old buildings in Dumfries could speak, what stories would they tell?
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 are flooding in, and orange speech bubbles are floating around town. (What would Rabbie say, sitting with his view of the High Street?) Which places have the loudest voices? Voices began to pour in thick and fast, helped along by Herald Moxie and a band of merry Young Stovies.
Want to see more speech bubbles? A selection is available here.
Which speech bubbles could we stand up for? Which voices could we wear?
There comes a time when it is wise to call in an expert. Our expert on hand was the talented and patient printmaker and artist, Sarah Keast. An island of calm amidst the apparent chaos, The Stove was like a ship sailing through a wild afternoon of frenzied T-shirt printing.
And still, we printed on. We ran out of T-shirts, made 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 just four hours. The Young Stove proved 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 thing’s for sure: they are a rare and precious commodity, created by our community. If anyone has a large men’s in 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…
It’s easy to forget just how extraordinarily important the places where we live are. They are our frame, our point of reference, and a huge portion of the real detail of life. This capacity of the land to shape us takes on a special dimension when we have either lived somewhere for a very long time or spent the early years of our life there. I was born in Upper Nithsdale and spent the best part of two decades in the area before leaving for the city. It is a familiar narrative: the draw of study, work, and a faster pace of life. Yet, as a creative person, I am increasingly aware of the influence of D&G on my thought processes—a language of place through which much of my work is communicated. Because of this, and because of a longstanding ambition to return to the region, Mark Lyken and Emma Dove’s recent Hame installation for The Stove Network resonated with me.
Perhaps one reasonable working definition of art could be: a community talking to itself about itself. This was a fascinatingly literal instance of that process, with audio clips of people discussing their relationships contextualised against meditative imagery of the area. Seeing the places we know celebrated and examined in this fashion makes them more real and more vital. It is a process of validation through which both the bonds and the divides in our community are exposed. The installation made us question which voices were included and which were not—whose particular home was being offered a platform?
On a formal level, the piece made use of the suggestive space of 100 High Street, succeeding in creating a feeling of audience participation through its non-linear looseness. At the risk of overstating the point, wandering through the multiple levels of the installation captured something of the jagged, contingent nature of our existence in place. If and when the piece is transposed into a linear production, it will undoubtedly be engaging but very different, precisely calibrated as it was to radiate from the town centre. Lyken and Dove guided us through a mixture of voices that spoke with the random authority of community. From recollections of a previous era to the impressions of youth, for two weeks, The Stove became an open archive of shared experience. Just as ‘hame’ doesn’t quite mean the same as ‘home’ to me, all the small details and nuances of life in D&G carry a particular shading. It was this peculiar quality of rootedness that the installation articulated so well. Fortunately, Hame was also too stylish to fall into the traps of tourist information or museum exhibits that a piece of its nature might otherwise face.
The Stove is a commendable effort to further invigorate a growing community of creative people in and around Dumfries and, in doing so, contribute to the revitalisation of the town centre. As one of the many young locals living elsewhere but with half an eye on home, I find projects like this encouraging. Alongside the growing number of music festivals in the region, the successes of Spring Fling and other arts events, D&G seems to be building towards a creative critical mass—a blossoming that is being noticed on a national level. Perhaps we don’t need to look so far away after all if we have these things at hame.
Our friends at Dumfries and Galloway Council joined in the #OpenHouse spirit at The Stove today and suggested a wee public event to officially sign over the lease of 100 High Street to The Stove Network.
A genuine act of faith in seeking alternative futures for the town on behalf of our Council—fair play to them!
Signatories from left David Smith (Chair of The Stove Network), Alex Haswell (Director Community and Customer Services), Councillor Ted Thompson (Provost of Dumfries)
If you thought nothing cool ever happened in Dumfries, then your mind must have been truly blown by the recent Open House series of events at The Stove. If you missed it, then I’m sorry—it’s not Dumfries that’s uncool, my friend—it’s you!
On Tuesday, 28th April, The Stove opened its doors to anyone wanting to try their hand at the fashionable art of spoken word. The all-day live event, called Open Mouth, promised to wow audiences with local and national talent whilst providing support and encouragement to keen youngsters with a raw thirst for poetry slamming.
Young Stover Ivor Gott and Sindigo prepared an eye-catching backdrop for the stage
Part 1 – Schools Workshops @OpenMouth
In the morning, pupils from a local school attended workshops designed to spark their thinking about words.
They were divided into three groups to rotate between three sessions. The Open Jar Collective added a foodie twist to the activities, and each group had the chance to paint a plate that will be used in the new Stove Café.
So, not only will they be eating their own words when they say Dumfries isn’t cool, but they’ll be eating them off a plate with their own words painted onto it! You couldn’t make it up—it’s so genius.
All the participants were keen to come back to the Stove for other events “I’m coming back to eat off my own plate”, said one, “my mum will be so impressed”
At the same time as these workshops were taking place, poet Eryl Shields was conducting creative writing workshops upstairs.
To delve into their deepest personal truths, Eryl set the theme as “10 things I know to be true.” Eryl said, “We shared the lists. Then, I asked them to write a short piece in their chosen form, based on or inspired by any aspect of their own list. We read out our pieces and looked at how they could be redrafted to be more effective as spoken word performance pieces. I was very impressed by the strength and variety of the work produced.”
Sindigo (second from right) with school pupils in an Open Mouth workshop
Meanwhile, in another room of The Stove’s amazing new premises, I was busy hosting spoken word performance masterclasses. I explained what “spoken word” was, what it could be, and how they could make it unique for themselves. The main rule we established was that it should be your own work and should be performed in front of a crowd.
The pupils then wrote a short piece about themselves, employing emotion or humour—often both. They didn’t seem shy or scared when I told them it was time to read their pieces into a microphone. With sensitivity, they were given critical feedback by me and the other members of the group on how they could improve both content and delivery.
For the humorous pieces, we discussed ways to make them even funnier—exaggerating actions, using pauses effectively, and engaging the audience with eye contact and pointing. “Do you do this for a living?” one girl asked. “That’s so cool! I wanna do that.”
At one point, some of the participants shared that they could speak other languages and were able to translate their pieces into Mandarin and Lithuanian. By the end of the class, two girls were rapping about their love of cheese, including audience participation sections in three languages. Yaldi!
Afterwards, their teacher sent a text saying, “Thank you very much for today. The kids loved it, and I thought it was really interesting—I learned loads too!”
Part 2 – Open Workshop @OpenMouth
One student even returned at 5 pm to take part in the open mentoring sessions with established performance poet Emily Elver, emcee and Girobabies frontman Mark McGhee, and Scottish Slam champion Bram E. Giebens.
Open Mouth evening workshop
The Notorious Young Stove were also heavily present, along with several other local poets and keen amateurs. Sitting around in a circle, talking about how we first came across writing, I suddenly felt like I was at a Poets Anonymous meeting.
“My name’s Sindigo, and I’m an addict.” “How long have you been addicted to poetry, Sindigo?”
But the mood soon lifted with a few laughs. Participants were able to get invaluable advice from our guests and even had the chance to perform their work and receive feedback from the experts.
Mark McGhee keeps it real
Part 3 – Gig @OpenMouth
After the briefest of pauses for pizza and ginger beer, I took to the stage to announce the evening performances and to thank the wonderful folks of The Stove for making it all possible. Scottish Slam champion Bram opened the show and was incredible, as usual, with his haunting portrayal of the inner psyche and poignant references to politics and personal anguish.
Pierluigi Angelini
Local poet and keen admirer of The Stove, Peter Angelini, provided a sentimental and romantic reflection on Dumfries and the surrounding area, his infectious smile winning over the crowds. Next up was our incredible schoolgirl, Annemarie, who had taken part in the morning workshops. She bravely took to the stage and melted our hearts with a poem about her baby sister’s ginger afro and heart-shaped freckles. I was swelling with pride at my wee protégé.
Annemarie
The Young Stovers were the real stars of the show. Ivor Gott wowed us with a poem written on the day about Mother Earth. Cara McNaught sauntered onto the stage with real style and blasted out an accomplished rap as if she’d been doing it for years. Then, Rhiannon Dewar bared her soul with a hard-hitting piece straight from the heart. She modestly declared afterwards, “I definitely found it a cool experience.” Steven Rogerson proved himself to be an accomplished writer of personal experiences, and his confidence shone on the mic. All future stars in the making!
Ivor Gott
Mark McGhee of Jakal Trades showed us why he’s always an asset on any bill with his fast-paced social commentary and wit, inventing his own words and getting the audience chanting along. His poem about Edward Snowden is still one of my favourites, and he absolutely smashed it, earning rapturous applause.
Mark McGhee
Eryl Shields
Eryl Shields’s refined and ethereal style wonderfully conveyed her polished poetic narrative. Catherine Major brought a punchy slam style, and her savvy performance was a true asset to the show. Herald at The Stove and all-round ray of light, Moxie de Paulette, gave us a rousing reaction to the election, including a mighty fine impression of Nigel Farage. Ginger, a local professional, transported us to muddy fields and festival shenanigans with his take on some traditional Burns, twisted through psychedelic raving and all-night swallying.
Emily Elver, another rising star on the scene, delivered a phenomenal performance. She had us all in stitches with her sci-fi foreplay piece and demonstrated why she’s a much-loved talent and an unstoppable force of spoken word alchemy. She said, “Open Mouth was one of the best events I’ve had the privilege to be involved in. The workshop was buzzing with new voices and experienced performers. The open mic showcased how many amazing new performers Dumfries & Galloway has. Could not have been more impressed with The Stove team and Sindigo’s hard work.”
Sindigo on Stage
I enjoyed introducing everyone and felt a surge of electricity every time I went on the mic. It was, in fact, one of the best nights of my life—a celebration of everything coming alive in Dumfries and across Scotland.
“This is just the beginning!” said Debz McDozey, leader of The Young Stove, as I gave her a high five.
#OpenMouth was produced in association with the Wigtown Festival Company. Huge thanks to them for everything!
Our ambition to Get Dumfries Talking is coming to pass—people are really getting stuck into the #OpenHouse speech bubbles and finding great ways for the town to express itself:
What would your house say?
What would your workplace say?
What would a park bench say?
What would the cannon in Dock Park say?
Taking part is super easy—just pick up a speech bubble from The Stove (or from cafes and shops around the town), write a message in the bubble, snap it with your phone, and post it to Twitter or Facebook with the hashtag #OpenHouse.
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