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 flumen ut bibat ducent.
Aniculae quando vaccae salsae agros olim operiebant recordantur.
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.
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 katie@thestove.org.
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 katie@thestove.org.
This is what I’m thinking: we must not lose the deep meaning of Nithraid. 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 to people.
The main point, of course, is 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 liberation of the object once known as ‘cow’.
First, we cover it in salt because salt imbues and confirms the cow as a once-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.
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 katie@thestove.org.
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!
Here’s the rainbow scum in the peaty puddle, the floating wabbling moss pressed to a trickle, to the stony sykes and the burns with the overhanging alder banks, the Marr, the Scaur, you know them all. Plunge pools between the rocks where something cold in the shape of a tiny fish slimes to the stones and you dare not touch it, innocuous though you are. The falls and the places of the saved, the plains flood, bunds and bridges now, drains and stinking outfalls, rich weed and confluences, abbey ruins, mills, houses, fishing beats those who should and those who shouldn’t, lord bless us and slow us every one.
Now here’s a river that flows both ways twice a day, here’s a river with a bore, here’s a river of great salmon and otters in the town centre, here’s river that worked, here’s a river that sent a thousand swanskin gloves in a single ship, here’s a river that’s been trained and straightened, blasted, dredged, bridged, forded, made electricity, turned the town mill. It’s the replying torrent that floods the town and carries off the eroded hills, it fills and empties with millions upon millions of tons of seawater twice a day and here’s a benign stream of clear tea stained water with islands and ducks and white flowering weed.
Here are the docks and wharves o’ergrown, the flattening merse, the ooze, the whetted wind that opens the distance to the sea. This is the sea. The Nith is a constant with darkness laying along its meandering silty bed. No day is the same yet…
The Rise of Denmark in full sail on the River Nith. From the collection of the Dumfries Museum
Mark Zygadlo is part of the Stove’s Nithraid team, developing the boat race itself and this year has also been working to create a large installation in the centre of the River Nith. This year’s Nithraid takes place on Saturday, 13th of September. A dangerous dinghy race from Carsethorn upriver, the boats will arrive in the centre of Dumfries with the high tide at approximately 3.45pm. There is a lot going down on the Whitesands all afternoon, full details on our Nithraid page here.
From a press release by Jean Atkin of Word Sparks:
“Hundreds of poems will be on display in venues across Dumfries from this week as part of the Burns Windows Project. Inspired by Robert Burns’s occasional predilection for writing verses on window panes with a diamond ring or stylus, local artist Hugh Bryden and David Borthwick, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow in Dumfries, have come up with the idea of inviting contemporary poets to submit their own work for display as window poems. Poets were sent a sheet of clear plastic and a pen and asked to write a poem that spoke of their own time ‘in a transparent way’.”
“But David and Hugh had no idea how the project would take off, with the Burns Windows Project attracting almost 200 poems submitted from as far afield as the USA, Belgium, and Switzerland, as well as submissions from some of Britain’s top poets, including Jen Hadfield, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, Jean Sprackland, Andrew Greig, and many others.”
“Hugh and David are members of The Stove, a collective of artists and creative individuals involved in regenerating the former Happit store on High Street as an arts venue. The poems are part of The Stove’s inaugural events weekend on 27–28 January, which is part of the Big Burns Supper. Thirty of the best poems will be projected from the building during the Burns Supper extravaganza, with almost a hundred others on display in the windows.”
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