- ‘Life Sticks’ – An Environmental Sculptural Diary - 25. 2 & 1. 3. 2010
‘Life Sticks’ are totems to all the children’s biographies that are documented in this sculptural piece and it is a snapshot of the school’s community at a particular point in time. Trees witness our lives and this artwork is a way to directly link a part of nature’s growth to the development of an individual human life.
Children have told their stories through the objects collected that have meant something in their lives or have marked events and achievements. These precious items have been interweaved with brightly coloured ribbons, wool and string to the sticks that come from the surrounding forests, to create a sculptural portrait.
This project links two communities from separate countries, Lochaline in Scotland and Kulkurin Polku in Finland. Watching children from different cultures build their histories from belongings is moving and exciting. Connecting village schools through this experience builds a wider global awareness; it demonstrates not only the interconnectedness of people but with nature and the future of our planet. These young artists have made monuments to their lives that in years to come will be witness to the consequences of our actions today.
- Art Course at KulttuuriKauppila - 15. 3 - 29. 3. 2010
This exhibition at the bank shows work by students from the contemporary art course at Kulttuurikauppila taught by artist in residence Veronica Slater. It ran over two weekends with two evenings that comprised of projects that explored drawing in various media, collage/montage and painting with acrylic & oil. It also included a talk where students were shown a wide range of current art practice. The final project was a 3D mixed media piece where they made a ‘time capsule’ sculpture, a uniquely personal work that carries their hopes and dreams for the future.
- Artist's Day at KulttuuriKauppila 4. 3. 2010
Creative Connections
The Art of Ideas – A contemporary practice
A day to explore the territory of making a contemporary visual arts practice with a talk by Veronica Slater and a viewing of the film Spent with a Workshop to end.
Veronica Slater
An artist from the Isle of Mull, Scotland, UK will discuss and show work from recent projects including CARAVAN. A multimedia piece that uses wallpaper, ornaments, painting and film to convey the transient spaces which caravans can represent as sites of mobile domesticity and potential refuge.
Spent
Spent is a collaborative venture that documents the making of an exhibition in a gallery in the east end of London. It is a rare insight to the working process of contemporary artists making creative decisions on how to respond to a space through their practice.
Workshop
A practical forum to evaluate the networks, support and context in which an art practice takes place. It is an opportunity to explore how creative connections and challenges not only stimulate ideas but sustain a focus.
This is a full day seminar
KUVATAIDEPAIVAT OULUSSA
ART 360 Seminar 16.4.2010
Sites of Well Being Veronica Slater 2010
Turning a rubbish dump into art
This is the story of CARAVAN a multi-media artwork that transformed the dumping ground of a small Scottish village on The Isle of Mull, to a place of inspiration.
What art does and how it transforms spaces
Art is a means to unlocking areas of our imagination that connect to a profound sense of self. It is able to mediate our environment and make us Re-look, Re-think and Re-invent. This experience is our cultural sensibility and it determines how we construct the spaces we inhabit.
Creative connections
Culture isn’t a static state; it is constantly fluid and changes with the connections we make within any given context. What we generate in this room today will shift our mindsets and open up new possibilities. In recognising our individual creative resources we can build meaningful collaborative practice.
Creative empowerment
Sites of well being have to originate with how we look after our creative self and that depends on how a society is nurturing its arts sector. The relationship between the individual and a culture is negotiated through our awareness of community whether we view this locally or globally. However it is at a grassroots level that we can engender creative enterprise. I know this because of my experience of making art in small neighbourhoods in different countries. CARAVAN happened out of a particular context and that then led me to KulttuuriKauppila situated in a community with parallels to Mull. Our sense of place is intricately interwoven into our cultural identities and if we can recognise that creativity is a process of empowerment then we can enhance our Sites of Well Being.
