Arts: New Peacock Exhibitions
June 28, 2010
Friday 2 July-Saturday 14 August | Peacock Visual Arts | Free
Two new exhibitions, which means double the usual opening night shenanigans on Friday 2 July at 6pm. You’ve got until mid-August to check them out otherwise though…
Plein Air : The Ethical Aesthetic Impulse
Reiko Goto and Tim Collins‘ tree-based project featuring ‘a box easel for the 21st Century’ (image below left)
and…
Insight
A new series of prints by Agata Dymus-Kazmierczak produced during a one-year residency in the printmaking department at Gray’s School of Art (image below right)
More info is available on the Peacock website
Music: UTG Fundraiser
June 23, 2010
Friday 25 June | Cafe Drummonds | 8pm | £5 (min. donation)
In conjunction with Interesting Music Promotions, Friends of Union Terrace Gardens present a fundraiser for their cause (which you’ll all be aware of by now, right?)
MC Alan ‘Kitchen Cynics‘ Davidson presides over proceedings which will include music from Min Diesel, Steven Milne & his Solo Posse, Flaxman, Hashimoto Jones, Myke Black, Djembe drummers Drummin Aboot and Simon Gall & Steve Crawford. There’s some good stuff in there and we’re promised a couple of surprises too. Pay more than the suggested fiver in and get an iconic UTG badge which you can flout around town as well…
Oh, and keep an eye on our Twitter feed over there on the right for the latest press coverage on the whole UTG debacle, call it a hunch but we reckon there’ll be a LOT more to come…
Arts/Film: Mobile Cinema
June 21, 2010
Wednesday 23 June | Peacock Visual Arts | 6pm | Free
Romana Schmalisch presents a lecture/screening using a reconstruction of a film prop from Alexander Medvedkin’s film “The New Moscow” (1938).
The performance reflects on change in urban space using a film archive developed for the machine and has previously been shown in Zurich, Moscow, Rome, Bucharest, Kaliningrad, Vilnius, Kaunas, Warsaw, Berlin, Kiev, London, Paris and Yerevan. Looks cool:
Mobile Cinema
Arts: Union Terrace Gardens Picnic
June 11, 2010
Saturday 12 June | Union Terrace Gardens | 2pm | Free
I’d imagine a lot of you have heard about this already. If not, the idea is a basic one; head down to Union Terrace Gardens, have a picnic, listen to some music and show just how important the place is to the city…
Links:
Routemaster promotes Picnic in the Park protest (P&J)
Mass protest picnic to be held over Union Terrace Gardens plans (STV)
Arts Holes
May 20, 2010
Speechless.
You’ve all heard the result of The Union Terrace Gardens vote by now but here’s how the P&J reported it this morning anyway. Some interesting stuff in the comments.
This does not make our city look good at all does it?
Arseholes.
I’ve nothing else to add at the moment to be honest…
*Sigh*
Arts: Speechless
April 18, 2010
We’ve not posted anything on the Union Terrace Gardens thing for a while, I’m sure you’ve all seen results of the consultation by now anyway…
Here’s a quick summary though, just in case:
They lost. Big time.
This however, this, if true, is nothing short of a f***king scandal…Check it out:
Arts: Frances Walker
March 13, 2010
Aberdeen Art Gallery | Until Saturday 10 April | Free
Peacock Visual Arts | Until Saturday 24 April | Free
The opening of Frances Walker’s print exhibition at Peacock Visual Arts means for the best part of a month she’s got two shows running concurrently. One of Scotland’s most cherished artists, and a founding member of Peacock, her incredibly evocative landscapes are nothing short of amazing. I’d imagine some of you have already visited her superb, career-spanning Art Gallery show, but for those who haven’t, the chance to tie it in with a visit to an equally stunning selection of her prints at Peacock should be irresistible. This is unmissable stuff. It also gives us the chance to post up the first of Adam Proctor’s fantastic films on the artist, we’ll put the others up (and there are still more to come) over the next few days, but for those that can’t wait, they can be seen on this page.
Arts: Tree-minus two days?
March 3, 2010
Friday. Crunch time. There’s been so much written, especially in the local press, about the City Square Project/ACSEF/Peacock that it’s hard to keep up sometimes: Consultation good. Consultation bad. Consultation irrelevant. Gardens good. Gardens bad. Gardens irrelevant. Bloody artists. Bloody trees. Bloody tree artists.
It’s become a bit of a joke to be honest, unfortunately it’s deadly serious when not a day goes by without some ACSEF-weighted spin appearing. Here’s today’s offering for example. Translation: ‘We asked the people for their opinion, they gave it, but they’re the wrong kind of people. These aren’t real people. They’re organised protesters’. It’s laughable stuff…
Anyway, the aforementioned consultation on The City Square Project ends on Friday, so fill in the survey here if you haven’t already done so. (I know most of you have, but it’s for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t taken action yet)
Alternatively, freephone 0800 111 4881, text your thoughts to 60777 followed by the word ‘square’ or email consultation@thecitysquareproject.com Remember to keep it civil (or civic, if you will).
That ‘vocal minority’ petition in support of the Peacock building is here (and currently at over 8000 signatures), please bring it to the attention of anyone who may be interested in keeping the city centre’s unique topography intact.
This could well be your last chance to have a say on the matter.
I mean, even the squirrels are speaking out now (and you dinna mess wi’ squirrels). Oh, and in case you missed it, last Saturday saw a wee event in support of the gardens (check out this video of it by the supremely talented Adam Proctor) and there’s something similar happening on Friday at 2pm too. Same place, under Rabbie Burns’ statue. Poetic.
Music: We Heart UTG Album
February 26, 2010
A quick heads up: The We Heart UTG compilation album in support of the campaign to save Union Terrace Gardens launches as a digital download on Saturday 27 February.
Twenty tracks across various genres have been submitted by some of the best local talent (including Fiona Soe Paing, & Alan ‘Kitchen Cynics‘ Davidson) and you can pay what you want for the album. So, for as little as a quid you can do your bit for UTG and get some pretty cool stuff in return.
More on this later, however it might be worth your while heading down to the gardens at 1pm on Saturday the 27th (that’s tomorrow!) Something might be happening. *taps nose*
Arts: City Square Project Rip It Up, Start Again
February 16, 2010
Ahead of a public debate on Union Terrace Gardens this Thursday evening, the City Square Project today announced they are ‘phasing out’ their original, undoubtedly expensive glossy PR brochure. It’s nothing to do with Annie Lennox, who spoke out against the scheme, being pictured in it (nor the even more inexplicable image of the London Underground). Oh no, they were going to do it anyway (sure they were). Fair enough, but it just shows up how little of the planned development is, erm, actually planned.
They haven’t a clue what would go in there: Italian Piazzas, Trafalgar Squares, Guggenheim Museums, underground tunnels, concert venues, babylon-esque gardens and various other nonsensical, reactionary ‘ideas’ have been mooted thus far, all with very little substance to them.
You just know that the huge funding shortfall would mean we’d end up with a half-arsed, embarrassing mish-mash which would cause irreplaceable damage to the city’s image and physical make-up. A piece in today’s Scotsman sums up the situation perfectly: The City Square Project is unworkable and threatens not only Peacock’s immediate future, but the future of arts and culture in the city as a whole. Roll on Thursday…
Update 17/02/10: The Annie Lennox picture story has been picked up by The Scotsman today
