Craft Southsiders - 31st July 2011

Afternoon Twee returns to the Shed in Shawlands on Sunday 31st July. There will be vintage clothing, accessories, Jewellery, arts and crafts and more. Starts at 12.30pm.

We didn't make it to the last one, and are away again this time so can someone let us know how it goes in the comments below. Would really like to have got to stick our heads in the door.

Also returning is The Craft-Scene at Beanscene on Skirving Street 12:30 to 4:30. Sounds like a fun way to spend an afternoon wandering from one to the other.

Top 30 Scottish Websites

Woo hoo, we got some good news yesterday when we found out that our little blog had been picked to feature in the List's top 30 Scottish websites. Click the link to the article and there you will find us at place number 16 and they have lots of nice things to say about us too. Thank you List.

"Run with dedication and laudable amounts of energy . . Southside Happenings is a window on the independent shops and cafés, arts events, and non-corporate culture that still, happily, holds strong in Glasgow’s biggest district."

We are really delighted to be amongst some pretty impressive other sites and also pleased to see that other Southsiders feature too with the brilliant Gerry Hassan also on the list.

Thanks too all, we shall have to keep on posting and justify our place on the list. We've been really busy recently hence the slightly quiter posting but we shall get back on the case

Creative Thursday with Fergus Dunnet

This week's Southside creative extrordinaire is Fergus Dunnet a talented painter, maker of objects and ex-street magician based at the southside Studios just off Victoria Road.

SSH: What do you do?

Ferugs: I am a painter (www.fergus-dunnet.weebly.com), but i earn my living working collaboratively with other artists and theatre makers. I set up Ordinary Adventures (www.ordinaryadventures.com) with Angie Bual, we make small scale games which are tactile and which interact with audiences in a personal way. I also work with Theatre Modo as a designer and workshop leader, often on large projects involving young people.

SSH: Where did you study?

Fergus: After studying at Glasgow School of Art I got a job making paintings for hotels and bars, and my own practice burnt out. I left for Spain and busked as a street Magician for two years with my partner who is a clown. When we came back to Glasgow I started a job working for Theatre Modo giving art and circus workshops for young people. This I really enjoy, and it has given me the time and money to get my own practice back into shape and to pursue other projects, like Ordinary Adventures.

In my painting work i use old horror film imagery to look at the isolation and humour of horror characters and stereotypes. I enjoy the directness of the emotions and expression which horror film portrays and the almost ridiculously serious nonsense they concern themselves with. There is something in the failed attempt to terrify us that makes us laugh instead, i can identify with that failure and fear of being laughed at. In collaboration with Angie Bual I make interactive games, and these film sources, as well as sci-fi and fantasy elements have become a feature of our work. I love working with other makers and the chance to come up with ideas which you could never have on your own.

SSH: What's Next?

Fergus: For the next four months I'm working with Theatre Modo.  This week I set off for Peterhead for a fortnight, then Bridge of Don for a six week parade project about the life of Thomas Blake Glover, then back to Peterhead for another six week parade project about whaling. After that I will get back into the studio and see what I think of the work I made before I left.

SSH: Where do you head for inspiration?
Fergus: Oxfam books on Victoria Road provides inspiration for me regularly. I stop by most days and although sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for, at other times there will be several books on a subject which I didn't know about and they set me off in a new path for a week or two.

SSH: What key piece of advice do you wish you'd known?
Fergus: I wish someone had explained that it takes a very long time to get good at the things you want to do. And that along the way there are opportunities to try other things which broaden your experience and skill base. I'd still like to know who buys artworks.

SSH: Favourite place in the Southside?

Fergus: Go Slow cafe has a lovely atmosphere, a warm welcome and fills with interesting people.

SSH: Name another Southside creative whose work you admire?

Fergus: Roy Shearer (www.zero-waste.co.uk) makes product and furniture designs which are intelligent, playful and relevant to our time.

SSH: If money was no option what would you change about the Southside?

Fergus: I'm sure other Southsiders agree that it'd be great to have a bar that reflects the creative and diverse members of the community. And that stays open past half ten. And that has a lovely beer garden. And is really cheap. And that you can go dancing at sometimes, but that's still quiet enough to have a chat, that sells tasty ales and cocktails and has excellent live music, situated just far enough away from my flat for me to get a little walk to sober me up on the way home, but not so far away that I'll get soaked if it's raining. Right?

Creative Thursday with Seth Orion Schwaiger

This week we interview Seth Orion Schwaiger, an artist, sculptor, curator based at the Chalet Art Studios in Govanhill.

SSH: So where is it you work?

My studio is in The Chalet just down Dixon avenue from Vicki Road. You could not say the building is well lit or free of dust, but what that space lacks in ideal pleasantries it more than makes up in intriguing architecture and a vibrant community. Home to carpenters, designers, painters, collage artists, and sculptors, The Chalet is an ideal place for idea exchange. If you want something done, there's someone there who knows how to do it.

The building itself is constantly changing and being renovated. The owner, Michael Ball, is somewhat of a brilliant mad man. The Chalet members know that if you don't go to the studio regularly you won't recognize the interior when you return. Along with the roots growing through the walls, the patchwork stove under the staircase, and a mash up of improvised architecture ranging back to the early days of the tenements, this ever-shifting space keeps me on my toes. Its influence on my practice was inevitable from day one.

SSH: What is your discipline/ disciplines?

Seth: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief.

I'd like to say simply that I'm a sculptor. This is true, and it is my deepest passion, but sometimes my desires to see something happen drag me into other disciplines. Like all artists, I draw. Sometimes I do a bit of printmaking. Sometimes I paint. What I can't seem to get away from though is curating. I just get an idea for a show and it can become all consuming. It's a frustrating side of my practice, but at the openings it all seems worth it.

SSH: Describe your creative practice or what it is you do? 

Seth: I make. When I'm completely free I tend to sculpt. I enjoy sculpting the human form and the practice is most intuitive when I work life-size. There's always a point in the process when the mass of wood, wax, or stone becomes human – and that's an amazing feeling. You catch the unfinished sculpture out of the corner of your eye and for an instant believe that it's another person in the room. As the sculpture develops the feeling grows. Sometimes I have to put a sheet over the work just so I can focus on something else!

SSH: Tell us a bit about your background
Seth: If there's one place I grew up, it's Wyoming. I went to high school there in Dayton, population 578. I received a BFA from the University of Wyoming in Laramie. I fell in love in Italy with a Texan, the incredibly talented painter Elizabeth McDonald. Eventually I followed her to Glasgow. I've been making art all the while and picking up skills along the way. I learned to cast metal and fabricate in Wyoming, to carve stone in Italy, wood in India, and work with some synthetics here in Glasgow.

SSH: Tell us about your favourite piece of your work?

Seth: Right now it's “Not a Pair between Them.” I enjoy the image and I love the reactions it gets. It's more light hearted than my other work. It would likely be my favourite regardless of its history, but I made the work while traveling and have some good memories with it. Here's the abridged version: I made the wax positive in the south of france with a chip knife I bought at a junk sale there. The work was cast at an iron pouring conference in Wales, which was a complete blast – even through the soggy camping in the rugby field. The work was finished in the hill country in Texas where a really kind Mexican business owner helped me sift through some beautiful chunks of native granite for the base. I wish every piece had a story like this one.

Not a Pair Between Them

SSH: So what are you doing next any up coming shows?
Seth: I've just installed some figurative work in the Broomhill Sculpture Gardens in Devon as part of this year's National Sculpture Prize and I'm waiting to hear the results. You can see the work at broomhillart.co.uk. (give us a vote while your there).

Just took down a show of my work at the Glasgow Print Studio, but you'll have a chance to see some of them again. A selection of the pieces was chosen for a film shoot this month and should appear in the next season of “Lip Service” on BBC3.

SSH: What is your favourite creative blog/ website or other source of inspiration?
Seth: Southsidehappenings of course!

You'd be hard pressed to find a spot online as inspirational as a few drinks in the park with a friend or two. Sometimes you can't get to the park (maybe sometimes you don't have friends) and for those times there's the internet. Here's some good websites: loladupre.com, annepatsch.com, jammdiggity.blogspot.com, carlanovi.com, sheltonwalker.wordpress.com, and artistaday.com is not too shabby either.

Watchers

SSH: What key piece of advice do you wish you'd known?

I'll answer this by relaying a piece of advice I never should have believed. A good teacher once told me that if you just keep working on improving your art then “the money will come.” Unfortunately this is not true. I wish I had never believed her. It would have saved me a lot of frustration. Improving one's art is half the battle – and only maybe half. What is at least equally important in terms of surviving financially as an emerging artist is hitting the pavement. Get yourself out there. Adopt good business strategies. Act like a professional – you are one.

SSH: Do you have a favourite place in the Southside?

Seth: The bathroom in Go Slow Cafe. It is a cultural landmark. Go there and you'll see why. The Cafe itself is a close second. The coffee is as strong as you like it, and Rose can always cheer you up even when on rare occasion she needs cheering up herself. There's always something in the works there whether it be live music or an art exhibition, both of which are of unusually high quality for a cafe.

I recommend the soup.

Tell us about another Southside creative whose work you admire?
Seth: I have to mention two.

Lola Dupre's work never ceases to amaze and is only surpassed by her diligence in the studio. Simon Harlow's skills and problem solving are invaluable to those around him and you can see it in whatever he produces. I've learned so much over the past couple years from both. I admire their practices as much as the physical works they create.

SSH: If money was no option what would you change about the Southside?

Seth: Install a quite subterranean, sub ocean, bullet train system, internationally connected with links to New York, Paris, Rome, etc.. Engineer bacteria to eat asphalt and turn it into soil, leaving a few strips in the center of each former street for bike lanes. Install public bike program. Plant public fruit and nut trees in the former streets and allot garden space to each residence. Create rain powered generators and funnel every downspout through. Support this electricity by offering free gyms in which each exercise machine creates more juice for the national grid. Better yet have the gym pay the members for the amount of electricity they produce.

Healthy people, clean electricity, free food, no traffic, clean air, green space everywhere, well connected... maybe throw in some galleries, museums, and room for public sculpture and I think things would be pretty great.... Then implement a paid holiday every day it rains.
SSH: And finally tell us one other interesting fact about you?
Seth: In the spring of 2006 I went hopping freight trains to go see a friend three states away. I fell asleep on one train during a snow storm. I thought I had died having woke up numb, train still roaring beneath me, and in a pitch black tunnel through the hillside.

For more information on Seth click here

Pecha Kucha

Tramway’s Pecha Kucha events are fastpaced presentations featuring a range of creative thinkers, artists and performers drawn from Glasgow’s rich artistic community. No two events are the same, no two presentations are the same, but speakers have to stick to the strict Pecha Kucha format: showing 20 slides for 20 seconds each.

The theme for this Pecha Kucha is overlap, and they've invited the following speakers to share their thoughts, musings and associated images with you
Bryony McIntyre and Barry Essen of Arika (Creators of film & music festivals), Jessica Ashman (Animator & Director), Nick Fells (Composer, Performer & Sound Artist), Dave Fennessy (Composer), Rohan Gunatillake (Innovation Producer & Consultant), Kirsty Logan (Writer), Stuart MacDonald of Creative Frontline (Creative Industries consultancy), Julia Malle (Visual Artist), Toby Paterson (Visual Artist), Charles Blanc & Tristan Surtees of Sans façon (artist architect collaboration), Roy Shearer (Designer, Maker & Musician), Hanna Tuulikki (Artist & Musician)

July 14th, 7:00 pm -9:30 pm

Tickets are £4.50 / £3.50

This Weekend 8-10th July 2011

It's the weekend again and here's some suggestions for what to do.

This Saturday start the day with Park Run in Pollok Park. Then stroll along to Battlefield where the third Battlefield Community Street Party will be taking place. The parade leaves Battlefield Primary School at 12 noon and will make it's way to the Community Garden. Then they'll be music, stalls, yoga, lots of childrens activities. Remember to bring some lunch to share, as this is a big lunch event.

The Burrell collections celebration of William Burrell's birthday, He would be 150 years old, is launched this Saturday with a Festive Feast Birthday Party  between 11.30am and 4pm. They'll be folk music and ceilidh dancing, plus cake-decorating and drop-in activities for children from 2pm

National Model Warship Weekend is taking place in Queens Park boating pond on Saturday and Sunday from 11am till 5pm. This is one of the largest shows on the model boating calendar. There are ships representing most navies from around the world, from different periods and in different scales.  There will be a display of model ships under construction as well a display on the open water. 

On Saturday night, the Listen In - Lights Out event, will be taking place at the Go Slow Cafe on Victoria Road, with Dean Queasy, Peter Nicholson, Jim McAteer and Kirstie Penman. Doors open at 7pm and tickets are £5

On Sunday afternoon the Burrell collection birthday activities continue with a game of giant pass-the-parcel and a free screening of a family film (PG) at 2pm.

The British Art Show 7 continues at the Tramway featuring new and existing work of thirty nine of the UK'S most exciting contemporary artists. (The show is also being hosted at the CCA and GOMA).

Interesting exhibition at Scotland Street School 'The Glesga that I Used to Know'. exhibits photographs taken during the seventies as part of a series of photographic surveys. The images taken capture Glasgow at a time of great change, and show Glaswegians going about their daily lives as the city’s landscape transformed around them. (Exhibition is free). If you visit the show drop into the Willow cafe for some lunch or ice cream

* First Person to identify this Southside place  in the image above wins a SSH badge. Leave a comment below

Listen In - Lights Out

The Southside Seeds will be having their fourth Listen In - Lights Out event, this Saturday night at the Go Slow Cafe on Victoria Road. There's a great line up with:

Dean Queasy - are a local band that have been gigging in the Glasgow area since 2008. Drawing from influences as wide as Nick Drake and Lou Reed they mix up genres to create a light hearted take on a serious world.
Peter Nicholson - As a founder member of the Age of Wire and String and as cellist with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, Peter has performed and collaborated extensively with both Scottish and International musicians. Work in this area lead to his joining the One Ensemble in 2003. Combining a classical training with his experience as an improviser, Peter has had the opportunity to work closely with composers and with musicians from diverse cultures, including a project with Ravi Shankar.
Jim McAteer - You may think he's mad, but he'll just be glad - for your company! Recent gigs include support slots for a dazzling list of folk legends - Martin Carthy, Wiz Jones, Davey Graham, Robin Williamson and John Renbourn, as well as appearing in his own right at international venues from New York to Iran.
Kirstie Penman, A South Seeds gardener will be returning with some more sea shantys and tales of misfotune which are sure to cheer up even the most disheartened.As always the Go Slow Cafe will have tasty food and drinks on offer so come along and make an evening of it. You can bring your own bottle (£1 corkage charge)

Doors open at 7pm and tickets are £5 on the door. All money raised goes towards South Seeds community projects.

Battlefield Street Party

On Saturday 9th July, The Battlefield Street Party returns for a third year. The Party starts with a parade which leaves Battlefield Primary School at 12 noon and makes it's way to the Battlefield Community Garden. They'll be live music from Southside Bands such as Keeper, The Lonely Oatcake and Shift. Also Food, stalls, yoga, massages, tai chi workshops plus loads of childrens activities such as a bouncy castle and face painting.

The Street Party is part of the big lunch so party attendees are encouraged to bring food to share. Event runs from 12pm till 5ish

This Weekend

On Saturday morning there is Park Run at Pollok Park. The Farmers Market is taking place in Queens Park between 10am and 2pm. Put some Sunshine into your life on Saturday night with the La Roche Rumba Summer Tours night, in the Pollok Ex Servicemen club on Titwood Road. Doors open at 8.30pm.

On Sunday Craft Scene are holding a craft fair in Beanscene in Clarkston, from 12.30 - 4.30.

The British Art Show 7 continues at the Tramway featuring new and existing work of thirty nine of the UK'S most exciting contemporary artists. (The show is also being hosted at the CCA and GOMA). 

How about a visit to Holmwood House, the only Alexander Greek Thomson building opened to the public and located in Cathcart. It's open from 12pm - 5pm and tickets are £6

Of course it's tennis weekend so perhaps a game of Tennis in Queens Park or you could watch it, if the sun is shining, outside in a beer garden.

Have a great weekend.

As always if we've missed anything let everyone know by leaving a comment below