anam creative: eco collab online exhibition
Intro
anam creative: eco collab is a two part project that commissioned 12 emerging musicians and artists based in Glasgow to create work inspired by the Scottish environment. Part one commissioned musicians Rose Logan, Joe Weisberg, Adam Strachan and Jacob Reid and artists Annie Donaldson and Josie KO to develop work exploring land. Part two commissioned musicians Ruby Allen, Rory Green and Fraser Macbeath and artists Shanine Gallagher, Dawn Kelso and Douglas Tyrrell Bunge to develop work exploring water.
The online exhibition features select responsive and collaborative works from the project, curated by the anam creative team.
This project is generously supported by Creative Scotland.
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Always Never - A collaboration between Ruby Allen and Douglas Tyrell Bunge
Annie Donaldson
In this work, Annie delved into the realm of rewilding, finding inspiration in the UK hillsides where sheep graze. Influenced by the writings of Monbiot and Guattari, Annie contemplates the impact of monocultures on culture, ecology, and self-expression. Stumbling upon free wool destined for burning on a freecycle site, Annie collected four bags, each discarded due to its perceived lack of economic value. Exploring the material, she discovered a unique waxiness, attributed to lanolin. The juxtaposition of rich, greasy, and buttery qualities in wool and wax became a central theme in her work. Opting to felt the wool, Annie crafted two pieces—one spherical and the other flat—sewn into a quilt-like form reminiscent of patchwork fields. Stitched circles on the surface loosely evoke contours, connecting the pieces to the landscapes that inspired them. The artistic process reflects an engagement with materiality, emphasising the beauty found in the overlooked and undervalued, prompting contemplation on the intricate relationships between nature, culture, and self-expression.
'Annies Process' by Joe Weisberg is a track inspired by the emotions of repetitive art-making processes. Weisberg envisions Annie's creative stages chronologically, from gorse picking to dyeing and sewing the fabrics together. The composition, serving as a sonic backdrop to Annie's process, incorporates loops to capture the feeling of repetitiveness and the contrasting sensations of spikiness and sweet, coconutty scents. Weisberg aims for a relaxed and introspective yet whiny/deflated atmosphere, mirroring the ambiguous emotions associated with occasionally frustrating creative tasks. The composition is a reflection on the intricate and varied layers of artistic creation.
In their collaborative exploration of ‘Woodlands’, Rose and Jacob delved into the intricate communication networks of trees within forest ecosystems. Inspired by the complex mycelium connections that allow nutrient transfer, Rose intertwined scientific exploration with her interests in Scottish woodland folklore. Drawing upon this research, the duo met at Jacob's place to jam and experiment with their ideas. Through improvisation, they discovered surprising and unplanned moments, recording their collaboration in an hour long session. Jacob later edited, arranged and produced the emerging composition from this recording, resulting in a unique layering of sound.
'Lady in Blue' by Josie KO
Moving away from sculpture, in this work Josie has returned to working two dimensionally to create this oil painting of an imagined figure amongst a vibrant and flourishing landscape. Making this piece over the duration of her time at anam, Josie took conversations and ideas generated amongst other artist in her anam cohort into this work specifically focusing on including a strong use of layering materials, (oil pastels, paints and colouring pencils) inspired by the layering of the soil. This piece captures the black body joyfully within nature and reflects on her personal new embrace of working within the natural Scottish environment.
Rory Green's 'Silt Memory' is a synaesthetic response to Dawn Kelso's found objects, translating touch into auditory experiences. Green explores the tactile textures through sound, delving into how sounds convey sensations like dryness, wetness, sharpness, warmth, and coldness. Embracing the concept of "qualia," (a term that philosophers use to describe the nature, or content, of our subjective experiences) Green links auditory stimuli to our senses. Additionally, Green incorporates emotional qualities tied to sound, evoking pleasure, pain, nostalgia, fear, and more. 'Silt Memory' offers a nuanced, multi-sensory journey, inviting viewers to interpret the visual realm through the intricate interplay of auditory and emotional stimuli.
'Us; Ours' by Dawn Kelso
‘Us; Ours’ is an investigation into the relationship we have with our river; a meditation on place through gathering. Here, we are offered stories - our stories. Stories of us; then and now; past, present, and future.
Considering the urban river as a huge, centuries deep bin, 100 objects were taken from the foreshore of the Clyde, exploring Glasgow’s history and culture through a collection of our old bits and pieces.
‘Us; Ours’ is a place where the political, existential and deeply personal collide, leaving us with an honest depiction of who we are and how we live. Most importantly, it poses a core, essential question:
What do we learn about ourselves through the traces which we leave behind?
View a PDF of the scanned objects here