3M-DO workshop held in Aberdeen, 20th-21st April, 2019.
Aberdeen, built on granite, herring and oil, with a pinch of Pictish and a dash of Doric, has faced mixed fortunes over the centuries. And now, with global competition among city brands more competitive than ever, with the possibilities and pressures of cruise ship mass tourism and city break stag parties, how do you distinguish yourself, how do generate new futures?
Like many cities, Aberdeen opened its doors to the regenerative possibilities of art. Since 2017 it has supported the NUART Festival (first founded in Stavanger, Norway, in 2001) and in November 2019 the refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery reopened, situated within a wider Cultural Strategy (2018-2028) to become ‘a place releasing our creativity.’ As part of the strategy development a conference, with speakers from Stavanger, Houston and Calgary was held, in recognition it faced similar issues with other oil and gas cities in a low carbon, post-fossil fuel, global economy. So set within stark materialities of Anthropocene Archaeologies, we arrived at the height of the 2019 NUART Festival.
Participant observers situated between the hazy glow of sanctioned heritage and future dreams of cultural regeneration, we drifted through the complex territories and visual clutters of contested streets. A city centre, public realm end terraces, emblazoned with murals of ‘super star performance artists’; the back streets and alleyways, with smaller interventions (surreptitious slap-ups, stencils, tiles and stickers); and the arcane symbologies of ghost like, strategically sprinkled, nocturnal tagging.
Practice led activities were dispersed across our time in Aberdeen including a tagging workshop and #3M-DO ‘Street Art’ posters being situated in the city. Participants also attended the NUART plus Street Art conference on Saturday 20th, with a variety of speakers including Dr Alex Hale and #3M_DO_2019 Collective, presenting on a range of academic subjects relating to Street Art and Graffiti.
So now, in a post-Oil, COVID-19 Recovery, pre-COP26, a few themes and issues emerged from the Art is the new oil workshop activities:
- Public Art / Street Art / Graffiti variously represent different forms of material expressions, cultural dialogues to different (perhaps intersecting) communities and audiences between which there can be marked tensions. Are there other hierarchies which contemporary archaeologies need to be aware of and sensitive too?
- Issue of differential / unjust access to city territories, urban core, suburban, peri-urban vs global mobilities.
- Issue of ‘sanctioned’ forms of creative expression, in the public realm, with tensions of cultural institutions and sponsorship, as art-washing / heritage-washing.
- Temporalities of different medium, some exceptionally fleeting others potentially (if maintained) present for decades (at least even as ‘ghost-signs’). Perhaps contemporary archaeologies as heightened sensitivity to unfolding temporalities.
- Can ephemera have more potency than a work with longevity? Or does the ‘quality’ and ‘power’ of artworks as contemporary archaeologies rely more on other values? Is it more important to record ephemera? Do our chronological / temporal terminologies and tools need more critical development?
Participants
Sue Brind, Kenneth Brophy, Neil Gregory, Alex Hale, Fiona Hall, Jim Harold, Lewis Matheson, Mhairi Maxwell, Antonia Thomas & Gavin MacGregor
The Plan
April 2019, Aberdeen: Art is the new oil
- Workshop dates chosen to coincide with the NuArt Street Art festival
- Explorations of art/archaeology, graffiti and street art as a material evidence of contemporary archaeology
- Consider how creative thinking will support Scotland in the post-oil age
Key Links
https://2019.nuartaberdeen.co.uk/
