not before time, curated by laura a.hunter
Curator’s notes: On reflection
A. Barr's piece has nailed describing the challenging times we live in. We may be overwhelmed by global events, or by personal circumstances. Essentially, I'm looking for antidotes.
How do creative spirits, creative thinkers, creative problem solvers sustain themselves in the face of things?
What inspires & motivates us all to keep going?
I am a big believer in craft as meditation: the making of things in a burst of inspiration & joy; finding that particular space where we become absorbed in the making of the things that we then share. This sharing offers not only another's perspective on the World, on Life, it also taps into the viewer's own creative processes.
Not Before Time is an ongoing project, inspired by the first time friends were allowed back in a room together post-lockdown. The participants were given a very loose brief with the objective of exploring what motivates & inspires them, and then contributing whatever was right for them as a piece for the exhibition. They range in age from their twenties to their eighties, they've many strings to their bows, they include: architects, activists, academics, animators, designers, educators, film-makers, musicians, scientists, visual artists & writers. My hope, in gathering these kindred spirits & their thoughtful work together in a room, is that connections will be made, that conversations & ideas will be sparked.
Ultimately, I hope visitors will feel motivated to explore their own creativity & think about ways we might change the world for the better.
Claire Dymock. Claire was one of the friends who inspired this project. I would like to dedicate the show to Claire, who due to unforeseen circumstances was unable to participate.
https://www.instagram.com/clairedymockartist/
@clairedymockartist
Thanks to all kindred spirits involved.
Artists/Collaborators
in alphabetical order
A. Barr. Before Time. Looping MP4 + wooden discs.
What are the consequences of continuing to pursue infinite economic growth and what are we sacrificing in the process? We behave as if we live on a planet with infinite resources and so find ourselves in a state of ecological overshoot. Human activities such as energy consumption, food production, water usage and carbon emissions are currently exceeding the earth's capacity to regenerate resources. We reached Earth Overshoot Day on August 2nd this year. Our current path is leading towards ecological collapse.
T.D. Coats _INVALID COMMAND ENTERED ->>
iota@unlimitedstudios.co.uk www.iotaarts.space/t-d-coats
The group are loosely arranged on the mirror surface, all minding their own business all lost in their own worlds. On each successive day of the show the group are organised in a different way. Despite being bent into loose order, they stubbornly remain lost in their own worlds. Photographic records of each invalid command entered will accumulate daily throughout the show.
Lin Gardiner. Subtle. Mixed Media Image size framed: 60cm x 113cm
www.fleecetofashion.gla.ac.uk/
Lin originally trained as a woven textile designer at the Glasgow School of Art and after a brief stint in industry, she set up as a textile designer/maker with support from the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust. In 2005, she received a Scottish Arts Council Grant and has exhibited work at various UK craft and gallery outlets, including the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, the Bluecoat in Liverpool and Chelsea Craft Fair, London. In her work – both on paper and in textiles – she has always been interested in the disruption of repetitive pattern with layers of colour and texture.
For the past decade, Lin has pursued an academic career researching Dress and Textile Histories. She is currently a Research Assistant on the AHRC-funded Fleece to Fashion project at the University of Glasgow.
Ailie Hunter. Grace. MP4 with jingle.
c/o iota@unlimitedstudios.co.uk
Ed Hunter. Encore Une Fois! edhunter@live.co.uk
The backdrop to my contribution is two fold. In terms of Not Before Time, I, as a long time hill walker who was never into Munro bagging, aspired at the age of 72 to climb Ben Nevis. I achieved this and it was a most gratifying experience.
Three years later I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. On undertaking radiotherapy my daughters pushed me to do a sketch every day of treatment to reflect my mindset. I sketched my gradual ascent of Ben Nevis and put in some rough self-portraits reflecting my mood.
In conclusion I am doing a painting of myself at the summit.
Laura A. Hunter. Even small individual actions accumulate. c/o iota@unlimitedstudios.co.uk
Installation & images: Manipulated Photographic Prints
1. Immortelle 2. Framed 26 x 26cm 2. Immortelle 1. Framed 26 x 26cm
3. Goddess. 26 x 26cm 4. Selfie Of An Eco Sinner. 31.7 x 44cm
5. Interceptions. 26 x 26cm 6. Faeries Knowes (Solstice 2023). 26 x 26cm
Post-Lockdown, Post-COP26, Post-Middle Aged, my current concerns are with all that can be done before it's too late....
Lynn Hunter, M.F.A. Submerged.
Mixed media studies. Framed 30 x 40cm (drawings A4)
1. Shattered 2. Picture perfect. 3. Cityscape Paris 4. View from Montmartre
Giclée prints framed 30 x 30 cm 1. Submerged. 2. The key to everything. 3. Chasing the light. 4. Rêve Ou Cauchemar.
www.lynnhunter-mefa.com @lynnhuntermefa
Lynn is a graduate of Glasgow School of Art in Fine Art. She completed her Master’s Degree in European Fine Art in Barcelona with Winchester School of Art. Her work expresses an aesthetic interest in repetition and pattern, examining both the natural and urban landscape through a diversity of media. She lived in Paris between 2005 and 2016, and is now based in Normandy. She continues to work as a fine artist and has exhibited in many venues throughout Scotland, including the Royal Scottish Academy, Paisley Art Institute, where she won the Creativity Prize in the Scottish Drawing Competition, and both Glasgow and Edinburgh Print Studios. She has also exhibited in Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Washington D.C., Munich, and London.
Lynn est diplômée de l’École des Beaux-Arts de Glasgow. Elle a étudié l’Art en Écosse pendant cinq ans. Elle possède également une maîtrise en Beaux-Arts Européens de l’École des Beaux-Arts de Winchester pour laquelle elle a passé une partie de ses études à Barcelone. Son travail exprime son intérêt pour l’esthétique du motif et de la répétition. Elle examine les détails du paysage naturel et urbain au travers de divers media artistiques. Elle a vécu à Paris de 2005 à 2016 et est maintenant basée en Normandie, où elle continue son travail d’artiste-peintre. Elle expose dans des galeries privées en Écosse ainsi qu’avec l’Académie Royale d’Écosse, les Print Studios d’Édimbourg et de Glasgow, et l’Institut des Arts de Paisley, où elle a remporté le Prix de la Créativité dans le Concours de Dessin Écossais. Elle a exposé à Paris, Milan, Barcelone, Washington D.C., Munich et Londres.
Judy Jarvie. Glasgow series, in June 2018-20.
@judyjarvie
Most shots were taken pre-lockdown, but it was during lockdown that I compiled the images and did my wee mini photography series on Instagram. I was encouraged by a successful entry to the 'Coming into view: Photographing Glasgow' exhibition by the Open Museum in June 2020. I did 8 series in total, 9 images each, which fitted nicely into the Instagram grid, from June to September 2020 I'd post an image from the series each day, with a brief description of where it was taken, what caught my attention.
1. Kelvingrove at dusk,
Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Museum, 05.03.20.
Taken about 6.30pm, early March, just before lockdown. It was starting to get lighter in the evenings, and there was still enough light in the sky to define the profile of the building.
2. Easter adventures commence, Central Station, 22.04.19
The glass roof of the concourse was an impressive sight with the bright, blue sky of the sunny Easter Monday beyond.
3. One foggy Christmas Eve, Byres Road, 24.12.18
4. Back lane, Sloans, 29.04.19
I love the verticality, highlighting the proximity of some of the buildings in the city centre, and the reflections off the glazed bricks, which were used for just that, to bounce light off adjacent walls to bring as much light as possible down into the otherwise dark, narrow closes.
5. Hola Glasgow, March 2020?
6. Summer walks, Glasgow Green, 23.08.18
The intricacy of the ironwork is contrasted against the sky, just as day is turning to night. Taken on a summer evening walk.
7. When Dippy came to town,
Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Museum, 07.02.19
Drama created by the low winter sun coming in through the top gallery windows of the main hall, creating deep shadows and highlighting the pilasters on the opposite side. Dippy’s skeleton almost looks like part of the museum building itself.
8. River Kelvin at dusk, Prince of Wales Bridge, 05.03.20
9. BBC reflections, River Clyde, 23.08.18
Jovie Jastrrzebski - Automatic Healing.
@jovie__studio jo.jastrzebski@gmail.com
Emerging from a season of burnout, my work is a step away from my graphic design background and a step into creative play, flow, experimentation and tapping into life force energy. The act of creation, drawing, painting, is where I can access this flow state and come back into a state of connection with self and universal forces which surround me. I’m reminded that as long as I can tap into source energy, I can create.
Jovie is a visual artist, arts facilitator, reiki practitioner and spiritual intuitive. They attempt to visualise their subconscious world, connection to source and spiritual healing journey through automatic drawing and mark making.
Gillian Johnston - Kickspark. Embroidery with reclaimed beads.
Born and works in Glasgow. Studied at Glasgow School of Art 1981-86 with a BA Hons Degree in Design and a Post Graduate Diploma in Embroidered and Woven Textiles. Has taught Art and Design in Secondary ASN schools since 1999.
My interests lie in photography, sculpture, painting and textiles. Sometimes I mix media together but never wish to be tied to one.
Peter Johnston - Αυτοκρατορία ⲕⲁⲓ σκιά
(Empire ⲕⲁⲓ shadow)
Worked for with Scott Assocciates, Scottish Opera and own sculpture practice installing and constructing public art works, personal commissions, props and sets. Currently working as an Art and Design teacher.
Clare Leonard: @clareleonard
On the edge. Medium- Acrylic on board in tray frames
Edge (image 22.5x60cm) Emerge (image 30x70cm) Haze (image 20.5x52cm)
These pieces explore the balance of light and dark, are you emerging from the dark towards the light or is the light fading and the darkness is encompassing? They are inspired by forest walks as you immerse in the undergrowth and find pockets of light finding warmth and comfort. How does this reflect in your life? Post lockdown, have you emerged or have you? Does the darkness give you comfort or do you live for the light and push the darkness aside, where is your balance Through our lives we have times of joy, sadness, happiness, calm, angst, appreciation, pain, excitement...... These pieces attempt to explore the idea of where the edge is in your life. These pieces attempt to explore the idea of where the edge is in your life.
Clare Leonard was born in Glasgow and studied for an Honours and Masters degree at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee. In 1999 she relocated within London and began working from her Lee Green studio where she continued to develop her painting style. She now works from her garden studio at home where she lives with her husband and two children in Glasgow.The artist works predominantly in acrylics layering rich contrasting colours onto canvas, board and paper. The balance of scale, composition and texture play a vital role in the construction of her work.
She taught extensively pre covid however now teaches small classes and also some one to one coaching.
Dr. Donald MacLaren Images © University of Glasgow.
www.gla.ac.uk/schools/physics/research/groups/mcmp/
Oxide cityscape Image taken by D MacLaren on an atomic force microscope. Many microelectronics are 'grown' from crystals. Here, the recipe used for crystal growth was at too low a temperature and rather than a thin, continuous film, the oxide grew as crystalline towers.
Natural calibration Image taken by W Smith on a scanning electron microscope. Tin balls such as those seen here are often used to calibrate electron microscopes. These balls range in size from microns to nanometres.
Ripples of magnetism Image taken by L Cowan on a Lorentz transmission electron microscope. The physics describing the internal structure of magnetic materials is similar to that describing the flow of sediment in a stream. The colours in this image shows the magnetisation of a thin magnetic film that has been swept through a magnetic field.
After the ion shower Image taken by D MacLaren on a scanning tunnelling microscope. Experiments on pure crystals often start with an abrasive bombardment by an ion beam in order to clean the surfaces. Here, argon ions have created geometric craters in a copper crystal that will self-heal in time. Successive planes of atoms are revealed and the hexagonal geometry reflects the copper crystal structure.
Fractured perfection Image taken by K O'Shea on a scanning transmission electron microscope. The spots here are columns of atoms, separated by a few billionths of a metre. The regular arrangement indicates a crystal structure but the dark features arise from a fracture that is found to change the crystal's electrical behaviour.
Quartz scattering Image taken by S Smith on a transmission electron microscope. The structures of almost all materials, from silicon chips to the coronavirus spike protein, are determined from the patterns made by x-rays and electrons that are transmitted through the sample. This image records the electrons scattered from a quartz crystal. The regular patterns arise from the crystalline nature of quartz.
Tungsten whisker Image taken by D Haughey on a scanning electron microscope. This structure, which looks organic, is of a tungsten wire that has been etched and stretched to form a tip that can be only a few atoms in diameter. Such tips can be used to scan surfaces like a record needle; this one, unfortunately, was bumped to form a coil.
A view of reciprocal space Image taken by D MacLaren on a transmission electron microscope. Electrons passing through a material form ripples that reinforce and detract from one another to form geometric patterns as illustrated here. The physics of scattering is described using units of 'inverse metres' and the patterns are created in what is known as 'reciprocal space'.
Penny Sharp.
www.pennysharp.co.uk/ @pennysharpartist
219-227 High Street. Indian ink on collage of recycled envelopes 325 x 550mm. 341 Renfrew Street. Sculptural detail 01. Biro on recycled envelope. 240 x 185mm 222 Clyde Street. Biro on collage of recycled envelopes 385 x 305mm
Williwaw 05.12.2020, 14:22. Singing photo & Mixed media. A3 print & shellac on board.
www.donkeyscratch.com @donkeyscratch