No One's Land: An Encounter of Spanish and Scottish culture, past and present through art

This is the newsletter sent to our clients on the event of our annual exhibition at the Gladstone Land Gallery, in the Royal Mile. For the second year in a row, Delicartessen secured funding from the Spanish Consulate in Edinburgh to celebrate an encounter of Spanish and Scottish art.

The exhibition was, after conclusion of the week, transferred to Joseph Pearces, our regular venue, in Elm Row, as part of our Edinburgh Festival exhibition 2011, where it would stay until mid September.

"No One´s Land"
The Gladstone Land Gallery, The Royal Mile. Edinburgh. 1st -8th August 2011. 10 am till 7 pm.

A few months ago I attended a conference by Marjorie Trusted from the V&A Museum in London, organised by the Spanish Consulate in Edinburgh.
It explored the fascination of Picasso for Velazquez and his painting of “Las Meninas” (which Velázquez had originally painted in 1656 and Picasso would reinterpret 300 years later). The talk highlighted Picasso’s motto that in art, little is original or new, and it provided renewed inspiration for this exhibition, which pays tribute to the circularity of cultural iconography; where symbols and images are repeatedly recycled over time.
Picasso was, in his days, accused of being “all over the place”; a “chameleon” absorbing other artist’s influences and styles but lacking his own. But he would argue that this need for belonging to a movement or school was limiting.
His rootless nature was probably related to an emotional “middle place” too: where he felt quite alienated from his country of origin as the authoritative regime took its course in Spain; yet still a foreigner in his adoptive and beloved France. No sense of belonging here or there. In No One’s Land.
He affirmed that “art is the elimination of the unnecessary” and in his search for simplicity he kept reducing reality, emptying the superfluous and transcending the idea of belonging to achieve universality.

“No One’s Land” echoes themes of land and identity and therefore, we present representations of the artists’ immediate realities. Yet, even when differences emerge (i.e. Highland cows as opposed to bulls) the common nature of the themes that arise among both Scottish and Spanish artists, the new reinterpretations of classical themes: (i.e. Las Meninas, still being revisited by artists near and afar); reaffirms this idea of “no one’s land” or, if you prefer, “common land”, in the sense that the relevant human emotions and reflections that fuel the arts inscribe in a universal language. A language that Picasso spoke loudly and clearly. And which still resonates to this day.

With the support of the Spanish Consulate in Edinburgh, Tapa Restaurants and the Council of Alhaurin, Malaga.
Click here to download a pdf version of the printed catalogue.

The advertisement announcing the exhibition at the

Edinburgh Festival magazine.

Compliments of ellustration.net designs.

Aftermath: Still Life. Photographs by Neil Macmillan

This is the newsletter sent to our contacts for the celebration of our 4th anniversary and the launch of our new exhibition at Joseph Pearce's:


...I’ve always wondered why in art you often have to choose between images and words. They say that an image is worth more than a thousand words but I recently saw an exhibition which combined both to great effect.

And the same applies to visuals and music. As Picasso said “To draw you have to close your eyes and sing” and many great artists have been great music lovers too. I am now remembering an article by Tim Cornwell that I read recently in the Scotsman about John Campbell Mitchell’s studio, which had been left untouched for 80 years and included a couple of pianos because apart from being an accomplished painter he was very keen on music too.

And music can compress a lifetime in a second, take us back to a previous moment… suspend us in time. Doing acoustically what a still life achieves visually.


Neil’s photographs are lost in time, still life impressions of derelict houses he found in the West coast of Scotland, the Outer Hebrides and the Highlands, during a very meaningful family journey. As he says: “Many of these pictures were taken on a final holiday with my dad who was in the last stages of cancer at the time. Despite the sadness of the trip, it was also filled with moments of happiness too as my dad truly loved Scotland and we saw the best of it on this trip."

His images speak (without any need for words) about the pass of time, human frailty and possibly even war. Houses abandoned in a rush, left in the spur of the moment, maybe with a promise of a return (like a kettle still waiting on the stove…) exactly like John Campbell’s studio. They tell (silently) about Neil’s personal story of a farewell journey and his coming to terms with an announced loss. But they are also “still life impressions” in the literal sense that, no matter what, life always renews itself. Like birds nesting in an abandoned chest of drawers and Nature claiming back what is hers and closing a circle that includes birth and death. As Picasso also said. “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction”.


So when I heard Phamie Gow’s “War Song” by chance, it sounded like Neil’s photographs…it was the perfect acoustic complement for the exhibition. I went back home and listened to the composer's reflections on Moments of Time, and felt that both, images and music were talking loudly the same truth, so why not have both?


I am pleased to invite you to our 4th anniversary celebration and the launch of our new exhibition:

Aftermath: Still Life with photographs by Neil Macmillan

This Sunday 8th of May from 11.30am till 1pm at Joseph Pearce’s Bar. 23 Elm Row, Edinburgh.
Complemented with music by Phamie Gow and Moments of Time


I hope to see you there!

This is a video featuring the photographs included in the exhibition, with music by Phamie Gow played during our launch. Phamie joined us for the preview and was a delightful guest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9j46InzypM

The exhibition will be on show at Joseph Pearce's bar, 23 Elm Row, Edinburgh, until the 30th of June and listed as part of the activities of the Leith Festival 2011.

Sea life, City life

Sometimes things appear to have nothing in common, or even to be opposites at first sight. Natural vs. urban spaces, day and night… Moreover, as humans, we have been fascinated by the apparent duality and conflicting nature of our world from the beginnings of the time. Yet, as things unfold and we look more carefully, we often find links and relations under the surface.

So, what is the link between Scottish artist Christine Morison’s driftwood mirrors and clocks; and German artists Dagmar Shilling's paintings on urban night life?
It's not only a “c” sound, although it's through a metaphor and words that this show ties together.

Christine’s pieces pay tribute to the slow, almost imperceptible but constant crafting effect of the sea and the passing of time and they are full of shells, and natural elements; while Dagmar's urban, fast, mixed media scenes, pick up in images where the English language refers to animalistic, sea-inspired creatures to depict nightlife scenes. So, she has taken expressions like “to drink like a fish” literally and transformed them into pieces where fish or octopus looking creatures feel in their element in the city. And Dagmar’s, “what goes around, comes around” emphasises the recycled nature of Christine’s pieces.

And what has gone around and comes around again is “The Colour Red” photographic exhibition.
After winning the BHF annual competition with her photography “The Tunnel”, Gillian Hayes has proven she’s got what it takes to become a “big fish” in the photography scene.

Her work illustrates the duality of our rational and irrational nature. An interest that was exposed in early mythology through the metaphor of the Master and the Slave, where reason is the master, destined to exercise a firm control over the dangerous emotional impulses dictated by the body.
This vision assumed the superiority of reason before passion, as the latter was seen as a more primitive, animalistic trait, associated with the body; needing to be controlled through superior reason.
From that point of view both elements would be in constant conflict. As if again, natural (instinctive) and human (rational) forces were to be in a constant struggle. This conflicting duality characterized the ideas of Descartes while in the XVIII century, the Scottish philosopher Hume, the highest exponent of the Empiricism movement, affirmed that emotion was somehow made by the same “material” as rational thinking: -the origin and game of passion is subjected to a regular mechanism; and therefore passions are as susceptible of exact analysis as the laws of movement-
And Gillian’s collection seems like a Scottish contemporary re-interpretation of Hume’s ideas: 14 photographs where the notion of passion, represented by the colour red, is measured and controlled in quantities that vary from 1% to 95%; combining the photographer's creative talent with her precise technique.
By controlling the amount of red in every picture, she has achieved a little “whole” in each one of them, where none is pure energy, neither pure technique nor reason, but a beautiful combination of the two. Just like us.

Because today we generally accept that we are a combination of both, reason and passion, heart and mind, and we no longer live them as antagonist forces. We are back to Plato, who already defended that the rational and irrational ingredients of our nature are the two necessary sides of the same coin.
We celebrate both sides of our nature and believe in a healthy balance between them as the key for emotional intelligence, and happiness.

So bring on the opposites and dualities: The deep sea of emotions tempered by the neon lights of reason.
Join us this Sunday 20th March for a double act:

3.30 - 5.30 pm the launch of Sea life, City life at Joseph Pearce’s, 23 Elm Row, Edinburgh
And 6-9 pm for the return of The Colour Red exhibition at Sofi’s Bar, Henderson Street, Edinburgh

I hope to see you there!!


"Balancing Act" by Dagmar Schilling, £300


"Small Boat" mirror by Christine Morison £50

The Exhibitions run until the 30th of April.

Opening Times.
Joseph Pearces Bar, 23 Elm Row, EH7 4AA Edinburgh
Opening times: Sun-Thu 11:00-00:00
Fri-Sat 11:00-01:00
Sofi's Bar, 65 Henderson Street, EH6 6ED
Mon - Sat: 12:00 - 1:00
Sun: 13:00 - 1:00

Easter 2010: Reinventing Cultural Iconography

Image left: "Quijote" by Enrique Cid


Between Monday 29th of March and Sunday 4th of April , we held an exhibition at The Gladstone Land Gallery, in the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, with the collaboration of the Spanish Consulate in Edinburgh.

Below: "Summer Bull" by Adriana Sanchez.


The newsletter/invitation to the private preview, read like this:

Behind Every Shoe lies a Human Truth...
Our minds work with images, and images precede words. That’s why Dr. Iain R. Edgar, who lectures at Durham University, started using a pioneer research methodology to interview people. “Imagework” encourages subjects to use their imagination and create visual images about different situations. This allows them to engage the right side of their brain; where our values, perceptions and unconscious associations reside.

As a research methodology it has proven to be highly successful. However, it is one of his collateral findings that resonate within the background of this exhibition. He realised that as humans we share a range of visual images irrespective of our individual experience. As if we were all equipped with a visual vocabulary that has been forged over aeons of evolution. It is what anthropologists’ study in relation to myths and psychoanalysts use to interpret our dreams and other unconscious expressions of our minds.

As an example, he found that train journeys were common metaphors for “transit”, “process”, “movement” and “growth”. These and other images remind us that, despite diversity of life in a complex world, we are all rooted in a common place: by the human condition.

In the exhibition, hosted in a beautiful 17th Century Merchant’s House, there are bulls as perceived by Scottish artists and reinterpreted by Spanish ones since Goya. It offers an interesting sample of culturally meaningful references that will expose difference and commonality.

What lies beyond Rosie Newman’s and Marta Ratti’s fascination with shoes, might be what they both associate with them: their childhood, their kids’ early steps, or growth, perhaps.
But what fascinates us, is what all those images tell. That despite all our differences and distances, there is a common land for humankind, where we can be closer, even in subconscious ways.

And to prove it…here is a shoe.


Image: "Ballerina Shoes" by Marta Ratti

I would like to thank Mr. Federico Palomera, Spanish Consul in Edinburgh, and Professor Iain R. Edgar, who came all the way from Durham, for their attendance to our private preview.

Autumn 09 Newsletter & New Exhibition

In October 2009 we sent this newsletter inviting everyone to attend the private preview of our new exhibiton on Sunday 11th:

Okay!! ...So it was not the summer that we all had expected. The crows were wrong, wrong, wrong. And so was the Met Office, which had forecasted a warm and dry summer.
Instead of a “BBQ summer” with temperatures above 30, it turned out to be wetter than average. In fact, there were 42 wet days with Dumfries and Galloway, home to Edwin Slater, one of our regular artists, registering its wettest August since rainfall records began, back in 1914.

But then, who wants predictions when it is often unexpected things that make life exciting and make us smile? As Sarah Duncan says, there is nothing like accidentally putting a dry-clean only top into the wash and discovering it comes out perfectly, or spotting a new green shoot in a plant you thought was done for. For me it was finding that my Spanish cooking book does not have the recipe for “Tortilla de Patatas” as surely, if you are Spanish, you are expected to know how to cook it from birth!, or finding a huge feather in the toilet of an airplane (during my last easyjet flight to Madrid).

Yes, things are more appreciated when you don’t expect them at all, when they are out of context. Like having a brilliant idea while waiting for the bus, or having a shower. Apparently proximity to water is very inspiring, says Henriette Anne Klauser. It’s something to do with the negative ions as they stimulate brain activity associated to creativity.
So be pleased for the rain.

I wonder whether this has something to do with the amount of talent in these wet-lands which exceeds the reservoirs of galleries and has flooded cafes and restaurants near you…to get you by surprise.
Just like a warm sunny day at the end of September when you were getting ready for more rain.

Join us this coming Sunday to see what our artists have been up to during all those 504 hours of inspiration and tons of negative ions.



Below: "The Auld Kirk", by Edwin Slater, mixed media.

OUT OF CONTEXT Newsletter December 2007

If you always thought that watercolour is all about
pale, subtle shades and that Christmas is about snow
scenes…
Here comes an exhibition to make you think twice!!!!!
Delicartessen.co.uk & Pearce’s Bar
Invite you to the Preview of:
“High Summer Storm Over...”...in the search for watercolour splendor
By awarded artist Kelvin Burgoyne
Below "High Summer Storm over Devon". Watercolour, 72 x 60 cm


I know that, at this time of the year,
an exhibition called “High Summer
Storm over…” is completely out of
context.
As a Sociologist, I was once very interested in Structuralism,
Semiotics… and the way the social context conditions our
expectations and reactions.
Take a work of art out of the context of a formal museum or
gallery and some of the barriers are removed; we feel more
relaxed about discussing it, and more able to relate to the
piece. It becomes closer, something more familiar and less
imposing.
Now that we have 4 venues to exhibit works in Edinburgh
and one in Glasgow in this our first year, we can be happy
that the artists we promote have taken a step forward to be
part of our cities’ landscape. And we hope to keep on
reaching a growing audience of highly aesthetically aware
people who once thought contemporary art had nothing to
offer them.
In the coming year we plan to improve the website which
will allow it to become a dynamic link with both clients and
artists. We would like art to touch every day lives, to be an
object, not only of desire but also of inspiration,
engagement and communication.
To all of you whose faces I have seen regularly at our
previews, thank you for your support, feedback and
encouragement. To those we haven’t managed to seduce
yet, there is a last chance in 2007, and it will be a refreshing
one.
Sometimes you have to expect the unexpected…even at
Christmas.
See you next Wednesday!