re-play, curated by Julie-Anne Simpson

This exhibition brings together three artists working in very different ways but for whom play and process are important ideas in their studio practice.

Sometimes ideas are arrived at through repetition (in form, mark, colour and image). Is it what you know or rather what you think you know? Each repetition, variation, modification does something a little differently and gets a bit closer to becoming something else. There is something to be said for these familiar processes and the role they play; rhythmical, unhurried, they allow the space to think – and for new ideas to grow.

So often that art school aphorism – ‘surprise yourself’ – holds true. Creativity thrives when we have no predictions and allow chance to enter the work. We are laden with thematic and conceptual concerns, but often the process is much more momentary; a sensory engagement with material.

It is through material the artists discuss ideas of value and permanence. Materiality is central to the artists’ work and it is this physical interaction with material that is becoming increasingly relevant in the digital age. The act of making, its temporality, is hugely important as a method and subject matter. The work celebrates the idiosyncratic touch of the artists’ hand and aspects of play which are too often forgotten in serious art discourse.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Yvette Bathgate

Yvette’s work questions the materials that our contemporary, and near-future, cultures will leave behind and how they will shape the way archaeologists of the deep future interpret our time on earth.

Yvette is a visual artist based in Aberdeen, currently participating in the Graduate in Residence programme at Gray’s School of Art. Yvette co-founded Tendency Towards, an artist-run initiative operating a programme of exhibitions, workshops, discussion and engagement events nomadically across the city. Alongside this, Yvette is currently involved in the Peacock Associates programme, which responds to the current arts ecology of Aberdeen.

Rowan Paton

Primarily concerned with landscape, a preoccupation with mark making, pattern, language and colour characterise Rowan Paton’s work. Appropriating imagery, she creates imagined spaces and environments.

Rowan gained an MFA from Yale University School of Art in Painting & Printmaking in addition to a BA from Edinburgh College of Art. Having spent part of her childhood in Aberdeen, Rowan now lives and works in Edinburgh, exhibiting widely. Rowan takes an active role as a professional member of Visual Arts Scotland, assisting the curation of upcoming exhibitions organised by the society. She is working towards a solo show in Edinburgh early 2019.

Emma Rogers

Using origami as a methodical process of accumulative construction, Emma often destroys her work to ultimately preserve what becomes an alien landscape of form, texture and colour.

Emma graduated from the Painting department at Gray’s School of Art in 2013, having been awarded the Robert Brough Memorial Scholarship. She now lives and works in Glasgow and is a Co-director of Visual Artist Unit (VAU). Alongside showing work in re•play, Emma is currently working on a new installation that will be exhibited in Leith as part of the Hidden Door Arts Festival 2018.

CURATOR BIOGRAPHY

Julie-Ann Simpson

Julie-Ann Simpson is a visual artist based between Aberdeen and Glasgow, focusing on painting, drawing and printmaking. Since graduating from Gray’s School of Art, Julie-Ann has returned to the painting department in a teaching role, working part-time alongside her studio practice. Previously, she worked as the Collections Assistant at Grampian Hospitals Art Trust. Julie-Ann is currently preparing for a two-month residency in Yamanashi, Japan in Autumn 2018.

Saturday 23rd June 2018

Drawing Workshop

4-6pm

In this workshop, participants will be introduced to themes of play, pattern and mark-making. By responding to the work in the exhibition and the space itself, the participants can then gather and create their own patterns, using their findings to contribute to Rowan Patons’s wall drawing ‘Make Your Own National Park’. This workshop invites viewers to engage with the artwork in a new way and become collaborators, leaving their individual mark whilst contributing to the work as a whole.

Each participant involved will be given opportunity to create his or her own addition to Rowan’s mural and create floor design extending out from original work, using a range of materials including chalks, tape and pens.

The workshop is suitable for beginners, experienced artists, children and everyone in between and participants are welcome to drop-in and stay for as long as they like.

Closing Reception

6-8pm

Please join us for a few drinks and nibbles on the penultimate day of ‘re•play’. As well as an opportunity to view

the show before it ends, we invite people to pop in and see the results of Rowan’s workshop and meet some of the artists from the exhibition.