ABBEYVIEW SEE EYE

Book Cosies (Art as Evidence)

2008-09-24T10:14:00.007+01:00

It is mainly knitting that goes on at the St. Ninians Craft Group meetings every Tuesday afternoon. Well actually, it’s mainly talking. One woman announces with surprise in her voice, “I’ve done 6 rows today!” The group is the only one that does not take a summer break, but continues to meet all year round. Sitting around the table with them and hearing the right good blether going on around me, I instantly understood that the knitting is purely a vehicle for companionship amongst the women who attend.

Most had a hand in knitting the cosies for this book, and a few made it their mission to produce them. I was told, “Every time you ask what she’s knitting it’s another cosy, she’s made hundreds.” The task to construct each cosy was often shared between people, with each woman’s forte used in collaboration. There are knitters and sewers in the group, and when squares were created they were often passed to those who got the satisfaction of sewing up the end product and popping on the button.

I spoke to one woman who had not long started coming to the group. She was on her own and found meeting each week a great source of friendship and company. She had knitted a cover for the book, but shawls were really her thing. She knitted away with lilac-blue wool as she told me about the Prayer Shawls that the group knitted. This is particularly impressive to me since I relearned to knit not that long ago, and keeping a pattern in your head, counting stitches, remembering which row you are on and talking all at once is way beyond me. Every few weeks the group gathers in a semi-circle and a prayer is said to go with the shawl to whoever receives it. Each member holds each shawl and sends their thoughts with it also. The shawls go out into the local area but they are also sent to Malawi. She seemed very proud of this connection to such a far-flung place - a little piece of Abbeyview’s creativity and community spirit travelling the world.

On the mention of being creative, however, the woman said that no, no she wasn’t, her friend was arty and chose all the paint colours for her flat because she wouldn’t have a clue what would go. The suggestion was that knitting is different to drawing or painting, but I disagree. The connection between brain and hand to produce or reproduce something is a fundamental act of creativity. It seems to be our perception of being creative that limits us. Society and upbringing moulds people into labelling themselves as ‘arty’ or not. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to point out the creativity involved, to show the person the evidence, and so give them the confidence to create. The knitted cosies of this book are evidence, both of creativity and of community.

Carol Lambie

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

The Buzz at the Bus Stop

2008-09-01T10:58:00.001+01:00

The bus stop at the Abbeyview shops was where it was at for Nicola's stall at the Abbeyview Festival on Sun 23rd August. Nicola, Hanna and I adorned the bus stop with paper chains, crows and cardboard house which blew in the familiar hill top wind. Armed with materials for colouring in and making paper chains at one end of the shelter and project memorabilia at the other end, we drummed up business.

Nicola wanted to create an evolving exhibition by asking young and old to colour her drawing of a chair and have it displayed in a frame on the windows of the shelter. For their efforts they received a choice of specially designed badges, cloth bags, the SEE EYE book, Stevie Jacksons 7" record and entered into the competition to win one of four golden chairs Nicola had made for the Take A Seat project. Four Runners up received children's chairs which we decorated on the day with vinyl designs.

Being on the peripheral of the festival made the art stand an event within the event, people got word of something up at the bus stop, kids told other kids and by word of mouth our bright paper-chained oasis became a bit of a destination. Kids loved choosing their colour of frame and seeing their artwork on display straight away, for all to see, parents loved the wee seat on the wall while it all went on.

At 4pm quite a crowd gathered back at the bus stop to hear the winning entries and collect the artwork to take home for their wall. Piece by piece the exhibition dissolved just as it had evolved until only the paper chains were left moving in the breeze, seeming to symbolise all those who walked up to us and creating our link to the festival through the people of Abbeyview, just as it should be. (The Lamb)

Nick Miller talks about Abbeyview

2008-06-16T20:00:00.001+01:00

I enjoyed the experience of working in Abbeyview immensely. I was especially drawn to the idea of an artist-led project marking this great change in the built environment of Abbeyview and responding not just to the physical environment but also to the changing social environment. I found Abbeyview interesting in that it is similar to many housing schemes all over Scotland - a place built in the 1950s for people moving out of the cities and towns to "nicer”, “cleaner” areas with improved facilities and better housing. Curiously now, with the regeneration, the area is being made even more suburban, replacing flats with small semi-detached and detached houses because this is what people want to live in now. These buildings of the ‘50s seemed to mark a new cycle of impermanency both architecturally and culturally. By only lasting a few decades they sit in marked contrast to the presumed permanency of architecture and social engineering of the ever dominant Victorian era.

My aim with the Curiosity Cabinet was to highlight this sense of change by using old, discarded furniture, from the decades when the flats had stood. And with the furniture to create a new object which seemed to lack a single defining form, instead offering many different perspectives and space to engage the viewer’s imagination. For me, my brief time working in Abbeyview was extremely rewarding, especially in the connections I made with other artists as we found ways of incorporating their work into the cabinet.

NICK MILLAR

2008-06-09T20:53:00.003+01:00

The Fly and the Lamb have started working on the concept for the book that marks the final series of collaborative projects. It will be contained within lovingly hand-knitted book covers created by the congregation of St Ninian’s Church and available in the Autumn.

In my drawings I wanted to play about with the scale of the urban and natural landscape. The simple dandelion struck me as an irrepressible shaft of green and yellow that manages to spring up no matter how urban, how concrete the landscape is. That is why we term it a weed, a plant that we do not want growing in the prolific manner it does, in the random way it does, but this weed seems to captures time and regeneration beautifully. The aging process of the dandelion follows the set pattern of a vibrant yellow flower appearing, closing and opening once more to reveal a wispy globe of seed heads, waiting for a gust of wind to send them to new cracks in the concrete landscape. As Nicola and I talked about it, we saw that it symbolised man’s stucggle to control his environment, and particularily nature, in his quest for progress and refining his domain.

While I am studying and drawing the nature of the dandelion, Nicola is responding to these images with drawings based on the workings of manmade construction. Construction that is used in the regeneration of the area to build upon the newly created wasteland, obliterating any naturalisation that swiftly takes place when ground is left bare. And so they co-exist, each an unhalting process of establishment, maturation and termination with man living amongst it.

Meanwhile, Nicola and I have also been busy putting together the document archiving the Nicola’s residency in Abbeyview. I have been interviewing artists on their experience working in or responding to Abbeyview and will be putting a new featured artist on the blog each week. (The Lamb)

Drawing © Carol Lambie.

FOUR MORE HAPPENINGS IN ABBEYVIEW

2008-03-24T23:57:00.007Z

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, the Abbeyview Artist, has been given six months extension (April - Sept '08) of her residency. With this time we can take stock of the Art Projects that have taken place in Abbeyview since Jan 2007. Here are the follow artworks that will take place: Tweed Street Tour 2; Please Take a Seat/The Grass is Greener; Artist Stand at the Abbeyview Park Festival & Art as Evidence Book with Knitted Covers.

Tweed Street Tour/2
Tuesday 29th July 11am – 4pm

Gerard Love from the Teenage Fan Club has created music for Abbeyview entitled "all I have to do is sit and wait" (18.43). Eighteen minutes and forty three seconds is time it takes to travel from Dunfermline Centre to Abbeyview by bus. It is part of the Tweed Street Tour art project. Nicola will ride on the D6/D5 bus all day on July 29th
inviting people to listen to the piece.

Please Take a Seat/ The Grass is Greener
Saturday 2nd August 11am – 4pm

A summer gathering in the Lynburn Corridor on August 2nd 11am – 3pm will bring together two artworks, both of which are about being separated but very much together in the community in Abbeyview. Nicola has transformed four dining chairs from the 90's and covered the seats in gold leaf fabric, separating the words 'Please Take a Seat' and embroidering one on each seat. She will invite people from Abbeyview and Dunfermline to bring a single chair from their home out into the park of the Lynburn Corridor to sit together and celebrate the summer. It has all the makings of a family event. Happening at the same event will be the other project where people can visit the two bridges that divide Abbeyview that will be painted with the words: 'THE GRASS IS GREENER'.

Artist Stand at the Abbeyview Park Festival
Sunday 24th August 11am – 4pm

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly will be there to talk to people about the artwork that has taken place in Abbeyview, it will have items from Art Projects Jan 07 – Aug 08.

Art as Evidence Book with Knitted Covers
Tuesday 23rd Sept 2pm, Book Launch & exhibit of the Knitted Covers

This will be the second book from the Abbeyview Artist. It will be the same size as the SEE EYE Book with the writing from Daniel Jewesbury and drawings by Carol Lambie & Nicola Atkinson Does Fly.

The St Ninians Congregation in Abbeyview will create the 1000 Knitted Book Covers. These have been designed by Nicola Atkinson Does Fly using 10 knitted squares and one coat button. The choice of the colour and button will be made by the knitter, along with which charity will receive the donation for producing them. The Minister Rev Elizabeth Fisk and the Congregation have really got behind this art project to create a movement of knitters for one common goal. I feel that they want to be involved in an artwork for the Abbeyview Community for several reasons, not just for a donation to the charity of their choice, giving the activity a real sense of purpose and community. The 1000-knitted book covers will be exhibited in the St Ninians Church in Sept 2008, it will be lovely to see them all together.

image credit

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly in Abbeyview with Claire Barclay R.A.D.A.R artwork 'We need more and different flags'

A Review by Lynette Snedden

2008-03-24T23:43:00.001Z

Flowers versus Portraits Public At Gathering. 13th March 2008
Featuring: Nicola Atkinson Does Fly – Abbeyview Artist, Hanna Tuulikki, Gerald Love, Daniel Jewesbury and Clare Barclay

I sat at the back of the hall, trying to keep a low profile. Nicola called me over and asked me if I would ask everyone to take there seats as the exhibition was about to begin. I did so in the least nervous voice that I could muster, then as Nicola, accompanied by Ben Reynolds on guitar, started their piece, I crept back to my seat.

As the guitar melody filled the hall, I felt a shiver of excitement; this was what we had worked for. Then Nicola’s voice joined the haunting melody. The song was from The Flowers of the Season, and a screen behind the performers showed beautiful illustrations by Cecily Barker, from 1925. The song reminded me of the old Scottish folk songs which where sang in Gaelic, and had a ‘Clannad’ feel to it. I enjoyed the song immensely and by the sound of the applause, the audience thought likewise. The song and drawings combined, had me enthralled from start to finish.

As they finished, my nerves started to show. Thankfully it was dark at the back of the hall and no-one could see how much I was shaking. I was more nervous for Hanna Tuulikki, she stood to one side looking petrified as our CD began and the slideshow of portraits she had drew, came to life together, for the first time. We had spent 7 weeks traveling around the Abbeyview area, hi-jacking unsuspecting people into singing musical notes for us. No-one was safe! The staff and students at the Tryst Centre, on a snowy, freezing cold afternoon, the staff and scared looking punters of the local bookmakers, even the local librarian lent her ‘’shy’’ voice to our quest! The list goes on and on… local schools, nursery children, local residents ‘’captured’’ on their doorsteps, and almost everyone asked, gave there all. The portraits of everyone who gave us a note, shone for all to see, some of the portrayed smiles, smiling for real as they saw themselves on the screen, these the result of photographs that Hanna had taken as she recorded them singing. It displayed all together like that, was everything I had hoped and more, Hanna had done a fantastic job, and the proof was there, literally in black and white.

We then where treated to a piece of music called ‘All I have to do is sit and wait ‘ inspired by the bus route from Dunfermline Town Centre to Abbeyview. The duration is 18 min. the same length as the journey, written by a musician called Gerald Love of the Teenage Fanclub music band. Because of the length of the piece, the audience members began quietly chatting with each other. I had to smile at this as, having ridden the bus on that particular route, I found myself on that journey again, in my minds eye and could imagine the different views from the window. The shops, houses, gardens and even the traffic lights all clearly pictured. I also felt myself relaxing more as it played. This is a beautiful piece of music, and I look forward to hearing more of Gerald’s music in the future.

Next to take the stage, was Daniel Jewesbury, an artist and writer, based in Belfast. He brought with him some of his ideas on public art. He made some very interesting points on what exactly public art was, and how we are sometimes mislead to believe that what we think is public art, isn’t always what it seems to be. He spoke of a particular statue, the ---- in ----. This was always believed to be classed as public art, when in fact the piece of land that it stood on, was actually privately owned, and as the public never actually asked for this to be put there, what gave the donators of the piece the right to call it public art. Daniel paced the stage, expressing with his hands as he spoke, this along with his passion for the subject, had the audience intrigued. He received a well deserved round of applause. And added kudo’s must be bestowed upon him for his dedication to his work, he had travelled that very day from Ireland to appear at the exhibition, was absolutely exhausted but went and gave his talk like he had just stepped from his house on his way to a party!

The final artist of the evening was Clare Barclay, she had completed her project, ‘’We Need More and Different Flags’’ by placing some of her 40 flags around the Abbeyview area and had more strung up around the hall. She had designed and made each and every flag there. A huge variety of colours and shapes adorned them. The flags that where on display in the hall, where gifted to the visitors of the exhibition. A few of the children who attended also posed for the resident camera man with the bonnie banners. Every one of the flags shown brought a colourful glow of warmth on an otherwise cold and dreary night. The weather may have kept a lot of people indoors, but to those who did attend, I would personally like to thank you for making the evening a huge success for myself and everyone involved.

CLAIRE THOUGHTS ON FLAGS

2008-03-24T22:37:00.009Z

"We need more and different flags"

I have enjoyed making this artwork for Abbeyview; learning a little about the place and meeting some members of the community in the process.

My idea, which led to the making of the many different flags, was to celebrate this moment of change in Abbeyview during the process of regeneration. A moment for both the collective community and individuals to think about identity and aspirations for their surroundings.

The flags were designed as a colourful stimulus to get people talking about these issues. I hope all of you that chose a flag to take home are enjoying them, and maybe even inspired to make your own flags.

Claire Barclay

She is part of the R.A.D.A.R (Random And Dynamic Art Risks) Art projects in Abbeyview. The unforeseen happenings and inspiration in Abbey view have been created by Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, Abbeyview Artist, Alan Grieve, Luke Fowler, Sophia Pankenier, Hanna Tuulikki & Claire Barclay.

we need more and different flags

2008-03-16T09:58:00.008Z

Claire Barcley with one of her 40 flags in Abbeyview - March 13th 2008

Hello Nicola

Good to meet you last night at the art evening. It was very sparky, thoroughly entertaining and stimulating!

I will be in touch next week to arrange to meet and show you the print workshop. I will know my plans better and can find out what might suit you. congratulations again for a remarkable evening in Abbeyview!

Cheers Steve Ratomski

THOUGHTS OF A NOTE CATCHER
Stage one: Collecting notes in Abbeyview

Now a month into the project, I have finished collecting notes from people in Abbeyview and am busy with the second stage of the project - drawing portraits and editing the sound ready to make into a musical composition. With the valuable assistance of local resident Lynette Sneddon, we have collected musical notes from 130 different people by asking them to contribute a single note. We organised visits to the primary schools, the Beanstalk Nursery and the community centre, engaged people in their homes and met others on the streets at the local shops, bowling club and library:
it has been a busy month.

When we began the project, I was unsure how people might respond to being asked for a single sung note: even though it is something we can all do, it is not an everyday request. Singing is a very personal thing, a form of self-expression. It is difficult to sing on the spot or perform in front of others, especially when you are asked to sing just one note. However, people have been very open to the project and more often than not are willing to participate. Lynette suggested that people’s notes are either “shy” or “diva” and certainly the recordings we have gathered reflect this.

One aspect that may be hidden or forgotten in making this kind of work is the moment of personal connection that is often made with individuals. On one level, the very act of singing and sharing of something personal implies a connection with the listener, but similarly a shared emotional response to the situation, for example moments of shy awkwardness turning to fun jokes and laughter, clearly suggests some kind of connection. There have also been moments, however, where connections have been made that are more personal, where time has paused a while to share a story or listen to a song. These are the moments in particular that I have enjoyed the most and have made this project special to me. (Hanna Tuulikki, Artist)

This project has connected with the residents in a very intimate way. I caught up with Hanna and Lynette a few week's ago while in the process of catching the notes of Abbeyview and it was clear that the activity of recording them has touched them both. The essence of a public artwork like this is to connect with the residents on many levels, engaging with a wide cross section and exposing them to art practices that may fracture preconceptions of art and artists. Lynette's involvement in the process of making an artwork was seemed exhilarating for her. She loved the job of meeting people she had never spoken to before, in the place she had lived in for years, and folk saying hello as a result of her being part of the Note Catcher. And of course she now knows Hanna, whom she says she will never forget, such has been the impact of her experience.

Thursday 31st January 2008
Today the fun really started. We decided to go to the local shops and start collecting notes. It snowed... Great we thought but went for it anyway. We set ourselves a target of 8 notes. At the Tryst Centre, we collected 11 notes alone. And a young lad named Brian sang us a song he had written himself!! We then, through blizzard like conditions, went into the local bookies. 3 brave souls sang notes for us. We managed to get another note from Keri in the library and of course Hanna and myself made out contribution too.
So we were off to a great start. Lets hope it continues.
(Extract from Lynette's Diary)

They had many stories to tell of the shyness, the confidence, the rawness and the openness of the characters that they met. This is the magic of making art involving a large group of people from a specific area, the pickings are rich and untapped if you care to go looking for them. Connections with the note-givers have stood out for different reasons, Hanna and Lynette recounted a story from one of the schools where a young girl was keen and confident about singing her note but froze at the crucial point of delivery. Crushed and embarrassed, Hanna led her to a secluded area and she managed the whole song. The pride in overcoming that hurdle will stay with that girl forever and is a special thing to give to an individual. Another was with a man with whom the chance of finding a practising artist on his doorstep moved him to share his very personal creativity with them. He has created his own intimate gallery space for his own pleasure and now has become part of Hanna’s project, connecting his art to the community in which has lived in for many, many years.

Wednesday 6th February 2008
Today is totally devoted to one man. The amazing Bob Clarke. This wonderful, 83 year old man, let Hanna and myself invade his private domain for the best morning so far. Once he had heard that Hanna was not only a musician but an artist, he took us in and showed us his work. He is a very modest man, lives alone with his ex-wife just upstairs and loves to paint. His paintings are the most fantastic I have ever seen for someone so humble about them. Seascapes and landscapes adorn his whole home, all painted by himself. Considering these where painted from photographs that he had taken while on holiday, the realness of them are a joy to behold. Hanna and I both left his home an hour later not only with a Note from him but tears in our eyes for the passion this man inspired in us. We love you Bob. Thank you xXx
(Extract from Lynette’s Diary)

Projects such as this one reach an audience who may be shy or indifferent about entering a gallery to 'appreciate art' and it makes people aware that art can, and does, exist in forms other than in a gallery situation. The exposure and impact of Nicola’s work in Abbeyview is hard to measure, since it exists in memories, experiences and the occasional shift in attitude of the residents there. In terms of opening up a dialogue about public art, however, she has made her mark and laid the foundations for a continuing relationship between Abbeyview and art. (The Lamb)

Flowers vs. Portraits FREE

2008-03-03T19:09:00.008Z

Flowers vs. Portraits
Fourth PUBLIC ART GATHERING
Abbeyview Community Centre, Dunfermline
Thursday March 13th 7pm
Free

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly hosts the final event. She will sing a song from the Flowers Songs of the Seasons, which is Illustrated by Cecily Barker from 1925. Cecily Barker is known for her drawings of flower fairies.

Hanna Tuulikki, artist & musician, will present her new work Note Catcher. Working with Lynette Sneddon from Abbeyview, Hanna and Lynette travelled around Abbeyview together, from the bowling club to homes to local shops to community centre to street to engaging with 130 people. People were asked to sing a single note of their choice, which was recorded and Hanna has created a beautiful composition using their notes.

Gerald Love has created a piece of music called ‘ all I have to do is sit and wait ‘ inspired by the bus route from Dunfermline center to Abbeyview. The duration is 18 min. the same length as the journey. Gerald is a member of the Teenage Fanclub a music band.

Daniel Jewesbury presents a talk exploring ideas public art. Daniel is an artist & writer based in Belfast.

Claire Barclay, visual artist, has created a temporary artwork in open-air locations inspired by Abbeyview. Her artwork ‘we need more and different flags’ can be seen during the event.

NADFLY Presents - PUBLIC ART GATHERING - Permanent vs. Temporary - Thurs 28th Feb 2008 7.00pm - Abbeyview Community Centre Dunfermline

2008-02-23T12:47:00.010Z

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly will discuss the concept of Permanent vs. Temporary.

As part of the unforeseen happenings and inspiration in Abbeyview.
R.A.D.A.R. Random And Dynamic Art Risks.

Peter Nicholson a cellist will perform a composition in reaction to the notion of Permanent vs. Temporary.

Luke Fowler has created a film in Abbeyview His film looks into the particularities of the environment of Abbeyview and its current regeneration process. This will be the first showing of his film.

Artists profile:

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly is the Artist in Abbeyview from January 2007 until March 2008. Nicola has undertaken artworks in Scotland, England, New York, Los Angeles, Karachi, Dublin, Havana, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Germany and across the UK. Each of her art works aims to be innovative, ambitious and meaningful for the participants and the public.

Peter Nicholson is a member the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and One Ensemble. Combining a classical training with his experience as an improviser.

Luke Fowler is a visual artist who makes experimental films, which interrogate the documentary as an art form. As a musician he collaborates in the bands Lied Music and Rude Pravo, he also runs the record label "Shadazz".

ALL WELCOME

Investigating the Unexpected

2008-02-17T20:01:00.004Z

I have been working on the drawings for the second book of Nicola’s residency that gathers all of the projects together of 'Part Two: Art as Evidence'. I want to present drawings with typical silhouettes but intriguing detail and have been studying objects to incorporate into the Abbeyview landscape, in order to let them infiltrate and nestle in the familiar.

The mechanics of a convection heater, for example, have a surprisingly strong structural quality. By manipulating scale and environment, can I fool the eye into reading it as building? If one dissects the drawing above into a collection of lines then the linear components need only be read with a different emphasis to recognise a tower block rather than the element of a heater. If we do not look properly when presented with an image that seems familiar, the brain tends to fill in detail from its bank of pictures. Conversely, if it is unrecognisable it will search for, and decide on, the familiar. This helps it cope with the bombardment of information that reaches it via the eye every second, but the downside of this is missing the unexpected. If you skim through the pages of ‘Art as Evidence’ you may miss them, but take your time and something may catch your eye long enough to investigate and find the unexpected. (The Lamb)

Daniel Jewesbury visits Abbeyview

2008-02-05T19:18:00.000Z

As we stand waiting for the bus to Dunfermline the snow is getting heavier. We are caught in a pretty hefty moment of indecision as to whether to chance the roads - Nicola's heard that the motorway was blocked with an overturned truck - or to play it safe and take the train. We deliberate.

Hanna arrives. She is running and out of breath. This is a good way to meet someone for the first time, in a bus station in the snow when they're out of breath and you don't know whether to get the bus or the train. It stops you from standing on ceremony.

The bus is now late. We decide to get the train and cut our losses.

Then the bus arrives. We get the bus.

I'm fairly ignorant of the east coast of Scotland and the flames atop the refineries are pretty interesting to me, very dramatic, dark and satanic, but understandably not especially wonderful once you've seen them once, twice or ten thousand times, so i'm the only one staring at them. I tell Nicola that apparently the suspension cables on the Forth road bridge are starting to break. That's my store of local knowledge exhausted.

Nicola calls Dunfermline 'Dunfernland' and one of the things I hope to discover, during the course of my explorations of Abbeyview, is whether anyone else says this or whether she has a particular reason for pronouncing it that way. This I intend to find out indirectly. Perhaps I will start using it myself when i'm over next, and see if people start staring at me, or maybe treating me like one of their own (unlikely).

First impressions of Abbeyview are mingled in with the feeling of an initiation, or the conferring of membership in a society. I'm introduced to a number of people quite quickly and before I know it I'm having lunch in the bowling club and holding forth on public art, and community, and commitment and involvement, and trying to find out where everybody stands.

My own position on public art is that there are many people and interest groups who misuse it. Governments and local authorities have instrumentalised 'culture' to the extent that they often only see an appropriate use for it, in public contexts, in achieving specific policy goals (under the broad heading of social inclusion). This means that 'culture' as something that doesn't have definite, measurable 'outcomes' is seen as a bad thing, or even as elitist. Meanwhile, libraries are closed down and access to galleries, theatres and so on is ever more restricted. Where I live, in Belfast, public art is usually of the classic 'sticking plaster' type - intended to distract attention away from the terrible conditions that continue to blight everyday life here. There are lots of sticking plasters being put up in Belfast right now. They're all pretty ugly.

I know that Nicola's approach to public art, and to working with artists, is very subtle and that it avoids at all cost patronising those who might see it. All the same, at this stage, I know very little about Abbeyview, and I'm meeting the funders of the project for the first time. Are they sympathetic to her way of working? Are they in on it?

Nicola seems to have won them round fairly early on. In fact she seems to have given them something that they could never have asked for, which they could never really have known was exactly what they wanted. I guess this is because it's not a project 'aimed' at anyone, certainly not at some sort of half-imagined 'community'. It doesn't presume that art has to be compromised or reduced when you present it outside of a gallery, in the places where people actually live. Over several years of living in Belfast I've become very wary of that idea of 'community'. More often than not it's a handly way of keeping people in their place, and I really hate the idea of people having a 'place' that they're not expected to move beyond, whether that's a real place, where you live or work, or a place that you go to in your head. I've never really had a place myself so I tend to keep on the move.

By the end of the afternoon I've been given the guided tour and left to have a wander on my own. I come across a large main road just beyond the high school, and I realise that the estate has very clear boundaries. I wonder how much people respect, or observe these boundaries and what they really mean to anyone. A couple of desolate pieces of street furniture appear to be attempts to make the dead space somehow meaningful but i can't imagine anyone ventures down here for any reason, except perhaps to walk the dog late at night.

After only a little while I've left Abbeyview again, and as we pass the refinery flames I'm wondering what I might find out about it over the next couple of months.

by Daniel Jewesbury, 24 Jan 2008

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

NOTE CATCHER OF ABBEYVIEW

2008-01-27T18:56:00.000Z

Hanna Tuulikki an artist and musician. Over the next month she will be looking for people in Abbeyview to sing to her a single note of their choice and used in a composition. The finished piece of music will be premiered:

March 13th @ 7pm
Public Art Gathering:
Flowers vs Portraits
Abbeyview Community Centre Dunfermline.

If you want to get in touch please contact the Eco House on 01383 632314.

Putting locals at the heart of public art

2008-01-19T11:13:00.000Z

Art Feature in the HERALD by Jack Mottram. 18 Jan 2008

Last night, inside Abbeyview Community Centre, Dunfermline, resident community artist Nicola Atkinson Does Fly channelled the spirit of ballerina Moira Shearer, tapping out a rhythm with her feet to accompany viola player Aby Vulliamy, performing her score based on Shearer's finest hour, when she played Vicky in the Powell and Pressburger masterpiece of cinema, The Red Shoes.

The evening also saw attendees biting into oranges as they watched a slideshow by "cultural broker" Ben Spencer, whose installment as part of an ongoing series of public art gatherings, dubbed Clock People, was entitled What Is Beautiful?

Not, you might think, typical entertainment offerings on a rainy Thursday in Fife, but almost run-of-the-mill for the residents of Abbeyview, who, since last March, have been working with the artist who goes by the nom de guerre Nicola Atkinson Does Fly (adopted after she made a video about a fly, chosen because it is "irritating and essential") and also with a brace of invited artists.

"I almost see it as like working in a band of musicians," Atkinson says, explaining her collaborations with artists and community alike. "We all have our instruments - our artistic forms - and we're working together as a collective, but still distinct."

It's this sort of approach that marks out Atkinson as a sensitive, engaged practitioner of public art, a mode of working that can all-too-often see an artist descending on a community with a set project in mind.

"My approach is always very gentle," she agrees. "There might be a lot of work going on, but I'm not interested in just parachuting in. For a piece called Dwellings, I had the idea of making little cardboard houses, based on the houses that are going to be knocked down in Abbeyview. I presented them to the school so the students could put them together, but they did everything you could imagine with them. I ended up with hundreds of different crazy houses.

"That was interesting. I'd presented them with something that was complete to me, this really beautiful aesthetic piece, and they really matched it. Another example would be Belle & Sebastian guitarist Stevie Jackson's songs - he wrote two inspired by Abbeyview - and the school music department said, We can do this song', so they took it away, worked on it, and presented it back to him."

Such easy interactions are matched by the use of happy coincidences and a free-wheeling approach to fresh ideas, tactics that Atkinson has developed under the banner of Random And Dynamic Art Risks - or Radar.

"The Radar project is about doing something slightly mad, and about taking risks," Atkinson says. "With public art, there is an unpredictable aspect, and that's exciting. You really get into a zone, and begin to have an intuitive trust in what you are doing."

That intuition binds together the wide array of events taking place at Abbeyview. Clock People earned its title when a clock was suggested as a useful piece of public art, and Atkinson joked that residents should just ask other people for the time. That simple concept - of people as the focus of projects - now informs the regular gatherings, which seek to define the future of public art in the area by discussing allied ideas - from last night's meditation on beauty, to November's edition, The Importance of Time.

Atkinson's performance in the guise of Shearer grew in a similarly organic fashion.

"I was researching Moira Shearer for another piece," Atkinson explains. "I knew that she was born in Dunfermline, but when I saw that the event, What Is Beautiful?, was planned for her birthday, I just had to do something involving her. These sort of serendipitous things just seem to happen."

And they keep happening, spreading Abbeyview art around the world. For instance, a project that saw Atkinson drawing the stock of a local hardware store, selling her efforts for the price of the goods drawn, was mirrored in New York by artist Sophia Pankenier, and Stevie Jackson performed his Abbeyview songs earlier this month at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles.

"Things can reside here and start here," Atkinson says. "But the work has to have a life outwith the place. I like the idea of it being a worldwide thing - but an intimate worldwide thing.' In its quiet way then, Abbeyview is making its mark on the wider art world, and looks set to continue to do so with Atkinson's light hand on the tiller, generating oblique strategies and working towards, ultimately, a public sculpture in the area.

Before the Abbeyview artist enterprise draws to a close in March, though, there is much to be done. For instance, artist Luke Fowler is preparing a film for a Clock People event entitled Permanent vs Temporary, a Cabinet of Curiosities, which is touring the country.

It seems safe to say, the public art scene in Abbeyview will remain in rude health, long after Atkinson flies on to her next project.

The Cabinet of Curiosities is at Fife Contemporary Art & Craft, St Andrews, until Jan 30. For information on past and future events in Abbeyview, visit www.nadfly.com.

WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL ?

2008-01-13T13:48:00.000Z

The Year 2008 has started with a great event. Stevie Jackson perform, the songs “Bird’s Eye View” & “The Electric Box” at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on January 8, 2008.As part of the Concrete Frequency: SONGS OF THE CITY. From the bright lights to the dark alleys, music has allowed city dwellers an outlet for their joy, urgency, depression, and heartache. Whether it's a lighthearted pop song or an elegy of isolation, come inside to hear the walls of the city sing.

We have been working on ‘What is beautiful’ for the 17th January 2008 @ 7.30pm Abbeyview Community Centre, Dunfermline. To celebrate the life of Moira Shearer King who was famous for dancing in the film 'The Red Shoes' (1948) and was born in Dunfermline on 17 January 1926 then attended Dunfermline High School, Nicola will perform with Aby Vulliamy, a Musician based in Glasgow.

See you on Thursday...

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly & Stephen Robinson

CUT HAIR GROW TREES

2007-12-22T20:39:00.000Z

INK TREE

2007-12-09T23:19:00.001Z

DOES THE SHOE FIT?

2007-12-02T21:50:00.000Z

The business of understanding and explaining the art process can be a troubling one. What is good art, what is bad art and can they coexist? Is being bad - good? If everything was so pleasing would the world be a better place? With everyone agreeing would that be that sweet or do we need conflict ?

I came up with some sort of an answer while in a Glasgow Taxi a couple of years ago. I have always found these sorts of conversations rich and entraining in this wonderful city that adopted me in 1992. It when like this: “What do you do?” “I am an artist.” (sometimes this seems like a bad move, I do not think a baker or teacher would receive the same confrontational reactions that I have had, maybe I should try that next time). “Are you any good?” (how do you answer this, many rides and years later I have figured this out by saying I am a working artist, for if I’m making money someone must like it) on this wet night I said “Well, yes I’m good!” He asked what I thought of bad art and started to name a few artist he hated. My reply was: “When you go into a shop to buy a pair of shoes, the store is full of different sizes, colours, designs and functions. Somehow you find a pair that fits, but you do not get mad at the other shoes because there are different, you are just happy to find one that looks good on you.” and with this I reached home.

Thinking about this a little more... what if you went into the shop and you were force to buy shoes that did not fit? Hmmmmmmm. (The Fly)

Well, here we are in last month of the year and it’s rounding up nicely.

Nicola gave her presentation entitled "Can art be evidence?" as part of “SHARING KNOWLEDGE & INVOLVING ALL”, KNOWFIFE 4th RESEARCH FAIR 2007 on Monday. It was interesting for her to be invited to this research fair that mainly concerned understanding hard fact in terms of thinking about people, where art is an altogether subjective activity in that respect.

The first in the series of CLOCK PEOPLE – PUBLIC ART GATHERING ran smoothly and was very well received by the public on Thursday

Here is the blow by blow account of the evening with times and all.
CLOCK PEOPLE / PUBLIC ART GATHERING
7pm Start
The Public signs in
Welcome from Nicola Atkinson Does Fly and introduction
Nicola gives a presentation on her public artworks that she has created in places such as Cuba and Bosnia, followed by Artwork from Abbeyview
Bird’s Eye View by Stevie Jackson (music)
John Cavanagh calls for time by ringing bell.
Main lights turn off
The Standard Light is turned on
John Cavanagh reads about the history of time
The public are asked to close their eyes
Nick Fells, sound artist, plays his piece about time which he transformed from original recordings in Abbeyview and Nicola’s home
Le Question by Françoise Hardy (music)
John Cavanagh reads the story Passing places by Philip Miller (commissioned by Nicola for Abbeyview )
Hallucinogène by Françoise Hardy (music)
John Cavanagh reads the story SOUL AND CELL by Philip Miller
Le Question by Françoise Hardy (music)
John Cavanagh reads from Alice Munro story Floating Bridge
John Cavanagh reads the Ken Nordine piece – with Jump Monk the music of Charles Mingus
Standard Light is turn off
Main lights turn on
Discussion with the public about time & place & future with Nicola and Alan Grieve, an artist from Abbeyview.
Refreshments served.
8pm END

Image © Sophia Pankenier

Momentum

2007-11-25T21:08:00.000Z

A busy week just passed for Nicola with everything gearing up towards the events next week.

On Monday 26th November Nicola will be doing a talk and presentation entitled "Can art be evidence?" as part of “SHARING KNOWLEDGE & INVOLVING ALL”, KNOWFIFE 4th RESEARCH FAIR 2007 at the Police Headquarters, Glenrothes, KY6 2RJ

Then Thursday 29th November 2007 will be the first in the series of CLOCK PEOPLE – PUBLIC ART GATHERING.

Clock People, is the first of four Public Art Gatherings in Abbeyview hosted by Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, currently the artist in residence in the community. We hope all will enjoy this multi-media extravaganza to explore the 'art of time'.

The theme for first gathering will be 'THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME'. Nicola Atkinson Does Fly will show public artworks that she has created in places such as Cuba and Bosnia, while introducing possibilities for the future of public art in Abbeyview.

Co-hosting the evening with Nicola will be John Cavanagh, who for the last 15 years has worked for BBC Radio Scotland and the World Service/Radio International. He currently purveys twisted pop radio programmes to listeners in Latvia and New Zealand from a cellar in Pollokshields.

Nicola has worked with Nick Fells on a soundscape about time. Nick is a composer, performer and sound artist. He works in acousmatic, soundscape, instrumental and vocal composition, installation, and music for visual media and dance. Much of his music combines computer technology with live performance, extending and enhancing performance possibilities. He teaches composition & electroacoustic music at the University of Glasgow.

John Cavanagh will read stories especially written for this gathering by Phillip Miller.

You are invited to discuss your idea about time, with Nicola and Alan Grieve, an artist from Abbeyview. All Welcome.

The next Public Art Gathering, entitled ‘What is Beautiful’, is on 17th January 2008 at 7.30pm

You are also invited to this next Public Art Gathering ‘What is Beautiful’ in the New Year at the Abbeyview Community Centre. Nicola with co-host this event with Ben Spencer. To celebrate the life of Moira Shearer King who was famous for dancing in the film 'The Red Shoes' (1948) and was born in Dunfermline then attended Dunfermline High School, Nicola will perform with Aby Vulliamy, a Musician based in Glasgow. All welcome once more.

Image © Sophia Pankenier

Gold Oak Tree

2007-11-18T13:33:00.001Z

Image © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

FUTURE AND BEYOND

2007-11-11T12:14:00.000Z

The week beginning 5th November found Nicola having meetings not only involving the future up until March 2008 but also the future beyond March 2008. This is, therefor, a good time to give an overview of the art works that have taken place since June 2007 and those happening between now and the future.

Tweed Street (29th July - 30th Aug 2007)
The Tweed Street Tour focuses on D6/D5 bus route into Abbeyview from Dunfermline. As a starting point we asked the people who live on Tweed Street, this is one of the streets that line the route, to photograph the windows arrangements of the houses. The residents of Tweed Street were involved in the creation of the temporary artwork by Marisa Privitera. Nicola & Linsey Leitch installed the posters on streetlights all around Abbeyview advertising the Tweed Street Tour. Nicola, Marisa Privitera, Stuart Murdoch and Marisa's cousin, install the 40 images on the streetlights. The Abbeyview Council Local Service Centre's plasma screen also showed Tweed Street Tour images by Marisa Privitera to bring the project to the wider audience of the community who use the Centre.

Bird's Eye View ( Sept 2007 )
Pupils from Woodmill High School's higher music class worked on a new rendition of Stevie Jackson's song, "Bird's Eye View" into their music lessons in preparation for a live performance with Stevie. This version included a variety of different instruments to give the song a different feel than the original. These included some extra guitar parts, a bass guitar, violin, flute, percussion and a group of five singers instead of the original lone vocalist.

The Cabinet of Curiosities (ON TOUR)
8th Dec - 30th Jan: Fife Contemporary Art & Craft
6th - 30th Sept: Whitemill High School
25th - 30th August: 26 Bruce Street, Dunfermline

The Cabinet of Curiosities has been designed and built by carpenter Nick Millar, in collaboration with the SEE EYE team. Stevie Jackson, from Belle and Sebastian, gave a live performance of his two songs "Bird's Eye View" & "The Electric Box" that he composed for Abbeyview. Nicola Atkinson Does Fly was there to answer any questions.

Clock People (Public Art Gatherings)
All who will attend these events in Abbeyview Community Centre will experience various ideas on the notion and definition of public art, with a chance to freely discuss their opinions. Each of the evenings' discussions will be annotated and, as a conclusion to the exercise, form a report to determine the future of Public art in Abbeyview.

The Importance of Time. (Thurs 29th Nov @ 7pm ) Abbeyview Community Centre
Nicola Atkinson Does Fly shall co-host the first event with John Cavanagh. John has created music under the name Phosphene since 2000. For the last decade and a half he has work for BBC Radio Scotland, all the BBC networks from 1-5 and World Service/Radio International. He currently purveys twisted pop radio programmes to listeners in Latvia and New Zealand from a cellar in Pollokshields. Nicola will introduce her working practices and John will read stories by Phillip Miller, written especially for this event.

What is Beautiful? (Thurs 17th January 2008 @ 7.30pm) Abbeyview Community Centre
Nicola Atkinson Does Fly shall co-host with Ben Spencer. He is a freelance consultant advising on a wide range of organisations from the public and voluntary sectors on the development of art and architecture initiatives. Nicola will preform with Aby Vulliamy a Musician.

Flowers vs. Portraits. (Thurs 13th March 2008 @ 7pm) Abbeyview Community Centre
Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, Claire Barclay Artist & Clare Simpson, Senior Arts Development Officer for Culture and Sport, Glasgow.

R.A.D.A.R. Random And Dynamic Art Risks. This is a series of artworks with the brief of organically using the unforeseen happenings and inspiration while experiencing Abbeyview to create pieces of work. Luke Fowler has made a film & interviewed people in Abbeyview and Nicola Atkinson Does Fly & Sophia Pankenier has created hand-dawn images of K & K Factors from Her fascination of the shop on her time in Abbeyview. Claire Barclay Is inspired by the open air space of the place.

Quick Art (10th Oct 2007)
In collaboration with Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, Alan Grieve wrote his memories of the Abbeyview chip shop as a story on the pavement. Temporary public art is very effective in Abbeyview given that the immediate interaction of passers-by.

K & K Factors. (29th Nov 2007 – 17th Jan 2008)
The K&K Factors artwork developed out of Nicola Atkinson Does Fly and Sophia Pankenier shared fascination with the character, objects and stories crammed into the local Abbeyview hardware shop. Nicola engaged in discussion with the shop owners & people visiting it. The series of drawn products based on the pieces arranged for sale there. Sophia took the images away to document, explore, renew and subsequently install as another ´shop´ in New York. Nicola will installed her series of drawings in the hardware shop, selling them for the same price as the product. A limited edition of the book was created. This will be Launch in Abbeyview on Nov 29th 2007

(still to be named) (28th Feb 2008)
Luke Fowler has filmed the day & night activity in Abbeyview. Conversation with the residents has been part of his process. He will also spend time with the community wardens during their night walks. This will be shown in Abbeyview Community Centre.

(still to be named) 13th March 2008
Claire Barclay create temporary artworks in open-air locations in Abbeyview. The residents surrounding the open air locations will be directly involved in the inspiration and creation of the temporary artwork.

'Art as Evidence' Book (31st March 2008)
Art give voice to people. A selection of artists work who have worked in Abbeyview since January '07
Text by Chris Hladowski
Drawings by Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, Carol Lambie & Hanna Tuulikki.
Images from the artworks by Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, Claire Barclay, Luke Fowler, Sophia Pankenier & Marisa Privitera.

Image © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

USEFUL

2007-11-04T23:27:00.000Z

I met with Nicola last week to discuss the SEE EYE Book that will be produced in February ‘08. The format of the last book was as documentation of the Art Event in March, and my contribution of drawings followed along those lines. For the next book however, Nicola would like it to have some stand alone quality, something happening between the pages that has been created for that purpose.

My projects ‘Bird’s Eye View’ and ‘Ghostlines’ were drawings of the present but with the knowledge that as I produced them they were already assigned to the past. This aspect of creating a drawing interests me, the artist may be representing the present as they experience it but that present tense may be in image of the past. The reality of the here and now is also altered by the purely subjective nature of the artist’s decision of what to put on the paper. Of course as soon as an image is drawn it becomes the past, as captured time. Therefor time is something that an artist can represent, manipulate and fabricate to their own end, working within layers of time and reality.

Nicola has asked me to once again produce drawings for the book but the challenge I have given myself is to draw Abbeyview but set the present tense out of kilter, bringing the extraordinary to the familiar or creating a blip in a well know image of the area. Where will this take me? To the past, to a parallel present or to the future? (The Lamb)

Image © Nicola Atkinson Does fly

PARK

2007-10-26T20:39:00.000+01:00

Image © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

Clock People (Public Art Gathering)

2007-10-22T15:20:00.000+01:00

Four Art Events from November 07 – March 08 for the people of Abbeyview.
People attending these events will experience various ideas on the notion and definition of public art, with a chance to freely discuss their opinions. Each of the evenings’ discussions will be annotated and, as a conclusion to the exercise, form a report to determine the future of Public art in Abbeyview.

The events promise to be an all round exciting experience, with a strong visual and audio backdrop to inspire and provoke opinion. All members of the community are welcome. All members of the community are welcome. Refreshments will be served. See the posters displayed around Abbeyview for info.

Thursday 29th November @ 7pm
Abbeyview Community Centre
THEME: The Importance of Time.

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly shall co-host the first event with John Cavanagh. John has created music under the name Phosphene since 2000. For the last decade and a half he has work for BBC Radio Scotland, all the BBC networks from 1-5 and World Service/Radio International. He currently purveys twisted pop radio programmes to listeners in Latvia and New Zealand from a cellar in Pollokshields. Nicola will introduce her working practices and John will read stories by Phillip Miller, written especially for this event.

K & K FACTORS

2007-10-21T16:06:00.000+01:00

QUICK ART

2007-10-14T13:02:00.000+01:00

A R.A.D.A.R Moment

Last week I met with Alan Grieve to record him performing the stories he had written about time. After they were recorded we sensed that something was missing in the experience. We needed some space from the performance so it was off to the chip shop, because I just love the chips in Abbeyview, since we were hungry. We found ourselves sat at the top of the stairs that lead down to Tweed Street. It was a sunny day in October and Alan was telling me about his memories of the Abbeyview chip shop, since he is from the area. It was fresh, funny and spontaneous and after I had recorded it I suggested if Alan could write the story on the pavement, which he did with much passion. A couple walked by and the man said “What is this? I might get chalk on my feet and ruin my carpet.. and I could sue you! And who gave you permission to do that?" Then seconds later a man across the road, who was just about to wash his car, said “You are not going to leave that!" The fact that we were going to wait for the rain didn't appeal to him so he gave us a hose and Alan washed it off. That was the quickest piece of public art that Alan & I have created! Through talking a bit more to the man with the hose we found out that he was quite interested in art and asked him about showing public art, such as the chalked pavement, in Abbeyview. He recounted to us the habitual vandalism to his car, saying that any permanent piece would certainly receive the same attention. It would seem that temporary public art is very effective in Abbeyview given that the immediate interaction of passers-by and that the element of deterioration would be removed from the equation if one wished. This half hour piece of art is a true Random And Dynamic Art Risk, giving us the first successful R.A.D.A.R project. (The Fly)

K&K Factors Project update. Nicola has completed half of the drawings create in ink and Sophia has finished hers in America. Woodmill High School students dropped by the shop with Jackie Powton Art Teacher to purchase and draw an object from the shop, starting the next part of the project.

Curiosity Cabinet continues it tour arriving next at Fife Contemporary Art & Craft in the St Andrews Town Foyer, the Town Hall, Queen's Garden, St Andrews. It will be there from 8th December 2007- 30th January 2008.

The 'Artist in Abbeyview Steering Group' met to discuss the art projects. They had Ben Spencer, cultural broker and contributor to the SEE EYE March Event, as guest to guide them with future planning.

Nicola also gave presentation to Scottish Forum Against Poverty Meeting at the Dunfermline City Chambers on Friday, below.

Photogarphs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

AUTHOR ! AUTHOR !!

2007-10-06T18:39:00.000+01:00

I was asked this week what my role is as Artist in Abbeyview – and what is my role with the the other artists involved? It got me thinking, where does the trail of an idea or artwork start from? Is the idea of ownership important?

After working as a curator & director at a gallery space in Glasgow called Bulkhead 1997– 2001 and receiving the NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) fellowship 2002 – 2005 I decided that I would work in collaboration with fellow artists. This moulded the way in which I set up my time in Abbeyview by inviting 8 people to think with me collectively, forming the SEE EYE artwork in March. In the remaining time until March ‘08 I have set up several artworks with 10 other artists, using ideas born of my observations of and access to Abbeyview, as well as my interests in general. I feel that to break down the idea ‘tree’ of each artwork would be a distraction from the outcome, but I think it might be of interest to discuss who is the author of an artwork.

The Tweed Street idea came to me while travelling from Dunfermline centre to Abbeyview on the bus, on which I have a view of people lives through their front windows. After meeting with Marisa Privitera I thought it would be good to have her energy focused on meeting people and have her photograph the people’s windows. It develop as she responded to Abbeyview by photographing the people on the street and buses. After her photographs were finished I started to wonder how best to show these works. I decided it would be good to show them like ‘Lost Cat Posters” on the Tweed Street. The context is very much part of this work.

This brings me to the development of the R.A.D.A.R. (Random And Dynamic Art Risks) artworks, to create unforeseen happenings. This was set up to challenge myself and the artists about place, public and collaboration.

Sophia Pankenier’s RADAR artwork ideas can be found in our past blogs. Last week Sophia completed her drawings in New York where she is living at the moment. I initially introduced Sophia to the local Abbeyview hardware shop K&K Factors and came up with setting up a hand-drawn shop in her New York apartment, far away from Abbeyview. It was only last week when I received her lovely drawings that I realised my fascination with K&K Factors shop in Abbeyview was not complete, thus the idea started to grow. I purchased 14 objects and decided to draw them and display the images in the shop. You will be able to see them from 19th November 2007. These will be for sale at the same price as the objects were purchased for. Both our drawings will be produced in a limited edition 32 page book, of only 100 printed. These will be available from 19th November 2007 in various locations around Abbeyview.

Students at Woodmill High School will create a follow up to the K&K Factors shop artwork, in response to this, also drawing objects from the shop and selling them for the same price. The artwork asks the question “What is the price of art?”.

These are only a few examples of my working practice. In these artworks we become jointly the author, my role as artist might be the starting point but in the end the outcome is most importantly a collective one. (The Fly)

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

STEVIE JACKSON PLAYS WITH WOODMILL HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC CLASS

2007-09-29T15:27:00.001+01:00

26th of September saw pupils from Woodmill High School’s higher music class play a rendition of Stevie Jackson’s song, “Bird’s Eye View”. This version included a variety of different instruments to give the song a different feel than the original. These included some extra guitar parts, a bass guitar, violin, flute, percussion and a group of five singers instead of the original lone vocalist.

Firstly Stevie began with his version of “Bird’s Eye View” which was well received by everyone. Then the higher music class kicked off their version with a funky bass guitar riff, then guitars, violin, percussion and finally the singers joined in. Extra sections were added to the song, such as a bridge section in a minor key with interesting flute and violin melodies. Stevie seemed to be overwhelmed by the song, and was very grateful to have one of his songs covered for the first time.

He then performed his other song from his record, “The Electric Box”, which had a more up-tempo beat. He encouraged the musicians to play along with him and solo over the top of the song, turning the performance into one big jam session which everyone enjoyed.

The performance was recorded and will feature on Woodmill’s website for everyone to enjoy. It was a great afternoon and Stevie’s songs were well received by both the staff and the pupils.

Text by Glynn Forrest - the percussionist from Woodmill High School

7 inch record signed for the pupils by Stevie.

I was pleased that Stevie Jackson came into our school to sing 'Bird's Eye View' and 'The Electrick Box'. We all had a good time singing along to him. It was nice of him to sign our 7" vinyls and books. I felt for him when he messed up his lines, but realised even popstars and idols can have nerves. I love Stevie. We even had an encore, bet you wish you were at Woodmill.

Mark Queen

I enjoyed watching, listening and singing with Stevie Jackson in the crush hall. He was rather nervous and this shows that despite him playing in front of millions, he can still be nervous. Stevie also enjoyed this as he was able to join in with the school's version of his songs.

Kieran Startup

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly filming the event

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

CLOCK PEOPLE ARE COMING

2007-09-25T19:47:00.000+01:00

Drawing © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

on reflection

2007-09-23T13:54:00.001+01:00

On reflection - there are times when standing back and assessing where you are at is essential. In Abbeyview the activity of planning has drawn to a close – artists have been introduced to the place, projects are standing themselves and the activity of making is gathering speed around me. Meanwhile the wonderfully successful SEE EYE Event in March 2007 has been documented and embellished by the Book and the Curiosity Cabinet. What is left for me to do is to collaborate and create. Giving the Abbeyview community a year that was a bit out of the ordinary. (The Fly)

This week Nicola gave a presentation at the ROA Programme Board Meeting about the work she is doing in Abbeyview. It was very interesting to meet the board and an outcome of the meeting was an invite to give a couple of talks, one being a Keynote Speaker at the 4th KnowFife Research Fair ‘Sharing Knowledge & Involving All ‘ on Nov 26th @ 4.00pm at the Police Headquarters, Glenrothes.

“Art as Evidence?” is the title of the talk and will discuss how art can give a voice to people who might not be engaged in surveys or more conventional research methods, to explore and express their experience, views or aspirations, and to convey the subtleties of expression that can otherwise be missed by counting stats or surveying opinion?

She will present the art work in Abbeyview and other art works in places such as New York, Los Angeles, Karachi, Dublin, Havana, Bosnia & Herzegovina and across the UK to demonstrate this. This will encourage people to think about the notion of evidence and what we use to create the knowledge and understanding of Fife, which we then apply to delivering people's public and voluntary services.

It’s all going on at Woodmill High

Everyone is looking forward to hearing the pupils play Stevie Jackson’s Songs on Wednesday 26th September in Woodmill High School when pupils will play alongside him.

The Curiosity Cabinet continues to engage and inspire as it stands in all its splendour in the reception of the High School. Here are some of the comments so far:

I think that the curiosity cabinet is an extravagant & beautiful piece of art put together by the genius that is Nick Millar. But… Hmmm how did they get that lamp there? (Leroy Moffat)

My experience with the curiosity cabinet has been both interesting and entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the look of the younger pupils faces when first encountering the artwork. It surprised me how many of the pupils showed a genuine interest and how many wanted to help. I have enjoyed being part of the Curiosity Cabinet and would love to find out more. (Ashleigh Mc Gregor)

I quite liked looking after the curiosity cabinet. Pupils and teachers alike were very curious as to what this piece of art was and where it came from. Many people enjoyed the music and some even danced to it. We took some pupils and teachers around it and told them different information to do with certain parts. We liked looking at the artists book particularly Post Secret which we browsed most days. The group would like to thank Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, Jackie Powton and Stevie Jackson for this opportunity. (Kieran Startup)

I enjoyed taking care and showing people about the Curiosity Cabinet. The pupils and teachers asked lots of questions and wondered what the piece was. The pupils really enjoyed listening to Stevie Jacksons record, played in the cabinet in the hall. I liked handing out the dilemmas to the staff and pupils and some of them were quite confused by their choice. I’d like to thank Nicola Atkinson Does Fly and Jackie Powton for the opportunity. (Mark Queen)

Looking after the curiosity cabinet was interesting because I learned that not all art is done with paint and pencil and that peoples perception about art varies from person to person. (Gavin Cockerell)

The Curiosity Cabinet is off on its travels and has already touched those who have experienced it, as we see from the great comments above. Much like Nicola, as she reflects this week on her role and home in Abbeyview, who is here this year to open up art and its possibilities to those who encounter her. It reminds me of a programme when I was a kid called “The Littlest Hobo” about a dog who roamed, stayed for a while, became loved by those who encountered him and helped them through the situation he found them in. The theme tune, drawn from dusty memories, sums it up. (The Lamb)

There’s a voice, keeps on callin’ me
Down the road, that’s where I’ll always be

Every stop I make, I make a new friend
Just carry on, then turn around and I’m gone again

Maybe tomorrow I’ll wanna settle down
Until tomorrow I’ll just keep movin on

So if you wanna join me for a while
Just grab your hat, I travel light
That’s hobo style

Maybe tomorrow I’ll wanna settle down
Until tomorrow I’ll just keep movin on.

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

CABINET ARRIVES AT WOODMILL HIGH SCHOOL

2007-09-16T11:51:00.001+01:00

Curiosity Cabinet

The Curiosity Cabinet is now off on its travels after the debut in Bruce Street, Dunfermline. It is standing proudly in the reception of Woodmill High School, Abbeyview, and will be there until the end of September. We hope that the cabinet will be a talking point amongst the students and highlight to them the diverse forms that art can take. The public can of course view the piece there by reporting to reception before hand. Here is Nick Millar, the cabinet's creator, installing and posing!

Catch the Performance

Talking of Woodmill High, there is an exciting event happening next week. Students in the music department have been learning the two songs written by Stevie Jackson for the SEE EYE March Event, “Bird’s Eye View” and “Electric Box”. At 1pm on Wednesday 26th September everyone should be word and note perfect to perform at the school with Stevie himself. It’s not everyday that you get a real live popstar playing amongst you in your school, it’ll be a day they won’t forget!

SEE EYE Book

The book produced to mark the SEE EYE March Event is now available to buy over in the west of the country, spreading the Abbeyview vibe to a new audience. Check out ‘Hitherto’, within Tinderbox coffee shop on Ingram Street in Glasgow, to bag a copy.

ROA Board Meeting

Nicola will be hosting the ROA board meeting in the Eco House on Thursday. Feedback will be posted next week.

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

FUTURE - BRUCE - LUKE - CLAIRE

2007-08-31T19:39:00.000+01:00

Saturday 25th August saw the opening of the Curiosity Cabinet with Stevie playing his songs. It was a well attended and intimate affair.

26 Bruce Street opened its doors to the public Tuesday to Thursday to view the Curiosity Cabinet and meet Nicola. Alan Grieve & Ross Riddock spent time in the shop on Thursday afternoon to discuss the Abbeyview artists interventions. After its time in Dunfermline city centre, the Cabinet will be on display at Woodmill High School, Abbeyview from 10th September.

RADAR PROJECT UPDATE

Luke Fowler filmed in Abbeyview to start his RADAR artwork on Monday also. It was a beautiful sunny day with residents out attending to their hedges & gardens, on the street selling cars and generally taking their time getting from A to B. Nicola accompanied Luke, taking pictures as he filmed and he returned on Wednesday to continue his work.

The artist Claire Barclay visited Dunfermline for the first time this week to start her RADAR artwork.

The plasma screen in The Abbeyview Council Local Service Centre will be showing the drawings made by Nicola, Carol Lambie and Hanna Tuulikki from the SEE EYE BOOK starting on Monday 3rd September.

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly in Abbeyveiw Clover

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly & Alan Dimmick

LAUNCH : - SEE EYE BOOK, RECORD & THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

2007-08-21T11:13:00.000+01:00

You are invited to the unveiling 26 Bruce Street Dunfermline on Saturday August 25th 3pm - Stevie Jackson, from Belle and Sebastian, will be performing live his two songs “Bird’s Eye View” & “The Electric Box” that he composed for Abbeyview. The shop will be open to the public the following week for three days on 28th/29th/30th August from 11 – 4pm. Nicola Atkinson Does Fly will be there to answer any questions.

The Cabinet of Curiosities has been designed and built by carpenter Nick Millar - in collaboration with the SEE EYE team

SEE EYE BOOK & RECORD
Published by NADFLY, 2007
Text by Chris Hladowski, Carol Lambie & Ben Spencer
Illustrations by Nicola Atkinson Does Fly Carol Lambie, Hanna Tuulikki, Stevie Jackson & Chris Hladowski
Designed by Nicola Atkinson Does Fly
Printed in an edition of 1000 by City Print Services, Glasgow, with a limited run of 500 copies of Stevie Jackson’s 7 inch record.

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

PRESENTING

2007-08-20T18:10:00.000+01:00

Abbeyview Artist Nicola Atkinson Does Fly presenting her drawing of the Curiosity Cabinet to Sarah Ewing (Scottish Bowling Champion) at the Abbeyview Bowling Club

Photograph by linsey Leitch

Having FUN at the Abbeyview Festival

2007-08-20T17:49:00.000+01:00

JOURNEY

2007-08-17T11:09:00.000+01:00

Nicola's Journey from Glasgow to Abbeyview to Glasgow to Abbeyview to Glasgow etc...

The Abbeyview Council Local Service Centre - plasma screen - showing, Marisa Privitera, Tweed Street Tour images until 29th August 2007.

Curiosity Cabinet created by NIck Millar

The unveiling will be in a vacant shop on 26 Bruce Street, Dunfermline on Saturday August 25th at 3pm. Stevie Jackson, from Belle and Sebastian, will be performing live his two songs “Bird’s Eye View” & “The Electric Box” that he composed for Abbeyview. The shop will be open to the public the following week for three days on 28th/29th/30th August from 11 – 4pm.

Photographs & Drawing © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

KEYS

2007-08-11T21:16:00.000+01:00

Allan Cresent Abbeyview

It's been a productive week in Abbeyview....Nicola picked up the keys this week for 26 Bruce Street, Dunfermline, where the Curiosity Cabinet will start its tour on Saturday 25th August.

.....Philip Miller submitted two great stories called ‘PASSING PLACES’ & ‘SOUL AND CELL’ for the Clock People Artwork and she met with Alan Grieve to discuss further the story that he will write for Clock People.

.....and the SEE EYE Book design is now finished and looking great. Nicola has created and collated 52 pages of drawing and essays to immortalise the SEE EYE EVENT held in March this year.

Chris Hladowski does some final proofing of the SEE EYE book

Drawing © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

ALL EYES ON

2007-08-02T21:34:00.000+01:00

After the busy weekend of putting up 40 images on lamp posts and bus stops for the Tweed Street Tour, Monday saw the job of making sure the presentation on the plasma screen was working in the Abbeyview Local Offices.

Nick Millar writes a list for the final work on the Curiosity Cabinet

Linsey Leitch attended the weekly 'Abbeyview Festival' Meeting. All eyes have been on getting things in place for the exhibition and unveiling of the Curiosity Cabinet. The Abbeyview Festival committee were updated on the logistics of getting the Curiosity Cabinet to the Festival on the 19th August. There were discussions of how they felt about the Curiosity Cabinet and it was agreed that it was a very important part of the Festival day's events. Linsey and Nicola have now arranged a visit on the 14th August to the vacant shop at 26 Bruce Street, Dunfermline to give the committee an opportunity to see the Curiosity Cabinet for the first time. It will hopefully give them a realistic assessment of how to present it at the Abbeyview Festival.

The Curiosity Cabinet was created for the people of Abbeyview. It will be touring from Dunfermline to St Andrews, with various places in between. As it travels it will also give others a connection with Abbeyview and its artistic activities. When the tour is done however, it will return home to Abbeyview where the inspiration happened for its creation.

Nicola has also been designing the Curiosity Cabinet A5 flyers, an A3 poster, press release and layout of text. Linsey Leitch took these along to Dougie at Abbey Signs and he is now to creating a vinyl text sign, which will appear on the front window of the vacant shop in 26 Bruce Street, Dunfermline. You will be able to see the text there from 7th Aug.

Photographs & Drawings © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

TWEED STREET TOUR

2007-07-29T14:12:00.000+01:00

This week saw Nicola & Linsey Leitch install the posters on streetlights all around Abbeyview advertising the Tweed Street Tour.

Fingers were crossed that Saturday would be sunny for Nicola, Marisa Privitera, Stuart Murdoch and Marisa's cousin, who have just flown in from travelling in Sicily – to install 40 images for the Tweed Street Tour. You will be able to view them along the D6/D5 bus route on bus stops, lamp posts and in the Abbeyview Council Local Service Centre on the new plasma screen from 29th July – 29th August 2007. The images are also available to view on Marisa’s Flicker site.

www.flickr.com/photos/marisa_privitera/sets/72157600658533337/

The Curiosity Cabinet

Nicola & Linsey Leitch met with Bill F, a local property developer in Dunfermline. He is letting us to use the vacant shop in Bruce Street, Dunfermline, to show the Curiosity Cabinet in. The unveiling will be at 26 Bruce Street, Dunfermline on Saturday August 25th on 3pm - 5pm. At 3.30pm that day Stevie Jackson, from Belle and Sebastian, will be performing live his two songs “Bird’s Eye View” & “The Electric Box” that he composed for Abbeyview in March.

The shop will be open to the public the following week for three days on 28th/29th/30th August from 11 – 4pm. Come along and see the Curiosity Cabinet in all its glory, how these seperate pieces of furniture crash together like they are playing musical chairs and all trying to sit on the last chair to win. All the SEE EYE projects are represented in some form, from Ben Spencer’s use of trees in the top flat of the Allan Crescent block to Nicola’s hand-embellished houses at the bottom.

Clock People

Nicola has been thinking this week about the ‘Clock People’ artwork. She met with several people who she thought would like to become involved, one being Alan Grieve pictured here, an artist who’s work involves story telling, and another being Philip Miller, who is a writer of short stories. The idea behind ‘Clock People’ is that a public art piece should be useful, beautiful and be the central point for the people of the area, just like a telling the time. It will involve 12 people from Whitelaw Road, Macbeth Road, Almond Road & Tweed Street who will be invited to take part. They will be a work of art... of part of a timeless piece!

Photographs & Drawings © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

IMPRESSION

2007-07-20T17:00:00.000+01:00

This week the SEE EYE team received a card from the Abbeyview crèche to thank us for Hanna's artwork NEST that was gifted to them.

Here is David, a voluntary regeneration officer, relaxing on the sofa that was embellished as part of 'Sew the Sofa' (SEE EYE) created during the International Woman Day by the members of the Abbeyview community with Karen Vaughan. This artwork has been very useful for people visiting the Abbeyview regeneration office for more relaxed and intimate meetings.

We all know the touch of the hand can connect you to the heart of the person. This is always the case in the form of drawing but is rarer in photography. It is true that with a photograph one is viewing the chosen subject, composition and lighting of the person who has taken it, but only gifted photographers are able to connect on the level of a drawing. You might think that because of the ease in which a photograph can be taken that everyone can take a good picture but, as always, there is a difference between good images presented and rare moments captured. We feel that this is what will be reflected in the images of Marisa Privitera and in the long process of re-creating the SEE EYE Event in hand-drawn images, as well as being a worthwhile and value impression of the two-day event.

"There is beauty in the directness of hand to paper and the toil is apparent and appreciated by the viewer. The Eco House sign will now bear my mark-making in this way, since my instincts were right on the technical difficulty of reproducing the Lark drawing. So I will be doing it the old way, directly onto canvas. Sorry, but I'm afraid you will have to wait a couple of weeks until the Eco House sign appears!" Nicola (the Fly)

Connecting Abbeyview to Dunfermline town centre is of great interest to Nicola. With Abbeyview being only 15mins away by bus, the Tweed Street Tour is one way to do this. Another way was discussed when Nicola and Lindsey Leech met with Joan Geddes about possible empty shop sites both in Abbeyview and in the centre of Dunfermline. Having an empty shop in each location will highlight the regeneration scheme in both locations, in an interesting and thought provoking way. We are looking for support in kind from letting agencies and local property developers to help us realise this exciting idea. Please contact Lindsay Leech at the Abbeyview Council Offices if you or anyone you know would like to support us.

The last word this week is a sneak preview of the flyer for the Tweed Street Tour showing one of Marisa's beautiful photographs. Look out for these around Abbeyview and beyond.

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly & Marisa Privitera

HAPPY VIEW

2007-07-13T21:58:00.001+01:00

Tweed Street Tour cont...

On Monday Nicola met with Marisa Privitera to discuss her beautiful, quiet images taken along the D6 bus route. Thinking about how the work will be presented to the public, Nicola thought it might be a good to display them on the route by putting them up like lost cat posters on bus stops or lamp posts. It would also be great for the bbeyview Council Service Centre to show them on the newly installed plasma screen where they could be view as the public waits to pay rent or ask for advice, as well as waiting for the bus. Displaying them in this manner would help to embed in the minds of people that art can, and is, happening all around them, touching them as they go about the everyday things. These will be installed on 28th July 2007 ( until Aug 29th) so if you see us say hello. Copies of the photographs will be free to anyone who would like them by leaving their contact details at the Abbeyview Council Service Centre . Marisa visited Abbeyview on Thursday and wrote us a blog below

'Residents may have seen me strolling the streets on my most recent visit to Abbeyview. Some of them may even have been nice enough to let me to take their picture. While I was grateful for their kindness to me, I was even more taken with their kindness to one another.

I began the day waiting for an Abbeyview bound bus in Dunfermline. I noticed an elderly man in the queue and I thought he would make a wonderful subject. He was with a woman, chatting away about how he's been and what he's been doing. When he went for his seat, I spoke to the woman first. I explained who I was and why I was taking pictures. I was under the impression that they were old friends. "Oh, no" she said, "you just talk to folk on the buses, or whenever you see them".

Further on the journey, I noticed more and more how passengers engaged in friendly chat. I'm from a small town in Florida and even there people don't speak to strangers out of the blue. Off the bus, I noticed more and more how strong the sense of community in Abbeyview is. I left wishing it was like that everywhere. Maybe the next time I'm on a bus in Glasgow, I'll engage a fellow passenger in conversation. Somehow, I don't think I'll be met with the same Abbeyview charm. M.P '

R.A.D.A.R Artworks Updates

Nicola also met with Sophia Pankenier. After looking at her proposal (see last week’s blog) Nicola felt that it may not be realistic to involve the young people directly with her art work since Sophia will be travelling to Sweden - New York - California - and around the world. The presence of Sophia in Abbeyview was important to the success of this particular proposal of engaging with the young people but Nicola was still excited by the artwork and wanted the invite to remain open for Sophia to create work. She is now creating 25 drawings of K&K Factors Shop in Abbeyview based on the 161 photos taken by Nicola & Sophia during her visit last week. Her experience of the shop and of Abbeyview will feed into each line drawn and build up to translate this experience. What Sophia chooses to represent on the page will hopefully give the people who regularly visit and a far, this wonderful shop an unseen viewpoint, that of observation over function. The drawings will form a 16-page booklet and be hung in a corner of a room in an apartment in New York. A photograph will be taken and displayed on the blog to connect the artwork with the local and world community. We hope this material will inspire the students of Wood Mill High School to taken a fresh look at their surroundings for the Big Draw in October.

Nicola invited Gerry Love to Dunfermline on Wednesday. The last time Gerry was in Dunfermline was for a football match so this time his focus was less about the game more about the place and people. Starting at the Abbey built in the 12th century was good place to kick off from, since we would be travelling from town out to where one can have the Abbey View from a far. The idea is to create a sound track for the D6 bus route journey from the centre of Dunfermline to Abbeyview, or ‘Happy View’ as the the new sign for the Chinese Take Away states. As part of the Tweed Street Tour. We will see what will happen… watch this space...

The week continued...

... with Dougie from Abbey Signs coming by, to discuss the installation of the artwork design by Nicola, for the outside the Eco house, to give it some artistic identity. The Nicola's Lark drawing will be make up part of the design. (See the blog 'What a Lark' for drawing) He spoke about the quietness of Abbeyview, how it has transformed in the last 20 years. It was a very different place back then and it seems that the buildings are playing catch-up in the regeneration stakes to the community living here.

....editing the text for the SEE EYE Booklet and drawing the images ready to go to print in August.

...and Nicola giving some thought to having a place in the centre of Abbeyview to display the Curiosity Cabinet and other artworks. She met with Stewart Christie ( picture here ) and Linsey Leitch to think this through and discuss the possibility of using one of the empty shops. This would provide a fantastic focus for art that is being created round about, like stepping into a wee haven from the daily grind and somewhere to challenge your mind to wander and ponder. Every mind needs a playground.

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly & Marisa Privitera

THE SELFISH GIANT

2007-07-08T14:06:00.001+01:00

Hanna's SEE EYE artwork NEST created for the Abbeyview creche

It is interesting that it does not matter how much money is involve or the terms that have been agreed in writing, it is all down to trust in the right people to make sure the artwork is realised. The relationship has to be dynamic and flexible and often requires calling in favours from friends and professionals who have proven their commitment to create rewarding collaborations. Nick Millar is a great example of this, he was able to build the Curiosity Cabinet at Scottish Opera workshops by calling on the kindness of the place & people for a space to construct the piece. The cabinet is now on the move closer to Abbeyview, leaving it's nest in the Scottish Opera due to the time bound nature of the goodwill. Nicola has invited it into her front room of the Nadfly pad, her thoughts being that it might be good idea to live with it during the final fitting before it moves to Abbeyview. The cabinet's new resting place is not unlike the many art spaces set up in Glasgow where the front room becomes a viewing space instead of visiting a gallery or museum. Seeing it in the context of a living space adds a fascinating quality to the Curiosity Cabinet, it has become a fantastic, energetic, three dimensional piece with all the components clinging together, much like your furniture has decided to hug itself and become one! The See Eye team visited it on Saturday to finalise thoughts on their represented projects.

On Tuesday Nicola attended the Abbeyview Festival meeting. She was there to discuss how the Curiosity Cabinet will be presented at the Festival. It is a great idea to unveil it at such a large event but it may actually be best to choose a more controlled environment since it might not last the sheer volume of interest and interaction. We are looking into to have it displayed in a more permanent place. The meeting started with a change of Chairperson and was a very active, passionate and heated discussion with about a dozen people seated around an oval table. The Festival, just as the meeting, will be a very lively affair geared for the children with the Gala and stands, a Bouncy Castle, a fairgrounds and even the Boy Scouts making burgers. It will be very important for the children of Abbeyview to feel that they are not merely included in the day but actually huge part of it. They are the future community after all.

Hanna's artwork NEST was dropped off to the Abbey view creche this week and here are some of the children who will enjoy her piece: Caellan Frame, Ryan McMale, Christopher Duncan & Lewis Carins.

RADAR and Tweed Street Tour Art Works

Last Sunday she met with musician Gerry Love from Teenage Fan club who is considering creating a music piece for the D6 Bus route. His visit next Wednesday will enable him to decide to commit to project. After talking this week to Gerry, Nicola thought it would be useful to film the D6 bus route from the window several times as a starting point to discover the interior soundtrack of the D6 bus route. It is very important for those invited to create work visit Abbeyview before the project can go ahead and also keep visiting, since each time will furnish the project with new perspectives. It is all about art and trust.

Sophia Pankenier visited on Thursday to develop her ideas further, she writes after her visit:

"I had a really good day in Abbeyview, I had a nice long walk around and was working on the following idea: I want to involve the kids, and maybe they could draw at school or as part of the Big Draw (do you think that could happen even if I'm not there?) I could provide prints from inside the K & K Factors Hardware shop, maybe... For ideas and a stockpile of packages. From the drawings I want to make a larger piece (I quite like the idea of a map of Abbeyview), or any number of other possibilities. I want to incorporate the childrens drawings to make up the colours and depth of the drawing, a bit of collage but not filled with it. This could then be displayed somewhere? But I like the idea of the kids finding bits of their work here and there and having to explore the piece and recognizing things in their neighborhood. (like the mobile towers, sneakers over a telephone pole, washing lines, odd chimneys & walls). It is recycling except without the initial consumer element and the waste. I can see the possibilities quite well, and the book too..."

Nicola will be meeting with her on Monday to discuss this in more detail.

The SEE EYE Booklet Update

There are about 30 or more drawings to be hand drawn for the 48 page booklet and we are halfway there. Chris Hladowski is busy writing the essay as we blog.

And Lastly...

"This week I have been reading the Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde and also thinking about how to approach the idea of public art in Abbeyview. The story is about creating a magical place in the mind and in reality. I see the story as about sharing and valuing a place, also the seasons are elements of change in the cycle of the place. Can I create a such a place in Abbeyview? A place where people come to experience new things in terms of public art and perhaps more?" Nicola (the Fly)

"With Abbeyview as the backdrop to our discussion about the Selfish Giant story, it reminded me of a sign that is seen in housing schemes all over. Even as a child the 'No Ball Games' sign always struck me as a bizzare expectation of a green open space surrounded by houses full of children. What exactly were these sacred bits of turf designed for? To give the illusion of space without the reality of use it seems. How sad that the nature of children and the importance of play were shoe-horned into a concrete swing park of ridiculously small proportions and seemingly given such a low priority in the creation of a community. To design these spaces as items to be viewed and not touched is, however, like giving a thirsty man a glass of water to hold - wholly unrealistic. Just as in the story, the children use the spaces anyway, despite being moved on now and again. The games find their way back to make bald patches in the goals and the signs create memo boards for all that use it, and it brings the space to life." Carol (the Lamb)

Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant's garden.

It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. 'How happy we are here!' they cried to each other.

One day the Giant came back. He had been to visit his friend the Cornish ogre, and had stayed with him for seven years. After the seven years were over he had said all that he had to say, for his conversation was limited, and he determined to return to his own castle. When he arrived he saw the children playing in the garden.

'What are you doing here?' he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away.
'My own garden is my own garden,' said the Giant; 'any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself.' So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice-board.

TRESPASSERS
WILL BE
PROSECUTED

He was a very selfish Giant.

( 2) 
The poor children had now nowhere to play. They tried to play on the road, but the road was very dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it. They used to wander round the high wall when their lessons were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside.

'How happy we were there,' they said to each other.

Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still Winter. The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice-board it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep. The only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. 'Spring has forgotten this garden,' they cried, 'so we will live here all the year round.' The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down. 'This is a delightful spot,' he said, 'we must ask the Hail on a visit.' So the Hail came. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in grey, and his breath was like ice.

'I cannot understand why the Spring is so late in coming,' said the Selfish Giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden; 'I hope there will be a change in the weather.'

But the Spring never came, nor the Summer. The Autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the Giant's garden she gave none. 'He is too selfish,' she said. So it was always Winter there, and the North Wind, and the Hail, and the Frost, and the Snow danced about through the trees.

(3)
One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. It sounded so sweet to his ears that he thought it must be the King's musicians passing by. It was really only a little linnet singing outside his window, but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most beautiful music in the world. Then the Hail stopped dancing over his head, and the North Wind ceased roaring, and a delicious perfume came to him through the open casement. 'I believe the Spring has come at last,' said the Giant; and he jumped out of bed and looked out.
What did he see?
He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees. In every tree that he could see there was a little child. And the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms, and were waving their arms gently above the children's heads. The birds were flying about and twittering with delight, and the flowers were looking up through the green grass and laughing. It was a lovely scene, only in one corner it was still Winter. It was the farthest corner of the garden, and in it was standing a little boy. He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, and he was wandering all round it, crying bitterly. The poor tree was still quite covered with frost and snow, and the North Wind was blowing and roaring above it. 'Climb up! little boy,' said the Tree, and it bent its branches down as low as it could; but the little boy was too tiny.

And the Giant's heart melted as he looked out. 'How selfish I have been!' he said; 'now I know why the Spring would not come here. I will put that poor little boy on the top of the tree, and then I will knock down the wall, and my garden shall be the children's playground for ever and ever.' He was really very sorry for what he had done.

(4)
So he crept downstairs and opened the front door quite softly, and went out into the garden. But when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became Winter again. Only the little boy did not run, for his eyes were so full of tears that he died not see the Giant coming. And the Giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. And the tree broke at once into blossom, and the birds came and sang on it, and the little boy stretched out his two arms and flung them round the Giant's neck, and kissed him. And the other children, when they saw that the Giant was not wicked any longer, came running back, and with them came the Spring. 'It is your garden now, little children,' said the Giant, and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall. And when the people were gong to market at twelve o'clock they found the Giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden they had ever seen.

All day long they played, and in the evening they came to the Giant to bid him good-bye.

'But where is your little companion?' he said: 'the boy I put into the tree.' The Giant loved him the best because he had kissed him.

'We don't know,' answered the children; 'he has gone away.'
'You must tell him to be sure and come here to-morrow,' said the Giant. But the children said that they did not know where he lived, and had never seen him before; and the Giant felt very sad.

Every afternoon, when school was over, the children came and played with the Giant. But the little boy whom the Giant loved was never seen again. The Giant was very kind to all the children, yet he longed for his first little friend, and often spoke of him. 'How I would like to see him!' he used to say.

Years went over, and the Giant grew very old and feeble. He could not play about any more, so he sat in a huge armchair, and watched the children at their games, and admired his garden. 'I have many beautiful flowers,' he said; 'but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all.'

(5)
One winter morning he looked out of his window as he was dressing. He did not hate the Winter now, for he knew that it was merely the Spring asleep, and that the flowers were resting.
Suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder, and looked and looked. It certainly was a marvellous sight. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree quite covered with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved.

Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into the garden. He hastened across the grass, and came near to the child. And when he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said, 'Who hath dared to wound thee?' For on the palms of the child's hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet.

'Who hath dared to wound thee?' cried the Giant; 'tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him.'

'Nay!' answered the child; 'but these are the wounds of Love.'

'Who art thou?' said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.

And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, 'You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.'

And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

IT IS SUMMER, OR IS IT ?

2007-07-01T12:29:00.000+01:00

It is summer, or is it? With all the rain and traffic Hanna Tuulikki and Nicola headed from Glasgow to Dunfermline by car. "It seemed like someone had decided to make it almost impossible for us to get there in time to meet the people at the Beanstalk. Turning on the radio helped pass the time, we found a great station which made the dark clouds seem to drift in time to the music. At a stationary point on the M8 motorway we became aware of the wildlife living beside us. No time is wasted, all of the moments are useful and pleasantly prevented us going mad whilst stuck in traffic. We did make our meeting on time, arranging for Hanna to drop off of her dreamcatcher on 4th July and to get the ok for her to photograph the children."

Hanna and Nicola also took pictures of Abbeyview for the drawings for the SEE EYE Booklet and dropped off the SEE EYE booklist to Abbeyview Library for their information. We are hoping that they with have the SEE EYE Books for the public to check out.

RADAR UPDATE

As part of the RADAR project Nicola proposed that Sophie Pankenier would draw the Hardware Shop. It is an amazing place that should be put on the map as part of the tourist tour of museums and places of interest. The store owner is delighted to become an artwork. Nicola snapped 161 photographs to be used as a source material and met with Sophie to discuss the Hardware shop further. She might engage the drawing exchange idea with The Big Draw in October.

Luke Fowler has given a start date of 1st Sept for his RADAR project.

Abbeyview Park Festival

The Abbeyview festival is coming up on the 19th August. Linsey (the leech) attended the 3rd Abbeyview Park Festival meeting where the launch of the cabinet of curiosities was discussed. It has been suggested that a member of the community in Abbeyview who has achieved Scottish Championship status in bowling would receive the cabinet on behalf of the community. Linsey has invited Nicola to the next meeting which will be held on Tuesday 7th July at 7pm in Abbeyview Local Service Centre and then every week until the Festival.

Tweed Street Tour

Linsey has finished gathering information on Tweed Street and almost completed Wedderburn Crescent in Dunfermline. This information will help Marisa Privitera to to continue with the second phase of the project and she is here on Thursday.

"So here I am, everything is set up for the engagement with Abbeyview. As an artist you need time to think and to drift and be somewhat interior. The quietness of summer suit this development stage perfectly." Nicola ( the Fly )

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly & Hanna Tuulikki

WHAT MAKES GOOD PUBLIC ART?

2007-06-23T12:58:00.000+01:00

Paul Watts Photograher

Nicola met with David Harding & Clare Simpson, Senior Arts Development Officer Culture and Sport, Glasgow, to talk about public art in Glasgow and commissioning public art.

We invited Clare to write her thoughts:

Nicola got in touch with me a few weeks ago about the idea of bringing a group of people from Abbey View through to Glasgow to see examples of public art and hear about the different processes involved in their commissioning. The questions that Nicola was asking and the research she was planning was also appealing and very relevant to me, as part of what I'm doing at the moment is drafting a public art strategy for an area of Glasgow.

Nicola and I met with David Harding on Tuesday. David has had a huge impact on the visual arts in Glasgow, and in fact way beyond Glasgow, both through his own art works and through his establishment of the Environmental Art course at Glasgow School of Art. This course was established at a time when theory and practice around public art was very different than it is today. Under David's direction the environmental art course produced some of Glasgow's best known artists - in short, David's breadth of knowledge and experience put him at the top of the list when it comes to people in Glasgow you'd want to talk to about public art, and discuss such questions as:

What makes good public art?

Good public art is the kind that is relevant to the context in which it is made. Permanent public art should endure, and when it's successful it can become invisible in a good way - an accepted, perhaps even cherished, part of the landscape.

How do you provide a piece of art for the public? Who is that public?
 
There are many different routes to follow when commissioning art, and different ways of involving the public.  Different sites will have different 'publics' or 'communities'. Getting to the public can be a problem in the commissioning process, as there are many gatekeepers who claim to speak on behalf of others, but very often misrepresent them. In many successful cases, the public is what 'makes' the work - not in a physical sense, in terms of fabrication, but in their interaction with the artist and their response to it. The work is only complete when its effect is experienced. (We spoke about Graham Fagen's Royston Road trees as an example.)

David Harding " Participation, I was trying to say, makes the art in soc eng practice not public art in general"

Who makes the choice?  

Within a framework of consultation and an agreed brief, an artist should be able to be the expert, and take risks. Public Art shouldn't be about giving people the ‘known’; it should be about giving people what they didn't know they wanted in the first place. It should bring surprise, change the way people see or think or experience a space. It is important that a too bureaucratic decision making process doesn't stand in the way of decisions being made. Can too much consultation stifle the creative process? (Camels were designed by committee).

If you were going to Glasgow what public work would you take people to see?

This was what prompted Nicola to contact me in the first place. Well, here are some of David's suggestions:  

Kenny Hunter's Millennium Baby and skull on the Tron Theatre  
Claire Barclay's hut in Govanhill  
Douglas Gordon's 'Empire' in Tontine Lane  
Sandy Stoddart's series of classical figures at the Italian Centre  
Shona Kinloch's works also at the Italian Centre  

Linsey Leitch in the Eco House

On Wednesday a professional photographer Paul Watts visited Abbey View Eco House to photo Nicola's 702 Dwellings artwork, it was created for the SEE EYE Event in March 2007. 702 Dwellings was constructed and personalised by 500 students at Woodmill High School. It has been re install in the Eco House. It can be view by contacting Nicola.

Nicola invited a few students from Woodmill High School to be photograph. Nicole Tate, Mark Queen, Kieran Startup, Stuart Barr, Craig Mercer, Lisa McGurk & Sarah Pickard - along with Jackie Powton the Art Teacher of Woodhill High School.

These images will be use for the Annual Report for the ROA (Regeneration Outcome Agreement) The Artist in Abbey View is partly funded by the ROA.

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

TAKE THE D6

2007-06-16T22:01:00.000+01:00

Tweed Street Tour

Marisa Privitera started her tour of Tweed Street on Monday and is already producing some beautiful work for the project. Over the next two weeks she will continue to absorb and capture the D6 bus route and writes: “I am particularly interested in capturing moments of daily life where people are gazing out and watching the life outside, whether it be from their front step or from inside the bus. I am drawn to the idea that when on a bus, the world outside is like a film reel zooming past. Our eyes fix on something that captures our attention, or peaks our interest only for seconds as we travel on. Similarly, people stand in their homes looking out windows, or sit on the front steps taking in the passing traffic.”

Marisa began her career in photography at 16 when she was hired as a photojournalist for a daily news paper in Florida. She went on to earn a bachelor of fine arts with honours in photography and art history from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Massachusetts. While in Boston, she completed a large body of work documenting Italian American immigrants that was exhibited and published in galleries and photojournals across the States. After developing an increasing interest in storytelling, she moved to Scotland to earn a masters degree in film and television from Edinburgh College of Art. Marisa is currently living in Glasgow where she works in the film and television industries and continues her career in freelance photography.

Curious About the Cabinet

Nick Millar is working his magic on the creation of the Curiosity Cabinet and everyone from the SEE EYE March Event has dropped in to give an input on the recreation of their work in miniature. In a small corner of an enormous workshop in the Scottish Opera Technical Building in Glasgow, Nick is pulling together all the projects shown in the Allan Crescent flats into one portable experience. Carol stopped by on Friday and found an amazing piece of furniture in its raw state. All the components were disassembled and dormant, just waiting on Nick to fuse them together. These components are pieces of furniture found in charity shops in Dunfermline: a sideboard, a bureau, a display unit and a standard lamp crashing together at all angles. He is building a dynamic, energetic piece that will grab your attention and pull you towards it to discover its secrets. There will be buttons to press, cupboards to open, drawers to pull and lights to illuminate, all tempting you to interact and enjoy. From its unveiling at the Abbeyview Festival in August through to its tours of the libraries and public places, we predict it will provoke and maintain a dialogue amongst the communities who will graced by its company.

Luke Fowler visited Abbeyview for the first time on Monday 11th June. Here are his initial thoughts and his work history.

'Visiting the Abbeyview area of Dunfermline was intriguing. I've only ever passed through Fife, so it was good to get the opportunity to visit a town I knew little about. Abbeyview seemed impossibly quiet when I arrived and whilst we walked around. Nicola is employed as part of the regeneration scheme, set up because the estate has comparatively high unemployment levels and a low health rate. We spent the afternoon discussing what role invited artists could play in this scheme. Artists that make work in Abbeyview will provide a platform for contemporary art, in a place where one had not already existed. My proposal is still developing, though I'd like to consider something that looks at the particularities of the environment of Abbeyview and its current regeneration process.' Luke Fowler

Luke Fowler is a visual artist who makes experimental films which interogate the documentary as an artform. As a musician he collaborates in the bands Lied Music and Rude Pravo, he also runs the record label "Shadazz".

Photographs © Marisa Privitera

WHAT A LARK!!!

2007-06-10T21:27:00.000+01:00

It was an exciting week with ideas flying around Abbeyview. A new group of artists has been formed and are thinking about Abbeyview as part as the RADAR project. They are Luke Fowler & Sophie Pankenier. These new projects will be completed before Feb 2008.

Nicola had her first Artist Steering Group Meeting on 5th June 2007. Attending were Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, Linsey Leitch, Babs McCool, Jackie Powten & Ross Riddock. With apologies from Mike Payne, Stewart Christie & Joan Geddes.

Nicola dropped by the creche in Abbeyview and found lovely people who are providing a caring environment for children. She let them know that Hanna Tuuliki's ‘Nest ‘ dream catcher is being donated to the creche and will be with them by the end of June. It is being made out of metal for durability since the original was hand-cut out of black paper.

The booklet about the SEE EYE event with be jointly designed by Nicola & Chris Hladowski. Chris wrote the text for the SEE EYE event and will be continuing to work with Nicola on the booklet. It will be an A5, 48 page, black and white number. Lots of ideas are taking flight… Stevie Jackson's two songs with be written out in full, the 9 bookmarks from the booklist that the artists have created will be included and Hanna Tuuilkki, Carol Lambie & Nicola Atkinson Does Fly will create ink line drawings to represent the SEE EYE projects. Also included will be 500 of a limited edition of Stevie Jackson's two songs - 'The Electric Box' & 'Bird Eyes View' - on a 7inch single. Watch this blog for the how and when you can get your hands on it.

Nick Millar, the creator of the Curiosity Cabinet, has been meeting with the rest of the SEE EYE team to decided the miniature version of the individual pieces shown in SEE EYE March. This piece will fuse the furniture of the 1950’s and 80’s together, as if items have been thrown out of a window and some force has fixed them together. It will house the SEE EYE artist's chosen books and the collection will tour with the cabinet but we are also hoping that we can order the entire booklist, listed below, for all the Fife local libraries. This will give a wide range of people access to an interesting and quirky range of reading material they may never have come across before. The first chance to see the Curiosity Cabinet in all its splendour will be the 19th August 2007 at the Abbeyview Festival.

SEE EYE Artists' Booklist

Nick Millar
"The Leopard" by Guiseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, Everyman's Library, 1991
"Neuromancer" by William Gibson, LLondon, Voyager, 1995

Karen Vaughan
"A Scots Quair" by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Canongate, 1995
"The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine" by Rozsika Parker, The Women’s Press

Stevie Jackson
"New York Changing: Revisiting Bernice Abbott's New York" by Douglas Levere, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2005
"The Complete Beatles Chronicle" by Mark Lewisohn, Chancellor Press, 1996

Hanna Tuulikki
"The Book of Music and Nature" by David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus (eds.), Terra Nova Books, 2001
"The Soundscape" by R. Murray Schafer, Destiny Books, 1977

Chris Hladowski
"Oblique Strategies: Over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas", by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, 1975
"A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction", by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein, New York, Oxford University Press, 1977

Nicola Atkinson
"Structural Package Designs", The Pepin Press, Agile Rabbit Editions
"Edward Lear's Complete Nonsense", Edward Lear, The Folio Society, London, 1996

Carol Lambie
"Postsecret" by Frank Warren, Orion Books, 2006
"Ways of Seeing", by John Berger, Penguin, 1972

Mike Wilson
"Grafitti and the Writing Arts of Early Modern England" by Juliet Fleming, Reaktion Books, 2001
"The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution" by Dario Gamboni, Reaktion Books, 1997

Ben Spencer
"Smart Architecture" by Ed Van Hinte, Marc Neelen, Jacques Vink, Piet Vollaard, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2003
"Fragments of Utopia: Collage reflections of heroic modernism", by David Wild, Hyphen Press, London, 1998

Tweed Street Tour
Nicola met with Marisa Privitera to give her a tour and introduce her to Abbeyview, looking at how to engage with the community and get them on board for the project. After her visit Marisa wrote "I plan to start my photography project on Abbey View on Monday June 11. Initially, I will be getting to know the area by walking around taking pictures and observing the details of the D6 route. After initial contact with residents, I hope some residents will receive the project with enthusiasm and perhaps even take part by either placing special objects in their windows, or by allowing me to photograph residents sitting in their windows or outside their homes. The project will evolve and take a more definitive shape as I become better acquainted with the neighborhood. I look forward to spending more time in Abbey View over the next few weeks." This project will be viewed on plasma screens in Local Service Centres over the next few months.

Casablanca (White House)
This is the second part of the 702 Dwellings created by Nicola for the SEE EYE March and will involve white cardboard folded houses. Jackie Powton, Art Teacher of White Mill High School, is interested in involving the English Department in creating a text piece and possibly linking this in with her current Sierra Leone project.

Next Week: The artists Luke Fowler & Marisa Privitera give their thoughts and ideas about Abbeyview. Nicola will be looking at Public Art in Glasgow, as research into bringing the Steering Group & Clock people to Glasgow for a day.

Lark drawing © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

THE FLY AND THE LAMB

2007-06-06T20:33:00.000+01:00

This is the first installment of the Fly & the Lamb blog. It will be updated weekly and cover the previous week events and thoughts in Abbeyview, presenting an artistic perspective of the goings-on. The Fly & the Lamb are Nicola Atkinson Davidson, Artist in Abbeyview, and Carol Lambie, artist and contributor to the SEE EYE Art Event in Abbeyview. We hope it will encourage dialogue with people about Public Art.

Nicola became the Artist in Abbeyview in January 2007 with the aim of bringing concept of Public Art to the residents of Abbeyview in a relevant and exciting way.

There is a steering group in place to work with Nicola on this aim, namely Babs McCool, Joan Geddes, Jackie Powton, Stewart Christie, Ross Roddock & Mike Payne, with Linsey Leitch attending to take minutes. The steering group meets every two months to discuss the progress of the art projects both in development and completed. It is an interesting group gathered from the Planning Department, High School, Regeneration Forum and Fife Council. It is healthy mix of opinions and view points, each person having different versions of not only what an artist and public art is but what the outcome should achieve.

Kicking off with the SEE EYE Art Event in March in Allan Crescent, Nicola has created a structure of involving other artists to push the concept of taking artistic risks and to bring a freshness to projects whether temporary or permanent. It is human nature to want to please one’s audience but moreover it is the job of the artist to challenge, to not only explore the identity of a community but create objects and happenings for the people to explore. There is the question of who is the community? It is easy to refer to it as a solid entity, as “they”, and presume to know their collective opinion. This can either place more or less interesting boundaries on any creative processes involving the residents and therefor to acknowledge individual thinking will always give respect to those concerned.

Nicola’s approach over the following year is take a risk with the art she creates, in terms of the public’s expectation of Public Art. In turn she would, of course, like the community to take risks with her, in their participation and ownership of the projects. This will create dialogue within the Abbeyview area about Public Art. This blog will follow the progress of the ideas Nicola outlines below, while sharing the thoughts and musings of the Fly and the Lamb and all those who care to join us.

Clock People (Public Art Panel)
This has been named the Clock People. It comes from the idea that a public art piece should be useful, beautiful and be the central point for the people of the area, just like a telling the time. Perhaps this is stating the obvious but I am drawn to make it challenging, for myself and the 12 people from Whitelaw Road, Macbeth Road, Almond Road & Tweed Street who will be invited to take part. They will be put into groups of four groups of three and be involved in a programme of talks and visits to inspire and inform them on art.

Tweed Street Tour
The Tweed Street Tour will focus on D6 bus route into Abbey view from Dumfermline. As starting point we will ask the people who live on Tweed Street, this is one of the street lines the route, to photograph the windows arrangements of the houses. For this initial stage I have invited the artist Marisa Privitera to engage with the residents of Tweed Street and to create a piece of work. We will see what happens over the next year.

A Public Sculpture in Abbeyview
We will start of the research, costing, best site and development of ideas to create a permanent piece of public art work in Abbeyview

R.A.D.A.R. Random And Dynamic Art Risks
The unforeseen happenings and inspiration in Abbeyview created by Nicola Atkinson Does Fly and three other artists. The only certain outcome will be a one colour 16 page booklet.

Details to follow on The Grass is Greener and Curiosity Cabinet.

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

SEE EYE FUTURE PLANS

2007-05-14T18:06:00.000+01:00

SEE EVENT was very successful with the team working well together and with other services. Abbeyview has a good reputation for pulling together and being so flexible. Public Attendance – 270 people in total attended the See Eye event. The opinion meter results were varied but positive.

International Women’s Day & Sew the Sofa – The sofa is now at the Regeneration Office, Karen Vaughan's cover is ready.

Hanna Tulukki - Nest artwork is being donated to the crèche.

Carol Lambie - Dunfermline Reference Library has expressed interest in the documentation of the Ghost Lines drawing on Abbey view Library window.

Ben Spencer - The three yew trees, which were in ‘potent’ artwork, have been re-instated at Pittencrief Park. Karen Vaughan: Will lend one of the embroidery pieces for display at the Eco House and other places tbd within Abbey view.

Nicola Atkinson Davidson 702 Dwellings/Casablanca: The piece has been given a permanent home in the Eco House Meeting room. There will now be 400 white cardboard paper homes created as a spin-off piece entitled 'Casablanca'. Jackie Powton wants to involve English classes at the High Schools in writing text for 'Casablanca' and we can open the involvement up to the wider community. The SEE EYE events have highlighted the communities keenness to engage and be involved in art and this could be the perfect opportunity to further this.

SEE EYE Booklet and Bookmark –This will be in the form of a pizza box containing Stevie Jackson's 45 record, the 'booklet' which will in fact be set out like a carpet sample with the text written by Chris Hladowski and images create and a Bookmark design by the SEEEYE team.

Curiosity Cabinet – Nick Millar : The launch will be in Abbeyview in August 2007 for the cabinet/booklets and bookmarks.

SEE EYE TWO

June 2007 – March 2008

It is important to remain flexible in the engagement with the people of Abbeyview, since the most interesting and dynamic element in art is taking risks and using unforeseen events that will feed into any new public artworks.

R.A.D.A.R. Random And Dynamic Art Risks
The unforeseen happenings and inspiration in Abbeyview create by Nicola Atkinson Davidson and invited artists.
Timeframe: June 07 – March 08
Outcome: Dialogue and Action in the form of Art in Abbeyview.

Tweed Street Tour - Phase 1
This project will focus on the main bus route into Abbeyview and as starting point, using the windows of the houses lining the route in creating a piece of work. The artist Marisa Privitera has been invited to engage with the residents of Tweed Street and then to document the window arrangements.
Timeframe: June 2007
Outcome: To create dialogue with the community about Public Art

Public Art Panel
Create a public art panel consisting of 12 people from Abbeyview who have not been involved in a public art panel before. This will involve visits to public art works in Scotland, meeting with artists and developing a greater understanding of art in public places.
Timeframe: August 07– March 08
Outcome: To connect with the wider community about public art and to ensure that it is participating in the process.

The Tweed Street Tour - Phase 2.
Continuing the project started in June, the bus company will be involved in the second phase.
Timeframe: Tour date Oct 2007
Outcome: Promoting the Abbeyview community and highlighting its regeneration to wider the area by using its connection to Dunfermline town centre via the D6 Bus.

Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly

SEE EYE INTRODUCTION

2007-03-25T14:54:00.000+01:00

SEE EYE (Collaborative interventions) has brought together a group of creative people, working with the Abbeyview community to provide an artistic accompaniment to the regeneration scheme. This was made possible through interaction with a number of individuals and organisations in Abbeyview, alongside funding from Fife Council and Communities Scotland. The opportunity to present works in alternative spaces, such as a vacant block of flats, as well as efforts to enhance living and working environments such as the library, the regeneration office, and the eco house, has led to the creation of a number of works, some transient in nature, others more permanent.

The SEE EYE team was put together by Nicola Atkinson as a means of working in collaboration with other artists, alongside the people of Abbeyview , on a series of artistic ‘interventions’. The team is made up of the artists Hanna Tuulikki, Carol Lambie and Karen Vaughan, musician Stevie Jackson, cultural broker Ben Spencer, carpenter Nick Millar and writers Michael Wilson and Chris Hladowski. The team is showing a series of works at an event in the Allan Crescent flats (112-126) on March 23rd and 24th 2007, as well as one piece, by Carol Lambie, in Abbeyview library.

There was a premise of collaboration which dictated everyone’s individual approach from the outset. Nicola provides the hub or point of contact for this, with each individual artist acting as a satellite, bringing new ideas to the project and collaborating with each other. There were many unknowns, such as which groups we would engage with, and a concern that we wouldn’t be able to engage with the community as fully as we would like within a short time. From the outset there has been a strong desire to create an interesting and exciting series of works, for the people of Abbeyview to enjoy. Each individual has their own unique approach and skills, whether it be conceptualising, constructing work, making films and installations, playing music, or organising events, and it is both challenging and rewarding to channel this into collaborative works.

Nicola has talked of the idea of the ‘phantom community’, the idea that someone else speaking on behalf of the people can only offer an abstract idea of what their thoughts are. The reality is always much more complex, and hopefully by taking this into account SEE EYE can provide a varied program of works which are responsive to the entire area of Abbeyview, its people and environs.

With regards to the current exhibition the SEE EYE team decided that, at the moment, a temporary piece is the most powerful representation of Abbeyview given the fact that it is in a process of transition. A lot of the work interprets destruction in an artistic way, and alludes to re-growth and an awareness of what has passed. Metaphors and symbols abound - the uprooting of trees, family ties, the flight of birds, the black crows on the estate – alongside music, celebration and the use of light. Even though many of the works are temporary they will mutate into other forms – Ben Spencer’s yew trees will find their way to Pittencrief Park, Hanna Tuulikki’s lanterns will entertain the children of Abbeyview crèche, hopefully for years to come, and who knows where Stevie Jackson’s anthem for Abbeyview will get played,. Furthermore the Cabinet of Curiosities, being constructed by Nick Millar, as an artistic resource, housing individual art works alongside books chosen by the artists.

This SEE EYE event has started new ideas and contribute to what will be created over Nicola’s residency until March 08.

The SEE EYE team.