SSW is 40! Photo: Felicity CrawshawTime in Lumsden is intangible, fickle and slippy – but we have all made another cycle around the sun! Working on the rural peripheries, with a proximity to material, weather, the more-than-human and each other, time is felt and marked here in the temperature of the workshops, the hours of sunlight, funding cycles, and regular Cake Monday (thanks to the wonderful Max). Today is one of the shortest and darkest days, which tells us it’s nearly the close of SSW’s […]
SSW is 40! (2019). Photo: Felicity CrawshawTo celebrate the close of our 40th year at Scottish Sculpture Workshop, we have commissioned three texts that explore our current practices and speculate on the transformations that can take place here. Taru Elvfing, Ilana Halperin and Jack Tan have all come to know SSW in many different ways across varied time periods. Their words share both their personal experiences of SSW, and the opportunities they see in our future. We hope these texts help more people to come to […]
Ashanti Harris, Forsakin' Gold for Corn (2019). The Skeleton of a Name, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow. Photo: Matthew Arthur WilliamsOver the past few weeks, we have been working with artist Ashanti Harris through the RSA Residencies for Scotland. Below she shares some words on her project and what she has been working on at SSW. “I am a visual artist working with sculpture, installation and performance to explore themes of identity and diaspora through historical research. I create educational artworks and performative installations which function as a form of post-colonial critique, challenging dominant representations of history and re-imagining the […]
Photo: Petra Söör, Into The Mountain research (2018)In October 2019, we welcomed artist Edythe Woolley to run a workshop, SWEAT: the sky leaks I leak, as part of LADA’s DIY programme. SWEAT aimed to cultivate an embodied practice of dyke/ queer resistance through a series of sauna sittings, walks, impulse writings and observation. Together, participants considered sweating and the intermingling of liquids as eruptions of resistance to and healings from, pervasive heteronormative culture. Here we share a collaborative text by the workshop’s participants. Written in and around […]
Trainee Technician Michael Hautemulle burning out a mould. Photo: Finn ArschavirA short reflection, written by Finn Arschavir, Infrastructures Intern at Scottish Sculpture Workshop: I started four weeks ago as the first Infrastructures Intern the night before the crucible of molten iron was poured marking 40 years of making at Scottish Sculpture Workshop. The countdown to my final three weeks conclude during the winter solstice – here I am at the midpoint reflecting and looking forwards. My role at SSW is to look at the infrastructures that support and sustain the […]
George Ridgway, Out-tract (2019)The Winter Residency programme at Scottish Sculpture Workshop invites artists to come together and continue developing their practices, informed by our wider research and programme. This winter, we continue explorations into the role of making and understanding materials in a time of climate breakdown. Together we will dwell2 in the tangles and tensions between materiality and extraction, industrial processes and ecological (un)learning. The messy overlaps between the making skills we foster at SSW through our workshops, and the skills needed […]
Coral Brookes with Lumsden Primary School, A Wobbly Map (2019)From Summer to Autumn 2019, artist Coral Brookes, collaborated with the young people at Lumsden Primary School to build a map for the 40th anniversary of Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Aberdeenshire. Coral shares more about the project below. Starting with the idea of creating a time capsule, the project unfolded through a series of sessions where as a group we ‘revisited’ the village through anecdotes, memories, interpretations and imagination, mapped as alternative (public) monuments of the locality. We began in the […]
Dorian Braun, Deep Listening Workshop, Lumsden Weekender (2018). Photo: Erika StevensonTo coincide with our 40th anniversary celebrations this year, we are excited to announce ambitions for a major capital development project to upgrade our workshop spaces and site in collaboration with Collective Architecture. In line with SSW’s ethos and values, the development will see a ‘ground-up’ approach at its heart, utilising local materials, skills, and knowledges. It will foreground function and environmental sustainability throughout the design and construction. SSW Director Sam Trotman says, “SSW started with the desire, vision and […]
Photo: Naomi Pearce, Nine Parts Navvy (2017). Photo: SSWForming part of our 40th anniversary celebrations, we invite our neighbours in Lumsden, Kildrummy and Towie to come along and try something new in our Community Making Sessions. Join us for free workshops in blacksmithing, aluminium casting and jesmonite casting for all ages and abilities, led by highly skilled artists and technicians. Celebrating 40 years of SSW, these Community Making Sessions are a chance to share in the skills and processes available at SSW Lumsden. Each workshop will enable you […]
SSW is 40! is taking place on Saturday 2 & Sunday 3 November 2019 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of Scottish Sculpture Workshop, and with it 40 years of making here on our site in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire. We gladly invite you to join us in celebrating this milestone with a special weekend of processes, performances and partying. Looking back, we will share multiple forms of making central to SSW; a performative iron pour, a breakfast pot-luck and collaborative works in […]
Scottish Charity Number: SC003223