The Weekend that was... (Fri 27 - Sun 29 Apr 2012)
30/04/2012 | 15:24
Since we started blogging, we’ve been seeking to find our voice. It feels a little like tuning the strings of a guitar, stretching or loosening the strong just trying to hit the right pitch. “The Weekend that was…” in Edinburgh Clicket blog was so devised as an avenue to express the desire to head out and discover arts and cultural experiences in Edinburgh over the weekend.
Like-minded creative explorers were also invited to guest blog for us, who themselves having experienced the serendipity of discovery at events like enLIGHTen in February and Edinburgh International Science Festival in April were more than eager to share those experiences with us.
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading the blogs so far and that it has hit the right pitch and resonated with you. If it has (or hasn’t), we’d really love to hear from you. Just comment below.
This Weekend, we were Seeing Art Everywhere.
That weekend in Edinburgh…
On Friday, Artistic joy was discovered from what was achieved at the Traverse Theatre's New Writing Festival
On Saturday, Art was everywhere on Dundas Street. We even found art in a cupcake!
On Sunday, Art's simple pleasures was found with the beautiful and abstract back-to-basics pinhole photography at Stills Gallery who organised a special free drop-in workshop of the craft in conjunction with World Pinhole Photography Day.
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Art in New Writing
Traverse Theatre just successfully organised Write Here, a festival celebrating its work with new writing.
Write Here Festival involved everyone in the performance process.
This meant 100 people participating in the closing event Demos, forty eight professional actors play over fifty parts over the festival, twenty three directors bringing scripts to life, eighteen writers showcasing and sharing insights about their work,
Curated by Orla O'Loughlin
eight drama teachers getting involved and two stage managers making the whole thing happen.
It also meant an opportunity to go behind the scenes. Way behind the scenes to understanding the writers' process - from script to stage.
Demos author Tim Price at Rehearsal.
Moving forward what this festival brings for us audiences are exciting new writing for our provocation, inspiration and entertainment.
A shot from Demos rehearsal
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What's next at Traverse Theatre
Fancy some lunch-time theatre? A Play, a Pie & a Pint at Traverse Theatre could be your answer to a stimulating lunch for both belly and brain.
Dear Glasgow | 1 - 5 May
Click here to book your tickets. Your ticket includes a pie and a drink.
Some of the shows from A Play, a Pie & a Pint are listed here.
One Day in Spring | 29 May - 2 Jun
Click here to book your tickets. Your ticket includes a pie and a drink.
The good news is, you needn't wait till the weekend for these shows!
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Art. Everywhere
Ok that’s a bit of an exaggeration. We didn’t have the time to go literally everywhere. Art everywhere, just along Dundas Street.
As we all know, Edinburgh is a great city for walks allowing us to enjoy the valuable gems of history, heritage and culture at a leisurely pace. The same can be said of the arts.
Bear with us for a moment here while we explain why.
The Scottish Gallery, one of the many galleries to which Dundas Street is home to, featured an exhibition titled Porcelain. One of the exhibits titled Pause gave us the idea to appreciate art where it is found in its simplicity and beauty.
The design, the craftsmanship, the intelligent visual expression seemed to make every inanimate object spring to life and captivated us on our short walk down the street.
With this perspective and lens for the mind’s eye, we found that we were drawn to objects, signs, posters and even cupcakes at the quaint Cuckoo’s Bakery.
We’ve photographed our walk down Dundas Street and have included them in this video. But it’s just our own personal appreciation of art (you'll see a very strong bias towards those beautifully designed edible works of art - cupcakes!) , seen through our mind’s eyes. Perhaps you could embark on your own walk of introspection and appreciation as well.
There’s also a great resource titled the edùn Edinburgh Art Map which is a comprehensive map of Edinburgh’s contemporary art scene. Produced by Collective, this map includes some of Edinburgh’s key galleries including City Art Centre, Stills, Edinburgh Printmakers and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
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Back-to-Basics Art
The Pinhole Photography Workshop started off fairly quietly with volunteers at Stills sharing the knowledge of creating pinhole cameras with simple matchstick boxes to participants. Not long after, everyone starting warming up to the basics of light exposure and became more experimental creating more photos with accumulated insight.
It was great seeing how the simple pleasure of seeing a photo develop in front of your eyes without the need for a cumbersome camera lens and how that pure delight lit the faces of everyone who came out of the darkroom. From the young to the not so young, the same smile of satisfaction on everyone’s faces.
Timing it just right. Just enough light for the perfect picture.
We chatted with one of the participants and many were excited to show us their creations. Check out this video to see all of that.
The Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day website can be found here if you wish to see how the simple physics of light and darkness can create captivating artistic photos.
Learning and enjoying the craft of pinhole photography
The best feeling = Seeing the fruits of your creation
Proud creators of incredible photos
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What's next at Stills Gallery
The current exhibition at Stills is La Nostra Terra ending on Sun 22 Jul. It's the UK's first exhibition of Italian photography and video from the 1970s to today.
Varsailles from the series Versailles (1985) Luigi Ghiri
Passaggio urbano, Modena (1970) Franco Fontana
Stills continues to bring the joys of photography through its workshops in May and June. Click here to search for upcoming workshops and courses at Stills.
Milano, 1989 (2006) Gabriele Basilico
Via delle Industrie, (1990) Guido Guidi
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What are Clicket Blogs?
Every Friday, Clicket peruses the weekend calendar of arts and cultural things to do in Edinburgh. We decide on 3; one on Friday, another on Saturday and (why not) a third on Sunday.
On our #FollowFriday tweet, @ClicketEdin recommends the folks who present these events and venture out – camera in hand and hearts expectant.
It’s not a retrospective blog though. Because we do our best to tell you what’s on next in those places we’ve been to so you can use our nifty “My Clicket” tool to plan your own weekend’s itinerary. Do remember you need to have registered and logged in to be able to make use of this part of Clicket.
