31 July 2009 at 6pm
This month we will be visiting the home of Kirstie Skinner, founder of Spin and Programme Co-ordinator from 2003 until 2005, to see her private collection of contemporary art. Works range from a Jessica Harrison degree show piece from the collection ‘Motor Mouth’, a painting from Edinburgh based artist Andrew McKenzie and a Ruth Claxton postcard; to a baroque inspired painting by Moyna Flannigan, a Craig Mullholland etching from last year’s ‘Grandes et Petites Machines’ exhibition at Glasgow School of Art and a Charles Avery Triptych from ‘The Islanders’.
Kirstie Skinner specialises in the interpretation, mediation and research of contemporary art. She completed her PhD, Spectres of Minimalism, in May 2009 at Edinburgh College of Art, where she also taught for many years. Her articles have been published in books, journals and exhibition catalogues. Since 2000, she has devised conferences and talks programmes for National Galleries of Scotland and Glasgow City Council, and regularly organises and leads foreign professional development tours on behalf of the Scottish Arts Council. Recent projects have included the creation of a website for the National Collecting Scheme for Scotland (a catalogue of over 130 acquisitions, accompanied by filmed interviews with participating curators), and Vocal, an action research project at the Collective Gallery focussing on gallery interpretation. From 2005 to 2009, she was a specialist advisor for the Scottish Arts Council.
We will be joining Kirstie in discussions about what draws her to individual works and how she approaches collecting contemporary art for a domestic setting.
24 July 2005
The sun is shining, the days are long; every now and then, there is the distant sound of police and protestors clashing. It is an appropriately surreal and extreme time to head to Little Sparta. The idyllic sculpture garden, surrounding a wee croft in the southern uplands of Scotland, is studded with references to the philosophical values of the French Revolution and the techniques of modern warfare. It still resonates with the noises of the Little Spartan War 1983 (the Follies War and the French War were to follow later). Finlay clashed with Strathclyde Region over its bureaucratic bungling of a rates dispute; and the sheriff officer and his men staged two raids on the Finlay’s Garden Temple. Although they were repelled by Finlay’s supporters (the Saint-Just Vigilantes) in the first battle, the sheriff and his men succeeded in seizing several works in the second onslaught. Nor was Finlay mellowed by experience – he went on to have further fights ‘on principle’ with the National Trust for Scotland and the French Ministry of Culture, as well as half of the people he ever worked with.
Ian Hamilton Finlay‘s uncompromising commitment to ‘beauty’ and classical rigour may not have won friends, but it did produce the most uniquely distinctive and challenging body of work in Scotland in the last century. Finlay is a concrete poet first and foremost, and has been a prolific collaborator with many different artists, craftspeople and poets with whom he has created an extensive collection of sculptures, prints and books. His public art works are to be found in cities all over the world and many of his works will be on display in three co-ordinated exhibitions in Edinburgh over the summer: at the Ingleby Gallery, Inverleith House and the Scottish Poetry Library. But there is no doubt that the heart and soul of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s work will always be the garden at Little Sparta.
Spin members were invited to join an exclusive bus trip to the garden, to uncover the complex threads and hedonistic delights of Finlay’s work.
30 January 2003 at 6pm
This month we will view the ever-so-popular, Duane Hanson: Sculptures of Life exhibition, and have an opportunity to chat about some of the themes of the show with writer and lecturer, Kirstie Skinner and contemporary artist, Kenny Hunter.
