SSA Collaborative Art Project
Juteopolis
This is what the SSA sent me when I requested an explanation /further details re the Cubes project. Steve has brought about 10 or 12 of them into the print workshop. They are in a black plastic refuse sack on the main worksurface. So if you are interested in participating get yourself along and grab one.
"As part of our unique and exciting Annual Exhibition at The Vision Building in Dundee, we are putting together a large-scale sculptural piece that will involve all of our
membership. The concept is to create a piece of work that has a collective provenance at its heart and will be a feature for the show as well as being a major fundraiser for the SSA. All members are being asked to create a small piece of work on a wooden cube approx 10 cm squared that will take jute as its subject matter.
As you will probably know, Dundee is famous for its once dominating jute industry and its legacy is deep rooted and visible in all manner of ways from names of streets, parks and parts of the city to the building of grand mansions and public buildings, the expansion of the city’s harbour, shipbuilding and whaling industry, and history of many business institutions, to name but a few! Our idea is to give the nod to the Dundee context but at the same time be able to provide a subject matter wide enough to be accessible to all of our artists. We have, in the past, used the postcard idea but it was felt that given the uniqueness of this year’s exhibition we wanted to do something equally unique to mark it.
Juteopolis is the name for our piece and was the term used to describe Dundee at the height of its success but was also the name of one of the ships that travelled between India and Dundee carrying the raw materials. The cube echoes the `pucca` jute bales and will provide each artist with an unusual 3D format that gives them 6 sides to play with and be the carrier of the artist’s idea in the way that jute bags were used to carry raw materials from India. The cube can be cut into, become a vessel, be drawn, painted or printed on or have any manner of objects or materials attached to it. The artist has complete freedom as to how or what they want to do with it as long as it has some reference to jute in there. Once we have all these hundreds of cubes they will then be combined with each other and form a large floor piece that will take the shape of a lade which is the stone channel that drew the water from The Scouring Burn in Dundee and was the major water supply for the jute mills.
We need as many` pucca` cubes as we can possibly get for this to have the desired impact so we hope that you will get behind this project by adding your cube to `Juteopolis` and make it something to remember. We will be circulating wooden cubes to the artists via WASPS in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee hopefully by the beginning of April, and indeed, if there are any members out there who would like to help this process by circulating bundles of cubes to those who cannot readily access wasps, please get in touch with Noreen Sharkey Paisley, SSA Secretary. You can donate as many as you like and as there is no submission process for this piece, all cubes will be included in `Juteopolis`. You can then hand your cube/cubes in with your submission or send them directly to Noreen for the same date.
Please support this unique initiative and contribute to what we hope will be an amazing, beautiful and exciting work of art that brings the SSA artists together and echoes our own individual inclusion in what is an equally unique organisation."
Annual Open Exhibition 2009
Vision@Seabraes, Dundee
Saturday 23 May - Friday 19 June
Hand in dates: Fri 1st & Sat 2nd May
Private View 22nd May
Cubes can be returned to Noreen at 2 Wemyss Ave, Glasgow G77 AR right through until Friday 12 June.
For more information please call 0141 616 2566 or email ssa@tangledwebs.co.uk.
DO NOTE - I CONTACTED SSA AND RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING WHICH INDICATES THAT PARTICIPATION IS NOT LIMITED TO S.S.A., ARTISTS ONLY.
"you are more than welcome to do a cube and submit, there is no selection process so all cubes received will be part of the project.
When the project was initially conceived, it was thought that only members would be interested in helping out but many non members are supporting the project and we are absolutely thrilled about that.
Looking forward to seeing your cube in Juteopolis"
JUTE see some definitions springboards etc on these url references
Jute on wikipedia
Dundee, Jute and Empire (Open University)
