Friday 20th February, 7pm - Free
Street Level Photoworks
48 King St (First Floor)
Glasgow G1 5QT
T: 0141 552 2151

Limited edition book which documents the Critical Workshop on Socially
Engaged Art Practice which was held in Huntly in 2008 - conceived by
David Harding and Rosie Gibson, in collaboration with Claudia Zeiske
of Deveron Arts. As an introduction to this launch, there will be a
special and rare screening of a documentary on David Harding's early
work as a 'town artist', made by the late W. Gordon Smith and unseen
since its first televised outing on the BBC in 1970. Several of the
artists will be in attendance. The book is available for free only at
the launch events.
In their introduction to the book, Harding and Gibson write of their
motivations in organising the Praktika event:
'The presentations by artists at recent conferences on socially
engaged practice threw up a number of observations, questions and
problems about the works they were showing. The first was that there
was an enormous amount of work going on, much of it funded by lottery
and local government money, and yet it was work that was not
discussed, not subject to critique and not even written about outside
a local milieu. Secondly a lot of the work was being carried out by
younger more recent graduates from the art schools who had yet to
develop a mature practice. And thirdly, as a consequence of this it
seemed that the work was still stuck in practices of the eighties as
if there had been no development since then. It was as if these
artists felt that they were breaking new ground unaware of the long
history of practice that preceded them. One might also have discerned
a certain lack of the idealism of the social and democratic urges
which had fuelled earlier artists. Out of all of this grew the need to
do something about it.
We came to the conclusion that what was needed was an opportunity for
artists to discuss and critique each other's work in an atmosphere of
trust and respect. It would have to be a formal event that would be
documented. It would have to be in camera, that is for the artists
only and not a public performance. It would have to be over a short
intensive period of time. It would have to be residential, almost like
a retreat and that it should take place outside the central belt.
Finally that the proceedings must be published. There is very little
critical writing on socially engaged practice in Scotland given the
enormous amount of it going on. We wanted to be able to say: here is a
selection of recent projects in Scotland.'
The book PRAKTIKA includes a synopsis of each of the 12 attending
artists projects and a reflective essay by Nuno Sacramento.
Artist Merlyn Riggs will bring her peripatetic tea room on the
occasion of this event.
Participating artists:
Deborah Beeson/potAToHOM(E)age,
Jacques Coetzer/Room to Roam,
Sylvia Borda/EK Modernism,
Will Foster/Skills Bank,
Janie Nicoll & Alex Hetherington/ Meddle with the Devil,
Alhena Katsof/A.Vermin,
Shauna McMullan/Travelling the Distance,
Eva Merz/GET A F****** JOB,
Anthony Schrag/The Legacy of City Art Projects,
Glasgow this fridayPamela So/The Ricochet Project,
Kirsty Stansfield/Object Scores,
Iseult Timmermans/Multi-Story
Deveron Arts Website. e-mail info@...