5.12.09

The Co:Lab team at Unique Presence

The Co:Lab team
Big thanks to everyone who came along to Unique Presence to witness the Co:Lab live debut on Saturday 5th December. We were all extremely please with how it went and greatly appreciate the enthusiasm shown. It was a long day starting at 2pm in the Islesburgh Community Centre and the first half was especially busy. We're glad however to have been able to keep the show open until 9pm, welcome the folk keeping less regular hours and sell them prints! Hopefully all the prints sold will settle happily into their new homes and earn a quizzical look or a toothy smile from time to time.

Thanks must also be extended to Karen Bruce of Vunk Photography and Mootie House Designs for organising the event and inviting us to participate. The Drama Room at the community centre was a great space in which to exhibit and looked particularly vibrant when filled with the textiles, jewellery, photography (and prints) of independent local artists and designers (Vunk Photography, Mootie House Designs Ltd, K J Originals, Jane Naish Jewellery ...)

For anyone who couldn't make it along, never fear, we're hoping to give you another chance to pick up a print very soon. Watch this space for details!

2.12.09

Co:Lab - Tag Team take two and exhibition news!

Co:Lab Test Print Session 2.2
Following on from the first stage collaborations between Andrew Morrison, Beto and Jono Sandilands we have repeated the process in reverse! Which is to say, Jono, having received Beto's art to work first time around and his piece having gone Andrew's way, this time Jono's illustration went Beto-wise while Beto's effort was passed to Andrew!
Interesting and educational results... particularly in the instance of failure experienced in the first attempt on two of this series' collaborations – solved with advanced colour consideration.
Co:Lab Test Print Session 2.2
The work from both stages in this Co:Lab project are to debut, for one day only, this weekend at Unique Presence, an exhibition of print, photography and textiles with sales of original artwork and contemporary gifts. If you're in Lerwick on 5th December any time between 2pm and 9pm then swing by the Drama Room at Islesburgh Community Centre. There are only 40 of each obscenely affordable print so be mindful not to miss out!

These photos by Jono Sandilands

17.10.09

Tag team fun with Jono & Beto


The results!, originally uploaded by newdeadlanguage.

Andrew Morrison recently joined Jono Sandilands and Roberto Getto in a 3week tag team screen printing experiment. For the first week they each created an A4 image which was passed to another member of the trio who would then for the second week create another A4 image to overprint this with. Third week saw the printing! Here are the results. Watch this space for news of a second set of these and more fun from the trio!

Belonging on Flickr


Belonging, originally uploaded by newdeadlanguage.

All nine of the prints from the Belonging series can now be seen over on Flickr. The exhibition in the Bonhoga Gallery Cafe has been extended by a month so if you've not been, there's still time to get along.

1.9.09

Belonging

Back in March we posted about funding awarded to Andrew Morrison of New Dead Language to put toward purchasing equipment and materials which would aid in the production of a body of work suitable for exhibition.

Well, Andrew has been working fairly intensively for the past six month's and will this week share the result of this with the world at large!
Belonging is a set of nine two colour prints. Each print captures a moment, a single 'cell' or 'still', suggestive of a greater whole. There is a potent untold back story and unknown outcome. Each one was conceived independently of the others with the only common thread being a sense of era. The idea however is that by grouping them into random sets, in random order, the viewer will instinctively draw a line through them, making connections and conjuring a story in their own imagination. The hope is for every person who looks at a set of these prints to find their own personal interpretation, vivid and entirely unique to themselves. And by rearranging the nine time and again (or simply by reordering a set of three or four or what have you) the worlds in these prints are continually altered. What may have seemed serene may turn sinister, or a gesture or glance which in one instance appeared benevolent can in another suggest malevolence.
Each print has been pulled, signed and numbered of 40 by the artist.
Belonging has it's opening tomorrow evening (2nd September 2009) at the Bonhoga Gallery Cafe where it will hang for the duration of the month. Another set will also be exhibited at this weekend Wordplay Book Festival.

Andrew will post photos of the collection on our Flickr page early next week. In the meantime you can read how it all came to fruition by visiting www.twitter.com/newdeadlanguage

16.4.09

Happenstance review of Praising the Guga

http://tinyurl.com/d2llc8
Here's a review of Donald S Murray's Praising the Guga published by North Idea. Some nice words about Andrew Morrison's illustrations. Worth picking up if you haven't already. Donald's The Guga Hunters published by Birlinn is also worth checking out.

21.3.09

New project and funding

New Dead Language are very pleased to announce confirmation of a Visual Artist Award: Shetland Arts in Partnership with Scottish Arts Council. The funds received from this will contribute to the costs of Screenprinting equipment which will be used primarily in NDL's next major project. This will be a series of (largely) 'silent' prints each heavy with narrative but also very much open to interpretation. An exhibition of the work is being planned for later in the year.