Adaptation

05 May - 16 June, 2007

Design is all around you, even in the most unlikely places. Adaptation, Peacock Visual Arts’ contribution the Six Cities Design Festival, looks into the impact of design in everyday life. The streets of Aberdeen will never look the same again!

We have invited a group of international artists including Adams (Copenhagen), Akay & Made (Stockholm), Brad Downey (New York), Brett Bloom and Bonnie Fortune (Chicago), Marjolijn Dijkman (Rotterdam) and Dominic Hislop (Berlin) to show and make work about and in reaction to design in daily life. The work ranges from subtle alternations of street furniture and other interventions in public space to creative uses of waste, to documentation of earlier work in the gallery and to video projects.

In addition the gallery will show the 'public embroidery kit' by Ulrika Erdes (Malmö) and documentation of her cross stitching performed on seats in buses and trains in Sweden. A compilation of video documentation by Leopold Kessler (Vienna) shows highlights of his projects in public space: attired in blue collar outfits and armed with a toolbox the artist subtly alters street furniture, such as clocks and street-lamps, confusing the public with a smile.

Free Events at Peacock Visual Arts

• Launch with music by Nackt Insecten: Friday, 4 May, 6pm
• Artist's Talk by Brad Downey: Thursday 10 May, 6 - 8pm
• Artist’s Talk by Marjolijn Dijkman, 'Theatrum orbis Terrarum,' Tuesday 12 June, 6 - 8pm

The artists

Brad Downey, who lives in New York, will kick off the series of projects in Aberdeen. His work provides a subtle, yet mischievous response to street furniture and signs, and their structuring of public life. Not immediately recognizable as art to the passer-bye, they disrupt daily routine in an amusing, yet thoughtful manner. In addition to new work in the city space, Brad will present a new film of spontaneous street acts and give a talk about this work, providing the background stories to the visuals. Brad's project in Aberdeen

Adams works in public space without permission. Over the years his work has come to be more and more hidden. His most recent projects are site-specific clandestine constructions in the streets and beneath. "Taking place - owning space" shows photographs from nine places in Stockholm where Adams changed the padlocks, making them accessible for the public by placing the keys in hollow books at the public library.

Akay & Made from Stockholm, two thirds of the APA collective are right now making plans for Aberdeen.

With the work of artists and activists Brett Bloom and Bonnie Fortune from Chicago, the investigations, turn to ecological issues, in particular waste and what to (literally) make of it. Bonnie Fortune and Brett Bloom will scavenge and organize materials from the waste streams of Aberdeen to create a nature simulacrum of plant life in public places. The project will draw attention to the city's consumption patterns with mobile installations made from the found materials and a booklet with drawings and written descriptions. This project continues Bloom and Fortune's collaborative investigation of creative material use and the natural world. For free download copy of the booklet REFUSEREFUSE click here

Intrigued by the decline in the number of local independent retailers and growing monocultural dominance of large national chainstores and supermarket giants in Aberdeen’s streets and market stalls, Scottish artist Dominic Hislop has documented some visual impressions of the shifts in urban retail and discussed the impact of changes with surviving shopkeepers and knowledgeable locals. An assemblage of information and images gathered can be viewed at an installation located in the shopfront of an empty television repair shop on King Street. Projected photographic images of some of the numerous empty shops and market stalls in Aberdeen’s city centre, that are in sharp contrast to the sterile banality of the chainstore design, can be viewed alongside text excerpts from interviews made with local independent retailers, who comment on their position within the shifts and changes that have taken place within retail in Aberdeen.

Dutch artist Marjolijn Dijkman will connect issues around design to wider themes of local contexts and their representation in her publication and lecture/presentation 'Theatrum orbis Terrarum' (Theatre of the World). With 'Theatrum orbis Terrarum' she has been researching the human creation of space, 'making photographic registrations of specific locations and characteristics of space'. Download Marjolijn's publication here for free

Pre-order the Adaptation catalogue and get a discount!

The catalogue of Adaptation will be ready in July. It will include an essay and documentation of the exhibition and interventions. If you pre-order now you only pay £10 instead of £12! Phone us on 01224-639539 or send an email to monika@peacockvisualarts.co.uk

The Six Cities Design Festival is a project developed and managed by The Lighthouse, Scotland’s National Centre for Architecture, Design and the City, and is funded by the Scottish Executive.