Deen Scene - What's On # 17!

Welcome to hopefully the first of many Deen Scene's of 2020! There seems to be loads happening on the event front, many free to attend which suits me fine as January is always a financial slog. There's also a notable number of things appearing with a focus around mental health and well being which is also super important and great to see. I've been mulling over a lot of things lately with the end of the last decade and all that's come and went in that time, seeing how life has played out for me and many of my friends. 

There's been some amazing things happen in the city and in my own life but there's also been sadness, pain and what at times feels like an unfair amount of loss. I kept coming back to a tag line "what's your trauma?" for 2020. Despite us all putting on a brave face, it often feels like everyone is dealing with some pain and that we have a lot of barriers to hide behind for fear of exposing these hurts. These barriers are sometimes self imposed, other times by the wider society we live in, despite a lot of vocal support for self care and better mental health. Through my own experiences I know there's a light at the end of whatever tunnel you're staring down and often there's more people willing to help you through it than want to hold you back. It can be hard to see that when in the throes of depression or dealing with the day to day anxieties of life. Although the reasons for these pains can be as unique as the person suffering, I hope the things I've learned might be helpful and wanted to share some of my own insights.

A good first step is to figure out if there's a source for these problems or negative feelings, a traumatic event which is still holding you back or a toxic relationship or bad habits that need to be broken. I found secondary factors like alcohol and drugs added to my trauma despite allowing small moments of escape, the after effects always made things worse often amplifying my initial sad feelings to unbearable levels. Even music can become a trigger! Being able to recognise these factors can have a huge impact on your mental well being. By figuring out and stopping the things that could be adding to your hurt can be a big step and one that helps push other positive changes. I stopped drinking a number of years ago after making the connection with hangovers often making me feel worthless, depressed and sad for days after. I found I felt better both emotionally and physically and in time was able to socialise without the need for a drink. 

Finding a creative out let has also been a huge help to me as part of a recovery process and has helped me to heal some of the wounds of old. Indeed much of what I do now with this blog and my own personal art is as a result of the tragic death of an old school friend. I found myself feeling lost and incredibly sad with no one to turn to. I discovered he'd been making street art and putting up his images around the city. I turned to the streets as a way to continue his work, placing the same images around town but also adding some of my own, a humble lego brick and toy soldier stencil. It's only years later I realised the use of these toys was a way to try and regain some of my youth, some of the naive innocence I lost after Nicky's passing. The photo above shows the old play park in Sheds where I sprayed up some stencils in 2007, small acts that really helped me to make some sense of things. Of course only 2 years after this event another close friend was tragically killed in the Super Puma crash, an incident that affected many in Aberdeen and hit me even harder. 

Last year marked 10 years since the heli accident so the concept of a new decade is a welcome idea but the pains of the past will always be there, sometimes a small niggle, other times a gut wrenching feeling that brings me right back to those events. Over the years I've learned to deal with those feelings a bit better. Seeing a councillor was a huge help, being able to talk through events and associated feelings helped me to find some answers and to gain some tools to better help me process and deal with my problems. It took an emotional melt down for me to seek help, hitting the lowest low before being able to start the up ward journey. It was scary and overwhelming at the time but ultimately led me to seek help and to finally realise that I possessed many of the answers to the riddle of my own mental health. Counselling helped me to sort through many of the negative feelings I'd experienced and not just the grief from these tragic losses but also from failed relationships. Trauma can take many forms and can come from experiences that you think you've already resolved. My councillor really helped me to separate a lot of the negative experiences and to process them properly allowing me to move forward and ultimately start to find myself again instead of defining myself through those traumas. It's still there, it just doesn't have to be centre stage.  

Another big part of the healing process has come through the amazing creative community in Aberdeen and the connections I've been lucky to make across the globe, connecting through art and creativity. Through art and having agency in the city, through creating and making work and through connecting with good people and good vibes. The idea of connection has always been a strong one for the blog but ill be looking at ways I can expand upon it to help push further into the wider communities in Aberdeen in 2020. It's been a long road to feel normal again, to find balance between the good and the bad and to be comfortable with both. If you feel like you need to talk to someone or would like some help finding a service then get in touch, there's a lot out there including Mental Health Aberdeen who do fantastic work.  

And that takes me onto the first event highlight for 2020...

I met Miles at the final Look Again talk of 2019, not knowing who he was until the break when we started chatting. A mutual friend had mentioned his plans to set up some creative and well being focused workshops, something I'd been thinking about with regards to a creative walking tour knowing first hand the benefits of exercise and talking when you feel down. Miles mentioned that his first event was taking shape and would be kicking off in January and sure enough the event page popped up soon after. Organised via his Pabyan page, the first saw participants take part in a special Yoga session followed by a print making workshop led by Jay Christie.

"This is the debut event for pabyan and will introduce a combination of methods in finding some respite for your mind. Everything about this workshop is designed to be accessible, the pay what you can entry, the no prior experience necessary aspect and importantly I have carefully selected compassionate and all round great people to run this workshop."

The feedback has been really positive and when I saw Miles he was enthused about seeing his idea become a reality. The next work shop will be focusing on creative writing and meditation with more plans shaping up down the line. There's been a lot of articles highlighting the positive impact of being creative or making stuff has on your mental well being, even doodling in a note pad or making mini pebble sculptures can have a positive impact on your mood and doing these things with a group of strangers might seem intimidating but actually you find so much mutual connection through the act of participation. I highly recommend making 2020 the year you try something creative, especially if you haven't before.

Another positive update, my good friend Chris Whyte has been doing amazing things with his charity project the Chariso Press raising over £4000 for selected charities through riso print sales. That's quite phenomenal considering the prints only cost £10. Usually working in sets of 3, Chris has worked with a host of artists and designers to create special riso print editions with all the profits going to selected charities close to the artists including Maggie's Centre, Rape Crisis Scotland and Tiny Changes mental health charity to name a few. It also gives you a chance to own a piece of affordable art. Indeed you can replace that TK Maxx tryptych with some a bit more meaningful. Of course only if you like them but with so many great designs there's sure to be something for everyone. My own hallway is adorned with the 'Get Out' print from the team at Front Page while Chris very first Chariso print takes pride of place on my living room wall. Chris recently sat down with BBC Scotland to speak about the project and highlight the power of the creative community when it puts its collective might behind a project. Being the change and making good things happen for others. Super proud of Chris and how far he's come but also thankful for his continued friendship and support through the last decade.

Why So Sad? Cheer up eh. If only it were that easy Continuing with the mental health theme, ex professional skateboarder, all round nice guy and good egg John Rattray has been on a mission to raise funds and awareness for suicide prevention services both in the UK and the US. Most skaters in Aberdeen will be familiar with John and his work on a skateboard having reached the highest level of professional skating with Blueprint Skateboards and Zero. Now a family man, John's focus has shifted into smaller grass routes endeavours via his The Predatory Bird site. In previous years John has gone on special 'Good Egg' missions with friends cycling across parts of the US with skateboards in tow with an attempt at doing the most egg plants (a skateboard trick) ever. This year the mission became Why So Sad? with John attempting to do his first proper Sad Plant (again a skateboard trick) with some of the best to ever do it in tow. Here's what John has to say about the mission.

"The WhySoSad? mission for mental health is the third annual fundraiser I’ve organized in memory of my sister, Katrina, and now more recently, tragically, in memory of Ben Raemers as well. The mission is twofold: raise funds for organizations doing good work in the field of mental health and simplify the conversation around this subject. I hope that one day we’ll be able to talk about depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts the same way we talk about a swellbow. I hope that each of us will have the skills to help ourselves and each other through the storm whenever things get rough." 

It's also worth reading the expanded post on John's website where he speaks about creating a more open platform for people to speak about their problems and also helping to create better sign post's that we can recognise for when a friend may be suffering or even ourselves. Indeed we often see people say if only we'd known, if only they'd spoken to us etc but I think when someone has fallen into that cycle of thinking the idea of speaking to others or seeking help can be almost impossible. Again this might be due to the barriers in our society around discussing our mental health problems but I also know from my experiences that it can feel almost impossible to talk to others when you feel that bad. Depression doesn't care about how much money you have or how successful you are. But certainly speaking to a councillor or someone that's not directly connected is a good starting point. Also going for a walk when those feelings kick in can help and exercise has played a huge part in helping me battle through some of the darker times. And of course skateboarding, despite the day of recovery for a few hours at the park, the time spent with friends and the positive actions are worth it. 

From immense sadness John has made something positive happen and hopefully provides a light that help others. You can help support the project by picking up one of the special edition 'Why So Sad? x Action Realised' skateboards created with support from Real Skateboards. I think Seed Skateshop on Rosemount were looking into getting some so noise them up. Massive love to John for all his inspiration over the years both on and off the board. 

And to keep with Skateboarding for a minute here's a brand new skate film featuring a few local Adeen rippers. Filmed and edited by Jamal Jabber, Habibis provides a nice time stamp of both the North East and the central belt skaters. It's been interesting to see how skate video buzz has changed with people often releasing short clips on instagram, providing an instant hit of radicalness but there will always be a need for these expanded edits and with its creative animations and editing, shows Jamal is a talented film maker and seeing the level of skateboarding from all the skaters is inspiring. Big ups to Neil, Cameron, Daz, Jamal and all the team who worked on this one. 

Keeping with the inspirational and open hearted vibes I'd like to speak a bit more about local street artist V2K. Having met V through mutual friends, I've been fascinated by his creative journey and his development of ideas. With the mass consumption of street art via Instagram it's very easy to get lost in the rehashing of pop icon faces and subversion of a subversion royal piss take. Often it feels like a lot of what's placed on the street (especially in London) has no real substance, an image posted for likes and not much else. Of course I'm sure the artist's enjoy doing it and really you don't need any more of a reason but you can't really claim to be the next Banksy. But then you get an artist like V2K who's putting out a slightly different kind of message, one that seems quite personal to him but also carries a wider universal weight. With commentary pieces on Brexit, egocentrism and the power of positive thinking (above) he seems to have something to say that's worth listening to. Also coming from a non artistic background, its great to see how street art is affording him space to explore his own ideas without any limitations. I'll be keeping a close eye over the coming months and hope to work on some projects with V2K down the line, more on that soon! 

We're delighted to welcome the Cannibal Cubs aka Corvid Eyes & Feral Fang to Kekun Studio as full time studio residents. We had an incredible year in 2019 and hosted a lot of great shows and will be looking to do more in 2020 but working with partner spaces and friends along with working on some reconfiguring at Kekun. Having worked a lot with both Jenny & Susan since Kekun opened it felt right to have them join us as we start to focus more on our own creative output, at least for the next few months. Change can be good as it forces you to reassess and revaluate how you do things and I think 2020 will give us a chance to fine tune what Kekun is and also allow me to do a few more events under the MoC banner. Of course money comes into play, being a self funded space for the most part means that we have to be sustainable but it also gives us autonomy which I think is vital. Really exciting too see the next phase of Cannibal Cubs coming to fruition so be sure to keep an eye out for new stuff coming soon!

Friend and artist Jetpack Dinosaur has a new exhibition opening next week at Parx Cafe, kicking off a new series of events at the space. Past exhibitors have included Sally & Claire from SMART, Jo McIntosh and Honk along with interim displays curated by Kirsty from Second Home Aberdeen. Second Home have also been busy working on a new creative space which hopes to offer studio and workshop space in the city centre along with organising pop up workshop events with the next one raising funds to help those affected by the Australian bush fires that have ravaged so much of the country. Parx have been doing good things for a while now and are all about good food, a great space and rad art. Ticks all the boxes!

Jumping into the local music landscape and keeping with the good mental health focus for a minute we have Mind Matters, a special compilation compiled by Aberdeen's Juju featuring a host of local talents including Best Girl Athlete, Mellow Joe & Juju himself. If you've been to any of the sunday night sessions at Bar 99s or regular jazz nights then you'll have seen Juju aka Rod bringing the vibes with his exquisite bass skills. A talented musician and producer, he wanted to give something back to local charity Mental Health Aberdeen who do a lot of fantastic work supporting people in the city with trained proffessionals and structured support networks. The album is available as a pay what you wan't download with all profits going to MHA. With 19 tracks, I'd say that's worth at least £10 but please pay what you can and enjoy some tunes from the North East and beyond!

Interesting Music are back in full effect with a host of gigs already set for 2020 and a special valentines treat from Kathryn Joseph + Steven Milne looks like an early contender for gig of the year. Hosted in the new revamped Cowdray Hall, it's sure to be an intimate evening with spine chilling moments from both musicians. Not to be missed!

There's loads of good things coming up and good people working to make those things happen so make sure you're following The Anatomy Rooms, WAGON, Creative Learning Aberdeen, Look Again Aberdeen, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Grampain Hospitals Art Trust,  Victoriart Road, Peacock Visual Arts along with everyone mentioned above. That's just scratching the surface and the most obvious folks but I'm going to try and get a directory of artists and orgs (progress so far here) that can help connect you to what's going on across all the arts from sculpture to poetry and everything in between so watch this space!

I'll finish up with some new tunes for 2020 with this peach from Skinshape. Youtube has been pretty good to me these past few months but this tune and its subsequent album Filoxiny have been on steady rotation. Can you say that for a digital video stream? Either way it's been the perfect soundtrack for the last wee while with its laid back vibes and filmic quality. I'll be picking up a copy on vinyl anyway so it will defo be on rotation at Kekun Studio in the coming weeks. Some relaxing sounds to help you get ready for a productive spring and a busy summer. Look after yourselves, get out and explore, take pleasure in the small moments, allow yourself to feel and lets work towards a healthier 2020!