It's been a minute or two since last years edition of Nuart Aberdeen but I still wanted to share some snaps of the finished art works and some of the lesser spotted pieces. Some of them might already be gone or temporarily out of sight with the Union Terrace Gardens refurbishment. Also the weather will be playing its part in battering some of the smaller pieces along with eager wannabe taggers. Although I expected Julio Cabanding's incredible portrait of Rembrandt to get covered over its still sad to see it ruined with a red smiley face. But its the nature of work on the streets and its susceptibility to the people.
Its a powerful lesson in how we view art, where does it's value lie when it can't be packaged up and displayed in a museum. Do these street interventions add to the narrative of the work, be it in a negative way? It's one of the many questions that comes up during our free walking tours, will the art works be protected, will you repaint them, how long will they last? The answer is no, no and don't know. Certainly comparable works in Stavanger from Herakut have aged well and can be viewed as almost historical artifacts after 10 years on the street but with planned redevelopments and demolitions it'll be interesting to see how some of the Aberdeen murals play out. And of course we've seen art works that lasted less than a week with Dr.D's paste ups on East Green coming down in record time and Issac Cordal's figurines sadly disappearing only a few weeks after the 2017 festival.
Still, it was a stellar year for the festival and its big sister Nuart Festival in Stavanger. With artists like Anders Gjennstad aka Strok who's powerful figures stand out on the facade of Nuart hub Tou Scene in Norway and now form part of an artistic gateway into the city centre via Rosemount Viaduct, artworks that create clear connections between the festivals and the cities. A left turn brings you face to face with two giant walls from Axel Void featuring images gleaned from Aberdeen's history books, again connecting the artworks to the place. Evol was especially taken by some of the cities high rises and created some special mini high rises in their honour. I've counted 13 so far but there maybe more! A late addition came from Melbourne's Vexta whom Martyn had met many years before at her studio in NYC. My partner Mary was on hand to assist with the creation of this new piece and helped along with Mo from the tunnels to make sure it came together. Within hours crowds were flocking down to see the new piece being created with Vexta loving her time in Scotland.
As expected the festival delivered an interesting and diverse mix of artists and art works which were well received and with busy tours throughout the summer and lots of school groups coming out, it feels like the festival is reaching a good audience. With each year we see more new works appearing both from Nuart and a host of local and visiting artist's and as a result Aberdeen is starting to feel like a street art city. It's been a slow change and one that's been happening for a while and although Nuart has brought an international focus to the city, the festival still relies heavily on the skills and knowledge of its volunteers many of whom are proud locals of the city, myself included. Nuart Aberdeen will be back in April 2020 and I'm sure it'll be full of suprises, raising more questions and looking to answer a few of them too but one thing's for sure, its gonna be big and it's gonna get people talking about Aberdeen and that's surely a good thing!
You can check out my run down of this years production week where the artworks were created here and if you've missed any of the art works or need a point in the right direction to find work from the previous years then check out the online map here and feel free to get in touch for directions to the harder to find pieces. As always, beauty is in the streets and it belongs to us, all of us but especially little Mika who loved that EVOL high rise!
Its a powerful lesson in how we view art, where does it's value lie when it can't be packaged up and displayed in a museum. Do these street interventions add to the narrative of the work, be it in a negative way? It's one of the many questions that comes up during our free walking tours, will the art works be protected, will you repaint them, how long will they last? The answer is no, no and don't know. Certainly comparable works in Stavanger from Herakut have aged well and can be viewed as almost historical artifacts after 10 years on the street but with planned redevelopments and demolitions it'll be interesting to see how some of the Aberdeen murals play out. And of course we've seen art works that lasted less than a week with Dr.D's paste ups on East Green coming down in record time and Issac Cordal's figurines sadly disappearing only a few weeks after the 2017 festival.
Still, it was a stellar year for the festival and its big sister Nuart Festival in Stavanger. With artists like Anders Gjennstad aka Strok who's powerful figures stand out on the facade of Nuart hub Tou Scene in Norway and now form part of an artistic gateway into the city centre via Rosemount Viaduct, artworks that create clear connections between the festivals and the cities. A left turn brings you face to face with two giant walls from Axel Void featuring images gleaned from Aberdeen's history books, again connecting the artworks to the place. Evol was especially taken by some of the cities high rises and created some special mini high rises in their honour. I've counted 13 so far but there maybe more! A late addition came from Melbourne's Vexta whom Martyn had met many years before at her studio in NYC. My partner Mary was on hand to assist with the creation of this new piece and helped along with Mo from the tunnels to make sure it came together. Within hours crowds were flocking down to see the new piece being created with Vexta loving her time in Scotland.
As expected the festival delivered an interesting and diverse mix of artists and art works which were well received and with busy tours throughout the summer and lots of school groups coming out, it feels like the festival is reaching a good audience. With each year we see more new works appearing both from Nuart and a host of local and visiting artist's and as a result Aberdeen is starting to feel like a street art city. It's been a slow change and one that's been happening for a while and although Nuart has brought an international focus to the city, the festival still relies heavily on the skills and knowledge of its volunteers many of whom are proud locals of the city, myself included. Nuart Aberdeen will be back in April 2020 and I'm sure it'll be full of suprises, raising more questions and looking to answer a few of them too but one thing's for sure, its gonna be big and it's gonna get people talking about Aberdeen and that's surely a good thing!
You can check out my run down of this years production week where the artworks were created here and if you've missed any of the art works or need a point in the right direction to find work from the previous years then check out the online map here and feel free to get in touch for directions to the harder to find pieces. As always, beauty is in the streets and it belongs to us, all of us but especially little Mika who loved that EVOL high rise!
