Transcoding, VACMA project by Vivian Ross-Smith
Artist and Gaada’s Programme Coordinator, Vivian Ross-Smith, recently completed a Visual Art and Craft Maker Award (VACMA) funded project using Gaada’s Risograph.
She tells us more about her work and the project here:
“Art practices are living things, constantly shifting, updating and re-calibrating. My research and making is durational, I weave threads of thinking with new ideas as and when they show up. Creating an interdisciplinary patchwork of practice, gives a sense of freedom that allows a project to wander out of my head and off into the hill. This kind of meandering exploration is only attainable, however, when artists have access to proper support and the right facilities. VACMA funding has been a resource I have tapped into at various stages of my art career and always allowed me time for exploration. I recently reached out toward the fund once again, searching for space and time to reflect upon the work I created between 2020-21, namely BROADCAST (2020), Ways of Seeing (2020) and The Island is The Gallery (2021). These were site specific performance works that used non-verbal communication, physical gesture, film, and alternative exhibition spaces, to question accessibility of the art world, who we consider an art audience to be and explore new ways to engage with art.
Prior to Covid, I often looked at performance as an inaccessible artform, both to practice and observe. It made me feel uncertain and uncomfortable. During the pandemic however, it became entirely the opposite. The potential of inserting performance into an everyday, public space meant that art practice could break away from the boundaries of the gallery and go walking in the hills, down the street, or along the beach. It would be open to all and give an entry way into viewing and discussing art practice in a casual, playful way. The vulnerability I felt making these performances empowered me. The nervousness I felt prior to the performance completely dissipated when I covered my body with a wearable painting and started to look for connections with the audience. What emerged was a negotiation of communication with the people standing in front of me, or with the majority of people I never met, who were observing through the barrier of a computer screen.
These performances existed in a certain moment, in a particular time and place (be that irl or url), yet afterwards the films were uploaded to the Internet and photos took grid formation on social media. Tiny fragments of each performance were being isolated, shared and became their own entities. The work was being re-coded into something new.
As lockdowns eased and we collectively returned to physical space, it felt important to offer a tangible continuation for this imagery. When I started working at Gaada, I became infatuated with the Risograph, a digital duplicator that clunks and clicks out beautiful layered images. Taking on the familiar form of the photocopier, it prompted memories of being a child, observing the older members of my community collating words and images into our local newspaper, The Fair Isle Times. The community connotations of creating publications, as well as the simple and accessible format enticed me and offered an interesting new route for the imagery I had started to gather. Yellow, pink and cyan are layered to create Transcoding, a digitally distorted look back on creating performance during a global pandemic. This publication is a pixelated, muddled, hazy collection of memories but also a reminder of the importance of doing, undoing and redoing.
Gaada is an artist-led organisation, I revel in the opportunity to build structures for Shetland artists to develop their practice. Gaada is a supportive and progressive safe space from which to grow, for the wider community that surrounds the workshop but also for the me and my colleagues - the artists that work daily in this space.”
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If you are based in Shetland and have an established arts or craft practice, like Aimee, you could be eligible to apply for Creative Scotland’s Visual Artist & Craft Maker Award (VACMA) or Open Project Funding. These funds are currently some of the best routes for artists to access specialist facilities + support from Gaada. Get in touch to tell us about your project!
