MADE IN EASTERHOUSE The exhibition Made In Easterhouse was a celebration of ‘making’ in all its forms, documenting the everyday, people, place, skills and challenging stereotypes of the local area. Platform presented a selection of objects representing the groups and individuals artist Deirdre Nelson has met during her residency. Deirdre Nelson has been artist in residence at Platform for the year 2016 working with older adults who meet in the areas across Greater Easterhouse, Barlarnark, Blairtummock, Calvay, Easthall, Lochend, Provanhall, Ruchazie and Wellhouse. #madeineasterhouse The exhibition featured work by: Barlanark 50+ group Barlanark and Calvay sewing group Blairtummock Adult Group Calvay and Blairtummock Sewing Group Calvay Ladies Group Clack and Yak, Platform Connect Community Trust and Wellhouse Allotments Connect Community Trust and Wellhouse Sew You Think You Can Knit Easterhouse Women's Centre FARE Adult Group Glenburn Adult group Provanhall Sewing Group Ruchazie Parish Church Chancers Group St Clare's Ladies group all the people that joined us for Knitting and Sewing Bees and Ashley Holdsworth, Zepher Liddell, Neil McGuire, Elissa Stevens and Colin Tennant Platform 29 Sep 2016 . 27 Nov 2016
THE EXHIBITION As a part of Platform's 10th anniversary celebrations, Glasgow-based textile artist Deirdre Nelson’s project Made in Easterhouse brought her into partnership with older residents of the area’s local housing associations. The year-long project is both a celebration of the ubiquity of human creativity and a material survey of its small-scale, intimate and place-based manifestations. Deirdre has explored the theme of ‘Made in’ through a previous residency in Timespan Helmsdale. Over the course of the year, through sewing bees, informal maker gatherings and map-making sessions, Made in Easterhouse became a hub of community-based making and the memories and lineages of craft knowledge contained within it. It honours both the conviviality and the individuality of Easterhouse's maker culture and the myriad forms it takes and has taken throughout the history of the area. The exhibition includes examples of knitwear, sewing, dressmaking, painting, ceramics, jam-making and make-do-and-mend knowhow. Each object is presented as an artifact of value - many kinds of value and as a gesture of respect both for materials and the handmade, and for the investment in place that they reflect. Alongside these objects, Nelson created 18 digitally printed tablecloths based on maps of the area past and present, which have been embroidered by Deirdre and Easterhouse residents over the course of the project. The tablecloths produce a layering of histories and perspectives, combining topographical information with images of plants and wildlife, and mark-making based on personal recollection and social activity such as bingo. Through the overlay of skilled craft, and as the background for handmade table decorations and homemade cakes at spring and autumn community tea dances, the maps have evolved into the territory itself, properly peopled and interwoven with stories, memories and social histories. Working with sound artist Jason Singh and photographer Colin Tennant, Nelson has generated a multi-dimensional portrait of Easterhouse and its residents, and the living, changing context of their lives and handiwork. Deirdre's work is a process of interweaving of people and stories - a narrative art of place-making through physical connection to people, materials and contexts. Made in Easterhouse celebrates the human desire to engage with materials, to create objects and to appreciate them. Craft work and making by hand involve processes of ritual, repetition and reflection, in both community and solitude, which
reconnect us with our bodies, with time and with one another. They also support the development of skills and tacit knowledge and honour the lineages of skill and knowledge which we both inherit and pass on. Made in Easterhouse maps a thriving ecology of making, a constantly shifting and growing constellation of imaginative and transformative acts undertaken not within the art or other commercial market, but in domestic spaces, and for their own sake or for the sake of others. Making in this sense creates both things and time - its repetitive and attentive process requires embodied relationship with materials and resources, as well as the development of skill through repetition and familiarity. Deirdre's work recognises and celebrates the symbiotic relationship between the maker and the made thing. Craft making is an act of truth - to materials, to the capacities of the human hand and the imagination, to the context in which things are made. It involves the choreography of organised process, tool use and technique, the sensory experience of assembly, the satisfaction of attention to detail, things being brought to readiness and made complete. By shifting attention to the elements that form part of the texture of everyday life, we come to see the creativity and capability involved in their production – the actual relationships between people and their histories, cultures and places. The poet William Carlos Williams wrote in praise of 'things touched by the hands during the day.' Such things, as Richard Sennett points out in The Craftsman, have sensory and emotional resonance. Though globalization and the scale of human consumption now hide many manufacturing and production processes from us, we are makers to our core, endowed with an ancient and immensely capable form of digital technology – the human hand. We make our lives, and when encouraged and supported to do so, many of the simple things that surround us and give us greatest pleasure, with our hands, with our hearts, with and for one another, day by day.
Ruth Little, 2016
DEIRDRE NELSON – BITS FROM THE BLOG „Through exploring the social history of Easterhouse I have been interested in the movement of people from the East End of Glasgow to Easterhouse and in mapping the distance. On Sunday 16th October, Myself and Jason walked from Duke Street to Easterhouse and mapped the 4.5 mile journey through data and micro photography. Wearing a Garmin Forerunner, Jason tracked our data. This has produced visual data which has sparked ideas for animation, visuals and possibly further exploration through stitch and textiles. On our walk we stopped to take micro photos along the way. This created a visual diary of the walk through texture and colour and has provided beautiful photographs highlighting the macro in an urban setting. ”
“Through initial conversations with older people in Easterhouse, many spoke of family parties where family members 'do a turn' or a party piece through song or word. This sparked ideas of creating a cross generational event where celebrating local talent of many sorts. Exploring Made in Easterhouse further we visited the Musical Group at Kelvin College who are a group of young people who meet each Tuesday and Wednesday. We were made feel very welcome by those attending and came across Jack Bestow, a young musican in the group. As a result Jason spent some time recording with Jack and the results can be found here.”
„Throughout the project connections were being built with Wellhouse Allotment Society. I was amazed by the variety of produce 'Made in Easterhouse' and care and generosity shown to the participants through Connect Trust. As a visitor to the allotments I was made most welcome and on each visit, left with gifts of plants, fruit and veg. In exchange I returned to show the guys how to make chutneys and jams. Jams and chutneys were tasted at housing association meetings and the activity not only provided a social learning experience but a new produce celebrating the allotments which could be sold at community fairs. (...) Small acts of generosity and exchange have formed an essential part of the project. ”
„In initial focus on Making in Easterhouse hand made objects were documented but the idea is explored further though focus on nature made and formed in Easterhouse. Focus shifted to the often overlooked aspects of the area such as plants or lichen. Field recordings through a hydrophones and Binaural recorder picked up the minutiae of Auchinlea Pond or the sounds of Canaries in Wellhouse allotment. You can find out more on Jasons blog here and watch a slow film of his macro photographs and recorded sounds. This combines beautiful images and field recordings from our early morning visit to the dawn chorus back in March at Cardowan Moss.”
JASON SINGH – BITS FROM THE BLOG „It's been a fully immersive 10 days in Easterhouse. Me and Deirdre have mapped walks, made food, met groups and individuals, done field recordings, taken photographs and recorded new songs.” „We met a group of young people at the Glasgow Kelvin College, the building attached to Platform. It was such a brilliant meeting! The facilities at the college are amazing and there where several practice rooms with young musicians playing electric and acoustic guitar, singer-songwriters and music producers. We asked several young people if they would be interested in performing at an informal "party piece" sharing that we where putting together the following week. „
„I was excited about getting back to Easterhouse and going to the lochs and ponds to capture more sounds. What I hadn't taken into consideration was that we are now in Autumn. Back in Spring it felt like animals and insects where out and about and very audible whereas now it feels more like animals and insects are retreating or flying off for the winter. (...) I went on a two hour walk around Bishop Loch and Auchinlea Pond, near Proven Hall. It bought home a few things in my mind about my lack of knowledge of wildlife, the environment and seasonal changes.” „Deirdre and I made Aloo Pakoreh and took them to the Wellhouse Housing Association. Deirdre also made spicy tomato and apple chutney. She used apples, onions and tomatoes from the allotment and had eight people joining in with the preparations. The atmosphere in the cafe was really lively.”
„WEDNESDAY 19TH” Every group we had worked with over the 10 days, was asked if they would come and share something of their work and/experience of the Made In Easterhouse project. It was an informal night and anyone could get up and do a part piece “turn”. It was brilliant! Deirdre introduced the evening and told everyone about her wider Made In Easterhouse work. I shared the micro images and field recordings and Jack did three songs, which blew everyone away! Jim from the Writer's Group did three poems and Joey gave an amazing talk about the history of Easterhouse and local legend Freddy Anderson. Performers on the night also included young people from Glasgow Kelvin College; Mollie and Eliie, Toni, Louis and Cooper . There was also photography by Colin Tennant and poetry by Susan Milligan. It was great to have different generations all performing and sharing side-by-side with a genuine appreciation of each others craft and life experience. There is a lot of brilliant work being made in Easterhouse. In this short time I have spent here, I have witnessed a strong energy amongst the people who live in Easterhouse and the organisations and businesses that surround it. It’s been wonderful listening to the conversations of people who left Easterhouse and came back and feel that it is a transformed place with great potential for the next generation. I have heard the most wonderful dawn chorus and walked through beautiful woods and seen a whole manner of wildlife.
It’s been brilliant collaborating with
Deirdre and exploring craft, sound, music photography and of course, food!
COLIN TENNANT – BITS FROM THE BLOG “My role was to work collaboratively with Deirdre to document conversations, interactions and activities that were developing through the ‘Made in Easterhouse’ project. Deirdre’s residency was focusing on working with later life residents from the local community and the first event I documented was the wonderful tea dance held on the 1st of April. “
“The tea dance showcased tablecloths; cake stands, and knitted flowers, which had been made by local residents through a series of knitting and sewing bees organised by Deirdre.”
“Over the next 6 months I met lots of different people and groups from the Easterhouse area and had some interesting and inspiring conversations. Alongside these conversations I was exploring the local landscape and researching the social history of the area and as well as documenting the Made in Easterhouse project I was also starting to develop ideas for my own photographic project - centered on the people and community of Easterhouse.“
“I set off to look for what older men were doing in the Easterhouse area and how they could be represented through the project. At the same time Platform started running a film club in the local pub ‘Greirs Bar’ which I helped organise – this gave me an opportunity to speak to local men who frequented the pub. I also met the organisers and attended meetings of a local men’s shed group who were trying to reintroduce a Men’s Shed center in Easterhouse.”
“I started photographing derelict football pitches in the area and researching historical football teams that were once part of the community.�