Tapestry, Turner Prize Past and Present, Black History Month: This Week in Scottish Art

This week's roundup of new show openings, which exhibitions are closing soon, and the best lectures, workshops and events in Scotland.

Feature by Adam Benmakhlouf | 21 Oct 2014

Before launching into what's on in Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow, this weekend there is the Fertile Ground Conference. Taking place in the small harbour town of Dunbar, the conference will explore environmental issues from an artistic perspective.  There will also be artists' presentations, guided walks and on Saturday there will be a 'Celebration of the Sea Supper' – £12 per person at the Bleachingfield Centre. Tickets are £40, or £25 per day. For booking details, please visit northlightarts.org.uk.

Heading north to Dundee, on Friday Generator Projects host the opening of 3 Church Walk. High in ambition, the exhibition will respond to the Dundee Waterfront redevelopment and turns a critical eye on the city-wide decisions being made. Through installed artworks and events, 3 Church Walk consider the tensions and relationships between function and aesthetic, and art and design. The opening will take place 7-9pm this Friday, then open Thursday to Sunday 12-5pm.

In Glasgow, a few interesting shows come to a close this week. In the Common Guild, Duncan Campbell's Turner Prize nominated work It For Others runs until Sunday. Staying on topic, Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller's show at the The Modern Institute also concludes this week. Also into the last week of its run, Michael White's You're Studying that Reality ... We'll Act Again is open Thursday to Saturday at Queens Park Railway Club.

Previous exhibitor of the Queenspark Railway Club, Hrafnhildur Halldorsdottir’s work is on display in the CCA until Sunday. The work by the Icelandic Glasgow-based artist begins with tapestry, using this tradition as a starting point to move into an exploration of form and process. 

  • Hrafnhildur Halldorsdottir: Natural History

On Friday this week, Paul Seawright will deliver the annual Photographer's Lecture for the Scottish Society for the History of Photography. On Friday morning in Glasgow, Seawright will deliver his lecture in the Glasgow Film Theatre as the Glasgow School of Art's Friday Event. Then on the same day in the evening, he will be speaking in the Scottish National Gallery's Hawthornden Lecture Theatre in Edinburgh. Both events are free and unticketed

Across the CCA and the Kinning Park Complex this weekend, Glasgow Open Dance School move into the final weekend of their programme of events as part of Black History Month. The group is comprised of Glasgow artists, affectionately known as the GODS, who over the past few years have hosted a wide range of interesting and fun events from screenings to salsa classes. The ethos of the group is to provide "a space where people can learn, teach and partake in movement related workshops for free."  There will also be a Daytime Dance Party from 4-6pm in the Kinning Park Complex, and in typical GODS style, everyone is invited. For full detail of this weekend's workshops see glasgowopendanceschool.co.uk

From this Saturday in Street Level Photoworks there is the exhibition for the Jill Todd Photographic Award. The award is given annually to photographers from the major Photography and Arts Degree programmes in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Some of the artists involved will speak about their work on Saturday at 3pm in the Scottish Society for the History of Photography.

Heading up to Aberdeen, in Peacock Visual Arts until 8 November there is Intelligence Report: A Middle East/North African Film Season and Exhibition, and includes the new film I See Infinite Distance Between Any Point And Another by The Otolith Group. The film responds to the first chapter of renowned poet Etel Adnan's Sea and Fog (2011) and is shot largely in Adnan's apartment, making for an ambient interiority. Up for the Turner Prize (which would be this week's accidental theme) in 2010, at that time this short video was made explaining their unusual collective filmmaking practice.