Art News: Spring Fling brings urban art to rural Scotland; Buzzcut Festival returns

SPRING FLING: URBAN ART IN RURAL SCOTLAND

"The murals are big, colourful and fun – they really stand out in the landscape and we hope that people will enjoy seeing them," says Wyllie. "We’ve got an amazing combination of nationally and internationally-known street artists working with some incredibly talented people from the region to create the murals – and the results are fantastic."

Featured artists in this year's Rural Mural Project include Alice Francis, Hope London, Katharine Wheeler, Amy Winstanley and Denise Zygadlo, working in collaboration with Recoat artists 1010, Will Barras, FiST, Fraser Gray and Amy Whiten & Ali Wyllie. We spoke to Fraser Gray, who collaborated with Denise Zylgado on a mural featuring a campfire scene, painted on the gable end of a residential cottage, about his contribution to this year's project.

"The house is in a tiny little village called Keir, which is a really small place," says Gray. "I was initially quite sceptical about the idea – not knowing Dumfries and Galloway well, I thought it was quite a conservative place. But it was just full of artists – everyone was really excited to see something happening. I was expecting to come across some naysayers – that happens everywhere when you are working in the public realm; you can't please everyone. But everyone seemed really positive. Everyone we did come across, Denise [Zygadlo], who lives locally, knew anyway – there was a real community investment in the project. Spring Fling brings a lot to the area, and everyone was very supportive."

Fraser Gray and Denise Zygadlo with their mural in Keir, part of the Spring Fling Rural Mural Project. Image courtesy of Spring Fling & Colin Hattersley

Gray, who lives in Edinburgh, can see the appeal of being an artist based in a more rural area. "Seeing the way that some of the artists live in Dumfries and Galloway is quite inspiring," he says. "Denise has a beautiful studio converted from an outhouse in the back of where she lives. The kind of facilities you simply couldn't have in cities." As the price of maintaining a city studio continues to rise, he can imagine more artists seeking the peace and quiet and comparatively cheaper rents of rural communities to carry on their practice. "There were so many artists there already," he says. "It's brimming with creativity."

Gray recently completed a mural for Edinburgh's Hidden Door Festival, and he says the experience of painting with Zygadlo in Keir was completely different. He was inspired by "hearing birdsong, and the trickle of a burn" while painting. "It's just so out of the way – it's really quite tranquil," he continues. "It was a much more relaxing way to create a piece of art!" He recommends travelling the distance between the different murals to take them all in. "You're not going to see it all in a day," he says. "It reveals itself more slowly than something in a city would." You can take a look at the mural he co-curated with the Blameless Collective for Hidden Door at the top of our recent Zap! newslettter.

"Spring Fling is all about bringing art to the widest possible audience, and there couldn’t be a better way of doing it than Rural Mural," says Leah Black. "It’s colourful, fun and something that everyone can enjoy. We hope the murals will be a real attraction for visitors to the region, especially during the Spring Fling open studios weekend." For details of the locations of the featured works in the 2014 Rural Mural Project, visit the Spring Fling site.

LAUNCHING TODAY: BUZZCUT FESTIVAL AT THE PEARCE INSTITUTE, GLASGOW
The Buzzcut Festival returns to Glasgow, launching today at The Pearce Institute in Govan. This year, the organisers promise "Live art, people, food and hugs" at their ongoing, five-day showcase, which runs until 27 April. The artist-led extravaganza will also feature a a pop-up bar and restaurant from the people behind Stereo (who also host an epic closing party for the Buzzcut crew on Sun 27 Apr).

For the duration of the festival, performances will begin at 1pm, carrying on until late in the evening. At today's launch, which kicks off at 2.30pm, there will be performances from the likes of Louise Ahl, Edward Crawley, Tom Frankland, Sylvia Ziranek, Rachel Mars and others – the full programme can be found here. Featured artists and performers appearing in the days to come include Conor Baird, David Sheppeard, Harry Giles and many, many more. Find out more about the festival here.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: ANNUALE 2014
The Annuale, an annual festival of independent and grassroots activity happening in Edinburgh, and supported by the Embassy Gallery, have put out a call for submissions from artists, filmmakers and performers to take part in this year's programme, which runs from 20 June until 6 July.

Past events have featured exhibitions, one night events, screenings, workshops and trips out of the city, with the Embassy providing support and press for the featured artists. Applications are open to artists based in Edinburgh, but also to practitioners based outside the city. For more details, and to register your interest, email annuale@embassygallery.org.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: NEO:PRINTPRIZE 2014
The annual neo:printprize is a biennial competition organised by neo:Studios in Bolton, open to all artists and practitioners working in the print medium. According to the organisers, the prize offers "a prestigious showcase for contemporary visual artists working within the field of printmaking alongside an impressive list of sponsored prizes and the opportunity to be considered for the 12-week neo:residency supported by University of Bolton." The worth of the prize fund totals £5000.

Work in the form of 3D prints, monoprints and print related installations are welcome, with submissions open until 12pm on 16 June. The competition is open to all artists aged 18 or over, from the UK and beyond. Later in the year, an exhbition featuring some of the work submitted will run at neo:Studios from 28 August to 2 November. Details of the brief, and how to enter, can be found here.

EVENT: SUNDAY ART SCHOOL AT CAMP & FURNACE, LIVERPOOL
A family-friendly event taking place at Liverpool's Camp & Furnace this weekend, organised by the people behind the Liverpool Biennial, will see artist Kevin Hunt leading a workshop on 'Fantastical Objects,' with children and adults invited to collaborate to make a unique piece of art. 

Youngsters and grown-ups collaborate on art projects at Liverpool Biennial's weekend sessions, at Camp & Furnace

The event is free and runs from 1-5pm – but get along early, as their last workshop, exploring 'Giant Murals,' attracted more than 200 visitors. The next event is on 18 May, and will focus on using mirrors and illustration techniques to create 'double drawings' and symmetrical art, in a session led by Flis Mitchell. For more information about this weekend's event, visit the Liverpool Biennial website.

EVENT: FILM & BURRITO AT RHUBABA, EDINBURGH
Film and the moving image are proving to be increasingly popular approaches in the practices of UK contemporary artists, and as everybody knows, there's one thing almost guaranteed to improve any film-watching experience – and that's a piping hot burrito. As luck would have it, the folk at Rhubaba Gallery & Studios in Edinburgh are wise to this, and tomorrow night, they have organised a very special Film and Burrito event, taking place at Rhubaba at 7pm. 

Rhubaba's Faith Limbrick has curated an evening of artists' films to accompany the king of Mexican snack foods – get yourself down early and grab a wrap, and enjoy some cutting-edge contemporary art flicks. Find out more here.

EXHIBITION: VERGES – THE WILD PROJECT AT IR11, EDINBURGH
The Wild Project, originally founded in Zdoňov in the Czech Republic by Alexander Stevenson in collaboration with Stan Coenders, are bringing their latest exhibition, Verges, to Edinburgh's Interview Room 11 from 2-17 May, exploring "concepts of wildness and re-wilding." Verges is the collective's second exhibition, curated by artists Nathalie Holbrook, Jacek Hubner and Alistair Grant, whose work also features in the exhibition.

"Whilst Urban and Nature ideologies are often pitted against each other, this exhibition hopes to illuminate and explore the notions that they are not so much versus, but are often operating on each others periphery," say the organisers. "Wild(er)'ness is often imagined from comparable situations, at work behind an office desk, looking out of a window, or taking a physical journey. What happens at the boundary when we try to experience 'wild(er)'ness and we cross back and forth?" 

Other artists participating include Melissa Burns, Danielle Heath, Beth Savage, Thomas Keyes and others. The opening, on 2 May, begins at 5.30pm. Thereafter, the exhibition will be open from 4-7pm Monday-Friday, and 11am-2pm on Saturdays, until 17 May. Check here for more details.

EXHIBITION: TOBY PATERSON AT FIFE CONTEMPORARY ARTS & CRAFTS, THE KIRKCALDY GALLERY
Artist and Glasgow School of Art graduate Toby Paterson's new exhibition opens on 27 April at Fife Contemporary Arts & Crafts at the Kirkcaldy Galleries. The new exhibition is part of GENERATION – a national celebration of the best of Scottish art from the last 25 years linked to the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, which we'll be looking at in-depth in the next issue of The Skinny.

An earlier work by Toby Paterson - Teetering Megastructure (2011), etching and aquatint. Image courtesy of Toby Paterson, editioned by Peacock Visual Arts.

The exhibition at FCAC will feature prints and paintings from the last 4 years of Paterson's career, with a few early works included. "I'm drawn to buildings and environments all too frequently deemed as presenting evidence of failure, or even to those considered as of no interest at all," writes Paterson, whose work asks audiences to question their assumptions about the built environment. For more details, visit the FCAC site.