New artworks bring personal stories into Aberdeen Art Gallery
Five new pieces offer fresh reflections on identity, climate and Aberdeen’s changing spaces
It’s very cool to find new work nestled among older pieces at Aberdeen Art Gallery. It makes a visit to the gallery feel unique. This week, five new commissions were added to the permanent display in Gallery 1. Each one offers a personal response to existing works, with links to Aberdeen and the wider world.
Two of the works were created through the Self Portrayed project. It responds to the portrait collection gathered by Alexander Macdonald, a 19th-century granite merchant whose bequest helped found the Gallery. His collection features nearly a hundred portraits of artists from his time, but it tells only part of the story.
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Open Road presents a screening of Meet the Buchanans, an off-beat documentary about the first Clan Buchanan Chief in over 300 years. With missing historical records, much of the inauguration ceremony is improvised, offering a fresh take on the role of Clans today.
Join director Barbara Orton and Professor Alison Lumsden for a post-screening Q&A. Catch it at Fittie Community Hall on Friday 6 June at 7pm, doors open at 6.30pm. Tickets are £5, pay by card or cash.
Layers of memory and place
Annalee Davis and Richard Maguire were invited to create new self-portraits that reflect who they are and how they work. Davis, based in Barbados, uses textile and embroidery to stitch together fragments found near her studio, which sits on land that was once a sugar plantation. Ceramics from the colonial era, pulled from the soil, are sewn into the surface of her work.
Maguire’s photographic piece is rooted in Aberdeen. It layers images of his grandfather, a doctor who came to the UK from India, with childhood photos of himself. The portraits also include the grandfather’s colleagues, many of whom were assigned to the toughest medical wards. These quiet overlaps bring history close to home.
The other three works are part of the Gallery’s Micro-commissions scheme, which supports artists based in AB postcode areas. Each one connects to the collection while exploring timely themes such as climate, place and identity.
Local stories and shifting perspectives
Daisy Williamson’s tapestry, Penelope’s Web(b), nods to Waterhouse’s painting of Penelope and the Suitors. She weaves in a play on words, as Penelope also means duck in Ancient Greek, and uses the image of two eider ducks to suggest something more fragile. The work is partially unwoven, holding space for climate change and myth side by side.
C(U)SP, a collaborative project founded in Aberdeen, shares prints of empty office spaces now used as makeshift studios. It offers a contrast to the grand studios of earlier artists, such as John Phillip’s, pictured elsewhere in the gallery.
Unisus – Totem of a Change by Flying Lion imagines a winged creature built from solar panels and wind turbines, perched on the Mercat Cross. It is playful, but also points to Aberdeen’s environmental future.
Detail on the Macdonald Collection Portraits
Contemporary reflections in a historic space
Councillor Martin Greig welcomed the additions, noting that they show “the Gallery’s continuing commitment to supporting contemporary artists, particularly artists living and working in the North East.”
The new works are now part of Gallery 1, shifting the conversation within the collection. More details about the commissions and the artists involved can be found on the Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums website.
