SPANISH SUN ...

Its been another busy and sunny week up at Glenfiddich. Monday saw the arrival of the artist known simply as Suso 33, the first Spaniard to be in residence here since 2007. Although Suso's work also involves video and performance he our first resident to practice street/urban art.

The inspiration environment of The Glenfiddich Distillery has already provided Suso with a number of ideas, which as they come to him are jotted down in his notepad for future reference, one or two have even been put into practice. Using the gable of his residency accommodation as a canvas and water as a medium he has been producing ephemeral graffiti which begins to fade away almost as soon as it appears.

As well as comings there has also been goings, with Joyce heading back to Taiwan to attend a family wedding and Han off to a Paris studio to begin the editing work on the sound recordings he has collected over the past few weeks to provide the audio content of his installation. This meant that they both not only missed this week's ceilidh but also the first of Hugh's 'salon' evenings which, was attended by two visiting artists, Carl and Nick, who are currently in residence at the Scottish Sculpture  Workshop over the hill in Lumsden.

SPORTS AND SOCIAL...

For newest resident Hugh Hayden the first week at Glenfiddich has been something of a social whirl. Dallas born Hugh arrived in the middle of a spell of fine sunny weather allowing Rhonda's husband Richard the opportunity to let everyone play with his nice shiny new balls.

Despite no one really being too sure of the rules or indeed the proper technique for playing. Aided by several 'Ginger Jerries' it still managed to remain a good natured game, with gallery assistant Gail proving herself to be champion of the bouls.

Hugh takes up the sixth residency place this summer and for the next three months he plans a series of sculptural works contiuning his interest in camouflage, landscape and ground nesting game birds. In between asking questions Hugh also enjoys to drink lots of water and make strong coffee.

As well as showing Hugh round the distillery site - now almost back to normal after the recent 'silent season' he has also had the chance to get out and about to see the local surroundings and some of the habitats where his elusive game birds are to be found. We even found time to squeeze in the obligatory trip to Elgin to visit the holy trinity of residency retail therapy, - B&Q, Moray Office Supplies and Asda.

However highlight of the week had to be the first ceilidh of summer where this years ceilidh virgins were introduced to the Dashing White Sergeant and his friends the Gay Gordons.

PIPE DREAMS...

 

Now that we are a good month into the residency, many artistic projects are starting to come together. For Han Wonsuk this saw a special delivery of custom made cardboard tubes arriving on Tuesday. These are to be incorporated into the audio installation Han is currently preparing our black room for in his own particular style. Always dressed for the occasion, Han likes to compliment his Dutch prison overalls look with colour co-ordinated accessories.

Meanwhile in the front part of the gallery Tuesday also saw the last session of Rhonda's coin making workshop. With the coin sculptures now completed and a mold made of each one. The next step of casting a replica using a special material that shrinks down four times smaller than the original can be carried out. It is these smaller coins that will eventually be recreated in cast copper. 

SILENCE PLEASE .....

It has been a quiet week up at Glenfiddich, literally. Late spring has long been the traditional time for the so called 'Silent Season' when many distilleries across Speyside cease production for up to three weeks in order for essential maintenance and safety checks to be carried out on the plant and equipment. For most of the past couple of weeks the still houses of Glenfiddich have pretty much been out of bounds to visitors. But with the shut down now coming to an end and production scheduled to start up once again there was an opportunity to get our newest resident, Isidora Correa in for a quick tour of the process areas.

Isidora is our very first artist from Chile. So far she has used ceramics, plastics and wood in her sculptural works. However for her time at Glenfiddich she plans on using copper as her primary material. Coincidently, Chile is the worlds top producer of copper and has with in it's territory well over a quarter of the world's total reserves. 

The tour of the Glenfiddich process areas let her see first hand just how central copper is in the production of single malt whisky. Not only do it's physical properties of being highly malleable and an excellent conductor of heat make it ideal for the construction of stills and other pieces of distilling equipment. It has qualities that allow it to interact with the hot vapours rise up inside the still. 'Sweetening' the flavour profile of the new make spirit, removing some of the more sulphurous elements present in the brew. Over time the scouring action of hot gases inside the still cause certain areas of the vessel to wear out faster than others. In areas of high scouring such as the top of the still, where the vapours meet the swan neck, up to 2mm of copper thickness can be lost over the life time use - normally around 15 to 20 years.

Stills are of course themselves highly crafted objects, the matching of function and form is almost sculptural itself. As the shape and size of a still directly affects the character and flavour profile of the new make spirit it produces there has developed a huge variety of designs, unique to each distillery. The stills of Glenfiddich are particularly small so as a comparison we also managed to take a look at William Grant and Son's other two distilleries, Balvenie and Kinnive, allowing Isidora to begin to understand the range of forms and sizes stills can take.

This was further reinforced with a special visit to Forsyths of Rothes, a family owned business based a few miles from Dufftown. Forsyths are one of Scotland's principle coppersmiths serving the distilling industry internationally. Our visit by special arrangement allowed Isidora and Rhonda the opportunity to see an age old craft in action. Although modern technology is now employed at certain stages of production. The vast majority of the process involved in transforming a sheet of metal into a ready to function distilling vessel still requires a high degree of traditional handcrafting and finishing. And so with same techniques and tools being used today that would have been know to the companies founder Alexander Forsyth when he began his apprenticeship in the 1890's.

As well as checking on the progress of new stills currently being made for Glenfiddich. We were also able to see a number of other finished stills ready to be installed at distilleries both home and abroad. Being given this rare opportunity to see such a group of stills assembled together really brought home the diversity and beauty of these objects.

HANS ON EXPERIENCE ...

 

Our newest resident Mr Han Wonsuk has spent his first week here at Glenfiddich getting orientated and organised for the next three months. Fitting in well with his hi visibility foot ware he has already identified the black room in the back of the gallery as the ideal location for his planned sound and light installation..

 

 

Han Won Suk’s artistic practice crosses a number of different disciplinary boundaries. A graduate of the Chelsea College of Art and Design he is also a trained architect which is self evident in many of his large scale public installations.

 

As an architect, Han's primary interest in form and arrangement is translated into his art through sculpture and installation.Utilising abandoned or waste materials –such as old car headlamps, hi-fi speakers or discarded cigarette butts – he attempts to reconcile the consumption of mankind with a rebirth through abandonment. In this sense Han’s work lies between the boundary of dual structures such as waste and art, human and nature, civilization and environment, front and back.

 

It is however the duality of light and shadow that will be explored in his residency work. When he is not to be found soaking up the recent early summer Dufftown sunshine outside his cottage Han is likely to be in the black room, positioning and considering one of the special light/speaker units he brought with him from Korea.

 

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ...

The past few days saw the first sessions of Trevor and Rhonda's coin making workshop take place. A good response saw a healthy turn out for both the Thursday night and Saturday morning sessions. Some even stayed and took part after it had been explained that the workshop was to make a one off personalised commemorative coin and not the forging of legal tender for use in slot machines...

ART CAN BE A DIRTY DIRTY BUSINESS...

The tranquillity of the distillery has been slightly disturbed this past couple of days, where the artistic school of thought has certainly been that of  becoming at one with the material. This week scraping, banging and grunting noises have been heard emitting from the shed behind Balvenie Cottages, home to Trevor and Rhonda, as becoming one has been a very literal experience for Trevor. Armed with a wire brush and scrapper he has been preparing a number of old cask staves and making them ready for the next stage. The Canadian pair usually work with shelf bought sheets of veneer but at Glenfiddich have decided to make their own. With now over 50 staves cleaned up, free of any grit and spots of rust  - left clinging where the stave was in contact with the iron hoop, the next stage will see the faces of the staves put through a band saw. Producing thin slivers of wood still showing the marks of ageing which will give the resulting veneer sheet its own character.

Fortunately a new washing machine was installed into Rhonda and Trevor's kitchen yesterday so Trevor should be able to have something clean to wear at tonight's first coin making workshop. 

Alternatively... he could borrow a tin flute from the very dapper Han Wonsuk who arrived in style from Korea yesterday evening.