Wasps/ Spring Fling Residency Collaboration

Friday 17, April 2009

For the first time, Wasps Artists’ Studios and Spring Fling were able to collaborate on an exciting new residency project, inviting an artist based in Wasps studios to apply for a residency in Kirkcudbright that culminated in the presentation of a new piece of work for the Spring Fling event.

Now in its seventh year, Spring Fling is the most successful open studios event of its kind in Scotland and a major tourism event in Dumfries and Galloway, attracting around 8,000 visitors to the studios over the weekend. Spring Fling showcases the work of local artists and this year, nearly 80 artists opened their doors to the public over the bank holiday weekend of 23rd – 25th May.

The selected artist, Edinburgh-based Tim Taylor, saw off strong competition from over 30 other applicants from Wasps studios across Scotland. The residency took place in the proposed new Wasps studio buildings in Kirkcudbright town centre, where Taylor spent 10 days in the lead-up to and during Spring Fling exploring the natural and cultural heritage of the town and creating new work to be showcased in an ‘open studio’ environment during the 2009 Spring Fling event.

Please visit our Flickr site to see images of the works that Tim created throughout the Claverhouse building for the weekend. The residency was a massive success and hundreds of visitors to the Spring Fling event came to see Tim's work. We are certain that the work will make you smile.

A sculptor and installation artist who works with found objects and second-hand items, Taylor used the town’s artistic and maritime history as starting points. A visiting lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, his work is characterised by an exploration of the beauty, pathos and humour inherent in the everyday and has previously been shown as far afield as Ekaterinburg, in Russia, and San Francisco, in the USA.
 
Tim was delighted to have been chosen as artist-in-residence at Kirkcudbright for Spring Fling 2009 and very much being a small part of Kirkcudbright's fine artistic heritage, begun some 120 years ago by the highly influential Glasgow School."
 
Spring Fling board member, Maggie Savage, said: “Tim's work was also symbolic of the opening of the new Wasps studios. The creation and installation of artwork created during a residency on the site of the new studios marks the beginning of a transition from unused buildings to creative spaces which will soon provide artists and makers with the opportunity to explore and produce new and exciting work of their own.”

This residency was supported by Dumfries and Galloway Council's Beacon Events Programme.

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