Engage Everyone
The Engage Everyone project based at Dundee Contemporary Arts is running 2 Artist Residencies simultaneously until the middle of October. I am fortunate to be based in the Print Room at DCA for the majority of this time. I hope I am more Kid in a sweet shop than bull in a china shop. We’ll see.
Just so as you can get a feel for the stuff I do and the approach I have to making work you can see a general statement below.
Aidan Moesby is a socially engaged artist. His process is based around dialogues and conversations, forming the foundation of his research these lead to creative responses. These conversations may include one to ones with people or organisations or a more forensic dialogue with specific sites and locations. They may be spoken, observed or creative and are about discovering stories - we are constructed of our memories and these form and influence our identities. These personal and organisational myths affect how we are in the world and influence our relationships.
Moesbys’ work is further informed through the imagery and rituals we use to create and make sense of the everyday. He explores relationships between people and place through the distillation of intimate, often concealed histories. Often site-specific, no matter what the medium – ink, pixel, parquet, dust – the word and its meaning is paramount. He is obsessed by all things text and the letterpress tradition.
I arrived in Dundee on the afternoon of the 28th of August so I could settle in for a day, explore Dundee, get a feel for the place. The good news is I like Dundee. Phew! Part of my remit is looking at engagement in its’ broadest and unprescriptive sense - I am a keen explorer of social media. As I don’t know anyone in Dundee I am using the hash tag #lostindundee and #artontheroad together with the more official #engageeveryone.
I was going to blog as I went along but so much happened and the restrictions of B & B it didn’t quite work like that. I will be reflecting on the experience from here on in. It’s not just about DCA it’s also about being an artist in a strange town, alone for 5 weeks and living and working. The process of being resident as well as doing a residency.
