Nicola Atkinson Artist Beautiful Materials Design Studio
2023 DRIP - Glasgow, Scotland & Worldwide.
Nicola talks about DRIP
DRIP series of 14 paintings holds onto the intangible which one feels is almost out of control. These shimmering artworks are daringly intimate; tactile yet bold. They challenge viewers to slowly look, touching carefully, while observing the materials and the movement of life itself.
The combined materials set the perfect stage for the rich, bold colours which are created with expressive personal energy.
It is important to bring colour and expression to everyday life. Taking the art out of the control of the planned set space such as a gallery or a museum. Where the individual can easily take ownership, have self expression and the perfect happenstance of it all while going about their business as usable.
Here is one of the amazing images by Basharat Khan on a lovely sunny day in the busy shopping area in Glasgow’s city centre, which captures the public beautifully modelling the DRIP scarves. Taking art into the streets. Where it can become a place to share the joy of meeting new people. Bringing the art out of the shop and the gallery into people’s lives.
In the subsequent years, she has turned her attention to this new way of working, zero waste approach to pattern cutting. Building up an impressive body of work using sumptuous and colourful painting materials, opulent Velvet & translucent Georgette fabrics, creating living artworks on wearable pieces and impressive wall hangings. She is always looking for the finest sustainable materials that have a lower impact on the environment and are local source.
Nicola Atkinson paints using acrylic on canvas & wood and photographs each artwork. These images are prepared in the studio and translated onto fabric and digital media. This approach became useful for testing the strength of each concept. Allowing one to look at the work from a distance that provides a clear focus.
Her interventions have always been both large and intimate in scale, have changed community identities and formed active relationships with the built environment. Never fixed to one place or a single institution, they provide the blueprint for new ideas in art-making.
Materials
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas & Georgette
Dimensions: Various.
2022 -2023 MEMORY TREE & PIECES OF YOUR MEMORY - Aberdeen
Nicola talks about MEMORY TREE & PIECES OF YOUR MEMORY
It is wonderful to return to Aberdeen as I am not a stranger to the park; my public artwork Mosaic Gardens, 2016 was a celebrated heritage of Aberdeen Union Terrace Gardens. Two hundred flags of bold coloured images that depicted parts of the Union Terrace were hidden throughout the Gardens. This participatory installation created the opportunity to visualise a reimagining of a much-loved city centre space and introduced ideas of change and renewal. The public were then invited to take one flag creating a parade as they carried them home.
It is an honour to be invited back to create the public artwork MEMORY TREE for Aberdeen Union Terrace Gardens. A memory tree has a strong tradition, creating a focal point for people to visit and spend time reflecting on thoughts of their loved ones.
My design was inspired by the Rowan Tree, which is found high in the mountains of Scotland. It is often known as the Tree of Life, symbolising courage, wisdom and protection.
The design process started with a beautiful ink drawing, which was then crafted in Scotland using high-grade stainless steel, chosen because of its longevity and strength.
The MEMORY TREE is intimate and approachable public art, providing stimulating and brilliant viewing from many angles. The magic can be witnessed during the day, acting as a sundial, as the sun slowly casts shadows across the lush landscape of the park.
The MEMORY TREE permanent sculpture is made from stainless steel, laser cut to form the leaves, rowan berries and branches of the design. The in-between shapes that remain from this process are about 200 plus unique stainless steel pieces, varying in size. These have been individually numbered, dated, signed, deburred, electropolished and fine-tuned in order to be able to be handled.
PIECES OF YOUR MEMORY engaged with the people of Aberdeen in a collaborative approach, looking towards zero waste. I felt that the public would enjoy having a precious part of the MEMORY TREE to treasure at home. In the future, they could come to the park to find where it was cut from the MEMORY TREE, like a puzzle. The MEMORY TREE is a place in the park to reflect and think about loved ones. I am pleased that these souvenirs have become a wonderful portable part of the public artwork.
I hope that MEMORY TREE will bring light and joy to the public for many years to come.
Materials
Medium: Stainless Stain
Dimensions: 2000mm x 2000mm & Various sizes
2020 BEAUTIFUL MATERIALS GALLERY 54 Paintings - Worldwide.
Nicola talks about
BEAUTIFUL MATERIALS GALLERY 54 Paintings
Beautiful Materials Design Studio created an imaginative new space; a Beautiful Materials Gallery, that existed in 54 homes all over the world. The 54 paintings were created in March - July 2020 in Glasgow, Scotland, during the first lockdown due to COVID-19. The paintings were on display in places such as: Bogotá, Bristol, Catterline, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Isle of Benbecula, Järpås, Newark, Paisley, Paris, Santa Monica and Sheffield.
The 54 Paintings approach was an evolution of a part of the Venice Biennale 2020, (What if…?/ Scotland, V&A Dundee, 22 May - 21 Nov 2021). That project created many painted birch plywood pieces from offcuts that had been destined for landfill which were painted and placed in the streets of Annan by its citizens as colourful guide markers.
Due to the current pandemic, we are using our homes in new and diverse ways; from office to artist’s studio to schoolroom. Now some homes have also been transformed into places for the display and sale of works of art. The dealer, client and audience can co-exist in the domestic space and realise the pleasure of living day to day with an artwork.
Participating exhibitors received an artwork and could then choose to buy, sell, or return the painting to the Beautiful Materials Design Studio after the exhibition’s duration. The only public record left behind were photographs of the pieces in situ. The virtual opening took place simultaneously in 54 locations all over the world on the 20th of September 2020. In displaying the 54 paintings, each space became the Beautiful Materials Gallery; an intimate new gallery experience where the audience was the family and friends of the exhibitor. In common with artists all over the world, it was necessary to rethink how to create and show our work. Traditional galleries have been out of bounds, and opportunities to view artworks have been severely limited. Even with galleries opening again (with strict social distancing rules), funding for the creation and display of new art is scarce. The art world is teetering on the edge of a financial meltdown. Beautiful Materials Gallery is an ingenious new micro-business model that uses innovation and imagination to realise our visions.
After years of delivering large-scale public artworks and community engagement projects, the first lockdown period stimulated a return to painting. It could be said that deciding to paint now is to take on the history of art and its market. So why start painting on canvas now? It was already declared that ‘painting is dead’ in the mid-19th Century, as an era led by scientific thought and technical development flourished.
Today, in the 21st Century, everything has dramatically changed. We have adjusted to our lives being digitally filtered and our culture is provided by the means of technology, a ghost of tactile memory. We have lost our direct relationship with each other, and the culture and physical history of objects, colour, and form.
Materials
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas 300mm x 300mm
Dimensions: 300mm x 300mm
2015 - 2016 NO MANNERS - Reykjavik, Los Angeles & Berlin.
Nicola talks about NO MANNERS
NO MANNERS began as an artistic collaboration between Nicola Atkinson and Benedikt Hermannsson. The instruments were individually unique porcelain bowls, that varied in size and were irregular in shape. Trained musicians were invited to use arrangements of these music bowls to play with the idea of musical production, in one-off performances in artistic cities worldwide.
The absence of standardisation in the instruments supported an intuitive and spontaneous approach to performance. Musicians discovered tones and effects through trial and experimentation. NO MANNERS encouraged discovery without the restrictions that were present when using conventional instrumentation. To play with these bowls was to experiment with them; the two processes cannot be separated. Each musician began by sampling the tones and effects that each bowl offered. As they did so, they could arrange the bowls into groups and patterns to suit their choice of expression, and develop these as they continued. These arrangements reflected the identity of each musician and their personal artistic process. The approach precluded the use of prepared music and placed experimentation and expression as the product.
The process supported an intuitive and spontaneous form of performance that was largely innocent of the burdens of received knowledge. This presented trained musicians with both a conflict and an opportunity. The performances, art directed by Atkinson, created a powerful experience for musicians and audience, and created relationships through the collaborative process that was at the heart of NO MANNERS.
Participating musicians in Reykjavik:
Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson, Páll Ivan Pálsson, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, Arnljótur Sigurðsson, Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir, Una Sveinbjarnardóttir, Ólafur Björn Ólafsson, Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson, Gylfi Freeland Sigurðsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir and Benedikt H. Hermannsson.
Participating musicians in Los Angeles:
Kio Griffith, Gregory Lenczycki, Laurie Steelink, Gabie Strong, Joe Berardi, Breeze Smith, Ralph Gorodetsky and Dan Clucas.
Participating musicians in Berlin:
David Kristjansson, Rowan Coupland, Bastian Hagedorn and Jessica Fabre.
Materials
Medium: Porcelain bowls & Music sounds.
Dimensions: Various.
Video: Project documented by Hanna Ford & Lyn M. Watanabe.
2009 - 2010 CUP THOUGHTS - Sweden & Los Angeles.
Nicola talks about CUP THOUGHTS
The CUP THOUGHTS artwork took place over two years. The first CUP THOUGHTS / Fika event took place in Lidköping in 2009 with 101 people as part of the Cultural and Porcelain Festival in the Rorstrand Center, and in 2010 as part of Actions, Conversations, and Intersections, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.
To open CUP THOUGHTS in Lidköping and Los Angeles, the song Sweet Cake by Nicola Atkinson, a love song to a Swedish cake was sung by the artist. Based around the social institution of taking coffee, the public artwork CUP THOUGHTS brought people together in two very separate places: Los Angeles, USA and Lidköping, Sweden.
The project focussed on big and small actions within the larger contexts of community and dialogue - all symbolized by the single cup of coffee. It involved the exchange of both physical objects and intangible ideas; it was about conversations and intersections that occurred on both a local and a global scale.
In Sweden the ‘Fika’, is the social institution of taking coffee. It is about taking a break or pausing from one’s daily activities through sharing coffee and cake with colleagues, friends and family. The starting point of CUP THOUGHTS was a simple question – how do we take our coffee? This art project set out to discover the effects of the ‘Fika’ on people and their work environment. Taking a simple, very human ritual of having a coffee break, Nicola transformed it into an opportunity for discovery and dialogue, not only between Lidköping and Los Angeles but also between its people and their everyday, interesting lives. The project used modest means to reach into the intimate patterns of life, using the connections between individuals to reflect on the nature of collaboration and sharing. It brought art directly into the lives of its participants and it offered a model for future collaborative projects.
Hand-thrown ceramic cups and plates were used that had been designed and produced by Nicola in the Rorstrand Center, the ceramic centre for contemporary design and production, located in the historic Rorstrand factory. Nicola placed the drawings of her 1947 Swedish house on the cup and her garage on the plate creating a bird’s eye view of her plot.
The 101 participants in Lidköping were asked to think of a person in Los Angeles whom they would like to drink and eat from the same coffee cup & plate (after washing of course). Some of the participants wanted a person in Los Angeles just like themselves, but many were just open to someone new and unknown. As might be expected, Nicola received four requests for famous people: Clint Eastwood, Sam Elliot, Sam Harris and Kat von D. Nicola spent three months in Los Angeles finding 101 people to match the people in Lidköping. So the people in Los Angeles could drink from their cup.
Materials
Medium: ceramic, music, cake & coffee
Dimensions: various.
Publication: Actions, Conversations, & Intersections.
2008 WILD SHADES VILDA LAMPSKÄRM - Sweden
Nicola talks about WILD SHADES / VILDA LAMPSKÄRM
The centre of Lidköping had not undergone major redevelopment since the 1970s. WILD SHADES/VILDA LAMPSKÄRM was a temporary intervention and consultation with the community through action, demonstrating the effect and impact of trying to accommodate every opinion. It prepared the community for a programme of major works, and led to an understanding of the choices that go into urban planning.
WILD SHADES/VILDA LAMPSKÄRM was a public artwork that explored the ideas, conflicts and solutions that arise when the public want to reach a consensus on a public artwork. Understanding the needs and desires of the public was a significant initial stage for all major works by public and private institutions, especially when working in the built environment. Nicola Atkinson specialised in community engagement through action, not just observation.
Nicola gave the community of Lidköping an opportunity to see the process of ‘a personal choice’ in action. Residents and employees of the shops on Stenportsgarden, the pedestrianized High Street, were asked to select a colour and create a single light shade out of cotton fabric for one lamp of a streetlight. The streetlights featured 10 globes protruding in a way reminiscent of a blueberry bush full of fruit. With 24 streetlights to cover, a total of 240 bespoke light shades were commissioned.
The personal tastes and artistic preferences of those many individuals were on display for four weeks, temporarily changing an acceptance of conformity with a burst of spontaneous expression and 100 colours. The 240 people were sworn to secrecy and the work was installed at night in order to have maximum impact.
The Stenportsgarden was remodelled with new lighting, street furniture, sculptural public art, widened access and other improvements. WILD SHADES/VILDA LAMPSKÄRM was the method through which the department of democracy at the Lidköping Municipality was able to engage, inform and understand the community they serve in their regeneration of the central shopping district.
Materials
Medium: 24 Lights, 10 Lamps Per Light,
240 Light Shades,Textile & Fabric.
Dimensions: Various.
1993 : LOST & FOUND Glasgow, Scotland.
Nicola talks about the LOST & FOUND artwork.
Arriving as a stranger in Glasgow, Nicola Atkinson pondered how to locate herself in the city and reflect on the changing identity of its neighbourhoods. Through LOST & FOUND she found her way around, and connected with people, by tracing a six-mile route across the city linking two similar, yet distinct, districts. The artist sought the involvement of everyone along the route by asking to borrow an everyday item: a button or a teaspoon. By collecting these items, Nicola touched people’s lives. Although in daily use, and also easily lost, these objects had meaning, some even with special significance.
As an alchemist, Nicola transformed the collected objects into a powerful and symbolic work. Atkinson collected 1314 teaspoons and 480 button collections and formed two sculptures, one at each end of her route. The spoons were transformed into an elegant 16ft diameter chandelier, a beautiful circle hanging in the vast space of the Pearce Institute, embracing the lives of the people along the route. At North Glasgow College, Springburn the buttons were put into jars stacked up to suggest part of an iron water tower, reflecting the historical locus of settlement. Placed in front of the memorial window, the tower was flooded with and refracted light to become a memorial itself.
The return of the objects was one of the most important parts of the work, leaving only a powerful memory of the collective activity, the people and lost identities of the city. Initially the project was to be 3 months in duration, but eventually increased to 8 months because as Nicola returned the teaspoons and buttons, she shared many conversations and cups of tea with the participants. The borrowing created a relationship, similar in nature to a contract. The relationships were initially more intense, but people gave more as they knew it would be returned. This trust was a fundamental part of the project.
“Nicola Atkinson works within the community she inhabits, but her work avoids the do-gooder connotations that come with the “community art” territory. Instead, it displays a bizarre humour and a fine aesthetic quality. Her previous exhibitions include LOST & FOUND , which involved her knocking on the door of every house along a six-mile route across Glasgow from Springburn to Govan, and asking for a teaspoon. Far from chasing her away, most people were happy to donate their cutlery. She collected 1,314 spoons which she labelled with the donor’s name and then used to construct a 15-foot diameter chandelier.”
an article in G2 in The Guardian, March 31st 1997 by Lawrence Donegan.
Materials
Medium: Galvanised Steel, Copper Wire, Teaspoons, Buttons, Theatrical Lights, 39 Framed Photographs, Printed Material, Cardboard, Glass Jars & Sound System.
Dimensions: Various.
1982 - 1985 GOLDEN MOMENTS / MEMORY OF YOUR NOSE
Nicola talks about MEMORY OF YOUR NOSE
Memory of Your Nose was active in the early 1980’s, during which time their work was shown internationally, including at MOMA New York, The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and London’s ICA.
Inspired by the writing of author Philip K. Dick and his commentary on fame, GOLDEN MOMENTS / MEMORY OF YOUR NOSE was a deliberate effort to disrupt the forms of the music video and video art. Self-knowing, quirky and funny, but vigorous in meaning and commentary on the nature of the medium.
Nicola Atkinson was featured as a social stereotype, such as a terrorist, housewife or music star. The pieces were created just as the concept of music videos began to emerge and responds to their overly synthetic nature by embracing the real. GOLDEN MOMENTS / MEMORY OF YOUR NOSE was deliberately visceral and energetic. ‘My Surprise by Memory of Your Nose is a compilation of performance and music; the performance by Nicola Rosalie Atkinson-Griffith (aka Nicola Atkinson) and the music by Tom Hickmore, Tin Tin, Tony Lamb with sound engineer Pete Sullivan. The performance is shot first, then edited, often with repeats and cut-backs.
The musicians work to the edited tape, and then the music is dubbed back on to the tape with the original spoken parts. Promo tape is turned inside out, not only is the sound/performance scenario reversed, but the performance is far too threatening to ‘promote’ anything directly. In the second half (this tape is two parts of an eventual five part sequence), the unnerving sharp focus, combined with strong lighting from under the performer, on hands, eyes, tongue and lips is too close for any comfort. The performer is in turn gauche, confrontational, alert, sexy and sinister. Whose surprise? Voyeurism is neatly exposed as a camera shoots a second shot from outside the studio window. Both format and performance seem to be in question. It might seem like conjecture if it were not for the humour and the discomfort created by the almost embarrassingly close relation between performer and (through the camera) viewer.’ from an essay THE VIDEO MIX by Sandy Nairne.
‘These works prefigured the use of sampling to create popular music” Nicola Atkinson
Materials
Medium: Video.
Duration: 15 Minutes.
Publication & World Wide Festival: The Second Link: Viewpoints on Video