DJCAD RESEARCH EXPO 2023: Exhibition of research projects by staff and PHD students

    Research output: Non-textual formExhibition

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    Abstract

    Exhibition dates: 27/01/23 → 18/02/23
    Exhibition venue: Matthew Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, United Kingdom

    Artwork: 4 new prints from film Beautiful Sunday (MCO)
    Beautiful Sunday is a film made in 2021 with a group of people aged between 18 and 84, brought together after a long period of lockdown. They are doing The Slosh, a collective dance that is said to have emerged from Northern Soul, that was very popular in 1970’s West of Scotland. Today it is mostly seen performed by groups of older women in social clubs and at weddings and family -functions. It is a dance that many think they know but few can execute well, the actuality of the dance versus how a crowd of women think it should ‘go’ being one of the great urban myths of social gathering, a vivid memory for anyone who grew up in working class communities in the north. Three or four women with ‘the knowledge’ lead, a group of 20 others, often younger, trail in their wake.

    The dancers form a grid, a swaying, sparkling unit that gathers momentum as more join in, making an almost military formation as they collectively turn. Planned long before the pandemic as an event for a public hall in Glasgow, making Beautiful Sunday became a celebration of all we had missed in lockdown.

    Rehearsals were held on Zoom, and the final event was filmed outdoors on a multi-use sports park using a drone, as gathering indoors remained prohibited. The film was first shown at Folkestone Triennial 2021, on the site of a former gasworks and associated social club.

    These stills show the group both warming up and dispersing, the tiny figures forming a random pattern, anticipating the dance to come.
    Original languageEnglish
    Media of outputOther
    Size126 x 126 (x 4 prints)
    Publication statusPublished - 27 Jan 2023
    EventDJCAD RESEARCH EXPO 2023 - Matthew Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, United Kingdom
    Duration: 27 Jan 202318 Feb 2023
    https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/101040637/Research_EXPO_2023_HD_subtitles.mp4

    Keywords

    • Print
    • Contemporary art
    • Social dance

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