文 / 安迪‧費爾葛瑞福
Over the past seven years The Glenfiddich Distillery® has played host to over fifty artists. From the out put of each one a piece (or pieces) is selected to be retained as part of the Glenfiddich collection. The aim of this collection was to provide a snapshot of work produced by internationally- recognised artists at the turn of the 21st century. However this growing collection has come to be much more than simply a by-product of the residency programme. Each and every work is personal to the distillery; each and every piece holds memories, stories, and a history of every year. Together the collection acts as a metaphor for the relationships the residency programme has so far helped to create.
Relationships and community are key to the ongoing vigour of the programme. With up to seven artists on site over the summer, the need to build good relations and maintain a strong community is, of course, essential. Not surprisingly for a family owned company, the value of strong community relations is held close to the heart of the Glenfiddich outlook. Almost one hundred years ago, William Grant's son-in-law, Charles Gordon set out on a sales trip that would eventually see him travel the globe, carving out new markets across Asia and North America. Charles would have understood the importance of cultivating a strong network of trusted contacts to act as agents and distributors for William's whisky in these far-off lands. In doing so he played his part in the process that would see William Grant's first distillery grow from a local concern to a global brand. In much the same way the reputation of the residency programme has been greatly enhanced by the friendships that have been built up over the past seven years. In many cases these friendships continue long after the summer has ended and are now to helping to provide a global network of contacts introducing the programme to other new parties.
This network of relationships provided a good starting point for the 2008 selection process. Once again we were grateful for the assistance of Kitty Scott from the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada for providing a list of suitable candidates for the programme. While former resident, Romeo Alaeff, introduced us to several suitable New York based artists. Our previous curator, Claudia Zeiske, also assisted with recommendations for the UK participants. As well as utilising the relationships that the programme has built up across the international art world, internal company relations with the programme were also strengthened through the input of our Brand Ambassadors in several market areas. The programme was developed in 2005 as a way of providing face-to-face contact between the brand and its consumers and now boasts fourteen ambassadors working across the globe. While they may not necessarily all come from a traditional whisky background, their enthusiasm and passion act as a catalyst bringing together a global community of Glenfiddich aficionados. The social nature of the ambassadors' activities places them in an ideal situation to maintain contact with former residents and also to provide introductions to potential artists for future years. This is most evident in Taiwan where relations between our Taipei based ambassador, Eric Huang, and our long-term arts partner there, IT Park, have blossomed over the past few years. Equally in North America, close relations between our New York ambassador, Heather Greene, (also an accomplished singer/songwriter) and the city's Arts scene allowed for the selection of a second artist from that area in 2008. In addition to these existing connections, 2008 also established new involvements namely with Shanghai's Biz -Art whose Alexia Dehane provided the link to this year's Chinese artist.
The Glenfiddich Distillery employs around one hundred and twenty full-time members of staff, although this rises to one hundred and fifty plus during the summer months when a number of seasonal staff are recruited to act as guides at the distillery's popular visitor centre. It is situated on the northern outskirts of the world's self proclaimed malt whisky capital, Dufftown. The town is home to some fifteen hundred inhabitants, many of whom are employed by William Grant and Sons. To arrive in this tight-knit rural community must present a degree of culture shock to the mainly urban-based artists! Each year it is interesting to watch the bonds develop within the artistic peer group. Initially these connections are often based on geographical alignments but they also mature into alliances founded on shared interests, ideologies and artistic approaches. Early arrivals in 2008 proved to be no exception. Jin Feng from Shanghai and Taipei artist Yuan Goang-Ming quickly bonded while a similar continental block developed for the North American contingent, Martina Witte, Michael Sanzone (both from New York) and Toronto based Dave Dyment. For the UK- based artists perhaps the transition is not so dramatic and certainly this summer both of our UK residents had travelled up from fairly rural home locations: Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy from a Suffolk hamlet and Kenneth Steven from Dunkeld. Kenneth our first poet/writer-in-residence and also, thanks to the good rail links between Elgin and his home town in Perthshire, our first commuting resident!
As individual projects got under way, these early connections were realigned and strengthened, but equally they developed outwards, networking into the indigenous community. The programme has developed a curatorial approach that charges the residents to produce work that explores the many possibilities that the Glenfiddich experience can offer. These possibilities are only limited by the imagination of the artists themselves. They are free to explore any aspect they choose. Some do discover areas of interest within the fabric of the distillery itself. However the distillery is a fully functioning operation and considerations must be given to the daily work practices. In some cases there is no conflict at all, for example in the practices of New York based artists Martina Witte and Michael Sanzone. Witte's explorations took her to the countryside surrounding the distillery where, through photography, she documented and catalogued the variation in bark patterns presented by different species of tree. These would later develop into the formation of layered ink and gesso paintings that comprised her 'Nature's Design' series of works along with works inspired by the rough exterior stone- work of the distillery buildings.
A few trips to the distillery's on-site cooperage provided all the raw material Michael Sanzone required. Sanzone set about dissecting the barrel wood he had gathered. He then categorised and grouped the resultant segments into collections that spread out across the lower floors of his house. Each square of barrel wood (or, to be more correct, cask end) was then arranged and rearranged until the optimum composition was achieved. These 'wood constructions' varied in size, each chunk presented as found, the colour of the remaining cask end paint often becoming the collective theme in some works, while disjointed details of the cask stencil, warehouse identity numbers, signs of distress or makers' marks all emerged to dominate others. With a strong sculptural dimension to the collection each work carried its own sense of texture and, as some of the wood used had recently been in contact with spirit, a distinct nose of matured Glenfiddich.
Like Martina's work, 'Disappearing Landscape: Scotland' saw Taiwan's Yuan Goang-Ming spend some time working in the fields and forests around his house but equally required him to delve deep into the heart of the distillery. Some thought also had to be given to the impact on the normal activities of the area being filmed, yet these activities themselves, the normal mundane everyday happenings were the very elements Goang-Ming sought to capture and so the shooting was organised to incorporate them rather than seek to exclude or alter them. Goang-Ming's project not only caused him to come into direct contact with several key workers but documented the routine activities they and those before them have carried for generations. Technology will have changed or introduced certain practices but some tasks remain fairly constant, at least in necessity if not in method, like the cleaning of the stills and wash-backs, or tapping hoops down tight on a cask. In the final presentation one location merges into the next in a seamless linear motion. Workers are seen going about their normal routines in the distillery as the sequences soar past. Each act repeated again and again in the endless digital loop, each one trapped in its own existence. The result is an examination of the ordinary presented in an extraordinary way.
This sense of continuity was explored in greater depth by the work of Kenneth Steven, through a recorded audio piece entitled 'The Angels' Share'. As well as using his residency to complete new written works, Kenneth's main objective was to capture the very essence of the Glenfiddich character: its people. Working with Edinburgh-based recording engineer Louise Dalziel, Kenneth interviewed three employees who were coming close to retirement after each spending a lifetime working at Glenfiddich. Collectively their employment amounted to just shy of one hundred and fifty years. Their stories told of how they first came to work at the distillery and introduced the listener to some of the conditions, customs and people they encountered almost half a century ago. These tales were crafted into a thirty minute soundscape, interspersed by natural sounds and traditional fiddle music (by local musician Amy Steel) Sounds from the distillery itself were also included: timeless sounds - such a the crunch of a cask being rolled along a warehouse floor - that had provided a sound track to the working lives of the three interviewees. Kenneth's voice is also heard, reciting some of the poems he had composed over the residency, as well as interjecting snippets of historical flavour, providing a timeline to the work. This oral living history seamlessly links the present to a time past. Often poignant, it is a fine testament to the working lives of Eric Steven, Dennis McBain and Bill Duncan.
The distillery and its employees also became a focus for Nigerian born painter Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy. Her first works conveyed her love of vibrant colours, which she found in the warmth of the copper stills. The form of the stills was also a suggestive reminder of her own cultural background, in that they resembled the calabash or bottle gourds she knew as a child in Africa. Chinwe also made several trips to the print workshop at Dundee Contemporary Arts which resulted in a series of woodcut and etch prints being produced that focused on themes such the distillery's heritage and architecture. The final set of printed works, 'At the Cooperage' had evolved from numerous sketches and studies completed by Chinwe as she sought to capture the dynamic of the coopers' art. The content of these prints dovetailed nicely with several of her painted works, including portraits of senior coopers Don Ramsay and Ian Macdonald.
The work of Toronto-based artist Dave Dyment also brought him into close contact with several William Grant employees but the final aim of his work concentrated not on the people of Glenfiddich but rather the spirit. Having already touched on the passage of time in some of his past work, Dave quickly identified a strong conceptual strand in the maturation process of our spirit. Mature malt whisky is effectively a link between two points of time that can be separated by decades. To experience and savour say a 30 year old Glenfiddich is, in many ways, akin to receiving a gift from a previous generation. This idea of gifting and the passing of generations developed into the project 'A Drink To Us (When We're Both Dead)' which was an earnest attempt to produce and 'pre-market' a one hundred year old spirit. As with any project involving spirit, there were a complicated series of discussions and negotiations to be conducted. Advice on the practicalities was sought from Global Brand Ambassador Ian Millar and Malt Master David Stewart. While the unique nature of the proposal meant consents and permission were also required from our marketing and legal teams as well as outside regulatory bodies such as the Scotch Whisky Association and H. M. Revenue and Customs. The project eventually came towards the end of the summer with the burial of a cask containing five hundred litres of new-make spirit beneath the floor of Glenfiddich Warehouse No. 8. Surrounded by smooth stones from the bed of the river Fiddich, the cask and its contents should still be able to 'breathe' and perform an exchange with the soft Speyside air but should be inhibited enough to allow for a slowed rate of maturation with minimum spirit evaporation. A series of symbolically empty caskets along with a specially drafted contract were produced by the artist in an edition of 25. Of course purchasers of these caskets will never themselves be able to enjoy the matured spirit as they need to be passed on for perhaps up to two generations before the final recipient is able to return to the distillery in a century's time to claim their fill from the then hopefully still-intact cask.
The main residency project of Chinese visual artist Jin Feng was equally ambitious in its scope. Surrounding this main output were a number of other works utilising both video and photography. From the gentle teasing of the slowly opening and closing window blinds of 'Wind' to the photographic montage 'In A Field of Barley...' - in which the artist is depicted shielding his eyes from the glare of the distillery buildings - Jin seemed to be covertly observing the distillery with an air of peripheral detachment. Jin undertook these discreet surveillances as he continued to work on the story- line and props for his film 'In The Name of Legend'. A constructed myth of futile labour, it concerns a giant who seeks to capture the reflection of the sun in his large copper vessel. A sub-narrative concerns the giant's companion, a young boy who at times seems restless with the slow, ponderous actions of the sun-fisher. Of course, once the Giant reaches his final destination he discovers that the prize he has so carefully guarded has transformed into the moon! Although the actual filming was completed in only two sessions, the evolution and preparation took many weeks. A large copper vessel was fashioned from part of a redundant still into which Jin placed an effigy of the giant trapped in his own labour. Designed as an artefact, to suggest a degree of validity for Jin's constructed myth this was then placed at strategic points within the distillery courtyard, where it became a discussion point in relation to the film itself.
Although it was to be another productive year, allowing for three exhibitions of new work to be presented over the summer months, there was always some time for socialising. Friends and relatives of the artists made visits as did various representatives of the world's media. The Brand Ambassador conference held at Glenfiddich in August allowed the artists to strengthen their relationships with the very people who would go on to support them once their residency was over. Even as the last artists prepared to leave Dufftown the programme continued to reach out and make new connections across the globe. Towards the end of September Glasgow-based artist Kate Davis flew out to Alberta, Canada to take up a seven week residency at the Banff Centre. This is planned to be the first of an on-going annual exchange programme - again fully funded by William Grant and Sons. In addition to this new development, Glenfiddich was also fully involved in the sponsorship of two overseas exhibitions: A Heartbeat of Time, (VT Salon, Taipei, 7th November to 6th December) provided the first opportunity for Yuan Goang-Ming to showcase his residency efforts on Taiwanese soil, alongside newly created works by his three predecessors, Chen Hui-Chiao, Wu Chi-Tsung and Yao Jie-Chung. Meanwhile In New York, Michael Sanzone unveiled the collected fruits of his residency in 'Scottish Landscape' (532 Gallery, 12th to 26th November).
As we prepare for our eighth year, it is fitting that the relationships established over the previous years continue to feedback into the programme, reinforcing and re-energising it from within. It also seems appropriate at this time, the beginning of a New Year, to raise a glass of Glenfiddich and drink a toast to our absent friends as well as, of course, looking forward to those we have still to meet. |
