2020
28 January - 4 April
Haunted by the Ghost of a Flower
2019
4 Jul
Assembly
4 Jun - 16 Jun
LOVEAND...
31 Mar - 28 Apr
Stephanie Mann, Jack McCombe, Madeleine Hope Fraser
A Room for a Handshake
19 Feb, 5, 19 Mar
Hot Take: Travelling Crit
2018
9 Dec
LUX Scotland + TT
Gripping Wrists
14 - 17 Jun
Christopher MacInness
Sticky Vectors
29 May, 7 Sep
Roos Dijkhuizen
Becoming Understood
11 - 27 May
Verity Birt
Her feet are talons; her hands are unclean
9 - 25 Mar
3/8
Studio Visit
2017
4 - 18 Nov
Fertiliser
Event
Assembly
4 July 2019
The Anatomy Rooms
Marischal College, Shoe Lane
Aberdeen, AB10 1AN
Marking the first a-n Assembly to be organised by a collective, the event will hear from a range of collaborative projects from across the UK, focusing on the increasing necessity of artists communities to operate in this way.
Since the oil price crash of 2014, Aberdeen has been in the grips of a concerted effort to diversify its economy – and shift its identity – away from the energy sector. This has resulted in the majority of the city’s large-scale cultural venues closing for a period of renovation, including Aberdeen Art Gallery which is currently undergoing a long-delayed expansion project. In place of this institutional presence, grass-roots artist and cultural activity has blossomed, defined by a deeply collaborative community of projects.
The Tendency Towards’ programme highlights collective modes of operation as a radical and necessary approach towards energising, narrating and distributing artists’ agency across communities and geographies.
During the day, invited collective projects and practitioners from across Scotland and the UK will show us how to cultivate communities with endurance and stability, and a circuits-style activation workshop will keep us on our toes. The day provides an opportunity to share collective strategies and foster connections between invited projects, those in attendance and Aberdeen’s developing community of artist-led initiatives.
Since the oil price crash of 2014, Aberdeen has been in the grips of a concerted effort to diversify its economy – and shift its identity – away from the energy sector. This has resulted in the majority of the city’s large-scale cultural venues closing for a period of renovation, including Aberdeen Art Gallery which is currently undergoing a long-delayed expansion project. In place of this institutional presence, grass-roots artist and cultural activity has blossomed, defined by a deeply collaborative community of projects.
The Tendency Towards’ programme highlights collective modes of operation as a radical and necessary approach towards energising, narrating and distributing artists’ agency across communities and geographies.
During the day, invited collective projects and practitioners from across Scotland and the UK will show us how to cultivate communities with endurance and stability, and a circuits-style activation workshop will keep us on our toes. The day provides an opportunity to share collective strategies and foster connections between invited projects, those in attendance and Aberdeen’s developing community of artist-led initiatives.
Exhibition
LOVEAND...
7 June - 16 June 2019
The Anatomy Rooms
Marischal College, Shoe Lane
Aberdeen, AB10 1AN
Supported and comissioned by Look Again Art and Design Festival.
Supported by All in Ideas.
Supported by All in Ideas.
LOVEAND... brings together a constellation of enquiries into the apparatus and habits of hyper-capitalist working environments. Centring around a desk-like structure enmeshed in a pod, LOVEAND... is Tendency Towards' first large-scale exhibition commission as a group for the Look Again Festival 2019. The committee have sought to inverse the functionality of office furnishings to create an intimate space in which to contemplate co-working labour realities through the vocabulary of self-improvement.
Blending together material and object considerations alongside moving-image, texts and found material from disparate sources of self-care content, LOVEAND... marks a new mode of production for the initiative through a collapsing of artistic production alongside curatorial practice.
Blending together material and object considerations alongside moving-image, texts and found material from disparate sources of self-care content, LOVEAND... marks a new mode of production for the initiative through a collapsing of artistic production alongside curatorial practice.
Exhibition
Madeleine Hope Fraser, Stephanie Mann, Jack McCombe
A Room for a Handshake
31 March - 28 April 2019
Look Again Project Space
32 St Andrew Street
Aberdeen, AB25 1JA
Opening Evening: Sat 30 March, 6 - 8pm
Visit: Thu 5-8pm, Fri - Sun 11am - 5pm
www.stephaniemann.co.uk
www.madeleinehopefraser.com
www.jackmccombe.com
Supported by Aberdeen City Council's Creative Fund and Look Again.
www.madeleinehopefraser.com
www.jackmccombe.com
Supported by Aberdeen City Council's Creative Fund and Look Again.
Tendency Towards presents newly commissioned sculptural, text and sound works by Madeleine Hope-Fraser, Jack McCombe and Stephanie Mann jointly investigating the formation and narration of communal architectures. Considering the role artist-led spaces play in forming local cultural identities, A Room For a Handshake envisages exhibition-making as a framework for supporting artist actions. A programme of activations including a weekly guided library, shared meals, artists workshops and advice sessions delivered jointly by Look Again and Tendency Towards will populate the projects’ month long run at Look Again’s new city-centre project space.
Madeleine Hope-Fraser, Jack McCombe and Stephanie Mann all investigate materiality, objects, space and thingliness within their practices in multi-disciplinary methods. Covering site-specific installations, sculpture, text, performance and video, their practices are broad and explorative in their approach to exhibitions
Creating work collectively, Hope-Fraser and McCombe both studied at Glasgow School of Art, now based jointly in Toronto and Glasgow; Stephanie Mann is based in Edinburgh, currently participating in the inaugural two-year Talbot Rice Residents Programme.
A Room For a Handshake is a continuation of projects by Tendency Towards investigating the formation, operation and working methods within artist communities, often specifically looking at the emotional labor involved in contemporary collective visual arts practices.
Madeleine Hope-Fraser, Jack McCombe and Stephanie Mann all investigate materiality, objects, space and thingliness within their practices in multi-disciplinary methods. Covering site-specific installations, sculpture, text, performance and video, their practices are broad and explorative in their approach to exhibitions
Creating work collectively, Hope-Fraser and McCombe both studied at Glasgow School of Art, now based jointly in Toronto and Glasgow; Stephanie Mann is based in Edinburgh, currently participating in the inaugural two-year Talbot Rice Residents Programme.
A Room For a Handshake is a continuation of projects by Tendency Towards investigating the formation, operation and working methods within artist communities, often specifically looking at the emotional labor involved in contemporary collective visual arts practices.
Event
Hot Take: Travelling Crit
19 February, 5, 19 March 2019
7pm - 9:30pm
7pm - 9:30pm
Hot Take is a meandering crit open to practitioners based in Aberdeen, moving between the multitude of spaces emerging artists occupy. Tendency Towards recognises that studio and working space is a premium within the makeup of Aberdeen’s creative ecology, leading to a lack of resources for critical feedback and exposure for those who choose - or have no other option - to work nomadically or informally.
We invite creative practitioners, inclusive of visual artists, designers, musicians, coders and collectives, to spend every second Tuesday evening together between 19th February and 19th March to present projects or individual works which they feel are in need of feedback. Hot Take will travel between three sites each evening, which can be your flat, studio, cafe - wherever your practice is currently based.
It is free to take part in Hot Take but essential to reserve your space. For this initial trial period we are seeking 9 participants*, and we ask that you can commit to coming to every evening.
The sessions are open to collectives or groups, a place on the crits will be treated as one individual. Sessions will be arranged around proximity of working spaces, with an attempt made to not stay in the same location (i.e not staying in the same studio complex).
Session format:
It is free to take part in Hot Take but essential to reserve your space. For this initial trial period we are seeking 9 participants*, and we ask that you can commit to coming to every evening.
The sessions are open to collectives or groups, a place on the crits will be treated as one individual. Sessions will be arranged around proximity of working spaces, with an attempt made to not stay in the same location (i.e not staying in the same studio complex).
Session format:
- Tuesday 19th Feb, 5th, 19th March
- 7pm - 9.30pm
- 3 slots per session
- 10 mins presentation, 20 mins feedback
Applications should be submitted by 6pm, 10th February.
To apply please send a document (up to 300 words) to tendencytowards@gmail.com introducing yourself, project or work you are seeking feedback for, and contact details. Also include where you would like the crit to take place (your flat, specific cafe or studio complex). This information is purely for planning purposes and will not be shared with any group or organisation outside of Tendency Towards.
Find the FB event here.
*We are seeking to reserve these slots for those currently not studying on a full-time course, and ask students not to book places at this time. We are working on a format for the future which can be inclusive of students.
To apply please send a document (up to 300 words) to tendencytowards@gmail.com introducing yourself, project or work you are seeking feedback for, and contact details. Also include where you would like the crit to take place (your flat, specific cafe or studio complex). This information is purely for planning purposes and will not be shared with any group or organisation outside of Tendency Towards.
Find the FB event here.
*We are seeking to reserve these slots for those currently not studying on a full-time course, and ask students not to book places at this time. We are working on a format for the future which can be inclusive of students.