Come Here...Look at This
An exhibition of work form Aurrida House, Orkney
15 February - 8 March 1997

Preface by Neil Firth

The work in this exhibition has been made by children and young people who find that Aurrida House, its staff and activities, in some way plays an important role in their lives. This exhibition, and the continuing creative opportunities at Aurrida House, highlights the enjoyment that art offers in forming our view of the world, and demonstrates the expressive democracy that art allows each and every one of us.

Neil Firth
Pier Arts Centre

Introduction by Sandy Budden and Clare Welsby

In 1994 the opportunity was made available to children and young people who spend time at Aurrida House to use a professional pottery studio. Their response to this was phenomenal with an amazing amount of work, full of energy being produced.

We approached Elf Exploration UK plc and local craft businesses to fund a continuation of the children's pottery projects and were fortunate to receive a generous response. This led to a widening of horizons and three young people passing their Duke of Edinburgh bronze awards in pottery. Meanwhile the enthusiasm and new found confidence of the children had led on to other art projects, including mosaic, painting, computer drawing, and linking with Art Discovery, a community based arts project.

It was now evident that we were going to have a growing volume of work and the idea of an exhibition began to be discussed. We felt that the children's work was worthy of a professional venue, and so the Pier Arts Centre was approached. The children responded to this with their usual confidence and excitement and grasped very quickly that this was now something very special.

Again Elf Exploration UK plc were approached for funding and generously agreed to be sole sponsors of the exhibition. This gave us the freedom to concentrate on offering the children opportunities to meet other artists, experiment with different mediums, have art days, work in groups and individually and to really enjoy and push out the boundaries of their art. Every new opportunity saw the scale and scope of the work being produced grow.

It is important to stress that the exhibition is led and owned by the children. It is their personalities, ideas, enthusiasm and talent that makes it so exciting. they have not ceased in their commitment over the fifteen months that it has taken to bring this project to fruition.

Ultimately the children have earned the respect of everyone that has worked alongside them. They have proven that, given the opportunities, they will rise to the challenge and more importantly challenge us to think carefully about imposing what are really our own limitations onto others. We hope the children have been enrichedby this experience, we certainly have been!

Sandy Budden / Clare Welsby
20.12.1996

Text by Colin Johnstone

It has been over six months since I was asked to help at Aurrida House with an ongoing art project culminating in an exhibition of young people's work at the Pier Arts Centre.

I was taken aback at the request, as my own work is not educationally driven, nor is it generally accepted as 'mainstream'. Nevertheless, after getting over my initial surprise, I willingly - somewhat nervously - agreed.

In the following months I've been struck by the children's quick acceptance of me and the confident contact we made. Further, it was the acceptance, care and diligence of their own artwork that gave meaning to the project. I also came to appreciate, and understand a little better, the invaluable carework undertaken by the staff at Aurrida House.

Visual art has become the most efficient and effective form of communication in most societies; it is not the lowest common denominator but a sincere and honest record of what its creator noticed and considered important.

I also discovered a truth: that monitoring a person's performance on the basis of a simple reductive judgement - that is on what one can not do - is a perverse denial of creativity. It is also a historically dangerous philosophy based on oppression of the weak by the strong. Many still fail to recognise this.

What is recognised by all involved in this project - parents, staff and fellow artists - is that this exhibition encourages a philosophy based on the aesthetic. It is a decent and humane ethic and one which demands our attention.

Colin Johnstone

Our Thanks To

Aurrida House for having the confidence to let this Exhibition happen.

The Pier Arts Centre for seeing the potential in our proposal.

Colin Johnstone for responding so positively to the work and ideas as they developed; contributing his skills and time as well as designing this Exhibition Catalogue.

Frances Pelly for her commitment and work towards the sculpture project, especially on those early Sunday mornings!

Elf Exploration UK plc for recognising and supporting our intentions.

Glaitness Aurrida School for the link with Art Teachers: Carol Harvey and Shona Firth, and the opportunity for all the children and young people at the school to be involved.

Firth School for making a connection with Aurrida House thorough our After School Club.

Richard Welsby and Alistair Peebles for the catalogue photography.

Ariene Isbister: Art Discovery.

Elli Pearson for her support in making the porcelain clay pots.

Drew Kennedy at The Orcadian for photo mainpulation and layout.

The making of this exhibition has heightened the expectations of all those involved. We feel confident that 'Come here...Look at This' will take on a life of its own whilst in the gallery, continuing further afield, through the exhibition catalogue.

We hope these expectations will spread to a broader public and lead on to further projects, this exhibition being seen as the beginning of many ideas, rather than a culmination of one.