News & Events The Art of Resilience Exhibition This online gallery exhibition features work created by our Scottish poets and artists during a year that saw life as we know it grind to a halt. With gallery closures and live events cancelled, the art world was gravely affected by the restrictions. But shining through the darkness and uncertainty of our contemporary moment, our featured creators found silver linings in these strange times and worked on new projects that speak to our shared resilience through the pandemic. It is our hope that this exhibition stands testament to the incredible resilience and ingenuity our Scottish creators have shown over the course of this past year. The Art of Resilience was curated by Jessica Stevenson of Dundee University. Image 1: Atlas of Scotland Andrew has been creating an illustrated Atlas of Scotland during lockdown, the first of its kind in over 100 years. Image 2: Atlas of Scotland Drawn by hand, the Atlas maps all of Scotland’s seven cities, plus a number of historic towns, rock formations, fault lines and mountains. Image 3: Atlas of Scotland Like most of us this past year, Andrew has worked entirely from home on this project, making the most of the solitude to dedicate his time and patience into creating something meaningful. You can download and read Meaghan's full essay here. Image 1: The pandemic has inspired one of her main university projects: Always be Looking, a children’s alphabet book focused on seeing the world from a new perspective- which Karen learnt to do while taking long walks to see new things during the monotony of a stay-at-home order. Image 2: Through her illustration work, Karen attempts to capture and convey warm and cosy feelings, and wants her work to have a positive impact and make people smile. During lockdown, this outlook has helped her remain positive and channel her creative energy into bright and colourful projects. Image 3: Karen felt extremely lucky to have been granted access to the ceramics facility at DJCAD and was able to produce a range of ceramic plates based on an anti-diet mentality and food positivity after noticing the popularity of restricted diets rising during the pandemic. Image 1: Woven Wall Hanging Eilidh has taken up tapestry weaving during the pandemic, taking inspiration from the colours found in Orkney's rich land and seascapes. Image 2 Bespoke Wall Hanging This past year art has been both a refuge and release for Eilidh, who found weaving her wall hangings to be particularly therapeutic. This comes across in the intricacies of each tapestry and the uplifting colours that infuse a sense of joy and positivity. Image 3 Screenprints Eilidh has also been creating screenprinted patterns on wall hangings and prints, with additional hand and machine embroidery. The colour palettes are built around the natural scenery in Stromness.’ Image 1: Out of Celan In the initial lockdown, Heather worked from home in Orkney on this artist book, which pushes the limits of the languages and cultural contexts she has lived and worked in. Image 2: Out of Celan The lockdown gave Heather the chance to concentrate on making and thinking without distractions. What came out of this experience is an artist book that looks back on her experience of reading the poetry of Paul Celan while travelling in Morocco. Image 3: Fascicles Fascicles is a poetry-image mail-art collaborative project with long-term collaborator Tim Brennan (Professor of Art at Manchester School of Art). Usually, their work involves site-specific work, but, due to the various lockdowns, the site-specific collaboration became double rather than single-sited. The work thus speaks to cross border collaboration and unity in a time of isolation and uncertainty. Meet the Art of Resilience's contributors here.