Outer Spaces presents IN OUR SPACES, an exhibition of work by three Aberdeen-based visual artists Lauren McLaughlin, Maria Muruaga and Kirsty Russell.
This exhibition is the outcome of a six-month Outer Spaces commissioning project which highlights the complexities of hidden mental health challenges in society today, inspired by the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival’s 2024 theme IN/VISIBLE. The selected artists received a £3,000 fee, access to a large Outer Spaces studio/exhibition space and support from the Outer Spaces team.
The artists were invited to host workshops with local communities to foster social connection through collaborative artistic practice and inspire the development of a new artwork to be presented as part of this exhibition.
Outer Spaces supports visual artists working in the context of vacant and disused spaces as sites of research and experimentation. These commissions support the professional development of three socially engaged artists and the communities they work with in the city.
This project is supported by Creative Funding from Aberdeen City Council.
Exhibition
IN OUR SPACES
Location: Outer Spaces, Unit E, Shiprow, Aberdeen, AB11 5BY
Preview: 5-7pm, Friday 28th February 2025
Exhibition Open: 11am-4pm, Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd March 2025
By appointment: Monday 3rd March - Sunday 16th March 2025
Selected Artist
Kirsty Russell is a visual artist working with structures, sculpture and events that explore various social and cultural systems of support. She is concerned with the ways in which our bodies run up against existing political and social structures, and the continuous exertion this puts on them. Russell’s use of textile practices in her work is drawn from their relationship to community. People have always gathered and connected over domestic craft and textile labour. These creative and social spaces invite people to share stories and make visible their individual and collective struggles.
For the IN OUR SPACES commission, Russell will deliver a series of embroidery workshops that highlight various collective making practices. Participants will be asked to consider how they can make visible their own stories, and stories of their communities, and how they can communicate these through embroidery.
For the final exhibition, the artist will develop a textile work made using of scraps of fabric and thread residue from the workshops, and featuring embroidery informed by the sessions.
Image: Kirsty Russel, 'Buffer'. Credit, Hydar Dewachi
Lauren McLaughlin is an artist, writer, curator, and cultural producer based in Aberdeen.
She is the founder and director of Spilt Milk Gallery, a social enterprise whose mission is to support the work of artists who identify as m/others. Her practice is rooted in a desire to represent the undervalued and overlooked experiences of mothering, caregiving and gendered work through a feminist lens.
For the IN OUR SPACES commission, the artist will develop a project with Aberdeen based mothers who have experienced poor mental health. Working with mothers at either end of the spectrum of mothering (new mums and those with older adult children) McLaughlin will utilise a number of creative writing and drawing methods during workshop sessions. Participants will be encouraged to consider their relationship with maternal identity, visibility, emotional labour and the impact on their mental wellbeing.
For the final exhibition, McLaughlin will use the work produced during these workshops to inform a new performance piece and series of screen prints aiming to make visible the mothering, caregiving and labour of these mothers, and the lack of support systems in place to ensure mothers’ positive mental wellbeing.
Image: Lauren McLaughlin, 'Madonna as a Young Mum'
Collage and ink on paper, 2022
Maria Muruaga is an Aberdeen based artist, that works principally with photography and clay to explore sociocultural aspects of human interaction, and individual and collective identity. Her socially engaged collaborative practice is informed by her rich Venezuelan heritage and Basque-Spanish roots.
For the IN OUR SPACES commission, Muruaga will develop new work in collaboration with people going through their own journeys of recovery or renewal, following displacement, new diagnosis or ongoing health problems. Through an open invitation, participants will include friends and family members, and people whose first language is not English.
The artist will guide a series of ceramic workshops with participants to realise a collaborative sculptural piece. Muruaga’s intention for the workshops is to offer participants the opportunity to use creativity as a medium to connect and heal with others that share similar experiences.
Image: Maria Muruaga
Play will be used as a seed point to explore the tactile properties of clay and to break down barriers. Muruaga will also use photography to capture the creative and social process, bringing into focus the collective act as part of an ongoing therapeutic inquiry. These photographs will form part of the IN OUR SPACES public exhibition in March 2025.
Header image: Maria Muruaga
Artist interviews
In early December 2024 we caught up with the selected artists to hear about their plans for the project.
Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival
This year’s Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival took place across Scotland from 10 – 27 October 2024, exploring the theme of‘In/Visible’. For more information please visit: https://www.mhfestival.com
© 2024 Outer Spaces
Registered Scottish Charity No: SC051153
Registered Address: Artists’ Spaces SCIO, 15 Calton Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8DL
