Glenfiddich announces 2024 Canadian Artist in Residence: Julie Forgues

Slightly off-topic (though see related editions here, here and here), but earlier this week I was back in Toronto for the announcement of the Glenfiddich Artist In Residency Prize. I was the Artist-in-Residence at the Dufftown, Scotland, distillery in 2008 and I have subsequently served as a ‘consultant’ on the program, mainly helping to administer the jury process. 

The event on Tuesday was held to celebrate the work of Derek Liddington (2023) and to announce Julie Forgues, from Moncton, as the artist who will represent Canada at the international residency this summer, where she will be joined by six other artists from around the globe. 

Forgues has previously participated in residencies for Swatch (in Shanghai) and aboard a boat at the Arctic Circle. 

From the press release: 

GLENFIDDICH, THE WORLD’S MOST AWARDED SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY ANNOUNCES THE 2024 CANADIAN RECIPIENT OF THE PRESTIGIOUS ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM VALUED AT OVER $25,000

 

The 19th annual Glenfiddich Artists in Residence program in Canada awards one Canadian artist an all-inclusive residency in Dufftown, Scotland.

TORONTO, ON: Glenfiddich, the world’s most awarded single malt scotch whisky, proudly names Julie Forgues of Moncton, New Brunswick as the 2024 recipient of the Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Program. The prestigious residency consists of a three-month all-expenses paid residency at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, Scotland. Forgues is the 19th Canadian recipient of the annual Glenfiddich Artists in Residence program.

 

Julie Forgues obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts at the Université de Moncton, New Brunswick, in 1995, followed by her MFA in Studio Arts – Photography at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. She joined the faculty of Université de Moncton in 2000 as Professor of Photography in the Department of Visual Arts and took position as Head of the department in 2016. She has participated in several artist residency programs internationally, including in China, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, and the Arctic Circle. She considers her photographic research as an intermediate between a space and a place.

 

“In the past few years, I have been working on photographic research about how a space can be transformed into a place but can also fluctuate between both states,” articulates Forgues in her proposal. “These in-betweens in landscapes are fluctuating states that I then render into photographic images. At every site I have photographed, I think of what was there, what is there now and what will be there in the future: spaces that are now places, but mostly places-spaces that are in limbo-ing states. My work therefore makes this process of fluctuation visible.”

 

During her residency at the Glenfiddich distillery, Julie plans to explore spaces and places created by the Glenfiddich craftsmen in and around the historic distillery landscape with photographic image. The project will reflect and pay homage to the people and community of the distillery incorporating the use of cast-off liquids, malt, and other natural elements found at the distillery.

 

“Julie’s focus on space and place is wholly pertinent to the Glenfiddich Residency, which is itself all about a particular place, the Valley of the Deer. A space made into a place by the founder William Grant in 1887,” comments Andy Fairgrieve, Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Program Co-ordinator. “I am sure the residency will be a rewarding experience for Julie and I am looking forward to seeing how she engages with the locality this summer.”

 

The Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Program is recognized and celebrated in global art communities as one of the world’s most prestigious of artist residencies, receiving hundreds of applications annually. The program transports winning artists from across the globe to the historic Dufftown setting, deep in the Scottish Highlands, to foster the creation of original work directly influenced by the Glenfiddich Distillery grounds, its processes, and its rich environment. Year after year, the artist pieces created during the residency are of unique tone, ambience and medium, and are displayed at the distillery for ongoing years.

 

"The Glenfiddich Artist in Residency program continues to capture the imagination of artists across the country,” comments Dave Dyment, Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Consultant & artist. “This year we had a record number of high-quality applications, and anyone from the shortlist would’ve made a great selection. Julie’s proposal to examine how culture shapes geography will resonate nicely with the opportunities at the residency. It reminds me of a quote from Scottish writer Alasdair Gray: ‘If a city hasn't been used by an artist, not even the inhabitants live there imaginatively’.” 

 

The 2024 residency marks the 23rd anniversary of the global Glenfiddich Artist in Residence program and the 19th anniversary of the program in Canada.

 

“Glenfiddich in Canada is honoured to support the Canadian arts community through the Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Program,” adds Claire May, Senior Brand Manager, Glenfiddich in Canada. “We are excited to award Julie this year’s residency and look forward to viewing the body of work she creates.”

 

Applications for the 2025 Artists in Residency program are scheduled to open in December 2024.

 

 

Bedwyr Williams | Basta

Bedwyr Williams
Basta
Wales, UK: Wales Arts International, 2005
[60] pp., 23.4 x 15.8 cm., softcover
Edition of 2000


I just got off a Zoom meeting with a friend who is helping to start a new residency program in Toronto, and asked Roula and I to share our related experiences with her. My sole preparation for the meeting was locating this book on the shelf. 

The opening page text is the most succinct and honest take on the residency experience: 

"Artists in residence smell, they fill their spaces with special teas, comfy mules, Olbus Oil and other knick knacks. 

They get ill, they misunderstand the heating system in their lodgings.1 

They haven't really got enough clothes with them. They don't have a car and are usually damp. 

Also you must go out for a drink with them sometime. 

THEY NEVER REALLY DO WHAT THEY SAID THEY WOULD."

During a residency at the Banff Centre, I became entirely spoiled because the staff cleaned the rooms bi-weekly, and the resident's food was prepared three times daily (with an additional self-serve snack bar space that was open 24/7). The only thing you had to do yourself was your laundry. So - even though there was a convenient laundry room within the residence building - I found myself really resenting having to do this one, single, simple chore. I drove to Calgary and bought more shirts. 

I was able to do so because of a generous uncle in the city who had loaned me his second car for the six-week duration. But it was clear that Williams' observation that most residents were without a getaway vehicle is both true and impactful.2

Unsurprisingly, Basta features a chapter on 'Laundry', as well as 'Personal Space', 'Jogging' and 'Venice the Menace'. The work was produced when Williams was invited to represent Wales at the Venice Biennale, in 2005. His work became about the experience of living in the city for three months - the disorientation, the general culture shock, the misunderstandings, the social anxieties, the overly helpful suggestions from friends at home insisting on various places that he simply must visit ("It would have been more useful if they had told me where not to go"), pets, etc. etc. 

The slim bookwork is a diary of sorts and its title, Basta, is from the Italian word for "Enough". 

We met Bedwyr, after traveling off the beaten track of the other venues to see his exhibition, which was a highlight of that year's Biennale. He was animated and amusing, much like his work, which - almost twenty years later - still examines the idiosyncrasies of the art world, pricking at pomposity. 

The exhibition Bedwyr Williams: Older Artist at Phillida Reid in London closes this Saturday, May 27th. The show features lightbox drawings with captions such as: "Quiet Art People Communicating via the Medium of Trouser" and "Artists Who Everyone Says Are Lovely Don’t Like You." Frieze reviewed the show yesterday, which can be read here. 

Despite being produced in an edition of two-thousand copies, and originally selling for three pounds, Basta is now scarce and sells on Amazon, here, for $140.00. 

1. I only half-paid attention to the instructions involving the cottage heater during orientation on my first day in residence at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Northern Scotland, thinking to myself "but it's June". I turned the heat on every single evening in the three months that I was there. 

2. The Glenfiddich Artist-in-Residence program recognizes this dilemma and a bicycle is made available for each of the summer residents. It's in the contract. 

Vanessa Maltese | Crowd

 

Vanessa Maltese

Crowd

Dufftown, Scotland: Glenfiddich, 2023

8.5 cm diameter 

Edition size unknown

Last week I was in Toronto to host an event for the Glenfiddich Artist-in-Residence program, at the Gladstone Hotel. This was the first in-person event in three years as Covid caused the program to be cancelled for 2020, and the last two years were held over Zoom. 

Participants in the Zoom event were sent parcels in the mail that included whisky, Glenfiddich swag and and an artist multiple. The first year included an etched glass by Christof Migone & Marla Hlady, and a coaster by Dean Baldwin Lew. Last year was a second coaster project, by Lee Henderson. 

This year former-resident Vanessa Maltese was invited to produce the third coaster project. She returned to her 2018 project, which explored the subject of pareidolia - the phenomenon in which the human brain perceive familiar shapes in unfamiliar surroundings. Titled Crowd, the set of three coasters depict drink stains which suggest faces. 

The selected artist for the summer of 2023 was announced at the event: Derek Liddington. Derek's proposal was that he was going to hunt for giants in the Scottish landscape, a logical continuation from his current exhibition at Daniel Faria Gallery. 

Instagram

Hopefully daily posts will return in the new year, but in the interim, follow my instagram account, where about 80% of the content is art and about 80% of that content is artists' books and editions.

https://www.instagram.com/dave.dyment/

Glenfiddich Announces the Winners of the 2019 Artist-in-Residence Prize

For immediate release:

Glenfiddich Announces the Winners of the 2019 Artist-in-Residence Prize

World-class scotch whisky leader Glenfiddich has awarded Canadian artists Christof Migone and Marla Hlady the 2019 Artist-in-Residence prize. Valued at $20,000, the prize includes airfare, accommodation, living expenses and a substantial production budget. Migone and Hlady will be spend the summer working on a new project together, at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, in the beautiful Scottish Highlands.

The three-month program hosts eight artists from around the globe to produce new works  inspired by the distillery, history, heritage, people, and craftsmanship of the surrounding area. While in Dufftown, the artists live in crofts, and are encouraged to share in a dialogue with one another and to foster cross-disciplinary ideas. Hlady and Migone’s proposal to explore the congenial gesture of ‘raising a glass’ perfectly encapsulates this spirit.

Marla Hlady is a kinetic and sound artist who works in sculpture, drawing, audio and installation. Christof Migone is an artist, curator, and writer who often works with language, voice, bodies, performance, intimacy, complicity, and endurance. Their work is celebrated across the country, and internationally.

"We're excited to be among those chosen for the 2019 Glenfiddich Residency,” says Hlady. “We each have long-standing individual art practices and started to work collaboratively in 2015. What we envision for our time at The Glenfiddich Residency can only occur as a collaboration, as we focus on the it-takes-two gesture and custom of ‘the toast’, its impetus, dynamism, spirit. What better place?”

Established in 2002, the Glenfiddich Artists-in-Residence program has become wildly acclaimed in the art world for providing artists an original setting, space, and community to create new work. The program captures the maverick spirit of the scotch whisky maker to relentlessly push boundaries and experiment with new ideas. Since its inception, the program has hosted more than 150 artists from 20 countries. Fourteen Canadian artists have previously participated, including Jon Sasaki (Toronto), Daniel Barrow (Montreal), Myfanwy MacLeod (Vancouver), Lee Henderson (Toronto), Vanessa Maltese (Toronto), Damian Moppett (Vancouver), Eleanor King (Halifax), and the late Annie Pootoogook (Cape Dorset).

Hlady and Migone were selected from over 100 entries, by a panel of six esteemed artists, curators and educators from Canada’s arts community. From the applications, the jury creates a shortlist of ten finalists, and the winning selection is made by the program curator Andy Fairgrieve, who says:

“We are delighted to welcome Christof and Marla to be our fifteenth artists in residence for Canada. The standard of all this years short listed artists was as always, incredibly high so it was a very tough choice. However their proposal to explore the ritual and ceremony of toast making while drinking is clearly a perfect fit for a whisky residency. I do feel that drinking Glenfiddich is a very social activity and making toasts embodies this sociality with a sense of performance. There is also a very social aspect to our residency programme and I am sure this summers cohort of artists will be raising glassing on the odd occasion.”

Fairgrieve and the artists are available for interviews, please contact ddyment@rogers.com.

Vanessa Maltese | Poodle Cloud

Vanessa Maltese
Poodle Cloud
Toronto, Canada: Self-published, 2018
20 x 12 cm.
Edition of 200 signed, titled and numbered copies


A risograph print made as a kind of companion to Maltese's recent bookwork, CLUES, released last month. Both works involve "peculiar cloud formations and subsequent overlaid drawings" and came about during a three-month residency at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, Scotland. Maltese created a body of work that investigated the psychological phenomenon of pareidolia, a type of apophenia, in which patterns are seen in random data (Jesus in your toast, an image of a man on the surface of the moon, etc.).

Maltese's exhibition "How Long Is A Piece Of String" opened yesterday at Night Gallery in Los Angeles, and continues until January 19th. For more information, visit the gallery website, here.

Vanessa Maltese Book Launch

Vanessa Maltese
CLUES
Toronto, Canada: Self-published, 2018
96 pp., 12.7cm x 20.32 cm., softcover
Edition of 90 [+ 10 AP]


Tomorrow night at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto, Vanessa Maltese launches her new risograph book CLUES, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

"CLUES is a new editioned bookwork by Vanessa Maltese containing 90 photographs of peculiar cloud formations and subsequent overlaid drawings. Captured over the course of a three-month residency at Glenfiddich in Dufftown, Scotland, CLUES examines the psychological phenomenon of pareidolia, a circumstance in which the brain perceives recognizable and meaningful patterns in random visuals where no patterns actually exist."

In addition to the book launch, there will be cocktails provided by Barchef and an exclusive pre-release sample of Glenfiddich Experiment #04 Fire & Cane.

The artist will be in attendance, as will Glenfiddich Artist-in-Residence program curator Andy Fairgrieve, and Canadian Brand Ambassador Beth Havers.

Artists interested in applying for the 2019 Artist in Residence program should attend an information session with Fairgrieve at Erin Stump Projects on Thursday November 9th, at 6:30 pm. There will be a whiskey tasting there, also.

Lee Henderson selected as the Canadian winner of the 2017 Glenfiddich Residency Prize

Toronto artist Lee Henderson has been chosen by curator Andy Fairgrieve to be this year's 2017 Glenfiddich Artist in Residence. Henderson will travel to Dufftown Scotland in June of this year, where he will live for three months researching local ghost stories and reanimating them electronically. For me, the piece foregrounds the humour that has always been an important part of Henderson's investigations into mortality. And - remembering some of the town residents and Glenfiddich staff from when was there in 2008 - I can imagine them responding very well to this work.

Visit Henderson's site here, the site of his gallerist (Zalucky Contemporary) here, and the Glenfiddich site, here. The full press release is below.


"Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist Lee Henderson has today been announced as the winner of the 2017 Canadian Glenfiddich® Artists in Residence Prize. This summer he will travel to the Glenfiddich® Distillery in Dufftown, Scotland, where he will produce a work that will examine the multiple meanings of the word 'spirit' and "consider whisky as a vehicle for commemoration and an expedient to shared rituals of mourning".

Henderson works in a variety of media, including video, photography, installation, sculpture, and performance, producing elegant investigations into mortality. "But they're typically funny," he says, "…the way that King Lear is funny". During his three-month residency, he will explore past local legends and ghost stories, and then set about re-haunting the spaces electronically.

Henderson is one of only seven artists from around the world awarded the prize, which is one of the most coveted residency prizes in the arts. The selected artists will live and work at the Glenfiddich® distillery in Northern Scotland, near the historic Balvenie Castle.

Celebrating its sixteenth year, the Glenfiddich® Artists in Residence Prize includes travel and living expenses, as well as providing artists with a significant production budget to create and present a new work on-site. Valued at $20,000 per artist, the Residency Prize represents the Glenfiddich® commitment to the arts and the communities it serves.

Andy Fairgrieve, curator of the Glenfiddich® Artists in Residence Prize, shared the news from Dufftown, earlier today. "We are very proud that the Artists in Residence Prize appeals to so many of Canada's leading and emerging artists," he says, noting the high number of applicants this year. Following an Open Call process, a jury of seven Canadian artists and art professionals creates a short list of ten artists, from which Fairgrieve makes the final selection.

In relation to Lee Henderson's residency proposal Fairgrieve says, "Lee's ideas surrounding spirits is of course very apt at Glenfiddich, referencing not only our single malt whisky but the haunting beautiful and historic landscape surrounding the distillery itself. His proposal to create apparitional interventions around Glenfiddich is one I look forward seeing being brought into reality and I am sure will be enjoyed by the Glenfiddich workers and local residents of Dufftown.

Upon learning of his win, Henderson stated, "I'm totally thrilled and honoured, and can't wait to start the project." He will travel to Dufftown in early June. Fairgrieve will be in Toronto this week to meet Henderson in advance of the summer residency.

The Glenfiddich® Artists in Residence Prize has sponsored more than 100 artists since its inception since 2002. Canadian artists include Eleanor King (2016), Jon Sasaki (2015), Rhonda Weppler & Trevor Mahovsky (2014), Daniel Barrow (2013), Jillian Mcdonald (2012), Helen Cho (2011), Damian Moppett (2010), Arabella Campbell (2009), Dave Dyment (2008), Jonathon Kaiser (2007), Annie Pootoogook (2006) and Myfanwy Macleod (2005).

This year's distinguished jury panel included Dr. Sara Diamond, President of OCAD University; Crystal Mowry, Senior Curator at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery; Michelle Jacques, Chief Curator at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; Kristy Trinier, Director of Visual, Digital and Media Arts at the Banff Centre; Ivan Jurakic, Director of the University of Waterloo Art Gallery; Stefan Hancherow, independent curator and Director of the 2015 Feature Art Fair, and the Canadian 2008 Glenfiddich® Artists in Residence Prize recipient, Dave Dyment."

Eleanor King | Glenfiddich Artist in Residence

On Tuesday night, at an event at the Spoke Club in Toronto, the winner of this year’s Glenfiddich Artists in Residence was announced. Eleanor King, originally based in Halifax but now living in New York, was awarded the prize, valued at $20,000 Canadian at a ceremony hosted by the program’s curator, Andy Fairgrieve.

King has participated in residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, SOMA Mexico, and The Banff Centre in Alberta, among others. Her work has been exhibited across the country, and she was a national finalist for the Sobey Art Award in 2012. She is represented by Diaz Contemporary in Toronto.

2016 marks the 15th year of the Glenfiddich Artist in Residence program, and the 12th that a Canadian artist has participated. This summer Eleanor will join artists from India, China, Australia, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Chosen from over 100 submissions, King’s proposal involves living for three months at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Northern Scotland as though it were the turn of the century. She will disconnect from any technology and information unavailable before 1900. The clothes that she wears, the food that she eats, the books that she reads, will all have been accessible to a woman living over a hundred years ago. King said that the date was not chosen arbitrarily, but that it would allow her to drink 12-year old Scotch at the Distillery, which was founded in 1886.

King spoke about admiring "the ridiculous and unreasonable" nature of Jon Sasaki’s proposal from last year, in which the artist attempted to build and fly an airplane at the site, using only a 1983 copy of Popular Mechanics as his guide. She also stressed that her work is not about nostalgia, or the suggestion that life was better in 1990 (“it almost certainly wasn’t”), but as a way to examine sustainable futures.

"My work takes many forms, and I often try to provide new ways of connecting with the present moment,” she said, “with this project I hope to create an extraordinarily local lifestyle that highlights the historical skills, traditions, materials, and foods, and ultimately gain an understanding of how time becomes "the crucial ingredient" for the cultivation of great works of art and great whiskey alike."

King’s project will ultimately take the form of an artist’s book, documenting her time at the distillery. This will mark the first time one of the participants in the Glenffidich program produced a bookwork as their primary project.

The Glenfiddich AiR Prize has sponsored more than 100 artists since its inception since 2002. Canadian artists include Eleanor King (2015) Jon Sasaki (2015), artistic duo, Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky (2014), Daniel Barrow (2013), Jillian Mcdonald (2012), Helen Cho (2011), Damian Moppett (2010), Arabella Campbell (2009), Jonathon Kaiser (2007), Annie Pootoogook (2006) and Myfanwy Macleod (2005). For more information, visit: www.glenfiddich.com