BACK IN THE DAY ...

The start of a new month brings another clutch of arrivals to the Glenfiddich residency. As with Taiwan, we have been inviting artists from Canada to Glenfiddich since 2005 making Eleanor King our twelfth resident from that part of the world.  The recipient of this year’s open call for Canadian artists to apply for the residency it was in fact Eleanor’s third application proving the old adage.. if at first you don’t succeed … to be true.

This time round however, Eleanor’s proposal of course caught the eye of the selection panel as it laid out her intentions to follow a lifestyle foregoing modern technology by living her residency as much as she could as if it was the year 1900. So to help Eleanor out as much as we could in her Victorian lifestyle we made sure her house had an open fire for heating and plenty of candle sticks for light! Her residency work shall only employ media available at the turn of the 20th Century so drawing; painting and photography (only black and white)  are all allowed under her rules but obviously not video or 3d printing. She can catch a train to Keith for shopping but not a bus to Elgin and when she gets to the shops her choices are limited to products that are not wrapped in plastic.

Daily chores such as the laundry have to be carried out using only what would have been available in her chosen time period, so an early purchase was a scrubbing board and supply of carbolic soap.

As well as art Eleanor …  in the best spirit of Victorian documentation … plans to keep a journal of her trip to the past. And in case you are wondering why she chose 1900 as here period it is very simple. The Glenfiddich Distillery first started to produce spirit in 1887 and so she wanted to ensure still she was able to enjoy the odd dram of Glenfiddich that had been fully matured for twelve years !

Eleanor's inclusion in the 2016 Glenfiddich Artist-In-Residence Programme is just one of a long line of accomplishments for this tireless artist. She has been awarded great accolades such as the Fulbright Award, grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Nova Scotia grants, she was Finalist for the Sobey Art Award in 2012, with honorable mentions (long list) in 2014 and 2015. She has been awarded fellowships at prestigious residencies of The MacDowell Colony, The Banff Centre, The Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Yaddo, and SOMA Mexico. She's an active exhibitor across the world, with large installations at well-known institutions across Canada and beyond