14 December 2006

Turbine trauma examined

The impact of the controversial wind turbines which tower over Dundee’s Michelin plant and dominate the skyline of the city’s eastern perimeter is examined in a new exhibition at the University of Dundee.

The `... Approaching Documentary’ exhibition brings together three Fine Art 3rd year students exploring the field of documentary: Barry Slavin, whose camera is the medium through which he investigates people’s behaviour and relationships, and Euan Taylor and Joyce Stewart, who, with their video cameras, tackle topical environmental issues.

The wind turbines at the Michelin plant in Dundee are Dundee’s first wind turbines to be erected. Euan Taylor chose to approach this controversial subject, a decision he likened to, "like standing on a wasps nest". His video shows the elegant turbines swiftly rotating amongst the white smoke coming from the plant, and the houses nearby.

He issued questionnaires to the people living in the houses, whose opinions can be seen in the exhibition alongside the video projection. Most opinions support Taylor’s view that "the erection of the wind turbines is the most significant development for Dundee in recent history" whilst one deems it "a complete eye sore" that, "should never have been allowed".

Joyce Stewart, shows a video projection of close up shots of the waves of the sea on the shore. Her subject is the flotsam and jetsam in the sea, in which she questions the way in which we often use the sea as a dumping ground. Barry Slavin's series of domestic photographs records an imminent change in his family as his sister waits to have her baby in January.

The exhibition, in the Lower Foyer Gallery of the Crawford Building at Duncan of Jordanstone College, runs until 16 December 2006.

For more info:
Jenny Brownrigg, Curator 01382 385330
Lower Foyer Gallery, Crawford Building DJCAD, 13 Perth Rd, Dundee
Open: Mon- Fri 9.30am-5pm, Sat: 10.30am-4.30pm

For media enquiries contact:

Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk