The partnership between Gray’s School of Art (Robert Gordon University), Marathon Oil and RockRose Energy has been one of unexpected outcomes.
Working in the capacity of creative producer and curator, I oversaw a series of short commissions carried out by students of Grays School of Art for Marathon Oil and Rockrose Energy. Over the course of several rounds of commissions, groups of students were assigned the task of responding to various briefs that involved visiting oil and gas related worksites and collaborating with members of the workforce and offshore community.
Some of these third year ungraduate students, also had the opertunity to travel offshore to an oil platform as part of their work on these commissions.
This allowed the students to build a deeper understanding of the subject and to gather visual research material that would allow them to complete their response to the brief. While this required the students to undergo the relevant survival training to allow them to work in an offshore environment, it was also necessary for them to develop their soft skills that would allow them work within the platforms community.
The students rose to the challenge of responding creatively to the industrial environment. But more importantly, the challenge of connecting with the communities who make these offshore places unique. This resulted in both the students and the offshore workers reassessing how they viewed the North Sea oil industry. Where the traditional image is one of masculine heavy industry, the outcomes that the students produced viewed the industry through a softer, yet authentic, people-centric lens.
The sum collection of the works produced over the course of these commissions were then presented to the public in an exhibition titled Embedding held at the Look Again Project Space in Aberdeen. The exhibition showcased an impressive range of work from a diverse cohort of ten students. Bringing together photography, sculpture, painting, sound art, and graphic design.
The exhibition aimed to share the experiences of not only the offshore community, but the student artists themselves. Sharing stories that are not seen by those outside of an industry that has its most iconic structures standing out of sight, just over the horizon.
