Aftermath

The launch party has been and gone like a whirlwind. ‘go reborn’ was packed with revelling punters. Andy Thoms and his girls Ali and Marie did us proud by supplying (and serving) their world-famous Bilgewater Gin to soon-merry customers, and Jamie and the girls at Red Bull poured rum and vodka cocktails with lashings of lime juice and ice. Photographer Dave Anderson was on hand to take portrait photos of the ‘go reborn’ crew and their fellow party-goers in various states of gin-fuelled joy. The dressing room was a busy flow of people trying on Godiva’s reworked dresses (many made on-site in our workshop) and our artists fared well; Solas Nicol and Tom Hutchinson both sold their photographic prints to keen and admiring art-fans; Elliot Neave’s video of Claudia Massie painting the skyline was a sped-up, jerky work of art in itself; in the hot room, Aberdonian Ricky Gibbs’ interactive video installation looked brilliant.

There was a raddled atmosphere of shouts and cheers as folk perused the ‘go reborn’ project; a glaring success, certainly, and more importantly a happy ambience of like-minded folk brought together by the ever-glamorous Fleur MacIntosh and her ragtag collective of futurists.

We at ‘go reborn’ are so happy to have presented our vision to Edinburgh. After the party on Saturday the space was gleaming and bright again and there was a steady flow of curious guests. Sunday at ‘go reborn’ and the sun was shining, Grace Jones was singing ‘My Jamaican Guy’ on the in-house system and her strident tones filled the space. The ‘go reborn’ scribe was still suffering from the after-effects of too much Bilgewater but the gallery continued with a steady trickle of hangers-on, customers and admirers.

Next week we’ve got lots of new things to look forward to – artist Neil Perry will take a break as his totem masterpiece has reached finishing point, and Matthew Swan and Kate McKay (an Edinburgh printmaker) will be in tomorrow to start some new exciting stuff.

AF Giles

More photos of the launch party can be found here:

Party 1

Party 2

Party 3

Party 4

Thanks to Rom for the snaps.

Day 2 at the 'go reborn' house

‘go reborn’ has been a hive of activity all day. Claudia Massie has spent the day painting our tremendous view of the Old Town, all moody red-grey skies and endless arching bridge in luscious deep acrylics and spray paints. Amazingly she has created this piece in a matter of hours, buoyed up by an espresso doppio from one of the numerous nearby coffee bars. Karen and Susie have been busy in the workshop; Karen (a graduate from Galashiels Arts School) has already reproduced some blouses from her own collection and Susie (junior designer at Godiva) has been recycling Godiva vintage. Neil Perry from Owl & Lion has started a graff-pen design on an enormous canvas which he will be continuing over the next few days and doing live at our launch party on Friday 14th August. Neil spent some time chatting to author Ron Falconer, a Pacific island castaway who was passing through (check out his book on the Caroline Atoll on
AF Giles’ blog here). Solas Nicol arrived with his fashion and festival photography prints which look stunning alongside Kate McKay’s illustrations. Rachel Barron’s (ECA) cut-up love story and urban-inspired artwork set it all off very nicely.

This pop-up space is consistently evolving, and over the coming days many more artists, photographers, designers and misfits will be gracing us with their presence.