Filip Andel: Workshop Bursary
Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing blog posts written by 20/21 Workshop Bursary recipients. Today, Filip Andel shares his creative process and thoughts about his time in the Gaada workshop.
“My plan for my Gaada bursary was to work on variety of book covers and one-off books which are part of my project / journey taking me to all the inhabited islands around Scotland. I started this personal journey 5 years ago after settling down in Shetland and it’s a natural continuation of my previous journeys which took me through the 16 countries of former Soviet Union or Kurdish areas of Turkey, Iran and Iraq. I am mapping these long term journeys through analogue photography, film, objects and writings to make a narrative / subjective documentary. These stories can be seen on my website: www.filipandel.com
In Gaada, I was working with hot foil press to imprint headlines on album covers but due to the unstable materials I chose, this did not work and I just made a mess of it. Daniel went the extra length to find the right medium/ technique for what I wanted to do and introduced me to photo etching which I found interesting but did not manage to fully explore as I ran out of time. Amy, Daniel and Vivian were always very helpful and willing to find solutions, full of knowledge and support throughout. Gaada as a studio is well equipped, not only printmakers workshop which can cope with various requirements for artists and makers and I would definitely recommend the programs they run to others.
Although my bursary did not go as I imagined, I managed to do a little family picture for our daughters bedroom , a screen print*, with support from Amy, describing the little details of how I met my partner and when our daughter was born. Later, when I came home after my time in Gaada, disappointed with myself for not having much to show for my time in the studio except for this picture, I showed the picture to my 4 months old daughter and her large blue eyes lit up, she smiled and that moment made the whole bursary experience worth it, taught me a lesson about expectations and sugar coated my conflicting relationship with art for a while.
* later modified with transparent oil tints used for hand colouring BW photographs before the introduction of colour film.. a technique long forgotten.”
Thank you, Filip, for sharing your words and work!
We are now welcoming applications for the next round of Workshop Bursaries. See here for more details.
Gaada Workshop Bursaries are made possible by the kind support of the Shetland Charitable Trust.
Hand tinted screenprint by Filip Andel
Filip’s photos and album’s hot-pressed with dates in the Gaada workshop