Prominent Scots artist Sue Jane Taylor is taking a unique collection of works documenting the installation of the UK’s first deepwater offshore windfarm to Dundee Contemporary Arts.

The DCA exhibition, which features five of the artist’s images of the wind farm project, will run from June 20th to August 14th.

The Dornoch-based visual artist was commissioned by Talisman Energy (UK) Limited to record the progress of the Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project. Two giant 5megawatt turbines, situated in 45 metres of water some 25 kilometres off the Scottish coast, are being tested to assess if a large scale deep water offshore wind farm is feasible. One turbine was installed in the second half of 2006 and the second is due to be installed this summer.

The turbines have been supplied by REpower, which has its UK headquarters in Edinburgh, and the subsea jackets were built by Burntisland Fabrications in Fife.

The Beatrice Project is part of the European DOWNViND (Distant Offshore Wind Farms No Visual Impact iN Deepwater) initiative. Its major backers are Talisman Energy (UK) Limited and Perth-based Scottish and Southern Energy.

DOWNViND, which includes 18 different organizations from six European countries is one of the EC’s largest renewable energy research and development programmes and is designed to ensure that Europe is well positioned to take a global lead in developing deepwater offshore wind farms.

Sue Jane Taylor has a long-standing interest in the offshore energy sector. She is the author of Oilwork: The North Sea Diaries, a book published by Birlinn recording the lives of those who work on and offshore in the oil and gas industry. Talisman Energy (UK) Limited sponsored Sue Jane Taylor’s offshore visits to the Piper B platform and Flotta Terminal, as part of the Oilwork book, which began the Canadian operator’s association with the artist.

The show will feature two large working drawings from the construction stages at Arnish on the Isle of Lewis and the Burntisland and Methil yards in Fife.
The remaining works are being produced using photo polymer etching with traditional etching techniques – a new medium for the artist. The three prints are taken from a series of Taylor’s drawings of people involved in the project – a young Arnish welder, a Methil scaffolder and a Danish operator working on the turbine blades.

There is also a DVD showing, filmed by BBC Highland cameraman Norman Strachan, of Taylor drawing on early site visits during the construction and assembly stages in 2006.

Talisman Energy (UK) Limited Legal and PR Manager Jacquelynn Craw said: “Sue Jane is creating a unique visual timeline of the pioneering Beatrice Demonstrator Project and the early stages of the deepwater offshore renewables industry.

“This is reflective of her earlier work which chronicled the lives of those working in shipbuilding on the Clyde and the early days of the offshore oil industry.

“Her artworks, and the diary she is keeping, will provide a valuable record of a project which is as cutting edge as the first forays into the North Sea in search of oil and gas back in the 1960s.”

Sue Jane Taylor said: “The success of ‘Oilwork North Sea Diaries’ enabled Talisman and I to form a good working relationship and gave the company the confidence to invite me back to work on their new innovative offshore project.

“I was fascinated by its different elements and the visual opportunities open to an artist: viewing the whole project from construction stage to offshore completion, the involvement of European renewable energy companies and conservation bodies, the diversity of the specialists involved, and the location 14 miles off the Caithness coast – I can see the platforms’ lights in the distance at night from my home.”