Last week, Porteous Brae Gallery (which opened in Dundas Street, Stromness, on 21st June 2007) held two events that were arranged in response to opportunities that arose at fairly short notice within the local artistic community. One was to showcase a small selection of the paintings that Tasmanian artist Denise Campbell has made recently in Orkney.

The other was a tea party with a difference. Cuppa Hoop was hosted by Robb Mitchell, an artist currently resident in Stromness and previously best known for his party-planning role in launching Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand. He specialises in “introductions, interactions and immersions”.

Denise Campbell – a gathering of art

A simply-mounted exhibition of five of Denise Campbell’s paintings gave viewers a flavour of her response to being in these surroundings over the past twelve weeks. Both the vessels – boats, cups, shorelines – and the suggestions of voyage that had informed the work she showed in April in the Waterfront Gallery were there, but with a distinctly northern feel.

Denise has been returning to Orkney regularly since her first visit in 1991. Her customary practice is to take the works she makes here – necessarily on quite a small scale – back to her studio in Launceston, where she can rework them much larger. In the course of this, the Tasmanian surroundings become incorporated into the works: a blending of north and south.

One day she hopes to be able to bring some of the larger works to Orkney with her. “People here must assume I only work on a small scale, but I also produce paintings several metres in size in my Launceston studio. At some point in the future I would like to show these larger works in Orkney.”

Robb Mitchell – the art of gathering

By contrast with those finely painted vessels, Saturday afternoon provided an opportunity for visitors to the gallery to interact with the real thing – in Cuppa Hoop, a tea party and installation. A dozen teacups had been tied together in pairs across a circular table, using red, blue and yellow ribbons: a nod in the direction of another primary and collaborative activity, perhaps, the creation of a flag for the county. The saucers had been arranged on the floor.

With tea dispensed by Robb Mitchell himself, both members of the pair had to lower and raise their cups alternately in order to be able to drink. This unusual level of interaction between the drinkers was multiplied by the criss-crossing of the ribbons of other pairs of participants, a phenomenon that led to the creation of a maypole-like network rising at intervals from the tablecloth.

A simple set of rules giving rise to many introductions, much hilarity and a fair degree of reflection on the ordinary circumstances in which tea is consumed socially: something that it was felt could happen on a commercial basis – i.e. in a teashop – quite happily along that part of the street.

This was Robb Mitchell’s first installation since coming to Orkney, and the first one ever that has involved tea. He recently collaborated with two psychologists on a series of creative/interactive experiments, and he is also currently exhibiting at St Andrews Museum. More can be found out about his work at www.egomassage.tk .

Alistair Peebles, who owns and runs the gallery, commented on the success of these two initiatives, saying that as well as trying to bring viewers and local artists together productively in the context of longer-term exhibitions, he hoped to be able to continue to use the space for shorter-term events of exactly this kind over the coming months.

The work currently on show includes paintings by Shona Firth and Colin Johnstone, tapestry and prints by Carol Dunbar, drawings by Andrew Parkinson, photographic work by Colin Kirkpatrick and Alistair Peebles and a selection of publications from Morning Star and the brand new Brae Editions.

The exhibition of Denise Campbell’s new work concludes on 12th July 2007.