Traces: how art and oil can mix.

Kellie, Callum

Abstract

Heavy industry impacts and shapes the communities that surround it. With North Sea oil, that industry lies mostly over the horizon and its workforce comes from around the world to form a temporal community. This invisibility and the logistical barriers, both real and imagined, have resulted in their histories going mostly undocumented (with a few notable exceptions). Over a period of two years, a series of projects between Marathon Oil, Rockrose Energy and Robert Gordon University placed art students from a variety of disciplines within the North Sea platforms' workforce. The artists were directed to respond to and document the communities they found - both on the platforms as well as among the supporting onshore workforce. The resulting outcomes have been presented in multiple exhibitions, (both onshore and onboard North Sea installations) as well as in a book. This allowed the workforce the space to reflect not only within their work-based communities, but also to share their experiences with their families.

Citation

KELLIE, C. 2022. Traces: how art and oil can mix. Presented at the 2022 Petrocultures conference (Petrocultures 2022): transformations, 24-27 August 2022, Stavanger, Norway.

• Presentation Conference Type: Lecture
• Conference Name: 2022 Petrocultures conference (Petrocultures 2022): transformations
• Conference Location: Stavanger, Norway
• Start Date: Aug 24, 2022
• End Date: Aug 27, 2022
• Deposit Date: Mar 8, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: May 4, 2023
• Keywords: Oil industry in art; Offshore workers in art; Oil and gas industry; Offshore workforces; Offshore communities; Oral histories; Lived experiences
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1893474