Three German aeronauts, members of the Bitterfeld flying club, were blown across the North Sea during a storm and landed near Claydykes Farm on the B9119 road through Tornaveen. Originally the February jaunt had planned for a trip from Bitterfeld airfield near Leipzig to Hanover. However that plan was not to be, and the men ended up being in the air in horrendous conditions for 18 hours. A storm blew up and drove the balloon across the Netherlands towards the North Sea. Different attempts to land failed and the three aeronauts crossed the North Sea within 12 hours. The jaunt was now a “hellflight” Finally they landed in a tree in Tornaveen and miraculously survived to tell the tale!
Margaret Preston’s exhibition has been inspired by a local historic event - the crash landing of a hot air balloon within metres of her local hall in Tornaveen in 1929. Her paintings, photos sculpture and film are inspired by the amazing contemporary account in Gerd Sophus Rexhausen’s journal.
Biography
Margaret Preston has played professionally on the flute over many years. Performances have been local (around Scotland) and internationally mainly as chamber musician. More recently her artistic life has evolved into a multi arts practice finding expression in writing, film and sculpture.
Her themes are varied but have included identity, displacement, the environment and most importantly ENCOUNTER. This is not unexpected for an artist who started in music!
For Margaret the collection of those moments of encounter produce a directional energy, which distills into that which we value most highly: philosophy (thinking) music (joy sorrow) and art (will).
Performance could be seen as appreciation or marking of Encounter or Moment when we are focused and most cognisant of ourselves and others as part of a greater whole.
Margaret graduated in Contemporary Arts Practice at Grays Robert Gordon University Aberdeen Scotland in 2016. Since then she has had several privileges:
• 2016 John Kinross Scholarship enabled study in Florence Italy for 10 weeks
• 2016 Selected work for RSA national collection. (PEACE sculpture and film of Florence)
• 2016 Major public art commission: Torry Academy Commemorative Tree (Sculpture) June
• 2017 Winner of Apache prize for Experimental Use of Space at Haddo Arts Festival (first prize)
• 2018 PEACE enters ART UK collection https://artuk.org/discover/artists/preston-margaret-b-1958
• 2019 Royal Performance of ADA LOVELACE in the stately home, Haddo House- this theatrical piece was co-created with sculptor April Pressley and dancer Ruth Kent.
• During the pandemic Margaret was able to spend some time painting and mounted a very successful exhibition which raised money for cancer charities.
• While maintaining her music career, she also is co/founder of Experimental use of Space - A contemporary arts group who exhibit regularly in pop-up exhibitions in public spaces (mostly outdoor, no mean feat in Scotland!)
• 2023 Selected for residency in Quattro Archi Tuscany. Study/Exhibition.