In 1995, when Jackie Donachie was studying for an MFA in New York, she set up an Advice Bar. Having observed the pop-up clinics and services set up on the streets to help the casualties of that economic era, she created an installation from which she dispensed drinks and advice (one drink and one problem per person). Preparing for her solo show at the Fruitmarket, Donachie felt the time was right to bring back the Advice Bar and expand it. With right-wing governments on both sides of the Atlantic, tax breaks for the rich, food banks for the poor, and the idea of community (European and otherwise) disintegrating, it seems entirely prescient, both a provocation about the difficulty of accessing real help and advice and a friendly response to difficult times.
