ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [1 October 2009]

My project involves art residency in a multifunctional Community Centre in North London. It aims to bring the art of painting into everyday life of the community through an accessible, innovative and high-quality programme, which creates connections between diverse individuals, organizations, groups and art.

What I am really interested in is the concept of the local community. Traditionally, it is defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location with a shared common bond. I am determined to investigate the nature and the power of that bond. I am also interested in exploring the illusion of a community: how it portrays itself to the world, how we hold ourselves together, and what might happen we let ourselves fall apart. Untidy as it may be, community is vital for me. Collecting stories, memories and imagery of the community connects my personal experience to a larger history.

The concepts of personal and communal identity are examined through illustrated journals of local people, who might have been born here, or have come to settle here from different parts of Britain or different cultures and countries, and one man - myself, the artist. The collective result is expected to be a complex landscape of daily experience that escapes from the predictable reportage of traditional media, a landscape that transcends geography and cultural boundaries and portrays both a poignant narrative of individual difference and a powerful story of a mutual identity.

The project will result in a series of free for all events: Workshops and Master Classes, and the development of a new artwork for permanent public display in the Community Centre.

A special ongoing website will be designed to monitor and share audiences’ experiences of participation, to test and evaluate the artwork in on-line trials, and to maintain the new community connections for future opportunities.