ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [10 March 2010]

'In a City Not Too Far Away...' Images of a recent installation.

'In a City Not Too Far Away...' was the result of a 6 week residency in The Wasp Room at Tether, Nottingham. The work was inspired, in part, by the name of the space...creating a superhero lair under the name of Wasp Man. The intention was for the installation to be a fun, accessible artwork that could (even if just for a brief moment) draw the audience into their imagination.

Tether probably described my practice better than myself! They said:

"Terry creates banal objects with fictional components, whether this is function, purpose or narrative. An ambition to draw the audience into an immersive state is coupled with a realistic understanding of the limitations of materials and site to create a perfect illusion. Terry is preoccupied with an interest in exploring the boundaries between the imaginary and the real, and with her deft and inventive command of rudimentary materials, her works rarely fail to achieve that delicate balance of refined simplicity. "

by Hugh Dichmont (part of Tether).

After a year and a half of struggling with my practice after graduation, this residency really kicked me back into making. I decided after much contemplation that I wanted to make art and be involved in art, but I wasn't sure about some aspects of the way the artworld is - the "It's who you know, not what you know." attitude. Which to be honest isn't just in the artworld - it is pretty much everywhere. This just doesn't seem right somehow....particularly with art, as art in it's nature is about what you know (in terms of how to produce an artwork and the research and ideas behind it). Anyway....in the end, I decided to stop worrying about that and whether or not I could do it, and just decided to go for it! So here I am, beginning to go for it. One thing that leaving uni has taught me, is time scales for making and being able to make outside of an intensive environment (such as a fine art course), are much longer. It definately builds up patience!