Artist Residencies 2011

Mary Branson’s ‘Damascus Road’ opens this week. Watching the installation grow is very exciting and Thursday evening’s launch promises to be a wonderful event. Mary has sampled stories contributed by over 60 local people about their Damascus Road moments and this evocative sound piece is partnered by a really beautiful light installation. Do join us on Thursday evening at 7.00 for a glass of wine or a soft drink and the opportunity to see St George’s transformed.

Launch: Thursday 17 March 7.00 pm – 9.00 pm

Open: Friday 18 – Wednesday 23 March, 7.00 pm – 8.30 pm

Closing event and Artist’s Talk: Thursday 24 March 7.00 pm – 9.00 pm

Mary Branson discusses the inspiration behind ‘Damascus Road’

FREE

No booking required; all wecome

for more information please phone: 01372 467720 / 077666 88629

I asked Mary Branson to tell us a little about her installation, Damascus Road which opens our visual arts programme at St George’s for this year.

Mary Branson

My intentions are to create a light and sound installation which transforms St Georges into a space which speaks about Damascus Road, which is a contemporary take on the biblical story of Saul later to become St Paul on the road to Damascus. I am doing this by focussing my enquiry on the question of what is a life changing moment for us? By framing the architecture with specific light intensities within St Georges to create an illusion of change. I don’t want to give too much away!

For the past 2 months I have been interviewing people about their life changing moments. This has been a very humbling experience, I never know what someone is going to say and every time the story is totally unexpected and always special. It’s an unexpected honour to be collecting all this material.

Since I started creating installations I have been drawn to explain my ideas in light, be it artificial or natural light. I think it is an incredibly powerful medium and one of my heroes Dan Flavin; when he creates a light installation you are physically transformed…I like that. Also I spent my time growing up travelling with my family – my dad was a long haul flight engineer – so my formative years were spent flying a lot in Jumbo jets looking down on runway lights and surrounded by cockpit/galley/seat lighting. Its all low lit and repetitive. I then went on to be a long haul stewardess for ten years…so these environments are my blood!

The architecture of churches is epic and I love the sense of history locked within them and the feeling of time standing still. I love the live acoustics that makes you aware of yourself whenever you move and the still coldness.

I was brought up as a RC, so being allowed to create in these spaces still amazes me, as there were such strict codes of behaviour with the church when I was a child. Every Sunday and feast days I would go to church and through a series of visual and sensory transformations like bells, candles, curtains, incense the congregation were able to collectively engage in ritual worship. This still fascinates me. I also enjoy bringing people who are not familiar with these spaces and their particular atmosphere and showing them how interesting and beautiful they are.

I am a conceptual artist and my heroes are Bill Viola, for how he communicates complex ideas of human existence through challenging large-scale video/sound installations, Dan Flavin for taking everyday fluorescent lights and turning them into art and then creating physically and visually transformative installations with them, Christo for his ambition and determination to realise mammoth installations within the landscape that are temporary, I love his process and I love the documentation of his work, and how he can galvanise so many people to realise his artistic vision.

The installation opens at St George’s Arts on 17 March.

Launch: Thursday 17 March 7.00 pm – 9.00 pm

Open: Friday 18 – Wednesday 23 March, 7.00 pm – 8.30 pm

Closing event and Artist’s Talk: Thursday 24 March 7.00 pm – 9.00 pm

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Since the beginning of the year it has been very busy behind the scenes at St George’s Arts. In response to some brilliant advice from Jim Shea from Shea Debnam Associates we have made big changes to our organisational structure and also to the structure of our arts programme.

http://www.sheadebnamassociates.com/

Under Jim’s guidance we undertook an organisational development review to look at our future options and analyse better ways of doing what we do. Shea Debnam describe what they do in relation to this sort of advice as; organisational development and change management. And change there has certainly been.

The most important change for me has been the division of my role into two. St George’s Arts has taken on an administrator, Maggs Latter who was previously the arts development officer for Elmbridge. Her role is to deal with much of the necessary admin, press and behind the scenes organisation leaving me to liaise with the artists, organise workshops and other events.

We have decided this year to move on and build from our previous pattern of 3 to 6 month artist residencies to a more varied programme which includes two residencies but also includes an installation, exhibitions and artist’s talks and creative workshops for artists as well as for the local community.

I would like to thank Loretta Howells, from the R C Sherriff Trust with whom we are working in partnership this year, for her support and enthusiasm.

http://www.rcsherrifftrust.org.uk/

Tomorrow I’ll post more specific news about our 2011 arts programme.

Our first artist is Mary Branson who is working on a sound-piece for St George’s which will be accompanied by an installation of lights running through the building.

Most years at St George’s we have run a single residency over a few months during the year. In 2011 we are doing something rather different; we are running a series of shorter residencies, exhibitions, events and workshops. It’s exciting to be working in a more flexible way with some of the artist we have been in contact with over the last few years but whose work or proposed projects didn’t shoehorn neatly into the previous residency structure.

The visual arts programme kicks off in March with an installation by Mary Branson, ‘Damascus Road’. As part of her project Mary is asking for contributions of personal stories which will form an audio journey throughout the building alongside her installation.

If you would like to contribute your story of a ‘life changing’ moment Mary would like to hear from you.

Call Out

Have you had a life changing moment?

Artist Mary Branson wants to record your stories for her installation

‘Damascus Road’ in March 2011 for St George’s Arts, Esher.

Mary wants all your stories, whatever they may be.

It could be the birth of a child, meeting your partner, seeing a ghost, or just passing your driving test.

If you have had a special experience that changed your life, and would like to be involved in an exciting new piece of public art, please go to www.marybranson.co.uk or call 0808 189 0770 (free from a landline) for more details. You may submit your story with complete anonymity.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Many artists have contacted us at St George’s arts to ask for an application form for our ‘Early Career Residency’ for 2011. This year we haven’t posted a call out as we have been restructuring our art programming. I apologize if you have seen it posted as an opportunity but can only say that we haven’t advertised it ourselves. Where I have seen it advertised (Red Squirrel etc) I have asked them to take the advert down. Rather worryingly I have just noticed it posted on the Opportunities section on the a-n website too and have contacted them to ask for it to be removed as I don’t want to raise any hopes or waste anyone’s time over something which isn’t available this year. If you have asked for an application form or sent us any information I will be contacting you with my apologies and to assure you that when we post an opportunity you will be the first to know!

For 2011 St George’s Arts is proposing to run a series of shorter ‘Mini’ residencies, events and exhibitions. For the first year the artists are mainly being approached directly by us because during the last few years of running our three to six month ‘Early Career Residency’ we have had contact with so many wonderful artists who for one reason or another didn’t slot into the formula of the longer residency or were unavailable to carry out the outreach programme required by our then funding structure.

When we have an open opportunity we will post a call and if you have asked for information about our residency programme now or in the past you will automatically be sent information about the opportunity and how to apply for it.