The intention of the first residency collaboration is to create a sound scape for the space with musician Michael Hobson. Whilst these ideas are, as yet, a little undeveloped, we have been thinking in terms of something akin to the way a film sound track works, a composition that reflects the way the space feels, especially at night which is when it will be done. This will begin early next week for as long as it takes.
Having a couple of days away due to other commitments has given me some time to think of what I have done and what I will do. Think the collaborations will keep the residency invigorated, a Skype collaboration is planned for the last week in January with Chinese artist Chen Yizhong.
Day 2, a few struggles with materials today but it turned out alright in the end. Got there at 7.20 to film yesterday’s work thinking it would be quiet but lower floor workers arrived at 7.25am. Think it is time to be pragmatic and make it a silent film! Or override it all with the hum of the fan. Best to leave it a few days and think about it. Have lately been surrounded by painters and, having found lots of old paint, that is, 30 years at least old, have begun using it. This piece could only be called a gallery intervention.
First day of residency at Harrington Mill and it has been so productive. Not saying it has been brilliant work but work has been made. What a residency is about I think. Only had one idea in mind before I started but found a roll of narrow foam material in the road. Experimented at stretching it from one end of the space to another until it broke, then started again until it was all used up. I was left with ribbons and tags hanging from the wall. It was good just to play and see what happened. Then set up an installation from something I had forgotten about. Did an installation Grass is Greener (on the other side) for the exhibition Inside at Blank Media in Manchester a few year ago and went out with my camera in between setting up. This was re-interpreted in the exhibition space as a film. So roll on day two at the Harrington Artist’ Playgroup!
Land Strategies and theCommons January 6th to February 21st.
Harrington Mill Studios residency
The aim of this residency is to create a discourse between all the elements of the residency/exhibition space exploring the genius loci and the intersections of space, function and artist. It then becomes a dialogue where the artist and process of art-making become performative. The work that is the result of this methodology is ephemeral due to the constantly changing events and relations that are created by those events or that the events create. By all these means, the end result becomes part of the process and the resultant exhibits are ongoing as their site-specifity is recontextualised.
Whilst I aim to be for an experimental approach, there is the constant accompaniment of what has gone before. These following ideas, together with particular notions that `I wish to develop, form the basis of my thinking.
An approach that develops the critical thinking that connects practice and theory is achieved through process of being in the space and documented by drawings, text, mind maps, photography and film to gain a thorough understanding of what makes that space different from any other. These then develop into experimental artworks, interruptions and interventions that are site-specific which often use the idea of the unmonumental. These ideas, together with the ideas of replacement and re-location to re-territorialise, that is, make new places that relate both to past and present, form the basis of my practice. As a site-responsive practice, it is impossible to do more than state how I work. If the finished product is predefined, it is no longer site-specific. The space and its relation to the object is, as Bachelard says, ‘For each object, distance is the present, the horizon exists as much as the center’.
theCommons is to be the collaborative part of the residency through invitation and I feel that during a residency, it is important to have a transparent practice that is transmitted to whoever wants to share it whether by discourse, collaboration or a performative action by whatever media be it Skype, email or personal visit.
