i’ve been settling into a studio at banks mill since august. banks mill is the business incubation space of the university of derby and my studio is one of 4 spaces made available to students through competitive application, for a year to develop their practice.
current students are eligible to apply for the residency, at the time of application i was a masters student on the ma arts programme. this programme is the amalgamation of ma fine art and ma film and photography, it offers a pathway in either of those with all students being together for lectures and seminars. i opted to do the programme full time in a year, there’s also a part time option spread over two. in october 2022 we staged our degree show work at the artcore gallery in derby. we called the show crosspoint and it featured the work of six artists.
in the beginning of the student residency i was still actively engaged with completing the tasks of the third module and to be honest it wasn’t until mid october that i was able to feel fully engaged with the residency and the studio. reflecting on that time, i see now how my concern was to ensure that i arrived at the deadlines having put (what i considered to be everything at the time) into what i was doing so to avoid the feeling of – oh i could have done that etc.
the final few months of the ma were intense and now beyond the closure of the exhibition i’ve been reflecting upon making within that intensity. to be fair it got intense the closer the deadline got. in the beginning of the third module, the boundaries of the thinking were broad, diverse and fluid. an early idea was explored and ultimately worked up to something i couldn’t take any further. this formed the departure point for what followed.
now into residency studio time, i have recognised how i am once again with the broadly bounded space exploring and takes on current affairs, thoughts and ideas from what’s happening around me, both physically and digitally.
reflecting about how i adjusted to having a lockable space, i can say it took me a while to trust the situation. what i mean is i have had a studio space in a complex before and that experience coloured how i viewed my space at banks mill. there was a day where i realised i was about to go home and return in the morning – i didn’t need to take the resources home with me to return the following day. learning to trust the space was the first big moment within the residency.
links:
about the student residency winners https://www.banksmill.co.uk/latest-news/meet-our-student-residency-winners-2022
crosspoint ma degree show instagram
