The situation demands an alternative response, to life and art. We are all doing it differently. I am trying to look at it as an opportunity, a space that can be filled but doesn’t have to be to allow time for mental wandering and wondering letting thoughts and ideas to swirl around.
In December, I was selected to take part in a residency in Vadodara, Gujarat by Artcore, Derby, UK. The results of this have already been shown in India and were to be exhibited in Derby in April. With impeccable timing, this had to be postponed and as yet, do not have a date. I am aware how everything will have changed with the length of time we are unable to freely move about.
To keep links, discussions and critiques going, I began a self-directed residency called Hatchery and invited others to join me. There are now ten artists, mostly UK but also Canada and Italy, who meet through Zoom once a week to talk about virtual gallery visits, artwork progressed and general ‘how things are going’. Our What’sApp group is lively!
For me, this self-directed residency is to prioritise my creativity, not just artwork. Recently, I have had to do temp. work to sustain myself and this is an opportunity to have space and time (if not money). I have been using materials to hand and this limitation has produced a lot of experimental work that do not align to my usual practice. Melting oil pastels to create 3D landscapes, making Modroc casts, printing with bulrushes, making chalk drawings on cardboard and painting lines with the only colour of paint I have which is black as well as things like filming a feather drifting in the water from a kayak and exploring spectrograms after a night time recording. Some of this was in response to the 12o 30day artwork which was a challenge, even Here, I decided to think about the ideas and do the work quickly, not following the brief but being very actively creative and I thank the organisers for the effort they put into this. It must have presented huge technical difficulties. It was important for me not to limit myself and although not everything worked, it was the action of making.
This mind map was created throughout the 30 days and has become a springboard form which to leap. In itself, it is not important, it is the one that comes next which will be life-changing.
Next, Hatchery is being supported by Artcore in an online exhibition called She’d. So called as it refers to the space we have carved out for ourselves to make work and, coincidentally, we are all female in the exhibition but not in Hatchery itself. This includes seven of the artists and the first events are in June, 11th and 25th, with artist talks. The exhibition itself opens on July in two parts, 3rd and 17th. I am so grateful to Artcore for their generous involvement.