This week sees the beginning of my residency at Access Space where I will create candles in situ in response to the news stories of the day.
I will be present this Wednesday (4th July) although I expect much of the day to be spent setting up the space and perhaps making a candle or two.
I don’t really know what to expect, both in terms of my approach to responding to the news through scent design or with regard to audience engagement. I have deliberately not given thought to how I am going to approach things, nor have I attempted to pre-empt the kind of news events I will respond to. I want the residency to harness an instantaneous and improvised spirit similar to how breaking news is reported.
The chief aim of the residency is to gauge whether an audience can engage with the concept of utilising candle making as a means of social and political commentary; subverting preconceptions of what candle making can be and placing it on a contemporary art platform. My presence in the space will be vital, even if it’s only to explain proceedings. It will be interesting to see how the project fares when left entirely to audiences own devices.
I feel rather buoyed by this residency, as it’s the first public outing of Scents of Our Time – and I’d like to send a huge thank-you to Access Space for the opportunity. Gauging it’s successes and failures will be vital for further outings, but for now I’m just relishing the moment.
