The (Secret) Life of an East Midlands Artist

Good news – I’m going to be doing a residency! The bad news is that it will be in an old factory with no hot water or shower…and it’s a live-in residency. It will be a great opportunity to test my naively idealistic, anarchic theories though. For years my work has been influenced by unstable housing situations so perhaps squatting in a studio will be a chance to strip back my possessions to what is essential and consider whether it is possible to live outside of normal society. My accommodation will be a tent until I have built a shelter from the stacked sheets of mdf so I may approach the task as an explorer between the cracks of the urban jungle; a flaneur in my own city. While I’ve got romantic notions of watching the sun rise over Sneinton tower blocks from my window, the realities are probably going to be a bit tougher; namely a constant stream of debris falling from the ceiling and attempting to cook amongst jam-jars of dried paint and bottles of white spirit, not to mention the lack of shower facilities.