BUILD Residency – Cornwall

Alongside the residency, Stacey Righton (the previous BUILD resident artist), Louise Hodges and Philip Mayer, shared an on-going dialogue in an attempt to reflect upon and bind the similar themes/methods of their past and present works.

The conversation was/is an ever-evolving process of emailed words and discussion. Incorporating the notion of re-moulding, regurgitating, and reconsideration, the writing exists as a piece of work in itself, deconstructing and rebuilding the visual and conceptual structure of a sentence. Looking at and considering the existing words, a new response was to be formed, being shaped with and around similar existing words.

The discussion tried to explore, on more than one level, the transitions between in-between moments and how they can act as a beginning or an end-point at any time

As an on-going dialogue, the conversation still exists as an open space for further discussion and contribution, hopefully allowing room for thought and contribution from others;

Conversation between BUILD artists Louise Hodges, Philip Mayer and Stacey Righton;

S: We were talking about the similarities between our work; on a very simple level I suppose one of the similarities we have within all of our practices is the desire to change the original function of a material or object and to draw attention to things that we see and take for granted on an everyday basis.

L: I suppose, within our practices, to draw attention to things that we take for granted simply changes the function of the material or object

P: Suppose the desire to change the everyday is a function we take
for granted?

'Granted, we can desire to change everyday functions, I suppose.'

"Everyday we take for granted material or object, and changing the
original function can grant us our desire"

"Everyday, our desire to change the object or material can take the
original function further, progressing it beyond realms we would never
have anticipated from the start"

"Can we ever progress, day after day, without anticipation of change?
Is it the desire to be taken further than materialistic and objective
realms, that grant us a starting point to go beyond?"

'The anticipation of change is the desire surely? To progress from day
to day, re-valuing our materialistic and objective lives takes us
further and with time allows us to be truly present'

"If the desire to change is through object and material then, as our
day-to-day lives are reflected through these surroundings, can we ever be
truly present if they are open to constant change?"

"A change in the day allows us to value present time. Wouldn't a
reflection of ourself and own lives get lost if we were constantly surrounded
by the same objects?;'

'I think that achieving a state of presence must be possible but it is
a challenge when one is open to the knowledge that everything is in
constant change. How can these two states exist together? Surely states of
opposition do exist together, why? I can't explain it other than that
in life there seems to be a natural law or unity of opposing states,
for example, order and dis-order, or pain and joy.'

"Opposing states open and close everything"

The call for artists for the BUILD Autumn residency will be announced by May 9th. The deadline for applications will be June 3rd. Check the BUILD blog or the Creative Skills website, www.creativeskills.org.uk for more information after May 9th.

Throughout the development of our concepts and working methods during the residency, the work produced has allowed us to further explore the physical and pshychological relationship between the space, the space occupier, the object and the situation. Working collaboratively for the first time, gave us a chance to share on-going thoughts and ideas and, in doing this, offered to us an opportunity to extend our usual approaches; video, photography and painting. Through the exploration of installation, we were able to combine aspects of these mediums whilst also introducing a dynamic which is often restricted through them. Incorporating actual space with invented suggestion, we feel, gave us an opportunity to play around with the viewers physical and perceptual involvement, focussing upon their own awareness of their role within the work and also the importance of where the work places them.