For the past 4 days I have been at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambs as one of the artists selected for the first Escalator Retreat programme this year. Feeling rather exhausted from my lecturing post I was looking forward to lying back a bit, listening to artists discuss their practice. HOWEVER the reality was that it was an action packed programme organised I have to say, extremely competantly by students from The Royal College of Art’s MA Curatorial practice course alongside Donna Lynas and Lotte Juul Petersen.
We had a series of talks from a variety of artists including Stefan Rusu, Margarita Gluzberg, Heim Lattner and Charles Avery as well drawing workshops, group crits, philosophical discussions and a walk involving storytelling as we went along.
Kit Hammonds, tutor and independent curator, alongside all of the students involved had considered the topics and artists extremely well. Myself and therest of the selected artists and curators on the retreat all found that our practice overlapped time and time again throughout these four days.
Wysing was as a venue an exciting place to be, meeting studio artists, curators and directors across those few days and on the last day of the retreat we were all surprised to hear that we had all been awarded the escalator artist badge should we want it. This was great news to us all as we had all got on really well supporting each other throughout. We will be meeting up again in a couple of weeks to discuss the retreat as well as discuss any project work that we hope to carry through as a result of the retreat.
The other artists and curators selected are:
WIll Clifford, Lucy Conochie, Sarah Evans, Bettina Furnee, , Catherine Hemelryk, Jo Mardell, Mark Ross, Rachel Moxley and Caroline Wright
This is the longest gap to date that I have left between posts. I have been extremely busy with this that and the other, so its about time I updated my updates. I have some work in a pamphlet available at Camberwell Arts festival titled “Sisters of lady” available to buy at Chutney 3 on the 28th June (tomorrow) and next week I am really looking forward to what looks like an extremely exciting agenda at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambs.
I was selected a few weeks ago to be part of the first Escalator retreat and in a way it appears to be as mysterious as it is compelling. I will be meeting Charles Avery, Margarita Gluzberg, Heim Lattner and Alex Farquarson as well as other selected artists and curators and so I am currently reading the introductory text that I was sent by Donna on Friday to prepare us for the week.
This will be a welcome break from what has been a busy year all round and I am looking forward to having some time to contemplate what lies before me on the retreat as well as looking back on my work made over these last few months.
I have just started to work on some collages/drawings that are titled 'secret lady saints'. They will depict 7 ladies of sorrow saints for a pamphlet that will be distributed across the Camberwell Arts Festival if selected.
I have a number of things that are pressing but with the ever looming student show just around the corner, it is hard to juggle it all.
I am meeting to Russian business ladies in London on the 19th to discuss my work. I will probably study their habitual traits to feed the soulmate work that should be in full flow by then, very secret indeed..
todays words are:
sleep, crow, pyre, slipper, ash, quilted
Today I have been thinking of angel dust, albinos, crust, legs, shine, oil. I am beginning to form a bigger picture of how I will make sounds and accompanying film footage for my project. The next layer is to do with soul mates. Images to follow..
Todays words towards this project are:
bead, perspire, fringe, sacking, fur, whisker, ear
