FROM LONDON TO LOCALISM

I feel as if I am benefiting from being located in a smaller urban environment, although we still have not moved into our flat (2nd Dec, two weeks and counting…). I started my position as Lecturer in Fine Art at UCBC last week, and it was a little overwhelming with all the new information, but I am feeling really positive the job and how I can build upon the course as it exists already.

I also held the first Artist Practice Session at Rogue Project Space last Wednesday evening. The turnout was great, around 15 people, and Jacqueline Wylie and myself presented my work. Despite the cold weather, the discussion and feedback was very interesting, and there seems to be a positive response for the session to run on a monthly basis.

I am still somewhat in the research process at MMU, but enjoying it. I have started on a fe wall drawings in my studio. Similarly, I am developing ideas for the Office Party ( a one night exhibition by Ahmed&Carpenter), and group at Kraak in February. I also putting together proposals for projects and exhibits further afield.

Here are some images of the historical maps and documents I have been examining at the MMU library.

So it feels like life is starting to come together up north in ways that I had hoped, with the new job and flat moves happening in the next few weeks. For the various freelance working I have been doing around the north and shows down in London, I have constantly on the move with fresh pants and socks in my backpack, being hosted by many friends. I owe a lot of favours for hospitality…

Last week I started my residency at MMU, mainly beginning with research into cartography and ideas of mapping space. I am reading texts by Timothy Ingold, and ‘The Political Mapping of Cyberspace’ by Jeremy W Crampton. This week I am also going to be researching into historical maps of the North West, making a screen-print of the drawing from ‘Multiple Occupancy’ and creating laser cutting samples from woodcut printing. I really want to spend time thinking about the work in relation to the ideologies of mapping, and its association with power. When in China, there was a lot of production, but I would like to reflect on this further through research, and consider how this past work relates to my next body of work. With regards to materials and processes, I am hoping to make an animation, and also more three dimensional work.

The community at Rogue Studios is fantastic, and now I will be based in the North West Monday to Friday, I am looking forward to taking more advantage of the space.

I have joined the Rogue Studios steering committee which I feel really positive about contributing to for the long term. In my last studios at Creekside in Deptford, engaging in depth with the studio was not an option as it was just to time consuming and costly to travel to their meetings. Soon I will be living 5 minutes from the studios so that will not be a factor.

Discourse with other members in the studios is definitely developing. On Saturday, Taneesha Ahmed and Marcelle Holt interviewed me about my practice and recent work in the exhibition they curated at MadLab. We talked about my interest in exploring the internet in my practice and how I use on line media to expose my practice and make connections. The interview will be used to inform a social media toolkit for Full Circle Arts.

Next Wednesday 16th November 2011, I am also setting up the first pilot session of Community of Practice – Artist Practice Sessions for artists to present and discuss their work. The response has been positive so I hope it goes well.

Otherwise, I posted my first part of my four posts for Or.bits.com, entitled ‘Truth or Lies’ – to read follow this link – http://www.or-bits.com/blog/2011/10/truth-and-lies-part-1/.

So my intention to write a blog about my move to Manchester, has not quite been sustained as anticipated, but there is plenty of time and room for improvement in the coming months. That old conundrum that when you have plenty to blog about, you are too busy to blog. It has been a very busy time indeed over the past month and a half. Here is a quick rundown on it all…

On Thursday 29th September 2011 at the Re-wire 2011 at Liverpool John Moores University very impressive Art and Design Academy, I presented my paper ‘Re-direction and Network Timeout’ about my research in China that explored occupation of physical and digital spaces. Our session chaired by Christiane Paul. After presentations were completed, there was some questions and discussion from the audience, including a question for myself regarding the reception of my work in China. It was an interesting experience for me as it was my first time presenting at a conference for an extended period, as INTERFACE in the summer was only a lightning talk. Now I have dipped my toes in, I am certain I could do more.

Further from the conference, I have been asked to be a guest blogger for a PhD research project at CRUMB, Or-bits.com, in their series of writing and art on the thematic of Truth. My first post will go live early next week. I will be relating to research undertaken in China with regards to occupation of physical and digital space.

On the 4th October, I was also back down in London, presenting an Artists Talk for my exhibition at the CHRC at Goldsmiths, which closed on the 6th October. It was a great night, thanks to everyone for coming.

Further from this, we also had the Rogue Open Studios weekend on the 7th-9th October 2011. I was totally overwhelmed by how many people attended the opening on the Friday night – we estimated over 500 people!

Since then, I had been working towards the 2 person exhibition, MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY at Hatch Space. Harriet Hill and I also curated a series of films, performance and temporary works exploring ideas of multi user space. The show opened on Wednesday 22nd Oct at Hatch, and we are very please to say that our first group of visitors were a cohort of Goldsmiths postgraduates, who we presented our work to. The event on Saturday went well, and it was great to meet and chat with so many of the artists work we included.

The exhibition at Hatch Space runs until the 29th October, and now I am temporarily back up north until the deinstall on saturday.

I have three other fantastic pieces of news..

1) I have been selected as one of the Artist in Residence for 2011-12 at Manchester Metropolitan. The other selected artists on the programme funded by AA2A are Rachel Goodyear, Bethan Hamilton and Mark Beecroft. So excited about getting started!

2) I have been appointed as the 0.5fte Lecturer in Fine Art at Blackburn University Centre, where I will be teaching years 1-3 on the BA Fine Art (Integrated Media). I will be starting in a few weeks hopefully.

3) We have found a lovely flat in one of the Royal Mills in Manchester. It is a really interesting space with original beams, it is a listed building, as the industry undertaken internally was one of the main employers in the 1800’s. Interesting….

MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY

Harriet Hill and Jenny Steele

19^th– 29^th October 2011, Open Wed- Sun12-6pm

Open Day Event – Saturday 22^nd October 2011, 12pm -6pm

South London Art Map Last Fridays – Friday 28^th October 2011, 6-9pm

‘MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY’ is a 2 person exhibition by Harriet Hill and Jenny Steele that explores the in-habitation and use of space within the built environment of the Faircharm Trading Estate and the Hatch Space studios themselves. MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY aims to record, reflect and celebrate the current activity in these mixed-use spaces within this heterogeneous community.

For MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY, Harriet Hill presents a sculptural work made as a response to the microcosm of Hatch Space studios. She works viscerally, with the particular, physical structure of the space and the idea of it as both a self contained gallery and an expanded corridor: a mutable interstice with doors leading off into the autonomous spaces of the artists studios.

Jenny Steele exhibits a map that charts movement and spacial use within the micro community of the Faircharm Trading Estate. For the past month, she has spent time questioning and observing the businesses, organisations and individuals that occupy this multi-functional block of units. The work is informed by social anthropologist Timothy Ingold’s research that highlights the static nature of maps, that are unrepresentative of physical in-habitation.

For an Open Day event on Saturday 22^nd October 2011, Hill and Steele have invited other artists to co-occupy the gallery space. Artists: Ahmed & Carpenter, Hannah Doyle, John Deller, Inigo Rousham, Lucia Serenkova, Penny Skerrett and Nicola Smith will show film and video works that explore themes of multiple occupancy from different perspectives. Frog Morris will perform poetry about the local community of Deptford, and Manchester based Matthew Bamber will bring a live streaming of his own studio to Hatch Space for the day.

Harriet Hill’s work investigates ideas around the conflict between autonomy and belonging and the fact that we are drawn to that which is more powerful than ourselves – physical, social, political. This manifests in her work, through the notion that a physical entity – material, object, structure, space – can simultaneously inspire both inclination and repulsion. Harriet Hill is based in London, and is a MFA graduate of Goldsmiths.

Jenny Steele’s practice considers our constant in-habitation of digital space by playing on metaphors of physical space, cartography, architecture and town planning. Through her multi disciplinary practice, she continually seeks ways in which to come to terms with the intangibility of the digital, and its clash with our embedded cognitive behaviour and cartesian perspectives. Jenny Steele is currently based at Rogue Studios, Manchester, and is also a graduate of Goldsmiths MFA.