OPEN PLAN Micro-residency [Departure Foundation]

Heading out his morning the phrase ‘cutting corners’ came to my mind. Originally used in travel terminology as to take a shortcut since cutting along an alternative path is faster than going all the way round. More frequently used for taking the easier way, shortcutting became tagged with bypassing an instructed route to gain competitive advantage – being more efficient.

Back to the displaced rectangular surfaces and to repeatedly examining the floor layout makes me opt for the raised skirting boards as constructed margins. Those trying to be as linear as possible yet cannot refuse being instructed to detour around pillars, wall extensions and boxed in utilities. Not surprising, strictly keeping to the right angled turns. Here is when I start injecting my playful layer and projecting distorted angles varying in degrees.

Sketching it out on the carpet floor I use vinyl tape to work through its visual impact. Again my work-in-progress photographs are a crucial tool for editing and critical reflection. Reviewing this on screen at my late night home shift I decide to make them out of functional MDF primed skirting boards. After some attempts of sawing distorted rectangular frames, I am disappointed of not getting my head around calculations. However, consulting my resident technician clears the picture and I even get support in the making. Phew. Time is running as logistics are kicking in along with kids-off-half-term. Some tricky gluing but all done soon. Stepping back and yes! I do see distorting as an enforced process that seems to generally reflect on the space’s politics work.

On site, a different mind-set kicks in; working in the office project space rather than studio or home feels like a sharpened focus in a temporary reality. I catch myself aspiring to be even more efficient. Although I do realise, four hours on site is not ideal to work. That’s why my second shift of assessing, thinking, researching and writing is happening in the ‘other hours’ – on the train, late at home or even during time with my little people.

The other day some of the resident artists met for discussing work, the status of skills in artistic practice and impact of developing work. Everyone contributed productively to the in-progress of making and occupying space. Even more, the artists enjoyed playful-explorative ways of interacting with performative aspects of some work.

Our Micro-residency opening is set for 7 June 2013.

It does make a difference having an opportunity to work in a large space – to lay out work, see progress and detours, noticing interrelations. All which is part of developing new work.

Composing material in space is like negotiating; agreement or compromise.

In occupancy, the space would be layered with offers, obligations, consent and disagreement. What does it mean to confront the space or making use of its language?

Since the space is empty, I keep imagining rectangular surfaces. Ultimately, the shapes are derived from desks and meeting tables that would normally inhabit the space. Playing again with 2d and 3d dimensionality the rectangles I use appear as if cut out of sheet material.

Placing cardboard on inward or outward facing corners of the plain walls let the surfaces float at table height. However where the rectangle edge hits the corner’s vertical line it gets cut off and the separated part falls down or folds around the corner. I have experimented with various sets using coloured cardboard and vinyl veneer at different corners in the space.

I recurrently think of distorting – a process of pulling and twisting, of separating and disintegrating and of changing appearance. The alterations of an original format can be read as deforming, shaping, possibly misrepresenting or simply improvising. The sheet material physically adjusts to the layout of the space by being distorted hence changing direction. In fact, it playfully works around restrictions.

Our Micro-residency has just been extended. Two more weeks for us to engage with the space and room for critical discussions with the group as well as engaging in a co-existent making on site.

Walking this morning to the Open Plan space through along side roads and passing numerous office buildings made me think of support (back) structures that enable a system to perform at front. Also, the constant proclaim of standards and instructions is trying to assert that all has to fit efficiently.

Today I revisited the grid-like layout of materials and objects that I gathered to reflect on aspects of the space – a pile of veneered boards, vinyl wood effect sheet, a grey angled-table top and striped wallpaper. Each set occupies minimal floor space yet is placed in close proximity to each other. A scene undergoing an inspection – almost mirroring the occasional tour by the (quite friendly) building reception officers. Budgeted utility materials like the veneered MDF and wood imitations indicate workplace economy and hinting at the cover we are trying to sustain. Yet at the same time the displayed materials and objects are reassuringly light weight, banal and appearing familiar to the viewer.

I started numbering those ‘micro-sites’ as to draw focus and de-pheriperalise the items. Mimicking stock-taking or cataloguing makes me think of a gathering of evidence. Does it add importance or suggest iterations? Counting the micro-sites makes wondering about missing numbers, whether these are randomly allocated or follow an agenda. Interestingly, having removed the numbering let the materials and objects re-adjust.

I always take photographs of work in progress and revisit them on screen, keeping me working while not on-site and utilizing time slots while juggling art and family. Even if this is a controlled perspective, it helps perceiving things in their actual interrelations and assessing details. Being part of how I work, this distanced viewing is crucial to me for reflecting, editing and re-focussing.

Spending time in the space makes aware of how it equalises what it contains. As a group we were talking about how it makes everything corresponding, matching and uniform. How does it happen? What responses does it enforce? [to be continued]



On the way to the residency, I am packed with initial thoughts and starting points. The space looks different every day with new work in progress. Good to walk around and starting off with a critical and reflective discussion of the space with a group of the resident artists, Marg, Robin and Carol. We talked about how this set up of open plan has become the contemporary workspace along with the politics and economy of space.

Examining the office layout it is ‘neutral’ white-grey-straight lined, carpeted, with motion-detected lighting from a standard-tiled suspended ceiling, sealed windows – a big open plan with one ‘placeholder’ pillar. Windows give view to backyard passages, encapsulated storage and functional access plus a tightly framed courtyard with some green. No noise enters from the outside; it’s like watching a silent film whereas the air condition is humming along. Separating the outside it draws focus to the inside!

I wish the space had some content – furniture in it. Rearranging what is there is a way of working I regularly apply for making my installations with institutional interior. Here, I will need to acquire a different approach as the space is actually empty.

As an initial act of occupancy I lay out some materials and objects relevant to the space. Being surrounded by this build up I can’t quite grasp the process and decide to let it settle and move on meanwhile.

Equipped with plenty of low tack vinyl tape I started off making use of the walls and applying tape directly. The subtle difference in texture of the white tape let the lines mark the white walls. Soon the lines join up and form a ‘construct’ hovering elevated above floor level. It is partly a play with two- and three-dimensioniality and a minimal set of lines. Interestingly, the initial version was a rather spontaneous response, not planned or researched beforehand. It looks structural yet illusionistic. Reflecting on what I made, I temporarily call them ‘viewing platforms’. They invite and encourage a view that is lifted from ground level. As such, the constructs act as viewing devices that facilitate a distancing from the site. More importantly, the platforms augment looking with a new level of observation and enabling a position to see more clearly. On the other hand, the platforms themselves appear imagined and seem to disappear occasionally – similar to thoughts that vanish just in the moment when they start making sense.

[to be continued]

Open Plan is a collaborative project space where >Departure Foundation< is hosting a second Micro-residency. A group of artists including me are invited over the next ten days to work in this newly refurbished ground floor office in a Central London building. It is nice to meet the other resident artists on-site – some I know from previous projects and Central Saint Martins College, some other artists are new to me. It will be interesting to get to know each other by working alongside. Everyone is settling in parts of the large space to get started.

As for me, I have familiarised myself with the space already through previous exhibition events as I was involved in. This residency will extend negotiating my practice with the site. Re-adjusting myself to the space, I keep documenting it by taking photographs of features, conditions and its periphery – a filtering and marking process, visually and by writing. I critically engage with issues rooted in the institutional context – here it is: the corporate (everyday) workplace. Even though this office space isn’t currently inhabited by business the upstairs floors are. The functional layout, aesthetics and materials make me think of economy of space and underlying mechanism such as control, access, hierarchies and notions of power. Over the coming days I will be thinking of reducing, contrasting, twisting, translating – I am always injecting a playful layer to what I find and reflect on.

It is great being offered an opportunity to make temporary use of a space while not under contract. However, projecting its own challenges the space has to be kept ‘pristine’ – no drilling/nailing, taking up floors or mess. These rules might appear as limitations yet I see it as a productive measure: good for making and showing sculpture, video, performative work or develop existing ideas in the context. I am often working with functional spaces for my installations, site-related interventions and display of performative sculptures – so this is right up my street. Although it is a big space. [To be continued]

Resident artists: Charlotte Young, Marg Duston, Carol Mancke, AnnaMaria Kardos and Robin Gardiner and others.

Departure Foundation is a charity that supports and promotes contemporary art throughout the UK by providing free studio space for artists, curating exhibitions, award art prizes and running educational projects for local communities. In 2012 they worked with over 250 artists and more than 40 curators /co-ordinators and collaborated with numerous schools, art groups and universities. Lead Curator / Project Manager: Louise Ashcroft www.departurefoundation.com

OPEN PLAN is a space for discussions, exchange, events and exhibition. A collective project led by students from The Royal College of Art and AltMFA (London’s alternative peer-led MA) in collaboration with myriad other London-based art schools and artists who are going to take part in events, exhibitions and screenings.