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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]


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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.




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