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.
