Standpoint Futures Residency Programme

This is my first longer term residency (I did a one week, whistle-stop-tour one, two years ago with OUTPOST in Norwich) and my first time blogging about my work and ideas, so excuse the ramblings that may proceed…

I am one week into the residency and settling into the studio and the east of London! Meeting the artists at Standpoint with their specific skills+workshops (Etching, litho, letterpress and ceramics) has been interesting, I wish I had more time to make use of them all! And staying with the artist collective Vulpes Vulpes also provides access to an artist community, full of diverse interests and practices.

I wanted to use my time at Standpoint as a way to reflect upon the body of work I have been producing over the past year, which has used print (block, mono + woodcut), 35mm slide + photography as well as 8+16mm film to discuss the sculptural concerns in my practice. An abundance of new references and possibilities have come from this output, such as ideas around the performative and archival, which I would like to expand upon over the next few weeks.

I met with Lisa Panting today, Co-director of Holly Bush Gardens in Bethnal Green. I asked to meet with Lisa as I admire several of the artists they represent and was interested to hear her thoughts on my recent works and plans for my residency.

Lisa was particularly interested in the found pot images, which I have turned into slide works, and we discussed the context of the images and what affect this had on the work at length. This series of found images from the school where I work and depict pots children have made, around 10+ years ago. These objects have a beautiful, hand crafted quality and a naivety in the way in which they have been produced, but interestingly, this kind of outmoded practice is now not part of the curriculum.

Lisa suggested that the context of how I came across the imagery, and my own reasons for appropriating them, was of real value to the work and we discussed how this could be implied further through text and what form that could take.

We also discussed the new work I am considering making during my residency which would involve me ‘staging’ mise en scenes of my own artworks in the form of paper screens in enclosed gardens in the east of London. I am interested in creating a form of ephemeral public sculptures, but which will only exist in documented form as photographs or slides/film, an archive of an event or a performance of an object.

I am meeting Paul Peroni of Space Studios next week so will blog again then!

Hannah James.

Hannah James from Bristol begins her residency at Standpoint

Hannah will be with us until the 31st of September, with a public presentation of work in progress on the 22nd-23rd September. More details to follow.

Hannah James’ practice is primarily concerned with the experience of an artwork. Her practice strives to describe the process of actively engaging with an object. Space, and the way in which the viewer approaches and inhabits it, is a central concern.

Work is made in response to the specifics of site, often existing in a succinct and minimal form. Image and object are positioned as antagonists; the work oscillates between the two and three dimensional, repeatedly undermining and challenging one with the other.

The mise en scene, which encompasses all components staged within a space and the manner with which they are composed, is considered as an important reference point. Frames and partial viewpoints are utilised within the installations, through which new scenes are glimpsed beyond. Constructed space is employed as a device within which screens act as tools to both frame, display and blockade – allowing a disruption of function and meaning for the audience.

For his final public presentation, Anthony presented the culmination of the project developed specifically for Standpoint and the surrounding area. The works presented within the gallery space took the form of social research, remnant documentation and performative objects – all of which were developed in conjunction with the previous social event. Along with this presentation of research, Schrag was interested in revisiting the white-cube gallery as a problematic context in which to present such forms of ephemeral material.

Both the event and gallery presentation also explored the assumptions within social engagement agendas and public arts policy that advocate a utopian ideal where ‘everyone gets along’, and recognises that this is an impossibility.

Rachel Anderson, Head of Interaction, Artangel, Marijke Steedman, Curator, Community programme, Whitechapel Gallery, Katie Orr, Education and outreach Coordinator, Gasworks, Laura Wilson, Education organiser at Chisenhale and Frances Williams, Head of Education, South London Gallery all came to Standpoint to visit Anthony in the studio during his residency.

Anthony also met with Andreas Lang at Public Works and Anna Cutler, Director of Learning from Tate.

Anthony Schrag: The project was excellently supported, and hopefully a success for Standpoint – it certainly was for me. The meetings I had really added an extra element to the normal residency experience for me, and it was a fantastic experience to meet up with folks I would never have gotten the opportunity to meet, be that for feedback, critique or networking.

Rachel Anderson, Artangel (who visited Anthony in the studio during his residency): The visit was beneficial for me also, it was a well matched meeting, I found the artists work interesting and well suited in the area of work that I commission, I felt I could offer useful feedback and I was please to be introduced to an artist I may not have discovered otherwise.

Anthony Schrag has finished his residency at Standpoint.

The next artist to begin a residency is Hannah James from Bristol, on the 22nd August.