V&A Museum Community Artist in Residence

For the first time, the V&A, in partnership with RIBA and supported by RBKC, staged a community-based artist residency.  My studio at 7 Shalfleet Drive was attached to the More West housing development. This is the first housing development in this part of North Kensington since the social housing of the 1960s-70s. It is building onto the pre-existing Silchester Estate and incorporating Frinstead House, a twenty-floor high rise. It is an indication of how development will take place in the future. This new Peabody housing consists of 112 flats with mixed social and market tenure. It was designed by Haworth Tompkins.

Over the course of seven months, the V&A funded my residency and I staged a programme of activities, both locally and in the Museum. I shared my multi-media skills with local residents, community groups and nursery children. They in turn have inspired me. I was able to consolidate my film making pedigree but worked in a new medium – the sculptural and architectural qualities of paper. All this collaborative work had the aim of engaging residents and participants in themes connected with history, housing, architecture, social change and regeneration. This has not always been easy. I felt it vital to interview and record key people connected to the development and to share their experiences and diverse points of view. A new community is about to form in the area and there will be challenges ahead in incorporating the old with the new. Nathan Coley has produced a striking sculpture for the roof of the new housing and his art will engage with the new residents. I’m looking forward to returning and seeing how the housing and its community are settling in.

Throughout my residency two art works were major sources of inspiration: Vision of Beatrice and Leo The Last. Although spanning different centuries and media, they both have an artistic, geographical and housing connection with the area I was based. The Vision of Beatrice is a stain glass designed by Nathaniel Westlake in 1863. It is in the collection of the V&A Museum. It illustrates a scene from Dante’s Divine Comedy when Dante has a vision of love and is able to travel from purgatory to paradise. Nathaniel Westlake also had a house built for him in 1863 and this is currently located at Whitchurch Street, directly opposite Testerton Walk on the Lancaster West Estate.In 1969, before the Lancaster West estate was built, Testerton Street was the location for the filming of Leo The Last. It memorably used this street as part of its monochrome set design. The story concerns an aristocratic landlord who moves into a slum area of Notting Hill and is radicalised by his interaction with the local Afro-Caribbean community. Throughout my residency my film camera was used much like Leo’s telescope in the film; to focus a lens on the world and meditate on housing and community relations. These art works have informed Vision of Paradise, a 28 minute film that was screened at the V&A as a work in progress. It will be premiered at the 2015 Portobello Film Festival. The film poses the question: what is art, community and home? We are obsessed with material culture. Perhaps there is a need to rediscover a spiritual approach to life and home making.

I’ve had great feedback on the residency and events.

The Mayor Cllr Maighread Condon-Simmonds commented: “I love your work and we are very honoured to have you in our Borough.”

Miss Valois: “What a great project. So much of the history and voice of the real local people seems to be lost in the quest for development. More please.”

Derek White, resident of Silchester Estate at the Home Sweet Home screening: “A great collage of life from the area and wider. Very thought provoking.”

Mary Eadie, Teacher at St Anne’s Nursery: “Congratulations on your wonderful exhibition at the V&A. We were so proud that some of our children were given the opportunity to take part and to come to see their work. It was all so well presented.”

Neil Hobbs and family after visiting the No Object event: “What a wonderful, insightful project. I hope this is happening all over London. If not, why not? This social history is so very important and should be recorded. Great experience, thank you.”

Steph Perkin, Resident Liaison Officer for More West: “Your residency next to site was a remarkable experience from my point of view and for the whole community. Having the studio in the midst of the development was perfect as you truly were immersed in the regeneration and became an important part of the end of an era for the Silchester Estate. The fact that you already had extensive knowledge of the area meant that you were able to actually tell people about the history of where they live even though they may have lived here many years – myself included!”

Cllr Judith Blakeman: “One of the great things was the way the events and work that Constantine and residents did brought the community together. Constantine reached out to a huge range of disparate groups and across generations, all of whom came together for the final exhibition. People also uncovered artistic talents in themselves that they had no idea they possessed. Constantine’s work also encouraged people to think deeply about what the area means to them and to develop an enhanced sense of belonging to their local place.”

V&A Blog 

Films made during the residency:

Feel The Grove  A site specific music event for a 1960s council flat prior to being redeveloped.

Home Sweet Home A curated programme of short films about post-war housing and regeneration.

Leo The Last film screening and ceramic workshop at the V&A Museum

The entrance to the Architecture Gallery at the V&A has a classic marble staircase. It echoes to the sound of history.

On the 19th and 20th November 2014, I held a film screening and paper folding workshop here. Visitors approaching the space would have heard the following sounds and voices.

Fragment 1
The sound of WW2 bombing, glass shattering and the percussive dub of the Notting Hill Carnival.
This reverberation in a usually quiet location caused a few raised eyebrows and the volume had to be scaled down.

Fragment 2
North Kensington residents reminiscing about good and bad days, post-war poverty, multicultural experiences, poor housing and the British sense of humour.
An American who lives in London and who viewed this section of the film programme commented about the shocking poverty and how in the good U.S. we never had it so bad.

Fragment 3
A filmed conversation with Joanna Sutherland, project architect at More West housing development. This is where I am based as V&A Community artist. She talked about: “What we are seeing … is the threat to communities due to the expense of living, not just in central London, but all areas of London. I think there has been a growing interest in the last ten years, if not longer, of how communities evolve and what’s important within a community, whether it’s through schools, a community facility, a church. And I hope that this project, Silchester and the wider area, still remains a home for those who have lived there, had children, and maybe they can continue to live in the same place.”
It was heartening to hear positive comments about this film from residents of the estate currently undergoing transformation.
A new community is forming at More West built on the foundations of the previous slum clearance redevelopment in the 1960s. That phase of development was very disruptive coupled as it was with the building of the adjacent Westway A40. It did however create social housing. Today, there is no longer a desire to match that social vision, and what is affordable in terms of rent and quality of life, is beyond the means of many. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Peabody are providing part social and market housing at More West that consists of 45 rented homes, 39 shared-ownership and 28 for outright sale. The new housing is part of a rapidly changing area. However as our local councillor states: “There are too many poor people.” Councillor Judith Blakeman has to deal with many of their social problems.

Fragment 4
Glockenspiel and assorted drum kits provide a positive vision of the future. Children from Frinstead House are drawing. A girl illustrates herself waving goodbye to her father from the 20th floor of the high rise; he is waiting for his train at Latimer Road tube station. Another child mischievously draws a giant t-rex attacking the tube station. This is regeneration, disaster monster movie style. Yet another child provides a rainbow arcing across the skyline.
This was one of my most direct and rewarding engagements as community artist. I did not advertise this. I merely set up a large sheet of paper in the foyer of Frinstead House and invited local residents to accompany me in filling the blank. Adults and children confirmed their cultural identity and what it means to live in their high rise homes.

Fragment 5 – Was not heard at the museum. It has not been caught on camera or in any of my expressionistic documentary work. I hope to render this shortly. Symbolised by a DJ playing at a recent marketing event for More West. He has bought a flat and will move to the area in 2015. He is excited. Young and professional. For him there is no lingering doubts. He is forging the future in progressive sound waves. Zeitgeist.

In summary, this curated programme had the aim of dialectical montage, the juxtaposition of contrasting images and sounds. This is our experience in all its complicated social modes. It is both beautiful and ugly. We build for the future and paper over the cracks.

Speaking of paper (workshop), I have also provided a visual record of how young and old came together at the V&A Museum. Complete strangers who with a little encouragement and artistic structure are able to express light and shade, twisting new shapes into being and creating another fragment (like no 4 above) that brings a smile to my face.

Home Sweet Home, edited extracts from the film programme, can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/112824850

Full details of the V&A residency.

It might not be the final frontier. But this blog entry begins and ends with space. The big bang of the widescreen, large format and panoramic. A location for an artist to perform and connect with people. The contested politics of space, building homes and forging communities.
First stop. Let me beam you to my non residential artist’s studio. All artists cry and bleed for a space. This is nothing new. East London currently rules the roost, but in the past artists would look to this stretch, west of London, for verdant grass and fresh air. William Mulready was one of the first artists to settle in Kensington in the first decade of the 19th century. He shared digs with fellow artist John Linnellat Kensington Gravel Pits and then had a studio house built for him in 1827 at Linden Grove (now gardens, the house is no longer extant). This was during the first wave of development for the Ladbroke Estate and Mulready lived here for the remainder of his life. Nearly forty years later, Nathaniel Westlake, having just converted to catholicism, has his architect friend, John Francis Bentley, design a house for him in Notting Barns. Westlake did not stay here for long. We can perhaps speculate this is because the area developed into one of the worst slums in London. His house is still standing and looks out of place next to the Lancaster West Estate. Mulready and Westlake are both closely associated with the birth of the V&A Museum and have work on display. In terms of art, studio space and the V&A, I am following in their footsteps.

During my V&A Community Artist residency, I have that precious commodity for an artist, studio space. I am not based at the museum like the other resident artists. I am a tenant of a flat whose rooms can be sculpted, wallpapered, improvised. It’s an in-between space, a former council property, that will become part of a mixed tenure housing. No one will care if I artistically trash it as demolition is due next year. I’m conscious of being the last in line. Leo The Last. The last house demolished. I’ve explored these in previous art projects. Now. I’m living out my very own kitchen sink drama.
What about the medium or mixed media of space? Artists are always grappling with this technical consideration, whether it’s processing on a computer or via more traditional craft techniques. I usually compose an image through a viewfinder of a camera or a sketchbook often leading to 16×20 inch drawings; this is a legacy of working with photo paper formats in a darkroom.
There are also multiple dimensions to my residency: how art relates to community and housing and architecture. As I want to share and encourage others to participant in these processes, I need to think big as in large scale. This is new to me and will present its own set of challenges.
I also need to engage with my immediate neighbours on the street, residents in the estate, people in the ward, across the borough. An audience that might not understand “art” or perhaps even know who the V&A are.
As I begin, so I end. Everything is hurtling towards a date in January or February 2015 with an end of residency event at the V&A. This is in the lunch room for visitors to the learning centre. However being the V&A it is no ordinary lunch room. It has a cinematic sweep, certainly from the top down. Even wall lined cupboards gets one thinking of spaces within space. I’m looking at constructing panoramic displays here, perhaps of the Silchester and Lancaster West Estate and its residents. This will include film of the new housing development taking place and the new community that is forming. Also perhaps a representation of the Westway (A40), a built structure that dominates this area of North Kensington. Can I also chuck in some “stain-glass” imagery for the aesthetic thrill?

On August 18th I hosted an open day bringing some of these issues into focus. I did wonder how many people I could safely fit into the studio flat and its 4 spaces (20 comfortably at peak capacity). It was a good idea to convert a large store room into a history room with archive maps and images. In total, I had 60 plus visitors. Delighted to see my neighbours on Shalfleet Drive popping in to see what all the fuss was about. This is important as I plan on working with them on a film project. There was a group visit from Open Age who took to my live drawing like ducks to water. Great to see old colleagues, including Adam Ritchie who was pivotal in establishing the community ethos for the Westway and the building of play spaces for children in the 1960s.
The Mayor of RBKC Maighread Condon-Simmonds also paid a visit. She is a charming lady, really down to earth and digs the complex layered history of this area. In her thank you letter, she chimed in with my thoughts about the challenges of space: “You have made a truly interesting display in such a small space…..The north of the borough has so much more space than the south and it is good to see the new developments with good quality homes.”

For the exhibition, I also created a drawing installation called House with 40 Rooms. In each room there was an object. These objects were all from the V&A. I invited participants to use words or images in response to the objects in the rooms. Local resident, Maggie Tyler, wrote the following about her drawing:
“I used to look out at a Stag’s Horn tree and a round window in the wall of the house at the end of the garden. At night, I would see the silhouette of the foxes walking along the top of the wall past the round window. Then! The Neighbour moved out and the new neighbour built an extension. A modern extension that covered and destroyed the round window. The tree fell down and the view has changed. I now look at a modern box!”

A few days later, I opened my studio during the rain-sodden Notting hill carnival. Sheltering outside my flat, I took pity on a group of performers and invited them in. Amos has been taking part in the carnival for over 15 years and we chatted about its history which is reflected in art work on display. New residents moving into More West from 2015 (once the flat is demolished and new housing built) will find they are on the western edge of the processional route. There is intense debate about the future of the carnival. Is it too big for the streets of Notting Hill? Cllr. Eve Allison, who has ancestral roots in the Carribean, believes there are compelling reasons for relocating the carnival to a larger green space. This would be a loss to the area and signal a departure that the carnival has lost its community connection.

Down at the V&A, I’ve been reflecting on this and artistic precedents for panoramic art.
Nathaniel Weslake has large upright stain glass and oil paintings (with associated mosaic) on display. I’ve previously commented on his smashing stain glass. This time I’m checking out his contribution to the Valhalla portraits. It seems apt that Westlake should choose as his artistic role model, Fra Beato Giacomo da Ulma (d.1517), a Dominican Friar who painted on glass at Bologna and is an obscure figure in the series. As Westlake did for da Ulma, I will likewise do for Westlake. Celebrate the art and allow this to percolate into my practice. This means moving into unfamiliar territory, but I’m up for the challenge. I can start digitally with photoshop and a literal following in the footsteps (see image below!) This is a simple tool to collage ideas and feelings about the construction of a pictorial landscape. Just the first step in a process of ongoing experimentation that will probably morph into craft and film.
In the prints and study room, I was intrigued by panoramic prints and photographs. An 1801 print shows a panorama happening in Leicester Square. This was presented as various walking and viewing points in a space shaped by architect and painter. Ingenious. I also marvelled at the skill employed in a fold-out book made to commemorate the Funeral Procession of the Duke of Wellington in 1852. It was made by Samuel Henry Alken and George Augustus Sala. The pomp and circumstance of this stately occasion made an interesting contrast to the recent carnival floats that passed by my studio. It connects with previous thoughts about creating work that fuses the historic with the contemporary.
My art musing is only of interest when it translates into practical application. How to use art to look at the urban environment, the community spaces around my studio and the homes that residents have made here? How high rise residents perceive the new developments taking place below them? How residents in the shadow of taller structures tune themselves to changes in light and air quality as the sun climbs and then dips into the West? How do I create a space for public participation in the process of making art? How will others want to reflect on the world around them? I need to bear in mind that this might not necessarily tally with how I view the world. How will art be elegantly displayed to accommodate a follow up activity of engagement? Can I bring this all together at the V&A lunch room as food for thought?

I don’t particularly want to end on a question, so offer this as a postscript.
I’m being managed by Laura Southall in the Learning Department of the V&A and it was great to meet more of the team. I set them a 10 minute challenge to make some sculptural forms and showed them a few examples. If they ended up making a posh version of a paper aeroplane, that would be fine. Dah! They do all work for the V&A, pre-eminent design and art museum. Fold, tear and sellotape.
Horizons west. Feels good.

It might not be the final frontier. But this blog entry begins and ends with space. The big bang of the widescreen, large format and panoramic. A location for an artist to perform and connect with people. The contested politics of space, building homes and forging communities.
First stop. Let me beam you to my non residential artist’s studio. All artists cry and bleed for a space. This is nothing new. East London currently rules the roost, but in the past artists would look to this stretch, west of London, for verdant grass and fresh air. William Mulready was one of the first artists to settle in Kensington in the first decade of the 19th century. He shared digs with fellow artist John Linnell at Kensington Gravel Pits and then had a studio house built for him in 1827 at Linden Grove (now gardens, the house is no longer extant). This was during the first wave of development for the Ladbroke Estate and Mulready lived here for the remainder of his life. Nearly forty years later, Nathaniel Westlake, having just converted to catholicism, has his architect friend, John Francis Bentley, design a house for him in Notting Barns. Westlake did not stay here for long. We can perhaps speculate this is because the area developed into one of the worst slums in London. His house is still standing and looks out of place next to the Lancaster West Estate. Mulready and Westlake are both closely associated with the birth of the V&A Museum and have work on display. In terms of art, studio space and the V&A, I am following in their footsteps.

During my V&A Community Artist residency, I have that precious commodity for an artist, studio space. I am not based at the museum like the other resident artists. I am a tenant of a flat whose rooms can be sculpted, wallpapered, improvised. It’s an in-between space, a former council property, that will become part of a mixed tenure housing. No one will care if I artistically trash it as demolition is due next year. I’m conscious of being the last in line. Leo The Last. The last house demolished. I’ve explored these in previous art projects. Now. I’m living out my very own kitchen sink drama.
What about the medium or mixed media of space? Artists are always grappling with this technical consideration, whether it’s processing on a computer or via more traditional craft techniques. I usually compose an image through a viewfinder of a camera or a sketchbook often leading to 16×20 inch drawings; this is a legacy of working with photo paper formats in a darkroom.
There are also multiple dimensions to my residency: how art relates to community and housing and architecture. As I want to share and encourage others to participant in these processes, I need to think big as in large scale. This is new to me and will present its own set of challenges.
I also need to engage with my immediate neighbours on the street, residents in the estate, people in the ward, across the borough. An audience that might not understand “art” or perhaps even know who the V&A are.
As I begin, so I end. Everything is hurtling towards a date in January or February 2015 with an end of residency event at the V&A. This is in the lunch room for visitors to the learning centre. However being the V&A it is no ordinary lunch room. It has a cinematic sweep, certainly from the top down. Even wall lined cupboards gets one thinking of spaces within space. I’m looking at constructing panoramic displays here, perhaps of the Silchester and Lancaster West Estate and its residents. This will include film of the new housing development taking place and the new community that is forming. Also perhaps a representation of the Westway (A40), a built structure that dominates this area of North Kensington. Can I also chuck in some “stain-glass” imagery for the aesthetic thrill?

On August 18th I hosted an open day bringing some of these issues into focus. I did wonder how many people I could safely fit into the studio flat and its 4 spaces (20 comfortably at peak capacity). It was a good idea to convert a large store room into a history room with archive maps and images. In total, I had 60 plus visitors. Delighted to see my neighbours on Shalfleet Drive popping in to see what all the fuss was about. This is important as I plan on working with them on a film project. There was a group visit from Open Age who took to my live drawing like ducks to water. Great to see old colleagues, including Adam Ritchie who was pivotal in establishing the community ethos for the Westway and the building of play spaces for children in the 1960s.
The Mayor of RBKC Maighread Condon-Simmonds also paid a visit. She is a charming lady, really down to earth and digs the complex layered history of this area. In her thank you letter, she chimed in with my thoughts about the challenges of space: “You have made a truly interesting display in such a small space…..The north of the borough has so much more space than the south and it is good to see the new developments with good quality homes.”

For the exhibition, I also created a drawing installation called House with 40 Rooms. In each room there was an object. These objects were all from the V&A. I invited participants to use words or images in response to the objects in the rooms. Local resident, Maggie Tyler, wrote the following about her drawing:
“I used to look out at a Stag’s Horn tree and a round window in the wall of the house at the end of the garden. At night, I would see the silhouette of the foxes walking along the top of the wall past the round window. Then! The Neighbour moved out and the new neighbour built an extension. A modern extension that covered and destroyed the round window. The tree fell down and the view has changed. I now look at a modern box!”

A few days later, I opened my studio during the rain-sodden Notting hill carnival. Sheltering outside my flat, I took pity on a group of performers and invited them in. Amos has been taking part in the carnival for over 15 years and we chatted about its history which is reflected in art work on display. New residents moving into More West from 2015 (once the flat is demolished and new housing built) will find they are on the western edge of the processional route. There is intense debate about the future of the carnival. Is it too big for the streets of Notting Hill? Cllr. Eve Allison, who has ancestral roots in the Carribean, believes there are compelling reasons for relocating the carnival to a larger green space. This would be a loss to the area and signal a departure that the carnival has lost its community connection.

Down at the V&A, I’ve been reflecting on this and artistic precedents for panoramic art.
Nathaniel Weslake has large upright stain glass and oil paintings (with associated mosaic) on display. I’ve previously commented on his smashing stain glass. This time I’m checking out his contribution to the Valhalla portraits. It seems apt that Westlake should choose as his artistic role model, Fra Beato Giacomo da Ulma (d.1517), a Dominican Friar who painted on glass at Bologna and is an obscure figure in the series. As Westlake did for da Ulma, I will likewise do for Westlake. Celebrate the art and allow this to percolate into my practice. This means moving into unfamiliar territory, but I’m up for the challenge. I can start digitally with photoshop and a literal following in the footsteps (see image below!) This is a simple tool to collage ideas and feelings about the construction of a pictorial landscape. Just the first step in a process of ongoing experimentation that will probably morph into craft and film.
In the prints and study room, I was intrigued by panoramic prints and photographs. An 1801 print shows a panorama happening in Leicester Square. This was presented as various walking and viewing points in a space shaped by architect and painter. Ingenious. I also marvelled at the skill employed in a fold-out book made to commemorate the Funeral Procession of the Duke of Wellington in 1852. It was made by Samuel Henry Alken and George Augustus Sala. The pomp and circumstance of this stately occasion made an interesting contrast to the recent carnival floats that passed by my studio. It connects with previous thoughts about creating work that fuses the historic with the contemporary.
My art musing is only of interest when it translates into practical application. How to use art to look at the urban environment, the community spaces around my studio and the homes that residents have made here? How high rise residents perceive the new developments taking place below them? How residents in the shadow of taller structures tune themselves to changes in light and air quality as the sun climbs and then dips into the West? How do I create a space for public participation in the process of making art? How will others want to reflect on the world around them? I need to bear in mind that this might not necessarily tally with how I view the world. How will art be elegantly displayed to accommodate a follow up activity of engagement? Can I bring this all together at the V&A lunch room as food for thought?

I don’t particularly want to end on a question, so offer this as a postscript.
I’m being managed by Laura Southall in the Learning Department of the V&A and it was great to meet more of the team. I set them a 10 minute challenge to make some sculptural forms and showed them a few examples. If they ended up making a posh version of a paper aeroplane, that would be fine. Dah! They do all work for the V&A, pre-eminent design and art museum. Fold, tear and sellotape.
Horizons west. Feels good.

Beyond the garden fence of the studio, the building work of More West progresses. Insulation material is being installed.
Inside, I’m holding court on my first open day. It was great to see old and especially new faces.
Allan Tyrrell was born in the area. Eman Yosry is a more recent resident. They met for the first time over a drawing. Allan produced a scene from his past; a local ice Cream shop on Bramley Road called Mancini’s. Eman, more hesitant about evoking her local surroundings, drew on the iconic image of her motherland; the pyramids of Giza. Ice cream and sun-soaked pyramid. So apt.
I found the live drawing a good forum for sharing life experiences, humour and drawing techniques (even if several participants claim to have never drawn before). Foundations to build on.
In the studio there are twelve drawings on display from 2012-13. These tell a cinematic story of the urban development of this area of Notting Hill called Notting Barns. It has had a complex and often troubled social history from the early 1800’s to the present day: from early cottage industries based around pig farming and brick making to laundries and totters; from the development of a “slum” to pioneering social housing established by Octavia Hill; from post war race-riots to the birth of thecarnival; from “slum clearance” to estate redevelopment; from the building of the Westway (A40) to the establishment of an alternative squatting community called Frestonia. Social activism around housing and community facilities has a long and noble history in the area.
We all broadly agree there is a housing crisis: demand cannot satisfy the need for an expanding population, single occupancy and overcrowded families. Local authorities are under pressure to develop more housing in our densely packed urban environment. Affordable housing is a major problem. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has the highest prices for property in England, averaging over £1 million. Regeneration projects with mixed tenure units and limited social housing are currently regarded as the most viable and economic solution in addressing this social problem.
In Unum Habitare (Dwelling In Unity) is the aspirational motto of RBKC.
Speaking of the classics, Greek. I’ve conjoured some architectural columns in the studio. Quite by chance. First by shape-shifting paper and then as inspiration for a drawing. I’m in happy, stone hugging mood.
More good news to report. After correspondence with John Boorman and the British Film Institute, I’m hopefully going to screen Leo The Last as part of my residency. This film resonates with me. One unique aspect is the set design and the colour palette. The film was shot in North Kensington on Testerton Street just prior to its slum clearance. All the houses were painted black, (bar one, more of this in future blogs) and a false white classical house built across the street for the main protagonist, Leo, played by Marcello Mastroianni. The memory of this street and its use as a film set, now lies buried under the Lancaster West estate. The estate is sited near my studio, just across the Bramley road.
To get the creative juices flowing, I’ve started to make some 3D drawings based on the film. More playful interactions between paper and drawing. And yes, that’s me in fan mode, with an authentic 1970 poster hanging up in the kitchen.
One day a week, I’m down at the V&A. Today it’s the lovely ceramics galleries on the 6th level. Well worth a visit. It’s one of the quietest places in the museum and has a great sense of light. Perfect for contemplation. I’m intrigued by a 1973 ceramic form that was made by Bryan Newman and is so redolent of the urban landscape of North Kensington; houses and estates dominated by an elevated motorway. The Westway (A40) was built at the same time as the slum clearance programme that gave rise to the estate complex in Notting Barns. I’ve already explored the Westway at the V&A in a film project called Flood Light. I suspect I will revisit this concrete superstructure as part of my residency.
While here, I met Ahmet, one of the gallery attendants. He was very knowledgable about the collections. Other attendants were also very welcoming as I sketched and took photos. There are talented artists amongst them and I look forward to seeing their work.
And after a month, I’ve finally met up with my fellow artists in residence. Nao Matsunaga is the ceramic artist who is creating mythical and ritualistic creatures. I caught him in wood shaving mode.
It was also good to see Hande Akcayli from the T/Shirt Issue. She has been busy scanning objects from the V&A and will transform these into garments and narrative sculptures. She and her team of workers were frantically completing work forLondon Design Festival. So busy they hadn’t noticed the signage. Technology is poetry had become “Techno is potty”. We laughed. It sounds like a Krafkwerk song in the making.
Last but not least, I chatted to Liam O’Connor. He is the drawing resident artist, documenting the building of the new gallery at the V&A, and his practice has a good overlap with my own. It was really interesting to see his mode of working on site, having a wooden frame to support a roll of paper that he can wind and unwind, capturing the energy and repetitive movement of builders and machinery. Liam is also experimenting with optics as a way of seeing and interpreting the world.
I’m delighted to say that Liam will be a guest star at my next studio open day. This will take place on Thursday 21st August from 2-9pm. My studio is at 7 Shalflett drive W10 6UF, directly opposite Latimer Road tube station. We will have the V&A out in force as Laura Southall, Assistant Programme Manager for Creative Industries, Higher Education & Residencies, will also be present.
I look forward to seeing old and new faces at I want to live, draw me a house.