A record of my first post-graduation residency at the Nexus Art Cafe in the heart of Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Nexus is in the basement of the Methodist Central Hall, and I plan to work with the whole building and the people who have been involved in it, past and present. I’m interested in the role it has played in the city, particularly its relationship with Manchester’s working people during the Industrial Revolution.
I’m happy to have finished the residency – it’s been great, and I was ready to go – but I am sad to be finishing my blog. It has felt very special to be part of this artists community and I have really appreciated the comments that I have received, and the knowledge that my progress has been watched by other people.
I came into the residency with three main fears, that I would not be able to cope without the support I had as a student, that my work wouldn’t be appreciated or understood, and that I wouldn’t be able to generate ideas.
I’ve discovered that all those fears were unfounded. I have become an independent artist during these last four months, and produced new work that engaged people. I feel very lucky to have had the chance so early on to prove to myself that I can do it. And I hope that I will be able to use this good experience to keep my confidence during the inevitable challenges ahead.
This week I have been setting up a studio in my house – which I hope will work out – though I’ve never worked at home before. I have research visits booked for March and April to start learning about Victorian underwear construction.
I’ve been asked to do an installation for the newly re-opening Platt Hall Costume Museum with another ex-Embroidery student. The work will be there from March to September. It will be great exposure. And there is the Stroud International Textile Festival in May, and a gallery interested in showing my work next year. So a few things to keep me busy…
…and maybe to write about in a new blog. But in the meantime, goodbye, and thanks for reading.
You can see more of my work on my website www.annieharrison.co.uk
Ending with a bang or a whimper? I think the combination of closing the exhibition and the snow closing everything else, has caused me to run out of steam with the residency. I kept meaning to go in and had ideas of what to do, but it was all getting a bit half hearted.
However, I had a good meeting with Emily and Hannah from Nexus. I acknowledged my lack of energy and we decided that the project has reached its natural conclusion and confirmed that the residency would end on 31st January. They have someone else who is eager to start, so that works out well for us all. I’m not going to do a proper reflection here until I have actually finished and moved out, but I can at least say that it has been a real gift and I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity.
The main thing that has been occupying me is what to do when I move out of my studio at Nexus. Mia, my best friend from college, and I have been looking for a studio to share, but there is a high demand in Manchester, which generally means high price and low availability. We saw wonderful studios last week, but couldn’t possibly afford them, which was very disappointing.
So in the meantime, we’ve decided to convert a room in my house – it’s not ideal, but will have to do until we work out how to make money from our work – and that is another question that is occupying me at the moment. But I think that is a whole other blog…
The exhibition at Nexus ended on Sunday and my installation was taken apart and the 1500 sheets and 750 pillowcases are now at my house!
I’ve just been sitting down to do some applications for new projects and have discovered that there is a problem with the photo’s of the installation – which are all huge files but low resolution. Is there anything I can do about that? Does this mean I have no decent photo’s of my installation? What a disaster!
What does it mean to have a holiday?
I have a paid part time job at the university, which closes between Christmas and New Year, which this year means that from the 24th December to the 4th January, I don’t have to go to work. My first thought was: great, I can spend more time at the residency. But then I realised that I am really tired and need a break.
So I decided, take time off from the residency as well. But then why did I spend the whole morning writing a proposal for another project, and why am I now writing this??
Is it possible for a free lance artist to have a holiday? And if I spend my holiday drawing and doing watercolours, is that really a holiday??
What does it mean to have a holiday?
What do you do when the viewer doesn’t respond to your work as you want them to?
I’ve been spending time in the cafe this week, instead of in my studio, talking to the customers and trying to get them to participate in The Cubicle Project. I’ve been surprised and pleased at how interested people are and have been delighted by how many of them have filled in sheets saying what they would keep if that was their only personal space. But most responses are about the luxuries they would keep – lap tops, guitars etc. But what about the basics like clothes and shoes?? That doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone so far. That was what I wanted people to think about. When the women come into the refuge, they had nothing except the clothes they wore, I was hoping people would reflect on that in this season of consumption.
I don’t know whether I should just accept it, or whether I should change the questions I’m asking to elicit the responses I want? Dilemma!
I’ve got the photographs from Zara, who very kindly spent Saturday morning doing shots of the sheet installation for me. I was relieved to get them done, as the installation will be coming down on 3rd Jan. I’m posting some here, and will be sending them off to some galleries in the hope…
Off to Hotbed press this afternoon to do some trial prints for a series I want to do of the buildings where the social projects were housed. I’ve also been doing linocut for the first time – really like it. That is this years christmas cards taken care of! Now just presents to get…
My work is grounded in presence and absence. I unearth the hidden and forgotten and look for traces of human stories in particular places. My recent practice has focused on the history of Manchester and the social impact of urbanisation. I work in a variety of media, most recently film, textiles, painting and site specific work.