Residency Showcase...

Yesterday was the last day of my residency and in the evening from six onwards it was the showcase of what we had done throughout the week. It was a real success! There was a steady flow of people around all night, but it got really busy at some points!

People used the space and interacted with the space in the way we wanted them to and so our message must have been communicated well by the way we structured the space. There were also some lovely comments in the comment book which were left by visitors...

The brief we set ourselves was to create a space unlike a normal exhibition space, somewhere to view work, but also relax and get involved with the work themselves... through creating a living room/kitchen/games environment, we gave people a chance to relax and socialise and also add their own artwork to the walls/furniture... people commented on the lovely atmosphere, with the record player and snacks/cakes. We even found people were entering the space and leaving to get food and come back to eat it in the space!

Having a summary of what the exhibition was about as people walked in, not only told them what it was about but how they can use the space. Someone commented saying that a speech of a brief summary could have been spoken to explain the space and what we had created. But reflecting on this comment, it would have been hard to have addressed everyone in the room, as people were in and out all night, from 6-11.30. Not only that but it wasn't the 'feel' we wanted for the exhibition experience, it was a place of peace and relaxation, someone standing up and addressing everyone there in silence would have given a more formal feel to the evening for people there at the time and that's not what we wanted.

Here are a few photos...

Residency: Progress...

Tonight I've been working on initial ideas for the wallpaper I'm producing for the living area, which is then being projected onto a bit of one of the walls...

With the theme of vintage from the group and the ultimate feel of our space being a quirky and vintage scene, I began looking into areas of the subject 'vintage' on the internet. But also my love for the womens' fashion and trend in the 50's took over a little bit - but hey, I guess that's what makes it 'me' and the style I work in.

The hat and idea of a headpiece screamed out to me and the fierce hairstyles which were worn in those days.

I liked the idea of using a side-profile and I've been looking at body image and this idea of beauty within my dissertation and image making recently, making it easy to place a mirror round the women image I put I wanted in the middle...

Residency: Andrea Zapp...

http://www.azapp.de/world/index.html

When I was doing a bit of research for our residency, I thought about what we were trying to do and wondered if anyone else had done anything similar. It seems that Andrea Zapp, an

has done a project pretty similar... 'The World Is My Imagination'. Over the past decade she had been creating artworks which investigate the term of a: 'Networked Narrative Environment', to explore the digital network as a fictitious, communal and active audience space.

From our initial discussions about what we wanted to do as a group with the space, it seems that this is pretty much what are trying to do ourselves, on a lower budget and in a smaller space and time.

It's interesting because Andrea Zapps exhibition itself, 'The World Is My Imagination', was put together by Zapp, but with many contributing artists, much like the brief we have been given by SLICE - a group of student artists specialising in different practices, each producing some sort of artwork to go into/add to the space.

Andreas' outlook for the exhibition she put on was this idea of 'Analogue becoming the new Digital and her research at current tries to capture the digital and it's inherent nomadic narratives and identities in low-tech aesthetics and more decorative design approaches to establish an emotional link between audience and media art work. She describes it as the virtual space being looked at as the other place of memory, by freezing a digital moment in time and by inventing digital/analogue paraphernalia.

We are trying also, in some way to challenge this idea of 'the digital age', for instance the idea of the play-station games being there to play, the television, digital window and oven. These appliances seem to have a calming effect on people, not only because people entering our space could then be familiar with everything around them and know how to use the space, but also it showed how the world seems so absorbed and reliant on technology nowadays - to the point of how relaxed a person can be and 'understanding'. This idea of imaginary idea is also communicated through the use of the digital and projections.

50's Repeat Pattern and Women...

Some inspiration for the 50s print I'm putting together, which will projected on the wall somewhere. I don't think I want that many colours, maybe black and a pink, as the space will have a lot in and anything to dominating could be distracting from everything else or create the wrong atmosphere.

Planning for my 'residency'

As saturday the 16th fast approaches I'm trying to loosely plan some work to do whilst I'm there, there is a possibility that I could be just collaborating with the other artists there, but I won't know whether people are getting on with their own work, all working under one theme to all produce our own work, or possibly to collaboratively come together with one piece or way of using the shop.

I won't know until I meet these people on saturday, but it can't help to be prepared if everyone decides they all want to do their own thing!

I've set myself a theme: 'Perfection' and started looking into the idea of Lipstick and how it's a strong symbol of 'beauty'''sg'eg''eg'. I've been reading up on the project which Banksy did about the women who were given lipstick in war camps.

In correlation with this idea of 'perfection' - I've decided to go down the same tangent as I have in the work I did last week for Handmade III and want to show this idea of 'going against this idea of perfection' and the 'norm'.

Translating this into the idea of wallpaper, which is normally all perfectly aligned and designed to be perfectly measured with perfect gaps and the repeat pattern being repeated digitally. From this I would take the idea of the 'norm' and instead produce hand drawn wallpapers.

But I've also been thinking of interesting ways to produce the work, or suit the style in which I work. Wallpaper's are normally always digitally produced and printed, I would like to do an embordied repeat pattern or 'cut out' wallpaper.

Plans for this week:

- Gather possible materials to work with:

Long bit of material to hang as wallpaper, in paper/card and also a long bit of fabric to sew into.

Get some nice fabrics together.

- Draw up ideas for my work/possibly something collaborative to take to the group.

- Make little mock ups of ideas...

I'm going to be very busy on Saturday evening, once I've met the people I'm sharing the shop with and then taking all the ideas people had and once decided work out how I'm going to approach it.

Re-search into residencies...

I looked at this website, which gives examples of residencies going on across the world and what they involve. It seems that artists get given a space and they all work separately. This is what I am unsure of in my group as I haven't met the people yet. It will be a group decision.

Below is a link to a video on youtube that the website above linked me to, it's a video of a residency in Djerassi. It shows the aritsts working in their own spaces on many different things in different practices. This will be true of the people I meet on Saturday, we may all specialise in different things?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGHlWcpeTlY

Slice Residencies.

Today I received an email from the SLICE team, saying that they would like me to take part and are offering me a 'residency' from the 16th - 21st of October. The first day of residency being the 16th and the on the 21st a showcase of our work.

On the first day of residency, they will introduce us to the space, SLICE and each other and we will get to know each other over some tea and breakfast :)

I'm currently thinking of work to take...and things/ideas to bring to everyone and chat about when I meet everyone on Saturday 16th...

I feel really excited but also quite nervous, as I have never collaborated with people I haven't known at all in such a short space of time, but this is such a brilliant opportunity and will do heaps for my confidence, quality of my work and networking!

Applying for SLICE...

Last night I attended a drawing evening put on by SLICE, it was also a chance for people to fill in residency application forms..

I filled an the appilcation form and sent it too themm....

I got a reply saying yes..