The Arts Office, No. 76 John Street
16th May- 20th July, every Wed, Thurs & Fri
Kilkenny Arts Office at No. 76 John Street hosts a number of artists residencies each year, including visual artists residencies, writers residencies, performing arts and dance residencies.
The aim and focus of the Art Residency at No. 76 is to enable the successful applicants to research and develop their practice. Other aims of the residency are to: give insights into how and why artists create their work, build relationships and further promote the Arts, provide an awareness and further appreciation of the Arts, cultivate and develop new audiences.
My Work
WEEK 1,
Day 1!
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| My corner! |
My first day! I have an absolutely huge space to work with, more space than I've ever had so I start by hiding myself in the corner at the back of the studio.
Day 2
I gave the Butler gallery a hand printing tshirts for National Drawing Day as they were under a little bit of pressure. Plus it was a good distraction from deciding what to do with my own work!
Day 3
Took a big step today. I moved everything to the front of the space so I'm now working in the window. I decided it would be better in order to get more involved with the public and give passers-by something to look at. Plus the light is great!
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Day 3: The view from my desk!
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The space was looking a bit bare so I set up my tent and filled it with cashions to make it a bit more inviting. I'm still not sure what direction I'm going to go with but as long as it's set up people can interact with it and I think it will naturally develop into something.
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| Artist in residence! |
WEEK 2
I was really anxious to get stuck into work this week, to get something made and start filling up the walls. I decided I wanted to meet somewhere in the middle between my print works and 3D installations. I also wanted to use materials that were close to hand so I wouldn't be slowed down by going out looking for wood or other materials so I started making big paper cut-outs
The Lost Boys installation.
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| Day 4 |
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| Day 5 |
When the sun hit the window in the evening I dicovered that cut-outs made beautiful shadows that look far more interesting than the cut-outs. This is something that I'd really like to work with and push further.
WEEK 3
I had decided at the beginning of this week that I wasn't going to go off on loads of different tangents, experimenting with all sorts of things and ending up with nothing finished. Instead I was going to focus on a couple of the things I'd started last week. At some stage over the next three days that went awry!
I wanted to develop the idea of the cut-outs of huts on stilts. A woman called in during the week and said they reminded her of Japanese structures. There is something very oriental looking about them and I am exploring the unknown and the exotic through my work so I decided to push this further, creating a new world, a jungle with these places of sanctuary that also make you feel quite uneasy so you're not sure where you stand with them.
I made a few drawings to start with, which came out very strange, not typical of my work at all.
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| Day 7: sketchbook drawing |
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| Day7- sketchbook drawing |
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| Day 7-9: This is the first big drawing I've done in a long time! I started it not knowing what I was doing and wasn't happy with it from the start. I guess I had to start somehwere! |
I also started doing some woodcuts. I used to avoid them in college, concentrating on etching and lithography instead but I think the work I'm doing now would translate well into relief print. Also considering that relief is one of the oldest forms of printmaking when you look at the famous hand prints found in the Paleolithic caves in Spain it ties in well with my concept.
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| 'Panel of Hands', El Castillo Cave in Spain, showing red disks and hand
stencils made by blowing or spitting paint onto the wall. | | |
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/art/article3532221.ece
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Day 7-9: starting point for woodcut
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On Thursday I went back to using old books to create something. There's something about the idea of books resembling tents when turned on their side that I like. I just haven't figured out what to do with this idea yet; I'm not sure how to turn it into an installation or piece of art. I love the simplicity of it but it's not enough on it's own.
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| Day 8: Book tents! The start of an idea. |
The link between the book and the 'homemade tent' brings me back to childhood, creating an imaginary world or a hideaway from reality.
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| Day 8: Close-up of 'Book tents' |
One of my aims for this residency is to concentrate on the use of paper and really exploit it. I've been looking at ways of building 3D structures out of it, using glue and wax to stiffen and strengthen the paper. My starting point with this did not go very well so I kind of abandoned it.
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| Week 2: starting point for paper structures, exploring the qualities of paper. |
I came back to the idea again this week and built a structure out of tissue paper and glue which, when lit up, created a really nice effect.
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| Day 9: finished building tissue paper and glue structure today. |
Again I'm not sure how I'm going to develop this, I'm thinking of printing on to Japanese papers and then building sculptures from them. And keep layering more images and paper to create depth.
