ARTISTS TALKING

By: Andrew Bryant

Coup de Pouce (a nudge in the right direction) is a three-month residency assisting early career artists. Supported by L’H du Siege in Valenciennes, France and Fabrica in Brighton, recent sculpture graduate Jo Lathwood kept a detailed blog of her experience.

Jo’s brilliantly written blog takes us across the arc of her experience from early ebullience, “My initial and current feeling is an overwhelming sense of excitement. I feel so fortunate to be given this opportunity and can not wait to start making work,” through establishing an engaged practice, “I find that when I am trying to grasp the ideas that I really believe in, this format fits with my abilities and gets me closer to expressing the things that other languages can’t,” and finally facing the reality of returning home, “The real world is knocking at my door and I am bracing myself for the change. I feel very accustomed to my lifestyle here and think the transition back is going to be hard.”

Jo was in Valenciennes for 87 days and made a drawing for each one. Some of these, together with photos of her fascinating sculptures, can be seen alongside her blog. The residency finished at the end of June with an open studios in France and a talk at Fabrica. Jo also showed some of the work as part of a group exhibition at Edward Cullinan Architects in London.

Middlesborough based artist Hannah Campion is currently in Kuala Lumpur where she is undertaking a two month residency in partnership with Gallerie Taksu. Hannah’s practice is primarily based on painterly process, drawing and more recently sculptural drawing.

After an injection of inspiration from mentor William Tillyer, who Hannah quotes as saying “…artists should think of themselves as visual philosophers…” Hannah arrives in Kuala Lumpur “…feeling terrible, losing a whole night’s sleep and spending 15 hours on an airplane, then a few more in the air-conditioned Dubai airport.”

In contrast to Jo’s blog, Hannah uses her space to reflect on the culture, customs and sensual experiences of her temporary home. Here, for example, she describes an evening spent in an,

“…open air road side restaurant with flaming ovens cooking tandoori and naan breads. Elfin like stools to sit on, colourfully cartoon like in bright red and traffic light green. Small circular tables with a hole in the middles for an umbrella for when it chucks it down, another exciting electric storm for me, another way of cooling down for locals.”

It will be interesting to see how these and other experiences affect Hannah’s work as her blog develops. The residency culminates in solo exhibitions in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Langkawi, West Coast Malaysia.

Last year London based artist Cathryn Jiggens spent six months in Berlin. Her residency, which was managed by the Arts Council funded Waygood Gallery & Studios in Newcastle, had a profound effect on her work and outlook, opening her eyes to new experiences and possibilities.

“Nobody likes to admit that their view of things has been blinkered, but as I venture out into the vastness of the Berlin arts scene I realise that mine has. Just as the differing environments of first pool and then the sea shaped my experience, I am seeing how much my work to date has been shaped by the context within which I have been making.”

Cathryn’s blog is wide-reaching and spans more than a year of her life, from April 2007 to May 2008. In it she vividly conjures up the Berlin art scene, candidly explores her personal history and uses succinct anecdotes to dramatise personal and aesthetic discoveries.

There are currently 13 blogs detailing international residencies, from Beijing to New York, on the Artists talking site. Residencies make good blogs because they have an inherent structure. International residencies make even better blogs because they have a profound effect on the artist, stirring things up, getting the creative juices flowing. For the artist they are a good way of reflecting on your practice whilst communicating and networking with other artists. And the commitment and structure that comes with blogging - knowing that you have a public, knowing that other artists are listening - means that you come away with a worthwhile and lasting record of your time.

And if the thought of all that foreign travel becomes overwhelming, check out Alex Pearl, who is not in the Antarctic.

Article first appeared in a-n magazine September 2008