ARTISTS TALKING

I was very impressed by the place and the people I met during my stay. It was summer, the air was clean with trees and cyclists cramming the city. Traffic was sparse, and you were more likely to get hit by a swift bike than a tram! I was curious and wanted to return to Gothenburg, which at the time I could only describe as a more relaxed version of Amsterdam.

I kept in touch with people I met, and in 2004 I was invited to return as an artist in residence at Galleri 54, Gothenburg’s oldest artist-run centre. I was asked to live and work in the gallery over a two-month period, culminating in an exhibition. I was happy to see that cafés were still owned by individuals and very curious about the growth in the number of new artist-run centres such as 300m3, Win Win and BellmanLarsssonLindstomNord. It was a luxury to have ample time to work in the exhibition space, and I made the decision to tailor the work to the architecture of its four rooms. I made two new video works, two sound installations, and on the opening night organised a sound performance. The exhibition was inspired by the early experiments of Dr John Lilly, a pioneer in dolphin communication who in the 1960s hired Margaret Howe to live in a flooded house and teach a dolphin to speak English. After completing the exhibition, I was nominated to participate in the International Studio Programme in Sweden (IASPIS), enabling me to extend my stay another three months.

One of the perks of being an artist is the travel. Often, however, you install work, after which you leave and have little time to engage with the culture in any meaningful way. Residencies offer the possibility to connect on a level that moves beyond the cultural tourist. The distance from your daily life has a stimulating effect. I was attracted to living somewhere where I did not speak or understand the language. I did not realise just how important this cultural displacement would be to my practice, and also, how much it had informed past work. I took a basic Swedish course, and it was through occupying this space that my work was regenerated in a way I had not expected.