Going big and never looking back
Artist Residencies
Next weekend at my shared studio in Porto ‘MACS’ we’re holding a round table where four of us discuss Artist Residencies.
We had our pre-meeting yesterday and already the conversation that came out of it was really interesting. It’s got me reflecting on what residencies have meant to me, what kind I’m looking for and what I avoid like the plague!
My first and most transformative experience was the chance to go to Quebec in 2023 for six weeks to create an installation piece for the Biennale du Lin de Portneuf.
Before getting this opportunity my work was mainly 2D and mostly small in scale - it’s all veeeery time consuming and I didn’t have a ‘reason’ to go bigger. I sent a proposal based on an idea that I thought might be possible, with a very basic 3D maquette. It was quite vague, but I did spend a whole weekend on the proposal and the wording, really getting into what could be possible and how the piece related to the theme of their exhibition.
I’ll be forever grateful that they took a chance on me and my proposal. It meant that I got to make something BIG (never looked back on that one) and from there I had a bigger piece and it was much easier to get into shows and get more opportunities.
I also got to create something that was truly mine, something I hadn’t really seen before and I was really proud of it.
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The topics we talked about yesterday ranged from the length of residencies, fees and funding, community and the people you meet and the social media noise - how to deal with the abundance of ‘opportunities’ that come up on your feed.
One of the artists is a mum of three and told a story about when her, her husband and young children were a ‘collective’ doing residencies together - so cool!
Another artist is very intentional about it. She picks where she wants to go in the world and when (always during Porto’s rainy season). Then she applies and works on getting funding.
Her intentionality is inspiring - perhaps one day I’ll get there. At the moment it’s a lot more random for me. Except I’ve realised after the last one I did this Spring - it’s taken me a lot longer than I thought it would to get back into the swing of studio work since then. I can’t put my finger on why exactly.
So although it was a good experience in many ways, I have to weigh up whether the ‘disruption’ is worth it when applying for future residencies. Also part of the agreement of this one was that I don’t get to keep the piece - they paid for it essentially - which is a bit sad as I like it!
That said, I will keep an eye out for the chance to go to more beautiful places where I can focus on just making work, without the everyday distractions of life. <3
And I’m finally in the swing of it in the studio - yay.
This is a recent commission I finished for a collector in Switzerland:
I’ve just finished off this wire-lace piece which is the first of a series:
And there’s something new happening with ceramics:
Let’s see where it goes.
xxx
The Artist Residency Talk is happening as part of an annual event called Circuitos (happening next weekend 16-19 July), where a bunch of artist studios and spaces around the city open up for the weekend with shows, talks and events.
Fab.