As an artist embarking on her first solo artist in residence experience, I began to wonder what it means for an artist to work alone? Having only ever operated as artist within an institute surrounded by other undergraduates, I am particularly excited to see how this opportunity not only influences my practice but how it might alter my processes, the way I think and how I chose to disseminate my work.
What does it mean for a British artist (with a low level of Spanish and virtually no Basque) to work alone in Portugalete? How will my work alter? How will I get things done? What will I learn? As an unknown and emerging artist, who is my audience here? And how will I communicate to them what I discover?
Being an individual who is naturally quite sociable and used to discussing my work with friends, I’m curious to see how the work will develop without regular external physical interpretations of the work and the conversations those readings bring about.
Furthermore, I have just shy of one month to produce a piece of work in response to the Aste Nagusia and to find performers to interpret the work at the end. That breaks down into one week to observe, research and to gather sound from the festival and then just over two weeks to organise those findings and make the work. It will be the shortest amount of time I will have had to construct anything before and I have to rely on individuals I am yet to find to complete what I set out to do.
As my fingers race over the keys to write all these thoughts down, I feel as though I should find it more daunting, why am I not terrified?
Perhaps, it’s the calm atmosphere here. Or maybe it’s because I find the unknown thrilling.
Either way I’m excited to begin.
As an artist embarking on her first solo artist in residence experience, I began to wonder what it means for an artist to work alone? Having only ever operated as artist within an institute surrounded by other undergraduates, I am particularly excited to see how this opportunity not only influences my practice but how it might alter my processes, the way I think and how I chose to disseminate my work.
What does it mean for a British artist (with a low level of Spanish and virtually no Basque) to work alone in Portugalete? How will my work alter? How will I get things done? What will I learn? As an unknown and emerging artist, who is my audience here? And how will I communicate to them what I discover?
As an individual who is naturally quite sociable and used to discussing my work with friends, I’m curious to see how the work will develop without regular external physical interpretations of the work and the conversations those readings bring about.
Furthermore, I have just shy of one month to produce a piece of work in response to the Aste Nagusia and to find performers to interpret the work at the end. That breaks down into one week to observe, research and to gather sound from the festival and then just over two weeks to organise those findings and make the work. It will be the shortest amount of time I will have had to construct anything before and I have to rely on individuals I am yet to find to complete what I set out to do.
As my fingers race over the keys to write all these thoughts down, I feel as though I should find it more daunting, why am I not terrified?
Perhaps, it’s the calm atmosphere here. Or maybe it’s because I find the unknown thrilling.
Either way I’m excited to begin.