RE-IMAGINE THE CITY
This two month long residency aims to explore the issues that shape the city. I strongly believe a project designed to re-imagine the city should look to seek out issues connected to urban living. I am especially interested in how we can give a voice to these issues through the use of art. For me, an issue that surrounds our city is homelessness, which is an issue most people tend to ignore. This is something I have focused on before in my sculptural practise and with the resources and help provided by lartcore I will be able to develop my practise further.
The collection of works have been named, "CCCXIX-IV-XCV-XL", this is the Roman numerals for 319, 4, 95, 40. These figures are the ones given from a worker at Derby city mission, in regards to homelessness in Derby.
This residency is run by Artcore, an art charity based in Derby. Click here to view their website for more information:http://artcoregallery.org.uk/artist-residency/
Here are some website featuring the artworks, these all include different interpretations and opinions of the work.
http://cvaneastmidlands.co.uk/re-imagine-the-city-artcore-derby/
Interview at artcore:
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Where are you based?
I am currently based in Derby, I am just finishing my degree at the uni here at the moment.
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How you would like to use this residency to develop your current research and how do you think the time spent at Artcore can benefit your process of doing?
I am reaching out to different Derby based charities to gain a better understanding of the issues that are starting to take over our city. The time and space needed to explore this information has been given to me by Artcore Where I can explore this information to best understand how I can portray it through the use of art effectively.
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In the proposal, you mentioned many time your interest on developing a project about homelessness. Why you are interest in it and how you aim to connect it with your current practice?
I am interested in it as it is such a big problem in our city, the amount of homeless people in derby is rising and its time more people started paying attention to it. My current practise focuses on materials and how we can use them to subtly portray my own views, using my understanding of materials is how I plan to show the information I am gathering.
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How and when you have decided to combine photography and sculpture?
I like to use photography as a starting point. I will walk around documenting what I see, then take these photographs and use them as inspiration for my sculptures, abstracting what I see in the photographs, opening it up to different interpretation.
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Where does a practice like yours find a platform for engagement with communities?
As I said before I focus on my understanding of materials in my sculptures but I am also interested in how other people see materials, my perception of an object might be completely different to someone else’s, so I want to find the balance between the two and create a piece for the community.
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What is the most interesting or inspiring thing you have seen or been to recently, and why?
I went to a talk where the artists involved in the “document” project played their videos then spoke to us about their experiences, this opened my mind even more to art outside of uni and pushed me to get my work noticed.
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What keeps you curious?
Discovering new cities, within every new city are new people and importantly new galleries, I think it’s important to travel and see new things.
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Which other artists’ work do you admire, and why?
My first sculptural influence was Richard Long so he will always be one of the most influential artists I ever looked at, another artist that I admire is Ai Weiwei, he’s such an influential person as both an artist and an activist.
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What do you think is the role of artists in the current society?
I think it’s important to stand for what you believe in and I think it’s especially important for artists to do so. I personally think it’s our job as artists to share our experiences as well as other peoples. I think it’s our job to connect people to their surroundings.
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What are your thoughts on being an artist in Derby?
Derby is a city that needs more art, it’s amazing to see how much art and opportunities for art there are in Derby but I still want to help to bring even more to our city. I am hoping we can get more studios to Derby as that would be a brilliant next step.
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How do you see Artcore, as an art institution, to support you at this stage of your career?
Artcore has given me the opportunity to continue my art straight out of uni, especially offering me the chance to showcase work on their website and creating opportunities like this, for me to be able to talk about myself and my work to a wider audience than just my peers.
I also feel its important to look at how people who aren't from an artistic background view art, I think this is especially important when creating a piece for the community. I took to social media to ask this question. here are a collection of the responses received. if you would like to voice your opinion, contact me here:
MAPPING MOVEMENT
This experiment was conducted to try and map the environment that someone without a home might consider safe, as this particular spot is one that homeless people frequently stay. There were homeless people at the space when the performance was taking place and one person was sleeping in the tent during the performance. Through conversation, my question of, “Am I in the wrong for creating work around something I have not personally experienced?” was answered by one of the people I was talking to. “I think it’s good that someone’s talking about it. There are way too many homeless people in derby, I should know.”
Committed to revealing oppressive social and political structures in the city, my work comments on some of today’s most pressing issues: homelessness in Derby. Seeking to illuminate the role of artists in a time of crisis, the works in this exhibition explore the urgency of free speech and deconstruct dogmatic ideology while also questioning our rampant consumer society and its effect in disadvantaged areas of the city.
From the number of bricks that create the barrier, to the amount of threads hanging throughout the piece, every detail has significance. These details paint the picture of homelessness in Derby, telling us how many homeless people there are, to how many positive outcomes there are from our current support efforts. 319 homeless people stayed in a night shelter that ran over a period of 4months. Worryingly enough there is an average official head count of only 40homeless people. But 95 of the 319people managed to find an alternative place to sleep. All these figures are represented in the sculpture exhibited.
