The Reside Residency
  • Reside Blog: Maribel Mas
  • Reside Blog: Serena Smith
  • Reside Blog: Richard Devereux
  • Reside Blog: Kate Beck
  • Reside Blog: Marion Piper
  • Reside Blog: Claudia Böse
  • Reside Blog: Bridget H Jackson
  • Reside Blog: Michaela Nettell
  • Reside Blog: Anthony Boswell
  • Reside Blog: Susan Francis
  • Reside Blog: Corinna Spencer
  • Reside Blog: Karl England
  • apply
  • contact
  • Blog

'Art, Art'

25/4/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Methodist Church Hall, Monday 23rd April, 11pm to12noon - The text on the plate below the picture states it was given in memory of a Sunday school member who spent just 18 months in her short life as part of this congregation
Looking back at Corinna's blog for inspiration I realised that what I can contribute at the moment is painfully thin in comparison. Although I have three shows approaching, all of which require site-specific work, I want to set this residency aside in my mind as a space for other things to happen.

Finding time for anything other than washing, cooking and ferrying children back and forward from one place to another however seems impossible at times. But I'm not here to moan. This is how it is, this is the time I have and this is why I'm the priveledged recipient of the Reside Residency and not spending six months in Durham cathedral or suchlke.

On a dreary wet Monday morning I carried camera, ladders, tripod etc over to the Methodist Church Hall where I had booked the space for one hour only. Unlike the village Hall there were no reams of paperwork to complete, no deposits to be paid, just a visit to the home of Mr Moody, head of the family that almost entirely make up The Methodist congregation, seven pounds handed over,hastily scribbled receipt and the details filled in in the logbook entitled 'Art Art' ( he had asked me twice what I wanted to use it for, not quite understanding the first time, and in some confusion decided to put both answers down.)




Picture
And so on Monday I found the old Methodist Chruch Hall open and empty awaiting 'art art'. Somehow I didn't feel the same about this space, no compulsion to move around and somehow explore the size and physicality of it. In contrast the Methodist Church Hall was full of detail, from the names of all the Sunday school teachers preserved in stone, to the worn pews, faded posters and flag rigged up by the scouts for renditions of the national anthem.

And so this time it seemed inappropriate to do anything other than photograph. Some of the images are below
Picture
detail from the worn velvet of the few remaining pews
I particularly liked the random items left behind by the various groups who regularly use the hall.
Picture
...and so where does all this lead me?

Well, so far I have a number of images, recordings etc that I would like to plough into during the summer holidays when committments ease off a little. I have another space I want to explore though, but as I have just slammed that in last minute as a proposal for a curatorial opportunity I will wait before I talk more about it. Save to say though that I would like to shape these places more  into territory for interaction of some sort.

As I said, Corrina is shaming me into fleshing out this post a little. I can't say that I fill my life with literature and films etc as there really is little time to do other than keep my head above water. I can share her diabetic testing routine though, not on a cat but on myself. Rare train journeys and music lessons however do permit me a little reading and recently this has consisted of;

The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art  by  Martha Buskirk
and on a lighter note

'Our Mutual Friend' by Charles Dickens

- his last and extremely weighty novel, (only in the practical sense), perhaps his most deliciously detailed account of Victorian hiigh and low society, and literally laugh out loud hilarious at more points than I can mention
0 Comments
    _Author
    Susan Francis is a Belfast born artist now living in the South of England
     

    Assigning words to a process which, by it's nature endeavors to exist outside the borders of a textual medium will never be easy. I suppose, to use a literary metaphor, I see my work as a constant enquiry, an incomplete sentence, a phrase articulated through material, object and space. It is quiet work, a vocabulary of cast offs, objects, liquids and processes, at times unstable, prone to decay, but familiar to us all.

    With influences ranging from Eva Hesse's organic minimilism to Watteau’s scenes of frivolous beauty tinged with wistful sadness, my work is often unashamedly poetic. Peering into the unspoken corners of our condition, I traverse a landscape shifting beneath us as the domestic enclave is infiltrated by a digitally connected world, where the ambiguity and at times falsity of relationships, truth and love languish in a vulnerable and fragile context.

    At the core of my practice I suppose I wish to open a dialogue with myself, the space, the viewer – where others will take that conversation is for them to decide.

    Archives

    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.