I was selected to take part in the project. The two weeks started with a three day workshop exploring all things participatory led by Ania Bas, Kate Genever and Steve Pool. Then followed the two week residency. I used the opportunity to chat to people over knitting, crocheting and pompom making. Often in my practice during skills based workshops conversation turns to memories of craft: family members who were makers, professionally, as a hobby or necessity; peoples past experiences of making and so on. These memories are an unplanned occurrence of the workshops and I do not get a chance to document them. I used the residency to explore ways of documenting these memories, how I could use them in future work and how my work could fit into a gallery context.
One of the best things about the residency being in the company of other artists (I usually work freelance and in the studio alone when I am not doing workshops), with time to discuss ideas and a chance to collaborate. I worked with sound artist Adam Denton to record the sound of knitting needles and wool. I worked with Steve Anwar to devise a meditation session which explored the meditative qualities of knitting. Abi Goodman and I visited locations outside the gallery to chat to people in different contexts. And I worked with fellow Yorkshire Artspace artist Lyn Carruthers to write and perform a ‘wool chant’ inspired by a knitting chant that she created previously and based on snippets of conversations I had had with people during the week.
The result of my residency was a sound piece of collated conversations, knitting sounds and the wool chant. Alongside an interactive installation where people could listen to and record their own craft histories. The residency was a fantastic opportunity to explore new areas of my practice and meet and work with new artists and has provided my with plenty of fresh ideas and inspiration.
A Time and A Place Blog: http://blog.sitegallery.org/atimeandaplace/