The project was planned following attempts for find “official” art residency spaces and noticing how hard it is to start projects as a self taught non-academic… even in Bristol! I have organised many projects in pubs for around 20 years, including concerts performed predominantly by non-musicians in Bristol and a deliberately non-cannon morris dancing side in Plymouth. I realised that micro pubs, with their public front room aesthetic are perfectly suited to the self-aware explorations of kitsch aesthetics that my work addresses.

Using Snuffy Jacks as a work space I made plastic baby medallions created from my continually growing collection of found objects, evoking sentimental, mass-produced charm while critiquing its inherent limitations by steering conversation with the locals toward Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935) and Clement Greenberg’s Avant-Garde and Kitsch (1939). Subsequently I wondered how these conversations landed, but have been told that people found it interesting and I’ve been invited back for another residency in 2027. In pubs you can go pretty deep with people and I had plenty of productive discussions about the state of the world and art. It’s always important to underline that artists are neither doctors nor clergy, so the processing of wishes and worries is not guaranteed.

Pubs can definitely compete with designated art spaces and as artists our challenge is to push further than just selling pleasant paintings and other commodities.