(Mis)fortune Residency
A collaborative residency and live workspace with Alaric Hobbs at Artspace Lifespace’s Park Street Vestibule, Bristol City Hall.
7 May- 6 June 2024
I created work relating to the way staff at the Council building responded to our presence in the space by relating it to my experience of having been a civil service union representative in my early 20s.
This resulted in badges with a British road sign aesthetic featuring slogans in three categories; warnings, political observations and surreal comedy, satirically transcending a 1970s Artist-Placement-Group style instrumentalism.
For this residency I drastically dropped the threshold of what I considered “worthy street finds” for the whole month. Using this giant collection of ephemera rescued from the pavements of Bristol I made a large wall hanging piece called Sacrifice.
The Exhibition Space
Sacrifice In Production
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I collaborated with people who visited the space during the residency in making an album of experimental music. The Vestibule space is quite grand and beautiful but almost impossible to communicate in due to high ceilings creating an oppressive echo. This allowed me to make music in a different way, opening up new collaborations and audiences.
(Click the link below to hear the album)
(Mis)fortune was a suitably uncomfortable space for collaborations between Alaric and myself. We initially connected because we share a feeling of outsiderness in the artworld. We brainstormed and shared tasks, using the residency to explore our perceptions and hang-ups with audiences and other practitioners in a live and constantly evolving setting. His work about hostile architecture worked well in a space that often felt difficult to spend time in.
The residency allowed me to continue an existing project in a stimulating public setting. I continued communication with a parent for a Surrogate baby I was building in the space, displaying a description of this project at the final exhibition.
It gave me opportunities to talk freely about the hidden political implications of making art while respecting the boundaries that have to be acknowledged in such a space.
At the final exhibition there was a Tombola, to maximise engagement with visitors and encourage them to ask questions about the artwork.
The everyday familiarity of this kitsch element simultaneously serves as a gateway and a satirical contrast to the uncomfortable and challenging truths about the political challenges to life in 21st century Britain hiding in plain sight within my other works.
Surrogate Display
Tombola Prizes
Badges
Poster
