The Second Half of my Residency

(I meant to add this at the end of February)

The second half of the residency flew by! As the weather got milder I spent some more time around the coastline which in turn steered the direction of the work. I was drawn to the experience of looking into haze or mist and not being able to make sense of its landscape – was it big, small, far, near and so on. I made charcoal drawings and tried different things out with photos and text. The work was focussed on pictorial space and I wanted to suggest a form to the blank page or white canvas, or perhaps make it seem heavy and thick.

It soon became time to leave Aberystwyth and say goodbye to some wonderful new friends. Towards the end we went on two trips to North and South Wales and also held an open studio day. Looking back it was such a productive time and I left with the exciting feeling of having ideas for new work which I’m currently working on and developing further.

After my aberystwyth residency..

Images will follow shortly but in the mean time please visit Chapter between May - July 2011 at the Chapter gallery in Cardiff a Selection of work to be shown at the Assembly - Art in the Bar.

Some of these works reference my times in Aberystwyth. Will be back later with more news...

The first half of the residency

15^th of January 2011

The residency began with the feeling of being slightly overwhelmed and wanting to do everything at once. I was mainly torn between spending time doing various things at the studio but also wanting to go out exploring Aberystwyth and the surrounding area. It took a couple of weeks to settle in and arriving at a sense of balance. My most memorable day so far was the first day of heavy snow when me and Kate went for a walk along the beach. I had never seen snow on the beach before, and it seemed quite surreal. The snow looked like a frozen wave running towards the sea.

In my work at the residency so far I have been exploring ideas to do with the way that space is represented in pictures. I usually work in paint on canvas but was keen on using the time here to work with other media. Amongst other things, I have been making collages which occupy a three dimensional space, based on the idea of the panoramic view. I’m not sure where they will lead – I’m using the time and freedom at the residency to experiment rather than trying to reach a definite conclusion.

Kate Street 'Mererid's Duty', 2011 - looped animation

New animation now available to view at:

http://www.vimeo.com/19005675

Half way through my residency....

At the start of my residency I began to research the local myth of Cantre’r Gwaelod. I first came across this on an initial research trip, and was also told about the submerged forest at Borth that probably initiated the legend. The idea of a land lost to the sea is cross-cultural and the structure of the story is relative to the deluge myth that exists in nearly ancient culture – such as the lost city of Atlantis.

There seem to be several different versions of Cantre’r Gwaelod that exist. One of the oldest tales is of a well-maiden called Mererid, who was distracted from her duties of closing the sluice gates and thus causing the flooding of the lands, and destruction of 16 noble cities. I was drawn to this version because of it moral warning to young women everywhere – don’t neglect your duties!

My initial trip to Borth was quite awe-inspiring and frustrating at the same time. Being a Londoner it’s not often that I encounter vast stretches of sand, sky and mountains, so equipped with my wellies and a camera I set out to find the submerged forest. I kept thinking that I could see it rising out of the sea on the horizon, but alas it turned out to be a mirage! I did however find a small section, which gave me an idea of how such tales must have circulated around these ancient petrified trees.

After what seemed like hours of walking, everything started to look like the illusive submerged forest!

It’s not my intention to create a piece that is a direct illustration of the myth, but rather is suggestive, with a looped, rather than linear narrative.

My aim for this residency is to develop my basic animation skills, and to consider how best to show them. Last year I started trying to animate some of my drawings and I hope that some concentrated time here at Aber might help me to resolve some technical issues. I’m hoping to create layered animations that convey the handmade and drawn aspects within my practice. So far I have been filming and photographing myself enacting unusual domestic chores, such as cleaning the floor with my hair (as being a good maiden I wouldn’t want to neglect my duties) and then turning these into a series of drawings.

I have also been observing waves and trying to replicate them with chalk.

And also creating monotypes of sections of beach.

With a little more tweaking I hope to get all these elements working together by using Photoshop and Quicktime.

Once I feel that the looped animation is working I intend to try various presentation options. The great thing about the studios here at Aber is the versatile space. I’m hoping to create several animations and then experiment with split screen projections – to create an immersive environment for the viewer.

Just seen the videos that Melanie from Culture Colony made of Annabelle and I during our residency......They're posted on culturecolony.com

Would love to see what the current residents are up to.......

The Final Half of My Residency

I have now finished my residency at Aberystwyth....I feel that I was really able to play with ideas and experiment without any pressure. I now feel much more confident in my practice as an artist. I also wanted to say a big thank you to everyone at the Arts Centre, who made my time here a pleasure, especially to Eve, Carys, Cath, Heather, Geraint, Caroline, Jesal (and of course, Annabelle!) for all their help and support over the last 3 months.

If you would like to see further images from the residency, please look at my website www.priyachohan.com

The First Half of My Residency

The first half of my residency at Aberystwyth has been exciting and liberating. It has been great to have the space to try out new ideas. When I first arrived, the space felt huge....

I made drawings outside as a way to deal with my new environment.

I have also been working directly on the wall to make drawings.

The time so far has been great and feels like a laboratory of ideas. I am now working on experimenting with different techniques to make bigger pieces of work which I'll hopefully be able to complete before I leave here.

5 @ Aberystwyth Arts Centre

by Lucy Harvey
Some shots of the massive gallery space at Aberystwyth Arts Centre which is currently housing a digital installation by Ralph Juergen Colmar, sculptures by Katherine Sullivan, contemporary works by Priya Chohan, paintings by Annabelle Shelton and contemporary metal work by myself.

The exhibition shows the fantastic diversity which the Artist Residency scheme at Aberystwyth Arts Centre hosts. I'm excited to showcase alongside artists of this caliber and in such an airy space. As a relatively new practitioner from a craft background I have never had this extent of space to exhibit my work and the exhibition gave me the opportunity to showcase my floor based installation as well as objects collected from the seafront during my residency last winter alongside my crafted artefacts.

Having spent the three months of my residency with Katherine Sullivan it was great to see her photo assemblages presented in their lightbox which elevated the eerie qualities of the domestic architecture and female figures which she sourced again from Ceredigion Museum. The subtley sinister lead shoes from her previous residency in Ireland and her decorative domestic sculptures from this residency hold an interesting discourse together and provide a colour palette that seemed to run throughout the show.

Ralph's animation is a remarkable feat, I find it difficult to imagine that it was conceived in the same Creative Unit that I inhabited for my residency. As ever I found the attention to detail in Annabelle's contemporary landscapes mind boggling, I know she'll find a lot of inspiration in Aberystwyth. Finally, Priya's temporal installations really inspired me; that materials so lowly as wax and sand could come together to have such presence in a gallery is quite an achievement.

Artist talks from both Annabelle and Priya both focused on this idea of time and space and it was interesting as a maker to hear Priya discuss the issue of control in the manipulation of materials and in their presentation. The exhibition gives us all this platform to share part of the residency process with visitors through three outcomes with the work of myself, Ralph and Katherine, and two starting points with Annabelle and Priya. I look forward to seeing the fruits of their residency, good luck guys!

5 is on at Aberystwyth Arts Centre until the 14th July 2010.
Further information here.

My Residency @ Aberystwyth Arts Centre

by Lucy Harvey

Hello, my name's Lucy and I tentatively title myself a 'conceptual metalsmith'. My work is currently in 5, an exhibition at Aberystwyth Arts Centre until the 14th June, alongside Priya and Annabelle (who are the current artists in residence) and previous residencees Raph Juergen Colmar and Katherine Sullivan.
My residency spanned December to February 2010 which was this year's big freeze. It was the first time I have ever stepped on frozen sand and probably the wrong season for exploring fishing but as someone who is interested in subverting the function of objects this probably worked to my advantage.

During my time in Aber I did what I always do to spark the wheels on my creative practice; that is to collect stuff. My beach combing amounted to a collection of natural and man made objects that were worn and distorted by their time in the ocean. I was inspired by how these objects were discarded and abandoned on the sea front and by the processes of wearing and tangling that detritus was subjected to by the waves.
This abuse of objects and the ambiguities regarding an item's discardment to the sea chimed in with my enquiry into the function of objects. I paired this inspiration with a direct look at the unrecognised craft processes behind the making of fishing equipment, which I found was not too dissimilar from my own jewellery background only there was less soldering (braising) and more 'cold connections' such as wrapping and riveting. I sought to use my own technical processes - jewellery and small scale metal work- to rework my collected objects into artefacts which subverted function.
This gave me an opportunity to diversify my making skills and respond directly to processes used in fly tying, lure making and weighting. Ceredigion Museum were kind enough to let me have a handling session with their collection of fishing equipment and I looked at techniques and equipment further afield with a copy of Von Brandt's Fish Catching Methods of the World (Forth Edition!) from Aberystwyth University's Hugh Owen Library. Aber Fishing Tackle on Terrace Road got quite a bit of custom from me, and I in turn got a few funny looks as I declined a copy of the tide times and left the shop with a bag full of sea fishing and fly fishing paraphernalia.

Local heritage was also an inspiration and I fell in love with Borth (or "the Munster's Holiday Home" as my residency partner Katherine Sullivan termed it). Borth: A Seaborn Village by Terry Davies painted a fantastically evocative picture of the mana like force of fish on the town in the olden days.
All of this boiled down to a desire to create symbolic artefacts which questioned function. I began making in the final month of my residency after two hugely valuable months of research and reflection. An entire log of my time in Aber can be found on my blog, which is here.

Thanks to the Arts Centre for having me, it's been an utterly invaluable part of my progression as an emerging artist and a fantastic addition to my portfolio!