Vessel Residency Proposal


Duration: 5-7 days


Proposal: 


Process based work in which we utilize the languages and materials we have in common in each of our personal work as a base for collaborating in a shared studio/workspace, while also imposing a specific barrier to direct communication. The piece will try and approach the idea of collaboration in terms of  shared resources, tendencies and goals, without seeing or discussing what the other is doing for a majority of the working period. We will then collaborate in the more traditional sense by recomposing the material created during the first phase into new compositions - reorienting gestures that were enacted “alone” in response to the gestures of the other. 


The languages we have established as shared include working with the scale of the body, tracing/documenting movement, and establishing a relationship between the body and architectural features of the space and/or landscape. 

Techniques in common include printing, drawing, video and photo collage, casting and the composition of found objects. These will in turn define our materials: Pencil, paper, camera, plaster, and any found natural or made object from the site. 


Structure:


Taking as a starting point a shared studio gesture - to cover the floors and walls, we will begin by dressing the space in papers which can be used to sleep on, draw on, collage with, use as a pallet, napkin, etc. We will then erect a barrier in the space, such as a curtain of papers which can be used from either side but block our ability to see the other. A small gap above the floor will allow us to see only each other’s feet (ie movement), and we will use this gap also to share resources (passing back the camera, drawing supplies etc.) 


We will then have three or four days in which we have a shared studio schedule such as 9-4 but no specific rules about what kind of work can be made. We will not communicate but we will have in common an attempt to record our actions in our separate spaces in some way - such as tracing on the paper or video-recording our movements (eating, sleeping, drawing) or through the creation of artifacts (plaster casting, composing of found objects). We will prioritize intuitive decision making during this time, bringing in collected material from the island and composing in whatever way comes naturally. After studio hours we will see each other and talk but not about the work in studio. 


After this period of 3-4 days we will come together and take stock of the material which has been generated - drawings, objects, videos, etc. and begin a process of regrouping and mixing the gestures to create new compositions. 


This piece is set up to confront some of the challenges of studio work (procrastination through an over-emphasis on the discussion of “ideas”,  self consciousness over being viewed and the distraction of others or the opposite symptom of excessive isolation in order to make work) but also challenges of friendship, communication and community in general. We will attempt to observe and experience the presence of another without relying on them to validate or direct our own work and identity. We are interested in the tendencies of behavioral mirroring and codependence as a response to stress and uncertainty both in creative practice and as actors in the world. While the structure of this piece is fundamentally mirrored in terms of the symmetry of its design, it has more to do with techniques of blocking the mirror - making the mirror opaque, working with the tendency to escape through another and giving it a concrete barrier to see where this energy will find form in material when it is not allowed to be expressed through language. 


We are interested in how we can make work and create lives which are not lived in total isolation and denial of the presence of others but are also allowed to flourish independently. It is fitting that this take place on an island but not a particularly isolated one. Can we develop a creative practice that abides by the logic of our own internal ecosystems, without forfeiting an awareness of the support and responsibility of “mainland” or human connection which gives us security and a sense of belonging?