Along with 5 other art academy group artists I have just completed a week long residency at Manchester’s historic Victoria Baths. Working with Alison Kershaw artist, curator and associate of Pool Arts, we wanted to explore what an artists residency can be. As each of us has our own disciplines, we are all responding in different ways, although there is a collaborative element to the project as we are working together.
I am interested in the phenomenology of the space, this restoration building, suspended in time as a museum to swimming nostagia and a symbol of a former age of pride in civic architecture. The many memories of bathers past still inhabit the space, to me anyway, I feel like I want to draw life back into the space.
A residency is a chance to bring my practice into a new space and to put it to the test in a different environment, to see how I respond and to learn something new about what I do. I am still trying to get my head around the experience and will be continuing my work at the baths until September. We will have a group show of our artwork and interventions in the space during an open weekend and Swim for Restoration event on 7th & 8th September 2019.
This residency has been made possible thanks to the support of CVAN
Victoria Baths residency
