FLOCK X WYSING ARTS CENTRE
ARTIST RESIDENCY
In February 2023, I was lucky enough to be accepted for an artists' residency I applied to in Wysing. The residency took place over three days at the Wysing Arts Centre in collaboration with FLOCK, where I had the chance to stay in the farmhouse and work in the provided studios. The brief given to the four selected artists was to produce work based on Wysing Arts Centre with the materials and funding awarded to us. After completing these pieces, we then exhibited at the lovely location of Blackfriars' Hall in Norwich. Featured below is the work I created during the residency, my process, and the final piece with its attached statement.
Primary research, sketches and studies of my surroundings in Wysing before I settled on what to produce. Drawn with pen and ink, coloured pencils and watercolours.
After collecting an array of flora and fauna, I experimented with printing linocuts on fabric and cotton paper. Each piece of fabric was sourced second-hand and hand-dyed with natural materials. Such dyes included leftover red onion skins, berries, avocados and turmeric. It's important to me to maintain an eco-friendly process within my work, and I am always striving to improve my practices.
I took the linocuts as inspiration for the development of the final piece, where I drafted up figurative work surrounded by the curvature of the floral linoprints. The tattoos are all references to the experiences and memories I had at Wysing.
Final Outcome - Artist Statement
Having the opportunity to stay in a farmhouse that held multiple artists before me, I couldn't help but ponder what art they made, who they were and what they felt. I began to read the journals and second-hand books of previous residents, admiring the incoherent doodles and scribbles they left behind. Finding sweet sentiments and dead moths between the pages, it made me reflect on the short time I had there (and the short time I have in the world). I thought about the unseen drawings and pieces of writing I'll leave behind, all the fervent confessions that many people won't even see. When I can no longer make anything, that will be all that's left of me.
The contents of this piece are all hints to my experiences and memories at Wysing, some explored through lino prints, others through sketches. These are representations of how Wysing has been imprinted on me, and that in some way, artists will always leave traces of themselves behind - even after death.