#airspacegallery

“Community Maker is a 3 year project, a partnership between British Ceramics Biennial and AirSpace Gallery. In 2015 – the project was all about aiming to create space for a community to get together, eat, meet and make – and explore together, how to develop the area. I am the lead artist of the project, and much of my thinking around the project stems from the very interesting dilemma of being an artist and a resident. I have worked in public and community contexts many times over the years, but this is the first time I have done so within my own neighbourhood. The interest for me stems from the context we, as a family, find ourselves in, as members of the £1 home scheme – we were tasked, as part of the deal, with being ‘active members of the community – and agreeing to be part of community life, using our skills and resources to support the community to develop.’ We, and 32 other households across 4 streets agreed to this when we took on our £1 houses in this area. I was really interested in exploring what role an artist might be able to take in this context, and the Community Maker project takes this as a starting point.” Anna Francis, 2016

I have been working with the British Ceramics Biennial and Anna Francis on this project since 2015 and I am really pleased to have the opportunity to continue to create work with Anna and the Portland Street community again. During the sessions, we will be creating a range of ceramic ware which will be used in a feast during the British Ceramics Biennial festival. The Portland Street community will be invited to attend the celebration and will use the work created to feast on dishes they have made. Our first session was a ‘taster session’, which explored various states of clay using BCB’s ‘Clay Pit’. Participants were invited to collect their materials and tools using the ‘Reggio Emilia’ approach. This approach invites participants to explore clay with no direct instruction. There were 4 states of clay; slip, wet clay, dry clay and fired clay. This gave the community a chase to re-discover clay and explore the material with no boundaries. This session was also an opportunity to sign people up for the Community Maker course. The course started the following week, this session was a plate making session. With many of the community getting involved, we created 19 plates using Spode press moulds and each participant learned a new skill. “I felt upset before the workshop, but I feel happy again” said Amelia, aged 8. Participants described the session as relaxed and fun. Chloe said “I feel this workshop has given me confidence to work with clay again and I am really excited to see the finished work”. One participant said “I love how fun it can be and I love making the ideas in my head a reality”. It is clear that working together, sharing skills and creating are extremely important aspects of community growth. Alongside our ‘main’ activity, each week we deliver a drop-in activity. The first week’s activity, led by Dena Bagi was a fun activity, which allowed the participants to use clay to collect textures from around the community green space, the results were fantastic and the children really enjoyed using clay in such a free way. I’m really looking forward to seeing the work grow. Alice Thatcher Plate-making images by Glen Stoker

At the end of August I moved to Stoke-On-Trent to begin a Graduate Residency at Airspace Gallery.  It has now been just over a month since I arrived.

 ‘Airspace Gallery is a collaborative, artist led project in Stoke-on-Trent, providing professional development opportunities, studio and exhibiting space and support for artists. Through a dynamic and evolving programme of exhibitions, events and activities Airspace Gallery brings critical, high quality contemporary art to the region and provides opportunities for a broad range of artists.’

The Graduate Residency offers myself and my fellow resident; Alice Walter a 6-month period of self directed work. We are provided with a free studio space, regular support meetings and mentoring sessions with Gallery directorate and artist professionals.   We also have the chance to exhibit our work in an interim window show and then a solo exhibition at the end of January.

Having just graduated it is thrilling to be able take part in the programme such as this. Allowing me to focus and continue my practice while providing valuable experiences along the way.

 A little bit about my practice

My work is based around a desire to explore and understand the relationship between one’s self, the objects that surround us and the environments we occupy.  Most recently, I have been focusing particularly on the processing of visual stimuli, striking up a dialogue between a form and its represented image.  

Through playing with materials and employing aesthetic qualities that I find myself drawn to, the attention of my studies has become the forms of my own construction. Through the use of processes associated with mapping I am able to both generate and assess the forms.

Exploring the surfaces by extracting, studying and documenting, traceries act as records of my findings, while also taking on a life of their own. Generating a body of works the display often become integral to the dynamic and engaging experience of the facets and features of these objects.

The Move

While I originally come from Cambridgeshire, I spent the past three years at Norwich University of the Arts where I pursued a BA in Fine Art. And so Stoke-On-Trent and the surrounding areas are places I have never visited before. And yet if I’m honest I don’t think I really gave much thought to the idea of moving to a new and unfamiliar place, where I didn’t know anyone; this was probably to my benefit.  All I anticipated was for it to be an exciting and challenging experience.

My first week was quite difficult, feeling every much isolated, not really knowing where to begin.  Having to find a part time job and settle into the area, it was hard to focus and make a start on any work.  But this soon subsided as I started to explore my surroundings.  Once things were more in place it became much easier to spend time in the studio.

Events and activities

Within this first month I was welcomed by a number of events and activities. For example Appetite an organisation that ‘aims to get more people in Stoke-On-Trent to experience and be inspired by the arts’, held their Big Feats Weekend, which involved a great selection of street entertainment and performances.  I was able to meet the team and get involved with their events. 

While Campbell Works, a London based curational partnership that were selected as part of an open call curation project, have been exploring Airspace; the gallery, studios and studio members, the Airspace building, it’s structure and it’s locality.  The result of their investigations culminated in an installation ‘Coming Up For Air’ made of materials sourced from the building and the local area. Drawing on their interactions with the place a functioning heating system wraps itself around found objects and flows through the space of the gallery filling it with warmth.  The exhibition is a playful investigation into Airspace.  The show opened on 12th September and continues until 18th October at Airspace Gallery.

 More recently I got in contact with B-arts a group of artists and producers based in North Staffordshire, who have been working together for the past 29 years, co-creating works with communities.  They aim to bring the arts to the people by working in outdoor spaces and nontraditional venues, such as parks, city streets, village halls and beaches. I visited their new building in Stoke and was given a tour of the vast spaces and rooms within it.  I was told of their plans to create a bakery, a cafe and a co-work space as part of the Artcity, a 5-year program.  Artcity aims to allow artists to use empty spaces around Stoke-On-Trent to create site-specific events and performances.  As they had the launch event for Artcity coming up the following week I got involved, helping out prepare the space for the event.

My first month in Stoke-On-Trent as part of my Graduate Residency has been a busy one, settling into the area, getting involved in the events and beginning my own work,  which I am documenting visually on my tumblr www.naomiharwin.tumblr.com.   With more exhibitions and events coming up I will continue to document my experience as I work through my residency here at Airspace Gallery.  Please support my residency by checking out the screen prints I have on sale on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/NaomiHarwinPrints or if you would like to see some more of my work please visit my website at www.naomiharwin.com or view my tumblr blog at www.naomiharwin.tumblr.com.