Working Site Specific
April – July 2010
As a founder member of Post Collective, I was one of the seven artists awarded a three month residency at Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz, Austria as part of their Urban Interventions Exchange Project 2010.
FIRST VISIT - May 2010
During the first part of my residency in Atelierhaus Salzamt, as research for a further phase of my Cultural Crossing Series, I instigated a dialogue around the subject of ‘Surnames and Places of Origin’ at: Youthotel, Nui Resturant, Rother Krebs Bar, Salzamt Gallery, Salzamt Studios, with many residents and visitors. I selected the venues for their significance as places where social connections were made. My intention was to encourage a considered questioning of the journeys possibly made by their ancestors, from the country that their name originated to their present place of residence and of our meeting.
My discovery was that many were global travellers; their ancestors had crossed continents and lived amongst people from other cultures. This reinforced my belief in the hypothesis: if the race of man is believed to be one species, it follows that every man has an equally long journey behind him.
I documented the names and places of origin to include in my piece ‘What Is In A Name’, I also took a photographic portrait of the people with whom I had connected and produced metal casts of the floors surface at the threshold of these buildings. My intention was to create a collection of precious sculptures entitled ‘The Object of Things’ to act as mementos of these connections and to challenge our perception of the term’ Precious’ within our contemporary world.
See PROJECTS -Cultural Crossing Series 2010 and GALLERY for further details.
SECOND VISIT -June, July 2010
During the second residency visit of 10 days, I had an extremely productive time at Salzamt & Maerz drawing and developing my sculptural forms created on my previous visit, into lino cuts. I completed four ready to print on my return home.