AirSpace Gallery Graduate Residency - Meet The Residents

Now into it's Seventh Year, the AirSpace Gallery Graduate Residency is about to open its doors to two brand new residents - Charlotte Dawson - a Sheffield based artist recently graduated from Norwich University and Harly Kuyck Cohen from London and the Slade School of Art are due to relocate to Stoke for their 6 month residencies starting in September.  Meet them briefly here and follow their progress with us throughout their 6 months with us as they develop their practices towards their all important solo exhibitions in January/February, 2019.

Charlotte Dawson
@charlottedawsonart  
charlottedawson199.wixsite.com/portfolio

Charlotte Dawson’s work explores the intrinsic relationship between objects and the formation of narratives, memories and social histories. Creating object based installations as well as moving image, she plays with boundaries, utilising materials that clash or compositions that wrestle with weight, balance and the cusp of collapse. Her work often grapples with the border between the natural environment and the domestic, intersecting natural components amongst or within heavily manufactured objects. The intentions of her work are not to communicate her own narratives with the audience but to provide viewers with familiar yet compromised materials, to inspire intrigue and dissection. Leading to new and personal readings of each of her pieces.

"Over the course of the residency at Airspace I intend to broaden the parameters of my practice, exploring more installation based work that compliments and reacts to the space in which it inhabits or is produced. I also want to expand my use of video work, I see myself creating pieces where the border between sculpture and video become increasingly blurred, whether this be through the use of more object based video pieces, or a bridging of the two mediums to create video/object hybrid installations and exhibitions. I also aim to investigate the materiality of my practice further, exploring the relationship I have to fake or decoy materials such as stone effect plastics and faux fabrics. As well as my developing interest in the concept of objects in flux.  An important part of the residency will be becoming accustomed to a new city and studio space. I am very intrigued to see what affect my new surroundings will have on the type of work I produce and also how I approach the production of my artwork. I intend to utilise the change to inform artwork that becomes enriched by new physicality’s and narratives."

Harley Kuyck Cohen 

@harleywpk

@CohenKuyck

www.harleykuyckcohen.com

“Falling off that bridge in Paris;

For all the homes I sell,

I never built one that I liked.

Getting home from work,

I lie in my tent.

It’s the shape of my right toe, stretched with bright yellow waterproof fabric.

I put the light on and check

for my fake flowers, my wallet and my padlocks.

 

Out of the storm I try to sleep and dream about being older.” 

"I'd like to start making a model of an airship. A suspended sculpture, sitting in between apocalypse and utopia, its duality I hope will question ideas of the home. What makes a dwelling, constantly moving from one site to another, is often a preoccupation in my work. ]

This will prevail throughout the time of my residency. Homes, structures for living, will interweave in varying scales and forms over the coming 6 months."

 

 

Returns Residency Day 7 - Ending and Continuing

Ending and continuing.

We’ve been very busy during the seven days spent at Airspace. Christine and Andrew have completed production of the large pot, Danica has tested out combinations of drawings and ceramic objects, and I have been out walking and piecing together my research into radical action and utopian communities. We ended the week in torrential rain and with a return to the Spode site where our project first emerged.

We will now spend the summer in our own studios developing the work ready for the five days of reflection and testing we have scheduled at Primary, Nottingham where we will share with each other what we have made. Whilst our individual projects are distinct, we are beginning to understand how they variously connect.

We are looking forward to the time when the research and practice will find its form as an exhibition: we return to Stoke in the autumn, with the show scheduled to open at Airspace on 30 November, continuing till 15 December. We hope to see you there. 

We are very grateful to Airspace for hosting our residency, and to Glen Stoker for his generous assistance with practical matters and research leads. We would like to thank all the people who gave their time to help with making the large pot.

- Joanne Lee