Cheerio to our last group of residents on this years Nightshift programme: Emma Brack, Rebecca Davies, Anna Francis, Michael Hautemulle, Marina Rees and Grays School of Art Graduate Awardee Mary Gordon. What a great bunch and what a great time we had with them, very sad to see them leave!
During their residency we were snowed in for weeks, but that didn’t stop them exploring the area by foot and delving into their practices and our workshops – staying warm in the ceramics studio. We came together to have meals, group studio visits, and sauna nights. On International Woman’s day we all participated in the Womans Strike and spent the day together walking in the Carirgorms. In the third week were joined by Glasgow based artist Mele Broomes who gave a public talk about her practice and experiences as a black dancer and led a movement class reflecting on Serendipity’s publication, Black Women in Dance: Stepping Out of The Barrier. As a final get together our Stoke on Trent Landladies and artists in Residence Rebecca Davies and Anna Francis hosted a Friday Night Pub Quiz in the SSW Communities room.
Artist Marina Rees has also written an piece describing her processes of research and experimentation with bioplastics during her four week residency. This can be read HERE
This years nightshift programme invited the participating artists to respond to our five year EU programme Frontiers in Retreat which has explored sensitive ecological issues across Europe through a range of approaches. The Nightshift artists were encouraged to continue developing these approaches to ecology in contemporary art in way that is relevant and meaningful to their own practice.
Images are from Emma Brack, Rebecca Davies, Anna Francis, Michael Hautemulle, and Marina Reesand SSW.
