antony clarkson
  • CODEX
    • plane >
      • Apophenia: An Uncanny Presence.
      • Control(s)
      • Personal Topographies
      • The Self-Isolation Residency
      • Americana
      • Mauve Skies
      • Scotland
      • Selected Drawing & Paintings,
      • The Teaching Years
      • Spatial Paintings 2006-2008
      • Paintings 2006
    • mass >
      • The Blind Men and the Elephant.
      • Spatial Conceptions 2014 - 2022
      • Painted Objects
      • Autograph
      • The Newtonian Nightmare
    • volume >
      • Enso nest
      • Someone else's storey
      • Shower, The Process Residency 2013,
      • Concrete Haiku
      • Atypical
      • The Murder of Crows.
      • Composition in White (Painting), The Breathe Residency:
      • Composition in White (Sculpture), The Breathe Residency:
      • Floorplan
      • Paper Scissors Rock
      • Pilgrimage
      • The Fifth Column
      • Tension
      • Arch
    • blogs >
      • The Self-Isolation Residency: Blog 2020-2021
      • Apophenia: An Uncanny Presence. 2022
    • artist statement
    • cv & education
    • contact

The Athole House Studio
Self-Isolation Artist Residency
30th March 2020 - 7th November 2021

​

Picture
Over my career I have taken part in many artist residencies in various parts of the world; I have even organised and run a residency program myself. 2020 has brought new challenges to us all, I however intend to treat these challenges as opportunities. With this in mind today, the first day of my self-isolation having arrived back from my studio in the Untied States last night, I I launch my new blog which will become an integral part of this website as I redesign is over the coming weeks.

Artist Residencies give artists the space and perhaps more importantly the time to make new work; I intend to treat my time in self-isolation in the same way that I would if I were on an artist residency in another studio in another part of the world. Athole House Studio maybe one of my home studios but for me it is a work space, and lets face it, we all now have the time.

The Self-Isolation Residency 19th may 2020: Day 51

5/19/2020

1 Comment

 

Exploring Installation No. 7: 'Promontories': Trafford College Residency, 2011, Antony Clarkson

Picture
Tonight I'm returning to a piece of my situation specific installation work, in fact my to date my only permanent piece. Whilst I was in Ireland on my first artist residency I was in the process of applying for several other residencies to progress onto. Actually the first of these and the subject of tonight's piece didn't start off as a residency but it rapidly turned into one. Several years earlier I had completed my Art Foundation Course at Trafford College in Manchester; this is before progressing on to Manchester Art School. I was contacted by the marketing department of the college who had decided to run a completion open to all former students to design and install a permanent, new installation for their brand new main building. The award for the winner would be a cash prize to allow them to develop and install there vision into this new space. I promptly put together my proposal based on their commission brief and was delight to hear a few days later that mine was the winning entry.

My idea was based around the forms my spatial paintings, but to take these forms into a new, more sculptural direction. I also had to include a colour-scheme that was derived from the colleges logo and also to include, 'motivational' quotations from college staff and alumni. This turned out to be a very large scale project that would occupy my time for the 6 months immediately following my residency in Ireland. When I returned to the UK I immediately  began discussions with the college as to the logistics of the project and it was at this point that they decided to expand the project from being an award and commission to a full blown residency. The reasoning behind this was two fold, the first was the more pragmatic in that the scale of the work demanded that I have a much larger studio to work in and as the college had whole buildings empty at that time due to their expansion and redevelopment it made sense that I should take over one of these empty spaces to do my work in. The second reason was an offshoot from the first and was put forward by the art department who saw the possibilities that would be open to them to have a practicing artist on campus who could from time to time give talks, lectures and tutorials to their students.

In lots of ways the final piece, 'Promontories', is quite materials driven and proved to be a great testing ground for other similar projects that would around in the future. As I say the original commission required that I include certain colours and texts, but of which were easily and effectively achieved through the usage of wall panels spray painted in a form of 'graphic/graffiti' style. The bigger challenge came about with the ceiling mounted paintings/sculptures as through discussion with the new buildings architects and engineers it rapidly became apparent the structure of the space where the work was to be installed was not built with a structure substantially strong enough to support the weight of the original design. For me this literally meant back to the drawing board. I probably spent the first 2 months of the project exploring light weight alternative materials to my usual 'wood, canvas and oil paints'. However the outcome of this was a very positive solution which as I say lead directly to other pieces I was to complete for other commissions. The final sculpture are what I refer to as 'kites' as that is what they basically are; the wooden 'stretchers' or my spatial paintings are replaced with ultra light carbon-fibre poles and the canvas and paint, which on this scale would be extremely  heavy in its own right, is replaced with precoloured rip-stop sail cloth with I managed to source in the required colours for the project. The final piece was very satisfying on so many levels and it still is in place today.
Picture
Picture
1 Comment
Andy MCClintock
5/19/2020 02:49:57 pm

I love this. Use of art to create a life enhancing public space. So often public are is either to timid or too small scale and remains unobserved by most people. I also like the way that the problems were solved. It is the sort of project that generates new ideas and ways of doing things while become an artistic process.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • CODEX
    • plane >
      • Apophenia: An Uncanny Presence.
      • Control(s)
      • Personal Topographies
      • The Self-Isolation Residency
      • Americana
      • Mauve Skies
      • Scotland
      • Selected Drawing & Paintings,
      • The Teaching Years
      • Spatial Paintings 2006-2008
      • Paintings 2006
    • mass >
      • The Blind Men and the Elephant.
      • Spatial Conceptions 2014 - 2022
      • Painted Objects
      • Autograph
      • The Newtonian Nightmare
    • volume >
      • Enso nest
      • Someone else's storey
      • Shower, The Process Residency 2013,
      • Concrete Haiku
      • Atypical
      • The Murder of Crows.
      • Composition in White (Painting), The Breathe Residency:
      • Composition in White (Sculpture), The Breathe Residency:
      • Floorplan
      • Paper Scissors Rock
      • Pilgrimage
      • The Fifth Column
      • Tension
      • Arch
    • blogs >
      • The Self-Isolation Residency: Blog 2020-2021
      • Apophenia: An Uncanny Presence. 2022
    • artist statement
    • cv & education
    • contact