Project Ability are pleased to announce the artists selected for the Residency Programme 2013

 

 

 

Project Ability are pleased to announce the artists selected for the Residency Programme 2013 are Ruth Ansell, Lea Cummings, Lorraine Hamilton, Nicola Henderson, Genevieve Kay-Gourlay and Jordan Kay and Linda Mahoney. Now in its fourth year, the residency is an initiative to support artists to develop their practice within a disability arts setting where artists are resident in Project Ability’s open studio for a short and intense working period of one month. The artists are provided with studio space, materials and professional development opportunities within the Project Ability community.

Ruth Ansell (May) is a textile designer and craft practitioner. She will use the residency to develop her techniques in photography, ink chromatography and light reflections applied to textile design. The residency will be focused on her interest in colour and textile recycling as well as sharing her extensive skill range with others.

Lorraine Hamilton (June) is a sculptor whose practice encompasses visual spectacle and tactility. During the residency she will undertake a sculptural exploration of the senses expanding on her interest in shared experience through art.

Genevieve Kay-Gourlay and Jordan Kay (July) are a sister and brother collaborative duo; they will use the residency as a context to explore their relationship as siblings and collaborators in an experimental idea exchange and coming together of two individual practices.

Lea Cummings (August) is an artist and musician who takes part in Project Ability’s ReConnect programme. Working in a wide range of practices including sound, performance, painting, animation and film, Lea will use the residency as a space for experimentation and exploration of maximalist pattern and colour.

Nicola Henderson (September) is a ceramist and aims to use the residency to experiment further with metamorphic open bowl forms, volcanic glazes as well as an investigation into the crossover between organic and decorative vessels with an in depth investigation into form.

Linda Mahoney (October) will use the residency to undertake a period of extensive research examining existential philosophical ideas about the construction of ‘self’ and the contemporary meaning of ‘self’ in the context of society constructs.

The artists will be exhibiting their new work in an exhibition at Project Ability Gallery in January 2014.

 

Image: Fraser Ross's Lab during his August residency

Posted on 19th March 2013 by PA Editor : permalink
Categories: Artists  Exhibitions  News  Residency 

Project Ability Visual Artist Residency 2013

 

 

 

Our application process is now open! We are looking for six Glasgow-based artists to take part in our residency programme.

Artists will be given one month-long slot each, spanning from May – October 2013.  They will be offered an open studio space, freedom and support to concentrate on the development of their work. Applications are particularly welcomed from artists who have a disability or from those who have a project that is specific to the Project Ability community and its activities.  

For more info please visit our opportunities page.

 

Posted on 5th February 2013 by PA Editor : permalink
Categories: News  Residency 

Residency: Fraser Ross - August 2012

Fraser Ross is an artist and designer based in Glasgow. His work his inspired by the unique plant life found only in Scotland, investigating human interaction through shape changing projects that explore and subvert the senses.

During his residency, Fraser created a chemistry lab of glass containers where tight clusters of matter gather and chase when a magnet is applied to their surface. These objects appear straightforwardly spectacular, in the way that they delight, intrigue and invite further investigation; yet their function remains conceptually elusive.



Fraser’s practice holds a great significance on design; in particular, the pursuit of function in formal terms of object specification, manifested by a person, intended to accomplish something. His combinations of paint, oil, magnetic liquids and water trigger strange and sublime chemical reactions. Collectively, the residency project appears as an arrested natural process of potential action. It signifies the organic processes that intrigue the artist but with the work itself operating as a scientific experiment, in which the viewer/participator is cast as the test. We caught up with Fraser at the end of his residency to find out more…

Can you describe what you’ve been working on during the residency?

“I’ve been using the residency to make objects and to keep making mistakes until I get it right. I haven’t made an actual final product yet and I am still looking for a solution and have a lot of ideas. I have spent a lot of the time thinking, what of this, what of that, exploring; my goal wasn’t to have a final product but undertake a period of research. I have been working with a combination of liquids and solids, bringing order to chaos through function.”

How did working in Project Ability affect this research?

“I have been influenced by what I see here and what I hear. I don’t have the wording yet for the product but I look around and there are so many people applying themselves to painting, and they are so focused. When I first arrived, there was a whole load of paints lined up over there, with the coloured liquid in rows and artists arrive, choose a colour, and utilise it to create something. The starting point of the project was looking closely at the environment around the residency space and the rows of paint tubs, liquids, paintbrushes inspired the early stages.”



The work space you have created resembles a chemistry lab, can you tell me more about these ‘experiments’?

“This, for example, is magnetic fluid, if you apply a magnet to it, you can manipulate the shape; it is about asserting an order over something - even if that only lasts for a brief second. I am drawn to organic shapes that reflect processes seen in nature and the idea behind everything is that ‘nature is manufacture’. Firstly you need an action to stimulate the object, make it perform its ‘function’ through different components. It is about looking at how humans interact with objects. I’m not trying to resemble the tree, like my last projects; instead it is an attempt at stripping back the layers to reveal the origins of things. The laboratory is where things originate from, or are discovered, and I am demonstrating the breakdown of that encounter. “

Have you had interest from Project Ability artists?

“I am used to working on my own; the problem there is that you can get far too close to the project. Everyone walking past sees something different and when I explain in 30 words what it is all about, it is enlightening to hear their alternative take on it. That is the great thing about working here, with artists who have so many different disciplines, practices, methods of working, thought processes - they create the product for you through different viewpoints and it’s that interaction I have used to shape this project.”

Function is very important to your practice, what is it you want the objects to do?

“I often find myself asking myself why it always has to have a function. I have used these materials, test-tube growing almost, in a desire to make a function but I am unsure of what that is yet.  I aim to evoke emotion and design is always at the core of that and I guess that is where function comes into it. When I start working like this, it usually takes 6 months to fully realise a project, but I just make until the light goes on, the bell starts ringing and you get somewhere. It is also about an encounter, oil and water don’t mix but when you interact with the surface, they do for a brief moment. I am drawn to the concept that human interaction causes the function, it is the stimulus.”

Where is the project going from here?

“I want to create something large scale for the exhibition, the best way to tackle it is to create an installation that people can play with or interact with. I am looking at making one of these smaller objects wall-expansive, big enough that people can muck around with, change the shape and when you walk away your imprint disappears. At the moment everything exists in miniature pieces, it has helped to solidify my practice and I have enjoyed experimenting with colour within the containers. I have this object that you would usually find in the chemistry lab to test magnet strength but I want to step away from creating things that inspire play, I wish to create something more complex, progressing to the way organisms grow and through further investigation, understand the theory of function itself.”



In transporting his work from idea to reality, Fraser makes redundant objects come to life by human interaction. By exploring the transformative potential of the imagination and the fragility of human endeavour, he creates themes that effectively encapsulate the artist and viewer immensely. Fraser’s final product will be exhibited in the residency group show in 2013.

 

 

Posted on 6th September 2012 by PA Editor : permalink
Categories: News  Residency 

Residency: Suzanne Wason, July 2012




Can you talk me through what you have been working on during the residency?

“…I intended to open up a bit more but the first couple of weeks, I found difficult after finishing college, I struggled with inspiration out of that working environment. I starting painting the bottles of Irn Bru I drank whilst working here, it is related to my OCD.”

Suzanne paints the half-full partly empty bottles with a free energy and rich mining of these daily rituals. The genre of the still life has its historical origins with leftovers abandoned on crumpled, stained and crumb strewn table tops telling stories of an event; Suzanne’s working practice explores the possibility for anxiety, beauty and subversion through the discarded objects of consumption.



“…I used to just draw and it was my tutors that encouraged me to paint and I made my degree work with rags and the ends of paintbrushes. I also work better with a deadline and giving myself a plan that I worked to, opened up and working better than I was at the beginning.”

Has taking part in the residency been good for your confidence?

“Yes, I’m planning on working on canvas, painting the bottles and exploring repetition and series.”

What is it about Irn Bru that made you choose it as a sole subject?

“I just really enjoy it and it affects the way that I think, I drank it once and that was a good day. I drink it now because of the colour orange. The part of the brain that processes fear and anxiety appears orange in a brain scan and I find that really interesting. Also, I like the figure on the bottle; the right leg is behind the left as is his arm and that works best for me.”







Where will you go from here?

“I will spend some time developing; I have not quite found my style yet. I am also interested in exploring a career in art therapy.”

Suzanne Wason will be exhibiting new work in Project Ability’s residency exhibition in January 2013.  Forthcoming projects include a group exhibition at the RGI Gallery, Glasgow later in the year.  


Posted on 8th August 2012 by PA Editor : permalink
Categories: News  Residency 

Residency: Simon McAuley June 2012






Following Simon’s third residency, we trace his thoughts and production from the first drawings in 2009 to where his practice is now. This most recent series of works represent a recent transition from drawing to painting and demonstrate a reworking of painting's conventions at their most radically reduced. In the artist’s own words, it is apparent that he is a painter for whom painting is an uninterrupted personal investigation. Simon tests painting's material and conceptual possibilities with the attitude “learning as you go along”. The prospect or outcome of his practice remains an open question; answerable only through the production of new works.

This is your third year as artist in residence in Project Ability. Did this particular time reveal anything to you about your practice that you didn’t know already?

Yes, year three. It is strange really, a number of things have changed. This is the place I have been spending most of my days and I have completed the first wave of paintings. I decided not to do any painting before I got here, one of the first days I was working, there were sparks coming from my head.





Can you tell me a bit about your transition from a drawing tradition to a painting one?

Things have taken a considerable leap in a painterly direction; I had anticipated for a while that would happen. I like that space between drawing and painting; it feels like a very ambiguous place. I think it was a seamless transition - I started to make a number of paintings and tried not to think too much about how the materials were going to fit into the previous work, into my previous drawings. I feel that I wouldn’t have known how successful I could be as a painter, until I had actually done a painting.

I am interested in the starting points of your paintings. Are you able to tell me where the line comes from, do you use any kind of systematic procedures?

I always have in mind minimalist ideals and also how I can push paint. On the other hand, a lot of my decisions are quite personal; they operate as part of a more intuitive process rather than a theoretical one. With regards to a lot of the drawing I have done in the past, I enjoy making marks with paint a lot more in a way that didn’t with the drawings. There is much control involved in drawing, you can be free with paint and I like the idea that it is not a repeatable mark that can ever be reproduced again.





Your work has developed links with traditional painting. Are you happy to be seen as a traditional painter?

Looking back now I understand the drawings more and with painting, I have reached a phase where I don’t need that preliminary drawing stage. Even though I consider the paintings and the drawings to be different, I still consider the thinking to be the same. I work with happy colours. I like to be playful and really enjoy painting colour. When I make decisions it can be about happiness. I have deliberately used a lot of white to achieve a very pastel, saccharine, sweetie effect. When I think about colour, I first like to see how they behave with each other, think about what it is that I want the colour to do. I haven’t used oils for 20 years; oil gives me more control over the manipulation of the paint while I get a feel for my palette.

Your works are always untitled, is it because they have no representational meaning?

Not at the moment. Landscape is still important in my work, I have still held onto that but that’s not to say that in the future those references won’t fade as the painting comes to the fore. Rather than thinking of a title, I work towards getting to a point where I think that a work is finished.





What are your influences?

Artists, Richter, Monet. I am interested in Monet because of the way he handles light. Not only painters, I am influenced by concrete poetry, minimalism, I have always wanted to be that kind of painter.

Where will you go from here?

I will continue painting.








Simon will be exhibiting in the residency exhibition, Project Ability Gallery in early 2013. 


Posted on 4th July 2012 by PA Editor : permalink
Categories: Artists  Exhibitions  News  Recruitment & Volunteering  Residency 

Artwork of the week - ‘Untitled’ by Simon McAuley





Next in our artwork of the week series, we bring you a recent drawing by Simon McAuley – our current artist in residence. Whether Simon uses painting or drawing, he is devoted to the aesthetic of illusion. Simon’s work is very intuitive and his use of line contains certain modular elements that hover between drawing and painting traditions. His works are small and large, solid and fragile, absorptive and reflective. 

Stay tuned for an overview of Simon’s practice coming up in July where he will discuss how he spent his time on the residency!  

Posted on 22nd June 2012 by PA Editor : permalink
Categories: Artists  News  Residency 

Residency: Lauren Bryden, May 2012





The Print Assembly is an autonomous project promoting innovative printmaking practices and the artist behind the project is textile designer and printer, Lauren Bryden, a graduate from Glasgow School of Art textile department. Lauren was Project Ability’s resident artist for the month of May and we caught up with her towards the end of her project to find out what she had been up to. 

You have been working in Project Ability for one month, how did you prepare yourself for such a short dedicated span of working?
 “…I planned my time through a series of structured projects under the central name Night Shades with a focus on the watchman and the circle as a central motif. My starting point was a series of still life compositions as inspiration and a focus on how the work would take shape during the residency.”

Can you talk me through what you have been working on?
“Night Shades is a series of colours and spherical shapes which explore ideas of vigilance and remark upon the role of the imaginary watchman. The symbolism of the circle is the central focus of the ideas bringing to mind the clock face, time, observation, all creating a cyclic motion using colour shades spanning the spectrum from white to black.”
Lauren began by using found spherical objects such as stickers, sink drainers, masking tape rolls and other objects all tacked together to form a disordered semblance of order. This still life series was the starting point for finished pieces including a painting on an atomized pink PVC canvas and a designed outfit. These final outcomes were stimulated by the still life series which Lauren used to draw stencils and pattern from, revealing the significance of the objects’ purpose not only to shape but to inform the configuration of her designs and patterns. The small compositions appear somewhat industrial yet, with the injection of bold colour moments, Lauren has created a series of pleasing, futile monuments which offer a different viewpoint on the use of transformed detritus in the pursuit of design.

How did working in the communal Project Ability space compare to an independent studio practice?
“…working in Project Ability offered freedom to realise what I didn’t know was already there in my practice and provided me with the opportunity to spend some dedicated time crossing the boundaries between designer and artist, configuring solutions to problems  and indulging the artist side for a change. I liked coming to a space where you see the same faces every day and you all work in this space independently, together. There is a big focus on painting in the Project Ability workshops and I was really influenced by what was going on around me, I think that is what led me to make the painting.”

Lauren Bryden will be exhibiting new work in Project Ability’s residency exhibition in January 2013.  Other forthcoming projects include the development of a new line of fine-art printed clothing, pursuing textile conservation and an ongoing research project titled “Dyeing Communities: recolouring the narrative of post-industrial decay through radical geography and community-led praxis" in collaboration with an academic and archivist based in the Vale of Leven and Grangemouth.

 

 

Posted on 13th June 2012 by PA Editor : permalink
Categories: All  Artists  Exhibitions  News  Recruitment & Volunteering  Residency 

Lorraine Clark - Artist in residence, April 2012

 

 

Our Residency Programme 2012 started this month with artist Lorraine Clark. Read more about Lorraine's experience and her practice here.

Lorraine Clark’s work will be exhibited in the Project Ability Gallery in January 2013 alongside the other artists participating in our residency programme 2012.

Posted on 25th April 2012 by PA Editor : permalink
Categories: Artists  Exhibitions  News  Residency