Residency at St Augustine’s, Derry

I started my two months residency at St Augustine’s with no fixed ideas as to what I’d be doing. Other than bringing in a few pieces of work that have never been properly realised or resolved, it’s a blank canvas. Three weeks in and I’m really enjoying the physicality of the space, it’s a luxury to have so much room and light. I spent the first week playing around with objects, moving things around, adding things, and in the last week editing things out. As this is where the work will be exhibited it’s easier to make decisions as to what works in the space, and allowing the space to be very much part of the installation. Two months isn’t a long time to work on a show, so it’s going to be very much the early stages of an experiment, approaching the project this way makes me feel more relaxed about the outcome. The work has a narrative element to it, which also involves an experiment of sorts, so there’s the fiction and the reality.

I’ve surprised myself at how instantly I’ve felt at home in the space. Normally I like to listen to loud music, especially in the initial stages of work, but because of the acoustics I’m listening through headphones, I have a new playlist to listen to. Juana Molina, Broadcast and Talk Talk’s album Laughing Stock are all getting listened to a lot.

I’ve been writing text which is a fairly integral part of the work and it’s throwing up a few questions, such as should it be typed? Or handwritten? If it’s handwritten what kind of pen should I use? Should it even be my handwriting?