2020 Artists in Residence
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In 2020 the Residency was offered to two local artists to work on their own projects in the same space, Andrea Robinson www.andrearobinsonartist.co.uk and Maddie Hills www.maddierosehills.co.uk
Andrea Robinson
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Andrea Robinson has become her own twin, danced in a Chelsea park and on a stage in Battersea, told stories in a coroner’s office, sung about electricity in a turbine hall, joined a band of time-travelling musicians called 27 Hips. She also makes prints and installations; she sometimes writes poems.
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Andrea works with printmaking, text, installation, performance and poetry. She is a founder member of print collective The Friday Group, gallery artist at Water Street Gallery and a member of the Printmakers Council and Southbank Printmakers. Andrea’s prints and artist books are held in private and public collections and archives, including Scarborough Museum, Chelsea College of Art, The British Library, Tate Britain, and the V&A, and online for Art UK which showcases artworks from the UK’s public collections. Her work has been exhibited at venues throughout the UK and internationally, including Protocol for Frieze Art Week, and as a selected artist for Red Dot Mini Print touring exhibition and Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair in 2018 and 2019.
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"I’m a visual artist based in SW London. I’ve been making and exhibiting for around 10 years, and I’ve been involved in a number of collaborative projects (as variously participant, partner or instigator) - this has led to working across many genres, including dance/movement-based courses and projects at The Place and Siobhan Davies Dance (where I also study choreography for non-dancers), storytelling and live art at Battersea Arts Centre, and exploring using alter-egos or multi-disciplinary/performance-based work as a participant in several projects through the Live Art Development Agency’s DIY scheme.
Recently my focus has been on printmaking and I’ve found myself making fairly traditional works on paper in a two-dimensional way, although also sometimes using print, paper and found materials to make installations (for instance for Year of the Pig and Protocol, both curated projects which happen in car parks in central London) and sculpturally to make a series of small shrines and matchbox sized pieces.
How could I benefit from the residency? I think it could offer space to explore an expanded way of working, to open up my practice through experiment and play, to follow ideas without an end ‘product’ in sight and mind. In the past I have worked with other visual artists, I've improvised with dancers, poets, singers and music makers - I’d like to think about this open way of working, bringing in different ideas and practices, maybe even invite friends from different disciplines to drop in and try out a few things or just to sit and talk things through, in an open-ended way of devising and testing ideas. I think I might like to look at how a particular space influences how I think and work, and how a sustained amount of time and space to work in can facilitate new approaches to developing ideas and choosing what genres and materials to work with. This sort of open-ended interrogation and experimentation often lends itself to work-in-progress discussions or invitations to join in, depending on what is coming out of the ideas and the process. A shared space could also bring in other influences and lead ideas into new directions, so I’d be open to sharing and potentially collaborating with another artist in the space. The main thing is to have the freedom to work without a brief, without any pre-conceived project, and see where it goes."
Maddie Hills
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"My paintings sit between abstract and landscapes, and are driven by an interest in paint as a medium. I am currently making small oil paintings of nearby landscapes. I choose a place, visit it and sketch or try to remember how it looks, then return to the studio to paint it from memory over the course of a week or so. I would love to make a body of work responding to Tooting Bec Common during the winter month of January. Walking through the park, and then trying to paint it from memory. The act of painting from memory gives the work a hazy quality, gesturing to the landscape as opposed to copying it. I've lived near Tooting Bec Common for three years and have found it a very inspirational space. I would love the opportunity to engross myself in the area over the month and see what comes out of it.
Although on my website I don't post too many of my landscape paintings, there are more on my instagram @maddie.rose.hills I am also very interested in organising Art events and have curated exhibitions, run life drawing classes, and try to bring together artists/gallerists for talks to the public on art, so if it suits the space I would be very keen to have Open Studio's, artist talks or even the odd workshop over the course of the residency to engage with other local people who love the area."