I have now been an artist in residence at Ruthin Craft Centre (RCC) for a month and I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed. The first day was about getting myself oriented in the space and at RCC. I was feeling nervous and to combat the pressure I didn’t take many materials or supplies. Instead I brought a couple of art books I had been meaning to read, my new journal, and a roll of masking tape.

The empty studio my first day at Ruthin Craft Centre

Not only did this take the pressure off but also allowed me to assess the space and how I was going to use it. I have two rooms at RCC joined by a double door. In one room I am experimenting and exploring new ideas, whereas in the other I am building a new multi-sensory installation. I immediately realised that the orientation I had envisioned for my installation should be reversed for optimal flow of visitors into the room. I spent the rest of the day taping out a spiral on the floor, reading and arranging both spaces.

The installation is based on my Interiors series and the phrase “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.” I want to completely envelop the viewer and to this end decided to build a room that you cannot see out of once inside. Along with assistance from a friend I built the wooden-stud spiral room over two days. It was very exciting to see the idea that had been floating in my head for well over a year materialise. Now over the next period I will be working on making the manipulated fabric to cover the walls and ceiling (it is all hand stitched), building a machine to make the walls “breathe” and creating a sound piece to accompany the installation.

Spiral Room

Working at Ruthin Craft Centre has been a fantastic experience thus far; I am getting so much done! I feel liberated from the inevitable distractions of my home studio and the 45-minute commute makes me feel the need to put in a full day at RCC to justify the travel expense. I also do not have Internet access in the studio. This is probably the best thing possible for me – I am often easily distracted by ‘research’ and plunge down a rabbit-hole of technical forums and YouTube videos about materials. Freed from this, I have been forced to experiment and work with what I have (not that this has stopped me from researching in the evening at home).

My rate of production has really multiplied and I am finding that I am once again working in series. When I was in art school I always worked in series, really exploring an idea thoroughly. I think this is a positive approach to art making but I’ve stopped doing it over the past few years. Through critical conversations with mentors I have really tried to analyse my practice and identified a couple of key reasons I stopped working this way. Firstly, I am very cautious with money and sparing with my materials, this has definitely stunted my experimentation and been a hindrance. The funding that I received from the Art Council of Wales to facilitate this residency has obviously been a big help but I am aware that this is not a permanent situation. I don’t intend on using materials recklessly but I am now trying to achieve a better balance and not be so afraid of “waste.” Secondly, I tend to over analyse in my sketchbook and sometimes completely realise a piece on paper, to the point that I feel done with an idea before I’ve actually made anything. I know it can be argued that there are artists who just write proposals and that you don’t need to make every piece; this is not the case here and I must admit that I am just being lazy. I am probably not supposed to publicly admit things like this but recognising it has allowed me to address the problem. Without experimenting and actually creating a piece, I am not giving myself the chance to discover and develop beyond the initial ideas.

This brings me to the second room at RCC and my goal of also experimenting with new ideas and work during the residency. As a starting point I decided to address weight, balance and tension. I began crocheting, using the same threads that I had taken with me a month earlier for a week-long residence at Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn. I crocheted a bag-like form, a sack; I used fine cotton thread and wanted to fill it with something that would strain the delicate loops. I tried various things and finally settled on concrete. I have never worked with concrete before but I am really enjoying the puzzle of a new material. Working in series, I am experimenting with different sack forms and different ways of casting the concrete inside. I really like the pieces where the concrete stretches the crochet to its limit but is also changed by it, in a contradictory way it is shaped by the delicate threads. I don’t yet know where this work is heading but I am enjoying the journey.

New Experiments

For more about Alana’s residency, check out part one of the series here. To read more about how Alana makes her work, take a look at her My Process feature from earlier this year.

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