Double Agents

The recruitment process for ASP 10 2023 has begun. The details of the first briefing meetings are listed below, and later in the year there will be opportunities to visit the studio and meet some of the current Associates working there. The 2023 programme offers: • Studio space in three new-build, ground floor, open-plan spaces totally 2,400 sq.ft, for 15 graduates at the Highline Building, Elephant and Castle. • 24-hour access purpose designed studios, built to a high specification with natural light, 3m high ceilings, heating, wifi, More...

This May we had our first studio visit from Antonia Marsh of Soft Opening. With the gallery turning five this year and Antonia now representing 11 artists, she talked us through the idiosyncrasies of what it means to run run this space. In talk of art fairs, the art market, the gallerist’s job and how Antonia maintains close relationships with her artists, she helped us to understand and demystify the art world. Conversations of how Antonia picks her artists, her background as a curator and selling work segued into Rhea Dillion’s practice and her new show opening at Tate Britain this month. This fed into our crit of the work of More...

Hannah Barry’s Studio visit was inspiring – full of refreshing insight, as well as thoughtful and generative critique. Hannah introduced herself as someone who in a way stumbled across art and artists. A world that made her welcome as she welcomed it. She is a person properly invested in what she loves and had a real desire to learn more about each of our practices and our relationship with them. It was so refreshing to have a purposeful conversation with someone so open to the work and with such an investigative and poetic mind. Hannah More...

“The most important thing as an artist is making artwork that is to be true to oneself. ” During Rózsa’s visit, she generously allowed us time to present our work as well as to ask about her work as a gallerist. This phrase was how she wrapped up her studio visit. I feel as though questions she gave to us during her visit was centred around that. Trends in art, images on social media, the fast-paced world we live in – we encounter these like strong winds and are hard to resist falling. We might feel lost at times, especially as young artists. More...

In November a panel including Alex Schady (Art Programme Leader; CSM), Mary Evans (BA Fine Art Course Leader, Chelsea College of Arts), Jerome Ince-Mitchell (Senior Lecturer in Fine Art Painting Camberwell), Jheni Arboine (Academic Enhancement Model Lead, CCW) and Lea O’Loughlin (Co-Director Acme Studios) interviewed the shortlisted candidates from an open call to select the group of 2022 and 2024 UAL BA Fine Art graduates to form the 2022 Associate Studio Programme and take their place in the shared studios at the Glassyard Building, Stockwell, until December 2024. The selected artists are: Elliot Jeffries, Jennifer Jones, Jan Kaminski, Isable Kang, Karl Murphy, Maya Patel, Synshar Pde, Noah Smith, Emma Todd, and Jim Tuck More...

It was very exciting to have Mark Leckey come visit us at the studio, I am personally a huge fan of his work and have admired him for a long time. We were in the midst of setting up for our group show in the space and so it was a good opportunity to discuss our work and help each other resolve any problems we faced. I was using our open studio that week to test some ideas and themes that have been cropping up in my practice for a while. It was good to have Mark there to test my thinking, he really questioned me on the subject of the More...

Rhea Dillon blessed the studios on the 16th of November 2022. The works of associates Sam, Priscilla, MJ and Tyler were discussed. Rhea was incredibly generous with her time and energy and questions and was particularly attentive to the language we used to present and talk about our own work. You could tell she was someone who works with text, writing and language in her own practice. She asked very direct questions and also some that seemed out of left field a bit but through the discussion that ensued after (or the lack thereof) More...

After many visits by young male artists, it seemed only right for Bobby Baker to show them how it’s done. Bobby Baker, a woman and artist, visited the ASP 8 studio on the 28th September 2022. My nerves were getting the best of me as I paced around the studio waiting for the artist’s arrival. Bobby Baker has been a hugely influential person for me more personally than artistically! However, my nerves were soon eased as Bobby Baker politely asked for a cup of tea upon her arrival – completely fitting to her artist persona. As the chain of teas More...

The Associate Studio Programme, in partnership with Acme, opened its first studio in the Glassyard Building, in Stockwell, south west London in 2013. The tenure of the current, seventh, group of Associates at the Glassyard studio comes to an end in November 2022. Applications are now being invited from 2021 and 2022 graduates from CSM’s and CCW’s BA Fine Art course, for next round to run from January 2023 to December 2024. The Associate Studio Programme provides a supportive environment More...

Eva Gold visited the studio in September, but our invitation to her was prompted by her show at Ginny on Frederick ‘The Last Cowboys’, early in the year in May. It acted as the reference point for conversation – by generalising some of its characteristics in relation to the work of a number of the Associates. These themes included the “mis-employment” of materials and the process by which the meaning of one migrates to or even infects the other; the relation between the work presented and space in which it’s presented; the possibilities that More...

Ed visited the Elephant and Castle studios on the 8th of August to discuss the works and practices of the Associates from ASP 8. He worked through ideas presented by the Associates pointing out clear threads in parts of our own practices and in relation to each others also. He highlighted the parts of our practices that he thought were most interesting to him and gave options on how to push further. The discussions were varied; touching upon AI, Memory, Globsters, Physical Signs and ‘Hot Boy’ Art. We ended talking about the world and narrative building part of being an artist. How you write about your work or how it is written about, your More...

Rózsa Farkas made a studio visit to our shared studio home, ASP 7, on 6th June 2022. During the resulting conversations she left no stone unturned as she spoke to us about our works in progress. Many of us had come straight from work for the visit and it took a little while for us to get going. Rózsa, fuelled by a cup of Earl Grey in our best chipped studio mug, was full of the energy and enthusiasm that we all needed. Having both the mindset of an art school grad and a successful gallerist, we had a lot of questions for Rózsa about life after art school More...

As we each introduced our processes of making certain points were made in relation to each. In terms of some of these things, I had been thinking about of manufacturing and the man-made, or even perhaps loss of the knowledge or skill of making. Lythgoe posed the question “Have you ever wondered if the world was completely unspoilt and we all as present-day humans were in this unspoilt resource-rich place with all the collective knowledge that we have now, how long it would it take for us to produce an iPhone – to produce the machines, manufacturing techniques and ability to produce industrially?” More...

Poetry of thought. Showing its workings as the works, the pied piper of art objects. What rules or rejection of rules are present in the practise… this links to how you become able to say ‘this thing is representative of my art practise’? What’s the adult word for digger? (it’s excavator, excavating being the grown up word for digging) The intimacy of something just being able to hold itself together… tension is intimate, tension doesn’t imply weakness or fragility How does this link with the grounding point? Question: “What are your More...

In November a panel including Alex Schady (Art Programme Leader; CSM), Mary Evans (BA Fine Art Course Leader, Chelsea College of Arts), Kelly Chorpening (Undergraduate Art Programme Director Camberwell), Jheni Arboine (Academic Enhancement Model Lead, CCW) and Lea O’Loughlin (Co-Director Acme Studios) interviewed the shortlisted candidates from an open call to select the group of 2020 and 2021 UAL BA Fine Art graduates to form the 2021 Associate Studio Programme More...

Our visit with Annie involved a series of crits of ongoing works (see photographs for examples). Annie’s approach to the work was helpful and refreshing. We talked about how to fully articulate relationships between author and objects (for example, one artist was asked if they would consider ‘writing a letter’ to their work). We discussed material form a lot, as well as time and narrative. Lily Hudson

Our studio visit with Louise focused primarily on interrogating and contextualising the studio dynamic, constructing a series of studio ‘tool boxes’; ie. what skills, materials, etc, did each member of the studio have? We also looked at where our art was located, making lists of places important to our art. Something I found particularly pertinent about our group conversation related to the way we can maintain a sense of momentum as artists. Louise discussed how she likes to perform yearly audits of her work, More...

Following our open studio, we welcomed independent curator and writer Cairo Clarke for an in person studio visit. Since our works had been taken down, I sent images of documentation prior where we were able to discuss the show collectively as a whole and the individual works remained anonymous. Cairo’s inquisitive presence was thought provoking and provided a unique opportunity to have an open discussion about our work together in the same room. We sat around a table and exchanged thoughts about the communal space More...

The recruitment process for ASP 8 2021 has begun, and after briefing meetings and visits to the studio, the application forms and notes can now be downloaded (see the foot of this page). The deadline for applications is 10am on MONDAY 25 OCTOBER. All the information you need about how to apply is included in the ‘Further Information’ guidance notes (download them from the link below). All BA Fine Art 2020 and 2021 graduates from CSM and CCW are invited to apply to this unique initiative providing affordable studio space and a programme of More...

For this group of artists that form this edition of the Associate Studio Programme this was our first in-studio Artist visit. Melanie King, an artist based in Ramsgate, came to visit us in our studio in Stockwell on the morning of Friday 10th September. It maybe took me and the fellow ASP artist a little while to get going, probably due to it having been the best part of two years since we had an in-person discussion like this. This was definitely made easier by Melanie More...

On Friday evening, we welcomed artist Miriam Austin for our virtual encounter in the studio. After a chance meeting at Austin’s show ‘Andesite’ at Boss and Baum in December 2020, the studio visit was a unique opportunity to reconnect and share some conversations about our practices in further detail. Sam Sockett, Ferghus Doyle and I chose to open a discussion regarding our practices with the group and review the process and intention of the works. We value the attention and care received through Miriam’s thoughtful feedback and for More...

Eleanor Wang, the co-director and press officer for San Mei Gallery, joined our virtual visit in early May. San Mei Gallery is an Artist led space based In Stockwell. Eleanor told us about the buildings past and its exciting history of salsa dancing nights. The space is a part of their local community and the gallery often have exhibitions or take inspiration from those within their community. The gallery also enjoys exhibiting people who aren’t necessary ‘artists’ More...

Continuing with the virtual studio visits; at the end of April Susanna Chisholm came to talk to us over Zoom. Susanna is Programme Development Director at Film and Video Umbrella and has a background in commercial galleries. She began by introducing herself and FVU, telling us about how they operate and how they commission moving image work. We heard what FVU look for in artist’s they want to work with, what they aim to do by commissioning and More...

Carolina Ongaro’s visit came at a moment of change and rethinking around Jupiter Woods, the space she has run with various collaborators since 2014. After running an intensive public programme in 2018/19 in an effort to legitimise themselves as a gallery in the eyes of the broader art world, the Jupiter Woods team found themselves burned out and disillusioned. Since then they’ve been working reflectively with consultant artists questioning what the More...

Sabel Gavaldon, the curator at Gasworks was the latest online visitor for the ASP 6 studio. Coming from an institution like Gasworks that mainly supports emerging artists and the development of their careers, we took this meeting as an opportune moment to ask for practical advice that spawns out of the variety of the work we are making and presenting to Sabel. Billy Sassi, Anais Comer and I provided Sabel with material to reflect on and build a conversation around the types of opportunities we should apply to and how to approach More...

With London in lockdown, Ryan Gander’s studio visit with ASP 7 took place via Zoom. During the discussion, Ryan shared his thoughts on a PDF I sent him with images of recent works by Lydia Porter and Samuel George and myself. Ryan fully engaged not only with the works he saw, but with our practice in general. He challenged our understanding of our work too, asking us some pretty tricky and funny questions such as ‘what would you rate this work out of ten? and ‘is this work better than your previous one? Through discussing our work in this More...

Continuing with the virtual studio visits, artist Abbas Zahedi was invited to talk us through his works and share his thoughts on our own practices. Abbas having graduated from CSM himself with a MA in Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies, a few of us were already familiar with his works and practice. He started the visit with a brief introduction of his interdisciplinary practice which blends contemporary philosophies, poetics and social dynamics together making connections whenever possible with people involved to initiate More...

Having visited the Associates before, Borbála was familiar with the tradition of bringing an object to the space as a way to begin the discussion. This time she brought a giant seashell that has previously served as a starting point for curatorial projects. The theme of using an object as a starting point and perhaps a collaborator informed the discussions, especially when talking about a project centering around the moon by Lucie and myself. We talked about notions of unlearning, and how an object can become a holding space for something. Borbála’s most recent projects have involved working with communities, which also spurred on questions of how our collaboration with Lucie could be opened up to other artists, in forms of celebration, and how the work can be More...

With London currently in its third lockdown since the pandemic began, the first visit for the ASP 7 studio took place online. William Noel-Clarke, the director of vitrine gallery, talked with us about the importance of connection and communication, referring to the events that led him to the studio visit in the first place – that I had met him at a friend’s house earlier in the year and that he’d already done a studio visit with the ASP 6 group in January. And stressed the need for reciprocity in the art world and that we should never underestimate More...

In the midst of the third coronavirus lockdown in the UK we welcomed William Noel Clarke (director of VITRINE gallery) for our first digital studio visit. William started the discussion by retelling the tale of how he got to be talking to us; three years ago I included him in a performance event I was organising, then last summer he included me in a digital exhibition he was curating, then I invited him to give us a visit. He used this to illustrate the ways in which opportunities feed into one another and the importance of generosity in sharing networks More...

In November a panel including Alex Schady (Art Programme Leader; CSM), Sophia Phoca (Dean of Art, CCW), Jheni Arboine (Academic Enhancement Model Lead, CCW) and Lea O’Loughlin (Co-Director Acme Studios) interviewed the shortlisted candidates from the open call to select the group of 2019 and 2020 graduates to form the 2020 Associate Studio Programme and take their place in the shared studios at the Glassyard Building, Stockwell, until October 2022. More...

The Associate Studio Programme, in partnership with Acme, opened its first studio in the Glassyard Building, in Stockwell, south west London in 2013. The tenure of the current, third, group of Associates at the Glassyard studio comes to an end in November 2020. Although this year the corona virus pandemic has had an impact on the schedule applications for the next programme, running from December 2020 to September 2022, are now being invited from 2019 and 2020 graduates from CSM’s BA Fine Art course, and, for the first time, from CCW’s BA Fine Art course. The Associate Studio Programme provides a supportive environment More...

With London in lockdown due to the Covid19 pandemic the studio visits and meetings, like much else, moved online. Devised specially for a Zoom meeting Louise Ashcroft ran a brilliant writing workshop. Each of the Associates was asked to look at documentation of each other’s work and write a short piece on it. Louise’s introduction summed it up perfectly: “My aim is to make this a fun few hours of power-writing about each other’s work, so that at the end everyone has a bunch of different perspectives on their practice which they can use to reflect and maybe to inform their own writing of applications/proposals/statements. Please reply all to this email with a link to your website or any other way we can see your work online. It might help to pick out one or two keys works. Everyone will write about everyone and send the texts to each other. Sometimes it’s easier to write about others’ work than our own, More...

For our third studio visit of the year, we were delighted to have Lydia Ourahmane visit us in February, despite her having moved to Algiers. Our conversation began with an exploration of the often blurry distinctions between work and play within art practices; one may contribute to the other and, at the same time, they are not mutually exclusive. This led to a discussion around exhibition making, in which artists have to provide enough access points into their way of thinking for viewers that have no previous knowledge about their practice. More...

We welcomed artist Jonathan Baldock around a candle-lit table, where we shared some grapes and a cup of tea. Within the first minutes of him being here, we were already laughing to tears. Jonathan’s humour and sharpness made the evening extremely light and informative. We started the discussion around the state of art school, and the increasing amount of conversations around diversity and inclusivity since Baldock graduated. This lead us to speculate how the way we produce art and organise ourselves as artists was headed in the coming year. Artists nowadays seem to focus more and more on a specific audience, More...

After offering Simeon a customary brew of Yorkshire tea, I welcomed a fellow northern native into the studio. I first came across Simeon’s work in the art now room at Tate Modern a few years ago, the artists’ wall bio catching my eye as it mentioned his home town, Huddersfield, which is also my own. Not knowing a contemporary practicing artist from my own locality up until this moment, I was struck by the codes embedded in his mixed-media installation, the stripes of blue and white UV lights pulling on the homebound shirt colours of the Huddersfield football club. Witnessing his layered sculptural structures first hand, I was moved by the immense construction of the frames More...

Imran Perretta’s visit in January wasn’t confined to the studio, instead we walked from the Elephant and Castle building down to Brixton station as a group. As Imran is familiar with the area and is based in Streatham, he took us on a walking tour through South London, finding stops along the way to share anecdotes and present works.  The hour’s walk, with stops, was free flowing and open as we took turns to decide where along the route we would like to present. Anais Comer read a piece of writing just outside Kennington Park and I found myself presenting in Brixton McDonalds.  The route highlighted the immense More...

In January 2020, Larry Achiampong visited us in the studio, just after having taken his driving test. He opened his bag and took out the cardboard cover for his 2013 project More Mogya which he describes as an “ongoing project” begun several years earlier that he has yet to go back to since. Initially it was a self portrait, using audio, based on the knowledge that was readily available to him – and was acquired not by means of learning it professionally, but approaching it almost on the go, by watching other people. With Larry we talked about exploring origins and nationality, specifically his relationship to Ghana. He also More...

Ghislaine Leung visited the studio in November. It was very informal and conversational; first, we sat down in the project space to have a cup of tea – Adelaide brought some beautiful cakes from her workplace, and we all talked about issues surrounding continuing a practice after graduating and what a practice can look like – the different forms it might take whilst we’re working full time, and ways in which we might think about and use the studio space. We went on to discuss about how we approach exhibitions as emerging artists More...

In June a panel including Erika Tan from Central Saint Martins and Calum Kerr from Acme Studios, met to select the group of 2018 and 2019 graduates to form the 2019 programme and take their place this week in the shared studios at the Highline Building, Elephant and Castle until October 2021. We are very pleased to announce the selected artists: Jennifer Elvidge, Lucy McGregor, Carmen Kirkby, Rubie Green, Ava Reynolds, Maria Mahfooz, Adelaida Antúnez, Troy Roswell, Anastasia Alekseeva, Jacob Hulmston, Anaïs Comer, Jonas McIlwain. More...

Object enthusiast and story teller champion, Brian Griffiths was invited into the studio by the Associate artists based at the Glassyard Building in Stockwell. Brain started proceedings with a manifesto, that was akin to a chinwag typically experienced around a water-cooler on the 4th floor of an office block, rather than the usual hot-blooded monologue that could be easily scripted into a scene of Les Misérables. Informality was the context evidently in play right from the start, for Brian kicked things off by announcing his manifesto as he sketchily produced a stapled document from his back pocket, and which he then relished in the silence as he started to meticulously unravel his size 18 Arial cues. More...

The second Associate Studio to be developed out of the collaborative project between Double agents and Acme Studios opened in the Highline Building in Elephant & Castle in October 2015 and is now inviting applications for the 2019 round; October 2019-2021. Like the first Studio in Stockwell, established in 2013, the studio operates as a ‘transitional’ space for recent graduates from the BA Fine Art course at Central Saint Martins. Again like the Stockwell Studio it’s housed in a new UAL Hall of Residence. More...

Kate starts the visit by showing us her way of making spontaneous free-standing sculptures. By altering forms through changes in scale, shape and material, she demonstrates her interest in ambiguity and explores the blurriness that exists in reading an object in one or more ways. This leads us to engage in a lively activity, in which each of the artists writes down on a piece of paper what they consider significant to their practice, and then places it down, thus forming a physical map across the studio floor. More...

How can a ‘Fishmongers Shop’, ‘Gibraltar’, and ‘A Procession Passing Through The Cenotaph’ answer questions of how to prepare for a residency in cooking and feminist practices? How can ‘Game Keepers’, ‘System D’ and ‘The Bees’ allow us to offer up methods of altering the way that we work, in order to build sustainable practices in which not-knowing, intuition and failure allow for real experimentation? Equipped with a small box of over a hundred hand More...

In our second year of the studio programme we have begun to invite curators and programmers as well as artists, with Louise O’Kelly marking one of the first of these. Louise is the founder and director of Block Universe, an annual performance art festival based in London which is coming up to its fifth year. The conversation began with an introduction from each studio associate on their practice, which Louise expanded on by querying our intentions within our respective work. This was used to open up discussions to the whole group, covering the ethics of participation in creative practices, and the politics More...

Simeon Barclay came down from Leeds for an evening to discuss both his own practice, and talk through our current lines of inquiry in the studio. Simeon started the evening by describing his beginnings and the roots of his career. As the son of a tailor who had an early education working in metalworking and manufacturing, we talked through the importance of materiality, how the relationship between the two labour roles, of ‘worker’ and ‘artist’, is often seen as a rigid dichotomy and how this influenced his concerns as an artist. The More...

In June a panel including Alex Schady, Art Programme Director at CSM and Lottie Leedham from Acme Studios, met to select the group of 2017 and 2018 graduates to form the 2018 Associate Studio Programme and take their place in the shared studios at the Glassyard Building, Stockwell until October 2020. We are very pleased to announce the selected artists: Wes Gilpin, Micheal Taiwo, Thomas Bull, Joseph Nichol, Gillies Adamson Semple, Chi Bagas, Hannah Doucet and Yin Yi Fung.

Nigel Dunkley, who with Grace Schofield, is co-director of the east London gallery, Union Pacific, made a studio visit in September. This was the last studio visit for our group of Associates and was one of the most interesting and exciting. Neil was very generous and from the start engaged with the work presented with real enthusiasm. The discussion generated as he explored our practices, and our artworks, through his questions and observations was lively, critical and stimulating. More...

Duncan Campbell visited the studio at the Highline building in June 2018. We began our conversation about Duncan’s current practice through his interest in flip-dot displays, first made prevalent through their use in the Montreal Stock Exchange as a visual representation of the rising and falling of stock values. Duncan was interested in the format of the mechanism as both a visualisation of information which is received and then outputted by the machine, as well as his time spent with a piece of equipment with a complicated yet largely More...

Alicia Reyes McNamara visited the studio to meet the Associates in May 2018. As the group for this visit was quite small, the discussion was intense, inquisitive and attentive. It was structured first around the artist’s different practices, then by an artist talk. In all the visit lasting over 3 hours, and included a discussion of the Associates work. This began with the Tokyo based Youkobo exchange artist Yuuki Horiuchi, followed by Riah Charles, Jess Heritage and Joshua Waterson, each showing something of their practices. The discussion ranged from topics such as the play between humour and the seriousness of the dialogue More...