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 Battle of Ogreave in my work. Because we are one year into ASP, most of us know each other’s practices and sometimes I forget what it’s like to introduce my practice for the first time. Having artists come visit is a good way to hear different opinions, experiences and stories and also helps us come together as a collective, as this can be difficult to organise around our schedules and studio working patterns.
Another associate, Hannah Billett, also showed her work. Hannah is relatively new to the programme but is already a very important member and brings a lot to the studio culture. Her practice is currently exploring her family’s history of work in the pub industry and she made a distorted pub sign based on an old painting. We discussed how the sign could be hung outside or at different heights and how that would affect how it is read. Again, a lot of time spent discussing the curation of the work for the upcoming open studio. Luke Parry also showed work in the crit, his work is next to Hannah’s so it was interesting to talk about how the space is shared and how the works interact. Mark suggested Luke bring in more cinematic elements to his sculpture, like music for example. I am not sure if Luke is interested in pushing his work in that direction but it opened up good discussion. Sally Barton
