Double Agents

Artist Philip Lai’s visit occurred during the Associates preparations for their group show ‘Juice’ at the Acme Project Space. The Associates’ ideas for the format of the show became of focus of the discussion. Of interest was the evolving works and their arrangement in the space during the course of the show, and the inversion of the opening hours half way through the show, from daytime to night time, and the differing kinds of spectatorship that that might prompt. Philip discussed his own practice, one based very much on spending time More...

Paris based artist Neil Beloufa focussed entirely on the work of the Associates but drew in themes of narrative in common with his own practice – both the narrative capacity within the work and the narrative of the work, or the stories that the work tells and the stories that the artist tells. In particular; the delicate balance between what is true and what is false More...

In partnership with Youkobo Art Space Tokyo, and Tokyo Geidai (Tokyo University of the Arts) the Associate Studio has provided an opportunity for two Associates to spend six weeks based at Youkobo in their own work/live studio, while the Associate Programme hosts two Tokyo based recent graduates. The two Associates, selected through open submission who were based in Tokyo from 1 May – 15 June, and 16 June – 31 July 2015 respectively, are Lydia Davies and Chris Ifould. More...

This is the second Associate Studio to be developed out of the collaborative project between Double agents and Acme Studios. Like the first Studio in Stockwell, established in 2013, this operates as a ‘transitional’ studio 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; the Highline Building, this one in Elephant & Castle, south east London. More...

Lindsay Seers’s visit to the studio was characterised by the presence of one of her ventriloquist’s dummies; Billy. As well as joining the Associates for a series of staged portraits (which then became Lindsay’s gift to the studio) Billy exercised an influence over the discussion; ranging as it did from the sometimes vague boundaries between fact and fiction, synaesthesia and neuroscience. Billy’s role; as a conduit through which to speak, More...

Sculptor Laura White’s studio visit began with her reading a short text describing her ongoing project which involves her undertaking short training courses in a range of specialist manual skills, not necessarily those associated with the skills of an artist, sculptor or maker. These included butchery, fish knife skills, brick laying and sushi making. This emphasis on the material qualities of things, stuff, tools and processes formed the basis of the discussions with each of the Associates offering some response to Laura’s prompt. More...

Curator, and co-director of Hollybush Gardens, Lisa Panting visited the Associate Studio Programme in August. The visit coincided with the Associates preparations for their group show at the offices of the architects John McAslan Partners. The discussions centred on this and the balance of the opportunities it offered and the constraints it was subject to. It was noted that as a space that served both as a gallery and the lobby of a busy architects practice there were some More...

Having been in the studio for almost a year the first Associate Studio Programme is well established. The eight Associates have maintained the open plan layout allowing each other to expand and contract their activities within the shared space as their work demands. In addition to the studio visits by artists, writers and curators, the studio has been visited by other studio providers and academics, and most recently by artist/photographer Hugo Glendinning. More...

In June artist Redmond Entwistle visited the Associate Studio Programme. He began by showing his film ‘Monuments’ prompting a discussion of both the ideas of the three artists; Smithson, Graham and Matta-Clark, and the film’s interweaving of fact and fiction through their relocation to the contemporary outskirts of New Jersey, where their works had first been made. In particular the stylistic combination of artists’ film, documentary, genre (zombie) movie and dead-pan comedy, provoked the discussion. More...

In March artist Adam Chodzko visited the Associate Studio Programme. Adam’s visit coincided with his show at Marlborough Contemporary ‘Room for Laarni’. Adam offered his thoughts on the studio and the processes that occur there, “what aspects of making are necessarily done in isolation – in private, even from ourselves! – and which develop from an interior dialogue; an immediate anticipation of them being shared with another”. More...

In January artist Marie Lund visited the Associate Studio Programme. Marie presented documentation of a number of works, across sculpture, installation and performance. The work raised issues regarding the shifts and tensions between the work as a thing in the studio and the work as an exhibit in a gallery – in particular Marie’s collaborative performance works ‘One Hour Long Exhibition’ in which the work, artists and audience all arrive at the gallery at the same time for the work to be unpacked, installed, dismantled and re-packed. More...

Jamie Hosegood, recipient of the first Helen Scott Lidgett Studio Award and a graduate of the MA Fine Art course at Central Saint Martins has now taken up the opportunity. The award, initiated by Acme Studios with Central Saint Martins, provides a large studio space at Acme’s Warton House studio building, shared with a 2013 graduate from the MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths. More...

The first of the Associate Studio Programme studio visits was made by Stephen Melville in December 2013. Stephen Melville is an Art Historian and Theorist, is Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University and has published widely on contemporary art as well as on issues in contemporary theory and historiography. More...

A panel including Alex Schady, Mick Finch and Elizabeth Wright from Central Saint Martins, with Heather Deedman from Acme Studios and Kate Cooper from Auto Italia, met in June to select the first group of 2012 and 2013 graduates to form the programme and take their place in the shared studio at the Glassyard Building in Stockwell. More...