Interview with Studio Award Winner Maisie Pritchard

Last September, we were pleased to welcome graduate Maisie Pritchard to Paradise Works, who joined us after winning a Studio Bursary through our annual partnership with The Manchester School of Art. A new initiative in its second year, the bursary includes a studio for twelve months in addition to mentoring.

Maisie Pritchard in her studio at Paradise Works

Maisie Pritchard in her studio at Paradise Works

Former studio bursary winner and PW Marketing Assistant Gwen Evans caught up with Maisie, to discuss what she’s been up to since receiving the bursary.

How would you describe your practice?

My practice is concerned with the impracticalities existing within architectural design methods implemented within the urban environment. I am interested in how these designs often, ironically, act as a deterrent to the public using facilities, such as street furniture. Simple features for example metal spikes or dividers prevent us from using these spaces in particular ways. These elements of hostile architecture and tactical urbanism are a universal experience within the cityscape; found within both council and privately-run spaces. I am fascinated by the ways in which we can disrupt or tackle these hostile environments, through the use of social arts and sculpture.

What have you been up to since graduating?

I recently wrote to the council to ask if I could repair some neglected planters in The Northern Quarter. Since then I’ve been working on the project with Ruth (a council representative) and Jonathan Keenan (a local photographer) to green up and partially pedestrianise Edge Street. This is a slow and meaningful process, as it’s being run through the council, meaning we can’t just remove parking spaces and paint the street green! We’re slowly but surely attempting to prove that we deserve more green space and vibrancy in Manchester. I’ve also been busy running a sign building workshop with PW studio member James Ackerley for the ‘Bridgewater Community Garden’ project, located outside PW. For this project we’ve been working with young people from The Princes Trust , which is challenging but definitely useful in building my confidence and engaging with participants.

Lastly a big thanks to PW for selecting me to join their Glasgow research trip, where we visited WASPS, CCA, Tramway and more including the Baltic Street Adventure Playground which was really exciting and heart-warming. Me and Lucy definitely shed some tears. I found it pretty amazing that it not only offered physical support, but social, emotional and developmental well-being.

Sign workshop with the ‘The Princes Trust’ for the ‘Bridgewater Community Garden’ project.

Sign workshop with the ‘The Princes Trust’ for the ‘Bridgewater Community Garden’ project.

‘Take a seat Prototype’ 2019 by Maisie Pritchard

‘Take a seat Prototype’ 2019 by Maisie Pritchard

‘Experimental Intervention’ by Maisie Pritchard

‘Experimental Intervention’ by Maisie Pritchard

How has winning the studio opportunity at Paradise Works influenced your work?

I suppose I’ve naturally been drawn to collaborative projects and community commissions. The ‘Bridgewater Community Garden’ project PW has been a great opportunity in starting out in socially-engaged projects. I can really appreciate Paradise Works’ initiative to embed themselves in the surrounding community and create a permanent space for great artists! I’m very on board with that. Since graduating and being part of the PW community, I know that people are very important in my practice; I would like to sustain a strong and healthy network. I can only move forward in my practice knowing that I am benefiting others too, I think this is possible with support from PW.

Do you have any advice for recent graduates?

Apply for everything! Seize every opportunity that you come across and feel is relevant to you. This will fill in the gaps of feeling stuck or lost, and keep yourself/practice busy. It’s also great to have breaks too! A breather is necessary when graduating from art school.

Ambitions for the future?

To keep going with community/group projects. My confidence in public speaking is slowly bettering itself, I want to keep improving that. I’d also like to make a start on my public sculptures, they will start small and hopefully grow big! Eventually I would like to study an MA in social arts, maybe in Germany. Tanks!

Interview with Studio Award Winner Bridget Coderc

We’re excited to welcome graduate Bridget Coderc to Paradise Works, who joined us through our annual partnership with The University of Salford Art Collection Scholarship. A new initiative in its third year, the scholarship includes a studio for twelve months in addition to mentoring. Previous winners include Katie Mcguire and Elliott Flanaghan.

Bridget Coderc in her studio at Paradise Works.

Bridget Coderc in her studio at Paradise Works.

Former studio award winner and PW Marketing Assistant Gwen Evans caught up with Bridget, to discuss what she’s been up to since receiving the scholarship.

How would you describe your practice?

I combine mediums like photography, video, performance, and spoken word to question the subject of emotional experience, memory and the body. Contextually I am interested in themes of the mundane and the everyday. Usually, my ideas come from personal experiences or from psychological theories like Donald Winnicott’s transitional object or Sigmund Freud’s the unconscious.

What have you been up to since graduating?

After being selected for the Scholarship I’ve been settling into my new studio at PW. During this time I’ve started a collaborative art project called VIEUX with friend and sound artist Lee Roberts. This experimental project combines spoken word and abstract visuals made by me, with electronic/psychedelic sounds created by Lee. The words and melancholic imagery depict and describe emotional struggle, which is paired with a dreamy melody. I’ve started a youtube channel to document our work and we're currently preparing to perform our piece as a live set. 

decay_poem_test1.jpg
guilt_and_fear_poem_test2.jpg
Video still of work by Bridget Coderc

Video still of work by Bridget Coderc

How has winning the studio opportunity at Paradise Works influenced your work?

The studio space has given me the freedom to become even more experimental and expressive. I’ve always explored different ways of going about my work, I’ve never stuck to one thing. Sometimes it can even be chaotic! But it’s this element that makes me excited every time I go into the studio. When I arrive I’ll usually set up my camcorder then begin experimenting with my body. By constantly creating and exploring, I develop a large amount of work. Like my inspiration, Burce Nauman once said “Art is everything that you produce in your studio”. 

I have divided my space into three sections: performance, research and brainstorming.  By having these reference points I am able to push my work further. Having a studio has been invaluable, I think it’s equally important for media and lens-based artists to have a studio space, as it is for painters or sculptors.

Do you have any advice for recent graduates?

My advice would be to sign up for as many opportunities as you can, get into collectives or establish your own, embed yourself within a studio, volunteer and meet people/creatives outside your practice as this expands your work.

Ambitions for the future?

I am planning on finding a permanent studio space, to apply for artist-in-residence programs, produce exhibitions, collaborative projects and be proactive.

Paradise Works Graduate Studio Awards 2019

We are pleased to have Bridget Coderc and Maisie Pritchard joining Paradise Works this month as part of our annual graduate studio partnerships with the University of Salford Art Collection and with Manchester School of Art. Both artists will take part in Open Studios 2019 on the 12th and 13th of October.

Bridget Coderc

Bridget Coderc

Bridget Coderc a recent Photography graduate from The University of Salford, lives and works in Manchester. Through the medium of video and performance she explores themes of emotional experience, the body and memory. Coderc employs low-fidelity technology to develop ideas that stem from psychological theories, personal experiences and self-portraiture. These are manifest in her project ‘Static Retrospective’ which draws upon Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious and her fragmented memories from childhood. Within this piece she projects a VHS dance video from the early 2000s, a recorded moment which inspired her to become a dancer, making dance a central aspect of her early life. She attempts to use the archived footage to re-learn dance, but the constant interruption and layering of the video expresses her dissatisfaction and frustration. She is unable to articulate herself through this once familiar medium and the performance represents the struggle to become consciously congruent.

Further Information

Maisie Pritchard

Maisie Pritchard

Maisie Pritchard a recent Fine art graduate from The Manchester School of Art lives and works in Manchester. Throughout her work she explores the impracticalities existing within architectural design methods, and how this deters the public from using furniture within the urban environment. She addresses socio-political issues within her work such as the current housing crisis, privatisation and community. By initiating interventions concerned with social sculpture, she aims to colonise the city with bespoke furniture that is playful yet accessible. In some instances, she has approached privately-owned spaces by merging social sculpture and gardening to install unwelcome objects such as planters. The act of giving works to the public is important to Prichard, as it is a contribution to the specific environment that she is working within. Her intention is to enliven corporate spaces, reclaim what belongs to the public and defy rules of social behaviour, as she believes these spaces should be accessible to the public.

Further Information

Paradise Works Co-director Lucy Harvey announced as recipient of visual arts Clore Fellowship, supported by a-n

Artist and co-director of Paradise Works announced as part of cohort to receive bespoke professional development opportunity that seeks to develop leaders from across a wide range of cultural disciplines and sectors.

_DSC8277.jpg

The recipient of the Clore Fellowship, Visual Arts Fellowship, supported by a-n The Artists Information Company, has been announced as visual artist and Paradise Works co-director Lucy Harvey.

The fellowship is a bespoke professional development opportunity that seeks to develop leaders from across a wide range of cultural disciplines and sectors. Harvey is part of 25 new Fellows who will embark on the Clore Fellowship this autumn.

Known for creating sculpture, installation and public works that explore the ‘function of collection and heritage’, Harvey is also co-director of Salford-based organisation Paradise Works. Last year, she was selected for the Castlefield Gallery and a-n Artists’ International Delegation to Budapest and also programmed a-n’s Assembly Salford.

In 2016 Harvey also coordinated and curated the Place + Production programme for Rogue Artists’ Studios which marked the group’s final year at Crusader Mill.

Commenting on the impact the fellowship will have, Lucy said: “Being awarded the Clore Fellowship is a hugely exciting opportunity to research and develop my understanding of sustainable cultural practice and step beyond the artist-led. The Fellowship will allow me to explore how we can more effectively embed artist-led spaces into our changing urban landscapes and identify what civic roles artist communities might embrace to better ensure that our value is understood beyond the sector.

“I am so excited to start! It is a real honour to have my work over the last 2 years at Paradise Works recognised, but the Fellowship is also really timely, giving me an incredible opportunity to take stock, develop my skill-set and establish how to future-proof our organisation, share this impact, and figure out how my creative practice fits into this.”

The other 24 fellows work across 11 different cultural disciplines, from solo workers to those in 200+ people organisations, and are based in six regions across the UK and eight countries around the world. It includes a range of artists, managers, producers, directors, entrepreneurs and policy makers.

The full list includes: Alia Alzougbi, Sona Datta, Esther Richardson, Naomi Alexander, Janine Downes, Ihitashri Shandilya, Lucy Bayliss, Lucy Harvey, Róisín Stack, Stephen Bennett, Andrew Marcus, Melissa Strauss, Sarah Bird, Kez Margrie, Putul Verma, Emily Brennan, Botumelo Motsoatsoe, Matt Wilde, Sade Brown, Lina Mowafy, Ling Zhongjiang, Eduardo Carvalho, Omeima Mudawi-Rowlings, Joycelyn Choi Oi Yee, and Refilwe Nkomo.

In addition to a-n, the other funding partners for the Clore Leadership Programme in 2019/20 are: the Clore Duffield Foundation which initiated the programme in 2004; Arts Council England, which funds the Fellowship and a range of other Clore Leadership programmes; Arts Council Ireland; Art Fund; the Arts and Humanities Research Council; BBC; Chevening Secretariat through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Gatsby Charitable Trust; Home Affairs Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region through the Hong Kong Arts Development Council; National Lottery Heritage Fund; National Trust; The Linbury Trust and Wellcome Trust.

Darren Henley OBE, chief executive of Arts Council England, said: “This exciting group of Clore Fellows are an impressive bunch. They’ll be the creative leaders of tomorrow, making decisions that influence the development of cultural organisations for decades to come.”

Moira Sinclair, chair of Clore Leadership, added: “Our arts and cultural sector is only able to flourish with dynamic, diverse and curious leaders; those that are ambitious, innovative and able to inspire workforces and audiences alike. I hope they grab this opportunity now and for the cultural leaders they will become.”

For more information on the 2019/20 Clore Fellowship visit: www.cloreleadership.org

Buffer Zones, a group exhibition of thirteen critically acclaimed contemporary artists at Paradise Works Salford

Buffer Zones.jpg

Buffer Zones

Preview: Thursday 11 July 2019, 6:00-8:30pm, with donations bar and wood-fired pizza.
Exhibition open: 12 July – 3 August 2019, 12-5pm or by appointment.

Paradise Works is delighted to present BUFFER ZONES, a group exhibition of thirteen critically acclaimed contemporary artists, curated by Nat Pitt (Division of Labour, The Manchester Contemporary).

Exhibiting Artists: Sally Payen, Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Edward Clydesdale Thomson, Yelena Popova, Hilary Jack, Gavin Wade, Jeremy Hutchison, Simon & Tom Bloor, James Bridle, Marco Godoy, Ella Littwitz.

Buffer Zones brings together the works of thirteen artists in a physical commentary on the geo-political, social economic and cultural impacts of borders. The audience is invited to make a precarious journey though barricades, borders and partitions to experience Buffer Zones at Paradise Works. Conceived during the United Kingdom’s attempts to leave the EU, themes of division, separation of community and physical space take the fore in this immersive exhibition.

 “Space is not a scientific object removed from ideology or politics. It has always been political and strategic. There is an ideology of space. Because space, which seems homogeneous, which appears as a whole in its objectivity, in its pure form, such as we determine it, is a social product.”
― Henri Lefebvre

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

Larry Achiampong & David Blandy present Finding Fanon II from the series inspired by the lost plays of Frantz Fanon, (1925-1961) a politically radical humanist whose practice dealt with the psychopathology of colonisation and the socio-cultural consequences of decolonisation. Achiampong is based in London and has an MA in Sculpture from The Slade School of Fine Art. He is represented by Copperfield, David Blandy has an MA in Fine Art Media from the Slade School of Art and is represented by Seventeen.

Simon & Tom Bloor are artist brothers working collaboratively and based in Birmingham. For Buffer Zones they present spray-painted fences and barricades that question play, urban change and neglected space in the built environment.

James Bridle is an artist, writer, technologist and publisher working across technologies and disciplines. His artworks have been commissioned by galleries and institutions and exhibited worldwide and on the internet. His film, Flag For No Nations, first shown as a temporary installation at Ellinikón, Greece 2016 retells the history of an ill-fated satellite mission interwoven with narratives of borders, migration and another future.

Marco Godoy was born Madrid and studied Fine Arts at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the School of the Art, Institute of Chicago. He holds an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art. Godoy explores the relationship between images and ideology.  He searches for alternative ways in which to talk about current social and political issues through the use of video, sculpture and performance. Recent work has focused on how authority is visually constructed by those who exercise power, and the tools that we have to confront it. For Buffer Zones he presents The Distance Between Us, a film exploring the systems used to maintain value and authority in relation to migration.

Jeremy Hutchison works across performance, sculpture, text and video, he constructs situations that insert disobedience and confusion into hegemonic structures. Hutchison’s Movables Project begins with a photo showing the inside of a Mercedes car, taken by police at the Balkan border. The headrests have been torn open to reveal a person hiding inside each seat attempting to disguise themselves as inanimate objects Combining elements of marketing and high-end fashion, the work enacts an anthropomorphic fusion between the male form and the consumer product.

Hilary Jack has an MA Fine Art from Manchester School of Art and holds a TIPP Postgraduate award from Goldsmiths and the Hungarian Academy. Hilary Jacks work has an activist element and focuses on the politics of place. Her neon art work No Borders currently at Yorkshire Sculpture Park inspired this show. The quotation is borrowed from the aviator, and feminist icon Amelia Earhart whose words can be viewed through a contemporary political lens referencing issues posed by BREXIT and continuing border conflicts across the globe. For Buffer Zones Hilary Jack creates Little Britain, an intervention into the gallery exploring suburban boundaries and the divisions revealed across the UK by the EU referendum.

Ella Littwitz studied in HISK, Ghent, Belgium (2016) and received her BFA from Bezalel, Jerusalem, Israel, in 2009. Her works have been exhibited in Israel, Europe and the US. For Buffer Zones Ella presents Natural Borders, utilising a piece of eucalyptus bark found in the shape of Israel borders without the occupied territories of both Gaza and the West Bank. The Eucalyptus tree is regarded as a symbol for the failure of the JNF (Jewish National Fund) project: In the 1950’s eucalyptus trees were brought to Israel to dry a specific area of swamps, at a cost of 25 million dollars. The project unintentionally revealed peat soil, causing wildfires over the region and a significant ecological crisis.

Dr Sally Payen has an MA in Painting from The Royal College of Arts, and a practice based PhD from Universty of Brighton. Payen shows a painting The Fence and The Shadow from her series based on her exploration and research about the contested landscape of Greenham Common and the women’s peace camps and anti-nuclear protests that took place in the 1980s.

Yelena Popova studied in USSR, and is based in Nottingham, UK She has an MA in Painting, The Royal College of Art. Popova’s practice encompasses painting, video and installation. Her work is tied together by an interest in exploring the concept of balance, whether in politics, representation, or in our relationship with machines. For Buffer Zones Popover exhibits This Certifies That, a tapestry designed to mark the exit of UK from the EU.

Edward Clydesdale Thomson’s is a Scottish/Danish artist based in the Netherlands. He is a graduate of the MFA program at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam and the BArch program at the Glasgow school of Art. His practice addresses contemporary conflicts of time by rethinking and reshaping the space and conditions of his artistic production along durational lines. His work is often concerned with places and objects on the margins – physically, socially or symbolically – of outside and inside, of wild and tamed landscapes, of decoration or function.

Gavin Wade is an award-winning artist, producer and curator, and director of Eastside Projects. For Buffer Zones, Wade exhibits Europa and The Bull (After Trewin Copplestone) a billboard from 2014 as David Cameron announced the referendum after being elected in 2015. Europa and the Bull features the Birmingham ‘Bullring’ Bull a public sculpture by Trewin Copplestone surrounded by the united stars of Europe.

Address: Paradise Works, East Philip Street, M3 7LE, Manchester

Access: Paradise Works is accessible by 2 flights of stairs.

Contact & viewings by appointment: info@paradise-works.com

Further information: www.paradise-works.com

Press release dated: 20 June 2019

Jeremy Hutchison - Movables, 2017, Fondazione Prada Athens.jpg

Jeremy Hutchison - Movables, 2017, Fondazione Prada Athens.jpg

Paradise Works Studio Manager

Credit Chris Paul Daniels (10).jpg

Project Role: Studio Manager

*This role has been filled, please join our mailing list to hear about opportunities to work with us.*

Term: May – October 2019 (6 months)

Commitment: 1 day per week, 6 months @ Living Wage (£9 per hour with potential to increase to 2 days funding pending)

 ABOUT

Established in 2017, Paradise Works is a community of 36 artists working on the borders of Salford & Manchester. We believe that artists are an important asset in to urban development, and that the process of art-making connects the people who live, work and visit our city.

This why we aim to create a model of studio provision in Manchester that supports a unique artist community, champions the importance of artists in the city, and enables individual artists to develop the professional connections essential to a sustainable artistic career in the city they choose to call home.

In addition to supporting studio artists in developing their practice, we’ve established a dynamic public programme of Open Studios, Artist Residencies, exhibitions, screenings, off-site activities, studio visits and networking events. We have great partnerships & projects with Urban Splash, University of Salford, Manchester School of Art & Manchester International Festival.

2019 is an exciting year for Paradise Works. With support from Arts Council England, we’re able to take some time to explore how we make our organisation more sustainable by visiting other studios, working with consultants to review our business & income model, and pilot a brand-new Affiliates membership programme to grow our artist network.

The Studio Manager will develop and lead the administration and co-ordination of Paradise Works facilities. We are looking for a dynamic individual who can get involved in future-proofing one of the most exciting artist studio collectives in Manchester today. So, if you’re passionate about artist-led activity, with a strong sense of initiative and the capacity to support us with essential administration and coordination - then we’d love to hear from you. We want our organisation to represent the rich diversity of our city and would like to hear from people of all backgrounds, including BAME and/or people with disabilities.

For full details on this role and how to apply, download the project role description here.