in November 2016 I had the pleasure and honour to spend a month working as a visiting artist at the Tsinghua Art Academy in Beijing.
I needed time to develop new ideas in an environment with other artistic activities going on, which would provide company (I usually work alone) and mutual stimulation.
It felt as though I was taking ‘time out’ from my usual daily life. I purposely took no pre-formed ideas with me, and had very little to work with. The first day I bought myself some paper and pencils and started simply by doing some rubbings; the studio I was in was used by fashion students and there were tailor’s dummies standing around, divided by tape into ‘pattern’ shapes. So I started working my paper into shapes.
Eventually I simplified my shapes to box forms, influenced by what I saw around me as I walked to and from the studio each day.
Researching the humble box:
boxes to play with – join together – open and shut – as containers/repositories (of dreams?) – to think outside or inside of –
