Friday 26 February 2010

Down by the river

(Image Roni Horn)

Today we found out that for the majority of our final term we are being kicked out of our studios - which are to be used for furniture storage to make space for the degree shows - and relocated to Trinity Buoy Wharf, an artist development space across the river from the 02. The purpose will be be to make work in response to our temporary home, which sounds a little School of Saatchi but I guess could be quite interesting. I happened to have visited the place before, albeit unintentionally - when house hunting in the summer my flatmates and I stumbled across it after downloading some suspect directions from google maps... It's a rather strange place, with multicoloured shipping containers stacked on top of each other to provide studio space and apparently residential living accommodation, as well as the Grade II listed Chainstore, which features London's only lighthouse. It's even got its very own authentic American Diner. All this is tucked away in the midst of warehouses, marinas and riverside apartment complexes. How this fits into our artist development I'm not sure - it kinds of feels like another way to get rid of us for a bit until we come back in September as mature second years, and while we are sent there on the premise of making work I imagine the reality will be a lot of sunbathing and picnics by the river.

Despite the prospect of possibly the longest daily commute that could be possible living in Central London I'm being optimistic, it's certainly a pretty amazing location and although the slightest whiff of a brief is the last thing most artists want to hear the challenge could be quite exciting. In the meantime we're working towards our end of term exhibition, open for only a day it seems, but with our very own private view with booze and balloons. It's only a week and a half away, and although I feel as if I'll have something I'm happy showing, I keep thinking how scarily quickly this year is going..

1 comment:

S E R V E D said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v5E27Fp59c&feature=related