Cloudlands Artist Development Days Feb 2013, Beyond the Box…

Cloudlands project manager, Katy Fitzpatrick spent an exciting and invigorating three days with our three resident artists, Rachel Tynan, Emma Fisher and Eszter Nemethi, and artist mentor Mark Storor at the Fringe Lab in Dublin early in February. Questions that arose included: how do they make the process visible, both within the hospital, but also in the artists own practice? How might the artists move beyond working with their boxes as a genesis for ideas and stories? How can they connect from week to week with the different young people that they are working with? Or is this necessary? How might the online space help to bring the artists and young people together?

The purpose of the Artist Development sessions is to give the artists working on the project the time to share their work so far, discuss the possibilities for the online space and technology, and to reflect and review the project to date in the context of their own practices. Day 1, allowed us the opportunity to reflect on their work in the hospitals to date, and the thematic overlaps that have emerged from the stories that the young people have shared. Day 2, saw the artists create work in response to themes and ideas of interest, this included a game created by Cork University Hospital artist in residence Eszter Nemethi, which reflected the stories and ideas of the young people to date. What was exciting about this process was that it opened up the possibilities in terms of how the young peoples’ ideas might manifest in the works of the artists. On Day 3 we reviewed the online space and discussed the possibilities for technology.

Feedback from the artists included: the importance of having three days to step away from the work at the hospital, while stepping into it at the same time; having the opportunity to discuss issues and discover that some of the same things are arising for the artists; and that the development days gave them a boost to return to the hospitals and move forward.

The support from hospital staff is integral to the project, and we are looking forward to our Creative Exchange Day with all partners, due to take place on the 25th March…