HouseMADE, 2016

With funding from the Arts Council of Wales, I curated, produced and participated in the project ‘HouseMADE’ - a short artists group residency sited in a former Victorian house in Cardiff, culminating in a live event as part of Brickstock festival, in Oct. 2016.

12 artists from different disciplines were invited to explore the idea of home and house, in response to the building (which would soon be demolished) & consider audience interaction as part of the work. Theatre director Oliver Lamford, was brought on board to help shape a narrative between the various emerging works and navigating it as an audience experience.

The artists were encouraged to explore new pairings, consider overlapping themes and ideas between the works as they developed in relation to the building and to initial idea of home and house, being aware of threads emerging between the work.

Some artists developed responses in base rooms initially, with drawing, sound pieces, sculptural interventions and actions - others moving across the works room by room and responding to those interventions or set ups.

A public event was advertised as a house “viewing” to attend via appointment over an afternoon at the end of the two weeks. ‘House Viewers’ were given a tour around the building encountering performance within each of the room installations. Some being durational over the whole day; and others moving across the whole house over 4 hours, or repeated in different locations , thereby removing a sense of authorship over the works, and encouraging the experience as a connected whole.

Participating artists: 1800 hours collective, Good Cop / Bad Cop, June Campbell Davies, Eve Dent, Zoë Gingell, Simon Gore, Lauren Heckler, Josh Leeson, Jodi Nicolson, Rachel Helena Walsh.

Photographer Pete Evans documented the works in progress and the final House ‘Viewing’ see below for the full series