I enjoy residences, especially those where I have freedom to explore, observe, engage with people, and make whatever I want to make . The best kind!
A is for Apple
Lathcoats Farm, Essex
In 2017 I undertook a short residency at a family-owned fruit-farm in Essex as part of a commission with A is for Apple. This project was to investigate the potential impact of Brexit on fruit harvesting in the UK.
I created a soundwork, photographed the apple orchards, the applepickers and the storage of the fruit, designed a totebag, and made an installation for the accompanying exhibition at 198 Gallery in South London.
Roman Bath
Artist in residence in the Classics Department, King’s College London
In 2017-18 I was artist in residence in the Classics Department, King’s College, working with Professor Michael Trapp, an expert on the so-called “Roman” Bath in Strand Lane, London, and a welcoming and supportive collaborator. This little known heritage attraction afforded many opportunities for creative responses in tune with its real and invented histories.
The bath is actually an old 17th century cistern made to supply a decorative fountain for courtly entertainment, but over the years various myths and fictions were constructed around the identity of the Bath. My work over this period engaged with the myths and realities, fictions and facts of the Bath and its histories, working with staff and students at the college.
Among the works produced were a “well-dressing” of the bath (whose source may be an ancient well ), sound works, installations (two in collaboration with Lynn Dennison) and a final exhibition in Bush House, Aldwych, entitled King’s Artists:New Thinking, New Making. October-December, 2018.
photo of display cabinet at Bush House exhibition by Alex Lloyd. 
display cabinet in the Classics Department
Activities for staff and students included a “guided tour” of the Bath which mixed fact with fiction and ended with a surprise group singing of “It’s fun to visit the old Roman Bath” to the tune of YMCA.
I visit the “Roman” Bath with Michael Trapp to discuss the residency and our interest in the Bath and its rich histories. Together we later presented a conference paper at Roehampton University which offered our thoughts on artistic interventions in a historic site.
This soundwork (with small installation) on the theme of the pleasures and dangers of bathing took as its starting point the death of MP William Weddell at the Bath in 1792. It ends with William Blake’s poem London, of around the same date, set to music and sung.