It’s been a busy couple of months, culminating in visiting Derby, for the Animate Open: Parts & Labour Exhibition at QUAD. Meeting the fellow DRIVErs again was great, we all arrived in the morning of 27/11 and got introduced to the panel of curation/exhibition experts that heard us present our projects and gave us feedback. Those were Ben Cook, Camilla Brown, Adam Pugh, Caroline Smith and Steve Fletcher.

It was really inspiring to hear what everybody has been working on; I talked about my new work, which addresses some of the primary themes of The Labyrinth of Ruins. As it’s still early days in terms of interactivity, I decided to explore the ruination and sense of space through a two-screen installation. On December the 11th it’s the opening of my first solo show in Holland, at Project Space Tilburg. For this, The Architecture of Melancholy: Ruins I decided to work with video that I had shot in the summer, of an abandoned house and a complex cage of songbirds nearby. The two videos will be next to each other: the quiet, empty house, all doors and windows. Its silence is juxtaposed by the never-still birds, trapped in their cage. This echoes the cage, birds and Zugunrühe that had inspired Apodemy, which will also be part of the show. I’m flying to Holland tomorrow, and aim to create a post about the show, as this is my first work produced within the DRIVE development program.

Following the presentation we all attended the seminar which offered us insight into curatorial, commissioning and distribution approaches. We stayed for the opening of Parts & Labour, so had an overnight stay, which was a real treat. Especially as it allowed us all to talk about our work, to rejoin old friends and make new ones, in a festival-like atmosphere which always re-energises you.

The show is brilliant, with exciting films that deal with the theme with ingenuity and playfulness. I felt lucky to be able to talk to the artists, and was struck by the quality and depth of the work. It’s on till the end of January so don’t miss it!

Still from Broken Cage