My Low Residency Artwork, A.K.A. The Bridge - A & B
Here are the final touches made to my chosen artwork, leading up to the Low Residency Interim Show in London!
As you will notice from all of the preview images on this blog, all of my recent artworks have had vines in them. Vines are incredibly rich symbols for a surrealist vocabulary. To me - they are organic, ambiguous, quietly subversive, and often disliked by those who want to control a more minimalist reality. As a female surrealist artist engaging (or questioning) reality, consciousness, gender, sexuality, and geopolitics, I feel that vines can operate on multiple layered meanings at once:
Interconnected Consciousness
Feminine Growth and Reclamation
Sexuality and Desire
Geopolitical Entanglement
Distortion of Reality…
So, these vines are not just decorative or a simple reminder of the importance of nature. These vines are agents of infiltration, connection, and transformation. They can embody a tension between control and chaos, intimacy and invasion, nature and system. They could also function as a living metaphor that quietly but relentlessly questions everything it touches.
Leading on with the subject of tension, my installation plan for this piece at the Interim Show was the pull the double-sided canvases as tightly as possible between two of the pillars in the Central Saint Martins open public space that was dedicated to our class. This physical tension is intended to highlight the opposing poles of duality that I am trying to fight every day (in no particular order below):
Feeling town between living in France and coming back to the UK, to spend time/take care of my lovely mother
Oscillating frequently between happiness and sadness, deep mood swings, questioning mental health and reality as a result
The very thin line that exists between my conscious, subconscious and unconscious states, as I come closer to finding a way to integrate my decade-long Dream Diary into my art practice
Questioning my sexuality and born gender, female - male, heterosexual - homosexual, the spectrums of all sorts, pulling between everything on a daily basis
Continuing to doubt/question what truth our world is moving towards - geopolitically, spiritually, and existentially. What is right today, and what is that always the same as what is morally right
Last but definitely not least - Integrating references to great surrealist masters in my artwork creates a compelling tension, where the echoes of the past are reimagined through a contemporary lens, opening unexpected pathways toward future artistic possibilities
Reflect: So many things to consider and reconsider. First things first. Why on Earth did I decide to hang something, if I have never hung anything before? - Looking back on this in August 2026, I realise how funny it was that I was questioning myself. I then went on to hang pretty much everything I did in May, June, etc!
Plan: Better plan next time, although things did go very well thanks to the technical team in London, but I also decided to create an artwork that was 50% created in London, and 50% in London, without having brought the two halves together before Low Residency setup itself, so that was always going to be a risk. Next time, I can still take risks, but double triple check all the measurements!
Act: Jonathan had really helped me to move on from the decision of which piece to show, but just deciding that it would be this one. I had a few regrets later, because I felt that certain performances and pieces were much more fun / popular / looked at / interacted with / etc, but I was also aligned with my decision, so I do not regret that. If anything, perhaps it is not a regret, and more of a learning for next time. The important thing is the final show!
Observe: Observing how I immediately identify the improvements for next time. I highly doubt there will ever be an artwork or exhibition that I consider perfect, there will always be something to do better! I would say that the important thing is to be able to better communicate my desires, to myself first, and then to my teams and those who are helping me in the future. Another observation is that I shall see how this feeling of “regrets” evolves, and also I should pay attention to all of the details, leading up to the final show. Details about how Jonathan sets shows up, details about how artists help each other, the “etiquette” of installations, and de installations, the right way of doing things in order to then improve this and create a new way of doing things.
Next blog post = LONDON!!!
