We arrived in bielefeld on monday Afternoon to a warm welcome of cake, coffee and some lovely vodka with grains in it that Pip brought down for all as an introduction to the group. From there on I got settled in quite fast to my apartment, huge and beautiful as it is opposite my even huger studio. Later on was beers in the Artists Unlimited very own bar 'the milestone', of which the bar door opens to the stairs of my place so its a great extension of my living room!
Now I have arranged my studio and making the best of it space, so I hope to get some walls covered and having more room than usual means that I can try stuff out without getting cramped.
Artists Unlimited is a 20+ year established organization, located in the centre of Bielefeld operating as group of practicing artists who share voluntary work and rent studio and living accommodation. They occupy a building that was previously a paper factory, and has been carefully renovated and modified into complete apartments with working spaces. They have their own gallery located on the ground floor, where the resident Artists can exhibit, and also numerous shows throughout the year associated with the cultural influx of the City as a whole. Each year they invite several national & International Artists for a 3 month residency to work dedicatively on their own practice without the strains of daily life. They provide an apartment, studio space and a monthly stipend for per diems and materials.
My initial intentions are to focus down on on some ideas and experiments that have been floating around for the last few months. I am open to new influences, obviously the geographic and artistic culture will play an important role in this, after all a residency frames such things. What is immediately interesting is the filmhaus that is connected to the organisation. Here there are facilities for super8, 16mm, 35mm,and digital HD recording with such wonders as the old nagra 4 tape recorder. I found out recently that there is a company that works with Fuji and has developed its own super8 and 16mm daylight film, so they should hopefully provide an insight into this process which I would like to explore as a surface for the pre-recorded sound. It may result as a new drawing process or in some sculptural form
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