A week-long residency at Side Gallery is proposed to further explore components of the artist’s relational aesthetics practice. In previous work, the artist has created installations that were conducive to conversation, prompting dialogue exchange which was later removed from context and formed separate works. Documenting private conversations and removing context from isolated sentences has been a reused method of delivering snippets of dialogue by the artist, and a tool to retain the anonymity of the conversationalists.
Within the sacred sleepover spaces of childhood and teenage memory, the artist and her closest friends would share secrets. In this memory-rich environmental recreation, bringing the attendees together for no other reason than to enjoy each other’s company and share an intimate space and experience is core to the concept of the work. The resulting dialogue is an uncontrolled, unscripted outcome, which is then used to create individual text-based works.
Referencing relational artworks by Tracey Emin, Marina Abramovic and Sophie Calle, the artist aims to create (or recreate) an environment conducive to intimacy and vulnerability; one in which visitors to the sleepover can share secrets and desires anonymously with the wider public.
