GROW residency!
In March the Art and Energy team enjoyed a week-long residency at GROW studios in central Plymouth. A fab time to play, chat, dream and make.
What is GROW?
Grow Plymouth is made up of 11 studios which are creative home to painters, audio artists, printmakers, installation and socially engaged artists. The ground floor is a space to experiment with the aim to create a space which explores its surroundings and heritage whilst looking to the future in terms of sustainability, inclusion, food and drink, grassroots arts, music and culture.
What did we get up to?
Window Display - We created a display in the window, showcasing a selection of Art and Energy’s creations. This caught the eye of many passers-by, including University students and staff, visitors to the Box museum, local residents and neighbouring businesses. We displayed pieces that hadn’t previously been shown together, this helped us as a team to think and talk through the way that some of these might appear to be disconnected, but have in fact been important steps as we develop the Art and Energy story. It was a fantastic opportunity to look back and dream forward!
Solar Art - We’d been working on a design to sandblast onto a large solar panel… but with the winter weather and various other projects underway we hadn’t found the space or time to progress. GROW gave us the perfect opportunity for this!
Last summer we were donated a couple of large solar panels that had come from a solar array on a school that was due for demolition. We set ourselves the challenge of making the panel visually interesting, communicating a narrative that linked in to How to Bury the Giant. We started by covering the front in sticky back plastic, then drew and cut an intricate energy landscape design, complete with mosses, water-cycle, and a tardigrade.
The panel has since been sandblasted to permanently apply the design, then the yellow mask has been removed. The solar panel still works, but it’s more interesting to look at. We’ll be revealing photos of the finished artwork soon.
The Mega Mossy Carpet - We’re planning another mass participation artwork! Inspired by moss and the power of tiny actions, we’ll be inviting everyone to create a small textile element, together these will form a beautiful lush tactile landscape with interactive elements to trigger audio messages speaking of the changes that we’re making to be kinder to our planet. We started to add some mossy pompoms to a large roll of Dartmoor wool - individually they’re ok, but once they begin to form a mosaic-like landscape they’re beautiful! We particularly enjoyed spending time with our friends from Plymouth Scrapstore chatting about materials and techniques that will make this activity attractive, accessible and impactful.
Open Doors - We opened the doors to invite people in to find out more - hello and thank you if you were able to join us! With so much online engagement these days it was fantastic to share what we’ve been up to, hear what caught peoples attention, and understand how we can work together to support positive change. Meeting in person allowed for rich knowledge sharing, hands on play, and cake!
A huge thank you!
Our week at GROW was fantastic in terms of giving us time, space and opportunity for conversations. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Jordanna, Reuben and everyone at GROW who made us feel so very welcome. We’ll be keeping an eye on this exciting space and hope to come back again! You can find out more about GROW here - Sign up to their newsletter to keep an eye on future developments.
