for A Visible THREAD research residency

Every day is different at our A Visible THREAD research residency…

Looking back on seam’s first week in residence at The Andrew Brownsword Gallery, we’re buzzing with ideas and ready for more. Every day has been different. The first few days we were busy setting up, with time for a little experimental making and play, but we finally opened officially on Friday. Jack Lewdjaw, the other artist who has been selected to share the gallery with us, has now also taken up residence in the other half of the space. We’re excited to see how his work area changes, as the bags of concrete and sand are intriguing, but we’re also interested to see how sharing the space with him will influence our separate practices.

We’re very grateful to curator, Will Cooper, and The Holburne Museum for this opportunity and for their support. We’re already benefiting in a number of ways:

SPACE: Having space to experiment has been fabulous. We have exhibition areas, space for trialling installations and a projected slideshow of images that inspire us. We’ve set up two making spaces, one of which is for the participatory ‘permission to play’ project. Come and give yourself permission to play and make something to add to the growing queer/subversive sculptural installation, using materials provided by two local charity shops and seam members’ stashes.

TIME: Having time to begin to experiment has also been wonderful. Some of us will be able to be in the space more than others, but we’re planning to trial some of us joining the residency virtually, by projecting them into the space so we can work together in different ways. We hope it will mean that more of us can be involved as the days go by.

TEAM SEAM: Being able to work alongside one another in real space has been the best thing so far. We have four new members and some of us have only met online, so meeting and making side by side has been so good. Over the last week we have been working together in different ways – there’s obviously been some setting up and problem solving, but also lots of stitching, weaving, ripping, wrapping, knotting, skill sharing, conversation, emerging ideas…. and plenty of laughter!

WE NEED YOU: We’ve had a few visitors already who have come and joined the conversation, having a look at the exhibition and making alongside us as part of ‘permission to play’. We’re looking forward to welcoming you too. Come and see what we’re doing. We’re here for another 4 weeks. If you can’t visit us in person, follow us on Instagram @seam_collective for regular updates and join in ‘permission to play’ virtually by posting images of what you’ve made, with a comment, using #AVisibleThreadPlay #AVTplay.

We expect the space to change as the days and weeks go by, so come back another time and follow our updates on Instagram @seam_collective #AVisibleThread #AVisibleThreadPlay #AVTplay

Click here for details of opening times, how to get to the gallery and parking. We hope to see you soon.

Lou Baker