Yaddo
On February 12, 2020 I began a performance art residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York. This was my 13th residency and I have never been so excited about going far away and meeting new people at a place that turns out is 23 minutes away from where I grew up. Yaddo is unusual in my experience for several reasons, but the most noticible one is that artists come and go at different times so you are always meeting new people and saying goodbye to people you've come to be so fond of. Also it was my first residency with writers. There is no pressure to present your work and one's privacy is heavily protected. But most artists gave a performance or a reading or some kind of presentation of their work and it was mind-expanding to be with people of such diverse practices from all over the world.
My proposal was to further develop my inter-disciplinary exhibition Forgiveness and be reunited with the American-based glass instruments that I made for Flames and Frequencies: Performance for Glass Percussion and Fire. I hadn't seen these instruments since we gave that performance, and it was wonderful to share them with my fellow artists in a have-a-go session after my presentation in my studio.
I'm still working on what I began at Yaddo but wisely, we were all asked to leave by March 17th, 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. I arrived back to the UK that day.
We were all very sad to say goodbye to what had been such an ideal experience, but it was the right call on the part of Yaddo, and in hindsight, I'm glad they made the decision when they did.
The work morphed whilst at Yaddo and continues to develop in the Highlands of Scotland.
