To conclude our residency Paul and I wrote a reflection on the Talking Birds blog - check it out here. Until next time!

Adele x

This was the lead photo on a Guardian article titled, “Suicides indicate wave of ‘doomerism’ over escalating climate crisis”. What an insanely powerful and fitting image, says it all and more. As if Reynold Reynolds made his feature version of Burn but the world burns.

Photo: Bloomberg/Getty

Final theme - loneliness & solitude. We all love Hopper but are too afraid to explore our own relationship with these states of being, their delicate difference. So many negative connotations and not enough opportunity for growth and development of oneness, of connection to our individuality. These two things are at the core of my practice really, they provide the most stimulus and tension, inspiration. There’s a need to make work as an artist, and my need always, always stems from here. Arguably it is the ultimate truth, something we try and constantly ignore through our shows, devices, music, jobs, diet, consumerism. Numbing ourselves into oblivion, hurtling towards death without any self interrogation. I empathise because it’s fucking difficult, who wants to turn themselves inside out all the time? Is that in itself healthy? Fuck knows mate, I just need to shout this shit from the top of the Ramada or the like. Picture above says a lot, a sense of peace and turmoil, the only one who exists in your head and your private reality is you.

Writing in retrospect about my thematic chat with Adele, this time it was Faith & Loneliness. The latter was a light thread woven into the fabric of my interests exploring my Roman Catholic upbringing within projects, the complex distance I have created with it. How I felt sedated and controlled by the fear it brought, the rules I felt I needed to adhere to to access post life salvation. I think it made me a shittier person in retrospect, not accepting enough of difference, of those who lived life a little more recklessly or with liberty. It also clouded my sense of self, I think it is healthier to accept that we are actually very alone in this lived experience, deity or not. Energy should be put into the self and others that positively affect you and the world around, not a patriarchal interpretation/rulebook of a historic figure’s teachings, and a male god. Apostasy was liberating. Oh and we briefly spoke of illustrations seeped in religious symbolism being a pool of inspiration for imagery. I like using religious motifs like the above image, a crumbling or damaged depiction to express the disconnect, the tension.

Speaking of fire...........

BLUE Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul France, 2018 Short, Fantasy

“Thai master Apichatpong Weerasethakul has long been fascinated by the liminal spaces between wakefulness and dreams. Over a sleepless night in the jungle, he fashions a phantasmagorical miniature from a theatrical illusion, sparking a nebulous haze of spiritual anguish that touches the sublime.”

Final Sx70 play of the residency. This pic followed a walk to find flowers, on to a local estate, but cut short due to heavy HEAVY downpour. We returned soaked through laughing and I took a photo of the light in the communal area instead. Water to fire, going inside. I was entranced, Paul said.

Another fantastic dialogue. Paul on solitude and loneliness and being present in your own vessel. Adele on walking, the derive, surrealism and critiquing the spectacle. ❤️

For my final theme chat today I want to look at walking, a super significant part of my practice. From earlier theme list- 

- Coventry, urban-world, under-loved such as corners, dilapidated things, half-complete things, things with traces/markings, things that jar like tower blocks and flowers - rambling/drifting/walking - walking as a THEME, these images are often sparse with a wide horizon, they depict seasons, they are about the feeling of being outside, they are really about finding what is ‘within’ by being without (the house, the kids, the chatter, the work) or by being with-outdoors … what are the feelings towards humanity or the purpose, what am I trying to sooth or speak to or look after which went neglected? What’s the cause?

Wanted to share an image from one of my biggest drifts, around Europe in 2016. 

Arnhem, Netherlands. An example of me, wandering around, witnessing what is already naturally there, finding shapes, colour, materials and beauty in what might not be perfect or right. Simple responses to surface and on a very basic level, composition and aesthetics and the geometry previously mentioned - how lines fit together amid other lines, contained shapes, perspectives, plants and terrain. Angles, balance and juxtapositions of colour. The Situationists of the 60s in France called this an ‘authentic experience’ - “The group develops several social-aesthetic practices for interrupting the cultural systems of advanced capitalism:” I can’t help but think of the upcoming City of Culture finale this weekend when reading this:  “the art of the aphorism: If the preferred technique of the society of the spectacle is engulfment--total immersion of the spectator in a spectacle which is hurled at the eye and ear at a speed as fast as thought, cutting and morphing, at once absorptive and distracting, a tide of alluring candy for the eye and ear, and projected before us by a media apparatus others control--then, how does one slow down this media machine, and create the space for genuine critique? Debord's answer in The Society of the Spectacle is the aphorism. Most probably indebted to Nietzsche, Debord's aphorism offer short, abrupt, disconnected statements about the spectacle within advanced capitalism. Suggestive and difficult, they require a reader who is patient, active, and in dialogue with the text; harsh in tone and sweeping in their scope, each of these aphorisms seems designed to provoke and challenge the reader.”

I sometimes find myself, often referring to it as cynicism to make it more palatable, making abrupt challenging outbursts in response to our local cultural spoon-feeds. It’s not as if I think walking without aim is the answer, but it’s somewhere I can’t challenge, by being nothing it is immersion of a purer tone.

Good morning. I wanted to make a note of the feedback reflections just sent over to TB today. I have put in bold some particularly strong feelings. - AMR

1a. What were the things you valued most / what worked for you?

It is a unique opportunity, especially locally, to take part in a paid residency which involves so much freedom. I appreciate the value placed on creative expression in the environment of Talking Birds. It worked for me being in a separate space to my usual work, being within a healthy social culture in the building, having simplicity and choice aplenty. You feel a sense of trust taking on a residency with Talking Birds - that they believe in your artistic integrity and wish to leave you to it to empower you and allow you to nurture your practice in a way best for you.

1b. Did your residency open up anything new that you weren't expecting / was there anything unexpected that you got out of it?

Yes absolutely. Paul and I went into the residency with some key goals but also open to instincts and flexible direction. Making polaroids and audio creation became key creative activities for us, on top of watching short art films and note taking upon the exchange of thematic ideas within our photographic and filmmaking practices. It was surprising to me just how well the thematic exchanges went, we travelled very deeply into personal experience and each time sought out a revelation, an unlocking. These were very powerful moments and key to our conceptual awareness which we could not have experienced without the focused nature of the residency. 

EMOJI PISS! Video soaked in piss. 

Where do you want to be in twenty years time exactly? What do you want to be doing? What do you want to be looking at?

Fabulous film.

LOVE. How to talk about love? Link in/symbolise with surrounding environment? 

Interesting checking out Jennifer West’s work. Sort of missed sound. Paul mentions Stan Brackhage. 

We won’t be microwaving these portraits taken this afternoon in the local laundrette on Widdrington Road. We like them too much. We shall make new pictures to microwave tomorrow evening.

We should however like to microwave from our memory this moment with the pins. Paul carefully reinserted them in colour order back in their compartments.

Great theme chats today. Adele’s on depicting love. Paul’s on faith & loneliness. Super rich, covering many areas.