Islington Mill in Salford are currently running a print exhibition called Team Building, parodying corporate team building exercises, and I went to the Q&A.
Six artists worked on this project in an intense collaboration, producing an exhibition in merely six days, from morning until night, they ate, worked and bonded together in a high intensity environment. They found it challenging to work in such a new way, their usual methods are alone or with just one other. It gave them a way to merge styles and find if it worked or didn't, they've made something unique which couldn't be achieved alone. The whole process sounded tiring and taxing yet enjoyable and worth it, and it looks like they had a lot of fun with it. They tell us about the daily activities they used to build their team, one being a playful artistic take on the classic Chinese whispers. A general positive attitude and a mutual understanding got them through, inspiring and teaching each other new processes along the way.
When it came to grafting hard they took no prisoners, the process almost became automatic for them. One difficulty faced was producing art surrounded by people and with a deadline, leaving no room to be intimidated by a blank canvas. There was simply no time for precautions, taking these away they found a new sense of freedom when producing ideas. I asked if they felt their own voice came through in their work with so many other people shouting, and I got an excellent response from Marion of Palefroi, she stated it's more like a choir, and it shows, they are all singing the same song each with their individual lines weaving in and out of each other. In the end they were surprised and happy with the amount of work they managed to produce and felt the images developed their own narrative. Their only conflict being about how the exhibition should be set out!
My favorite piece was a black and white fabric print, spanning around 10 meters, mixing art and textiles isn't something I normally consider, yet the result was gorgeous, this method also leaves your work open to a wider range of use. This for me highlighted the the range of possibilities you can explore with print. It felt good to take a first step into Manchester's art scene, as I always work alone quite isolated. It has inspired me to see how this project totally made itself instead of breaking. And I'm now more confident about working with other people to see what exciting things we can create.
Some photos of the take away publication
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