Trying to make sense of it all, so far.

This project has, so far, been punctuated by moments of intense stress; where individually we are all butting against this idea of collaboration. Whether it is the feeling of responsibility towards the group and necessity to perform under pressure, which occurred in the first week; or the desire to seize control, quickly accompanied by the fear of loosing it.  Amongst these issues, the question which runs through this whole process, is why. Why are we doing this, why do we feel the need to collaborate.

Considering this project further, I am trying to see how it sits within my own practice to date.  It appears to be a logical progression from the last exhibition I was involved in, IV at the Rogue Project Space in Manchester. IV, although not considered at the time to be an exercise in collaboration, was where four artists (Tom Baskeyfield, Julie Del'Hopital, Sarah Sanders and myself) together agreed on four rules with which to make work by. The result was four pieces of work, one by each artist. The most dynamic and contentious of the four devised rules was: No. 1, We will not discuss the work;  this one statement, immediately destroying any potential for future collaboration.  After reaching a consensus of opinion and common goal, the artists divided company to individually re-assert control over their own work.  At the time of conception this rule was not intended as a display of arrogance by our selves, in the form of a refusal to communicate with the audience, but rather a process where the artist relinquished control over the work once it was in the public domain, consequently allowing the audience to form their own opinion.

IV at the Rogue Project Space, Manchester (Clockwise from top right: Julie Del'Hopital, Sarah Sanders, Tom Baskeyfield, Jessica Longmore)

An ongoing project of mine is Objects for a Studio. Here I spend a single day making work in another artist's studio. I have done this with ten artists in Manchester, ten in Amersfoort (The Netherlands) and will be taking the project to Chongqing (China) in November.  In Objects for a Studio, I arrive at each studio armed with only a camera (or other means of documentation) and the intention to create work within another artist’s space, using only the objects I encounter there.  Despite the communication between myself and the host artist and the presence of myself in their studio, surrounded by their work - I have absolutely, at no stage, considered this a collaboration.  This project explores the psychological space of the studio, and its ability to both protect and restrict the artist's creative process.  By placing myself in the highly personal domain of this other artist and giving myself the strict time frame of a single day, I hope to provoke the extremes of emotion that the studio creates. It is not. therefore, a conversation between myself and the host artist's work.

Day 6, 2009. Jessica Longmore. Digital print. From the series Objects for a Studio 2: Amersfoort

Referring back to this current residency; it is this highly charged atmosphere which has started to fascinate me with regards to Association.  Four artists all working in the same studio; at once tip-toeing round and trampling over the work around them. Every day another issue crops up; another conflict arises and I wonder whether our friendship can stand this process.  Issues of control, authorship, leadership, restriction of free will and professionalism are not necessarily subjects that tend to crop up between friends - or are not topics we constantly wrestle with.

So - so far, my answer to the question why, is that I am interested in how my work will respond to this tense social situation.  But as a psychological experiment, are these the right people to work with?