Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020
Arteles Creative Center's residency artists and their projects 2023-2020
Arteles Creative Center's residency artists and their projects 2023-2020
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Silence Awareness Existence program / FEBRUARY <strong>2020</strong><br />
Rachel Pursglove<br />
UK<br />
www.rachelpursglove.co.uk<br />
About<br />
I have an MA in Fine Art from the University of Central<br />
Lancashire. I’m interested in painting, poetry, literature,<br />
language and conversation. I like to run, I like to read and<br />
watch films and I am currently taking singing lessons.<br />
My aim is to strip back the conventions of being an artist,<br />
beginning with this very honest statement, to re-evaluate<br />
what art means to me.<br />
I’m 30 years old, I have a dog called Alfie and I’ve just quit<br />
my job to go on a residency to Finland for a month. I struggle<br />
with depression and anxiety and have done for many years.<br />
Making art has drifted away from me and has left me feeling<br />
discontented with life. So I’ve made an impulsive decision to<br />
travel to a new country, meet new people and reside myself<br />
to a month of solitude. I’ve had little experience of meditation<br />
and mindfulness but I’m ready to see where the programme<br />
takes me. I hope this experience will help to determine where<br />
my artistic practices lie.<br />
Am I still an artist if I’m not making any art? Is my running my<br />
art? Is my singing my art?<br />
Between sun and moon<br />
I experienced a simpler way to live life, a way of life that I<br />
have been craving too long. My time at <strong>Arteles</strong> has taught<br />
me how to live each day with purpose and I will be forever<br />
grateful, the residency has given me a voice, it provided me<br />
an environment in which to grow. I have reconnected with<br />
myself and found a community of unified individuals. Before<br />
I started this residency I asked myself, what does art mean<br />
to me?<br />
It’s the things that fill my everyday, sounds, time, place, light,<br />
taste, conversation, the present, actions, stillness, breath,<br />
nothing.<br />
I meditated, reflected, ran around the meditation circle 50<br />
times, exposed myself, immersed myself in silence, liberated<br />
myself, pushed the boundaries of repetition & boredom,<br />
explored the confines of my own mind. I stopped and looked<br />
at myself and the world around me. Found solace in solitude.<br />
Questioned the need for simplicity in art. What does it mean<br />
to be human? My connection to nature. Resilience. Simple<br />
gestures. How body and mind can respond to its environment.<br />
Hold to my own convictions. Ritualistic.<br />
Photographs by Matt Shaw
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