Some of the works that I developed during my residency by the sea on Ireland's West Coast were shown as  an installation at NoeDok St. Pölten with the title: WARMING SYSTEMS

The title is suggestive of different meanings. The climatic and political systems we are living in right now are warming, or rather, they are heating, even in places boiling. But heat need not be a disruptive force, energy is needed for comfort and movement, engagement, exchange, even love. 

Warming Systems considers artistic working processes. What keeps us going, what keeps us warm and engaged? Most artists don't belong to the few who can earn enough to enjoy middle class lifestyles. Yet we are envied at the same time for our perceived freedom that we are expected to possess, that we do indeed have to an extent: our outsider status permits certain space to depart from conservatives conventions and life- models. At the same time many of us are struggling – usually money wise sometimes with recognition and occasionally with the work itself - yet we still don't want to let go. We don't want to let go of the time we spend in our studios, the time we spend working and thinking, challenging ourselves, looking for something that we don't yet quite perceive, even when our studios are cold. 

Artistic residencies are special times. They are intense. Set up for a limited time in an unknown surrounding. Some of us come with specific research concepts, some bring their studio practice as a starting point, some (me) bring impossible tasks like wanting to print the surface of the sea, some bring books and some are just tired and needing to recharge. 

On a residency we meet people, we meet other artists. We exchange thoughts, show our works, share ideas, views, food, bad jokes, and work together or alongside each other. In this, we are fed with different ways of doing what we were doing before, reworking the objects, thoughts, shapes, colors we brought from home, reconsidering them in a new seascape. We bring birthmarks that suddenly become landmarks in a different surrounding. We change the colors we use, as the light is different, so to the moods and the colors holding presence in new cultural geographies. 

We might also change taste or try something else, looking for the odd, being critical of the beautiful, while we admire rainbows and dramatic changes in lighting. 

All works were made over October 2023 in Westport, Ireland, at “The Custom House Studios”. The pattern of the wallpaper was developed based on blueprints that show the directions of the water that flows through the heating system of the printmaking workshop of the studios. 

Exchange institution:  Custom House Studios, Westport, Irland
Residence: October 2023