Rod's studio Rod's studio Rod's studio Rod's studio Rod's studio
Polly Binns in her studio Polly's studio Polly's studio Polly's studio Polly's studio

Artist research project

Since 2009 I have been working on a research project with artists Rod Bugg and Polly Binns. I introduced the two artists because of the strong connections that I saw between their aesthetic concerns and working practices.

The project is open ended and develops according to the dialogue between the two artists. To date there have been three specific staging posts where the project has been made public:

- an informal seminar at SCVA in association with Polly’s residency in April 2010

- a joint exhibition at One Church Street Gallery in March 2011 which included a filmed interview with the two artists

- Rod and Polly worked alongside one another for a week at the Sidney Nolan Trust in September 2011, as part of it’s sculpture programme. The week working in the landscape and studio culminated in an informal presentation and discussion.

In June 2012 Rod situated himself at Polly's studio in Holt, North Norfolk, making work on the coast that has inspired her work for many years. Their work in a common environment was taken by each back into the studio where it is informing new work. Polly started the work which became 'Tide Worn Series' that went into the touring exhibition Light and Line,iniated by Nottingham Castle Museum.

Rod exhibited new work in a solo exhibition, Into the Forest, at Galerie de Witte Voet, Amsterdam in April/May 2013. Each visited the other's exhibition and continued their exploration of their practices in these public contexts.

Most recently, Rod and Polly have curated Cley14, an annual exhibition in and around St Margaret's Church in the village of Cley, on the north coast of Norfolk. Their invitation to artists to submit proposals for the project in 2014 developed out of this ongoing research project.