The linoleum was taken from the old Atelje Clobb studio floor and reference Modernist painting. The title Srečanja is Slovenian for a persuasive meeting or encounter.
The forms and colours seem dated and hint at a lost time in history. They are highly influenced by nostalgic stories of Yugoslavia’s socialist period and inspire the title Srečanja (meaning Encounters in English).
The shapes and forms allude to procreative and reproductive encounters in a diagrammatic style. This hints at how the emotional charge of an encounter can never objectively be explored.
Some of the subjects of the Srečanja series are like eyeballs, watching and keeping a check on one other.
Just as the notion of the artist as a Flâneur is problematic today, so is the process of making responsive art about a community from the outside.
It is a process that requires ethical engagement.
Atelje Clobb Residency
From 2013- 2014 I was artist in residence at Atelje Clobb, Škofja Loka, Slovenija. The residency was hosted by the local Zavod (or community organisation), Zavod O.
Clobb Artist Residency
I had a studio space at Clobb and worked there 7 days a week blending my artist residency work with the community studio and engagement work I opted to do.
I was inspired to undertake this residency to experience life in a rural context that was previously a part of the former Yugoslavia. The work that I made during this time was very experimental and responded to the wider context of the culture. Exploring different engagement, storytelling and narrative approaches instrumentally shaped the work I made during the residency and overall approach.
I remain friends with many of the artists and thinkers I met, lived with and collaborated with during this period.
Community Arts Studio
As part of my residency at Atelje Clobb, I devised and ran engagement programs for children, young adults and older learners, supported music nights and organised happenings and events.
I ran an art program for adults and weekly workshops with children and young adults at the studio. I also ran an engagement program for young people at the local gymnazia (secondary school) in order to recruit interest in the community arts program. I organised exhibitions in the local library and in local restaurants for the work that came out of the community arts programs.
During the summer I ran an Atelje Clobb stall each weekend where I sold local craft work and did face painting to raise money (and the profile of) Clobb studio and community programs.
