canary wharf | carajeanflynn-MFA

Canary Wharf - Artist Residency

Along with everyone on the MFA course, I invited to take part in a group residency at Canary Wharf that one of my fellow students had arranged with the construction company working there, using their empty office rooms as temporary studios.

I was particularly interested in Canary Wharf as a unique site and the opportunity to work with the construction company that were in the process of building a number of very tall skyscrapers. I wanted to focus on the build process in terms of growth and continued urbanisation of our city. My plan was to document the way in which the ground is dug, earth is moved, buildings are erected and the landscape changed, with a focus on how nature was allocated space through its own force or by our intervention. I found visits to the construction site and talking to the workers doing the tour really fascinating and offered a unique perspective on the city.

My plan was to use the studio space during the entire three month summer break last year and as a way to meet up with fellow students to feel connected and to discuss ideas. In reality it didn’t work as a studio space for me as I needed to use power tools, which wasn’t appropriate. This is worth knowing for when I am looking for a studio space post MFA. I also found it frustrating not knowing when the other artists would be there. I often visited and would be the only person there, which was a shame. The best aspect of the residency was the weekly crit, which on the occasions that I was able to attend, I found them useful and a great way to reconnect and engage with the other artists.

My biggest struggle was to find the time to visit the studio space. This was the primarily reason I don’t think this residency worked for me, as unfortunately the real life issues of earning money to pay for the rest of the MFA course had to take priority over the summer, plus personal events such as getting married. I feel like this was a missed opportunity and a lesson in terms of my own time management, priorities and expectations. In retrospect a better way to have approached the residency, may have been to have allocated a shorter but more intense period of time on site. I have however gathered notes, photos and the seed of an idea that may come to fruition at a later point.

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