In 2003, I was invited to contribute to and travel with an international group of artists as part of Grizedale Arts’ Romantic Detachment residency, funded by the Henry Moore Foundation and hosted at PS1, New York. My role involved supporting the residency and working alongside artists, curators, and makers, giving me early exposure to international, research-led artistic practice.
The residency and subsequent exhibition provided a formative context for my development as an artist, particularly through Grizedale Arts’ open, inclusive approach to collaboration and learning. Being included as a recent Fine Art graduate was instrumental in shaping my understanding of how artistic practice can operate within broader cultural, institutional, and social frameworks. The Romantic Detachment exhibition was later selected as Pick of the Year 2004 by Frieze magazine.
The project was exhibited at PS1 MoMA, New York; Chapter Arts, Cardiff; and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. It was supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and MoMA. Participating artists included Olivia Plender, Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane, Garrett Phelan, Sarah Pierce, David Blandy, S. Mark Gubb, Emily Wardill, and William Pope L.
Ye Olde School
Ye Olde School was a performance and slide/video work developed during three months spent in New York and Chicago as part of the residency. The work was installed and performed within the PS1 galleries as part of the group exhibition.
Responding to the themes of Romantic Detachment, I created a fictional character who attempted to maintain traditional English form while performing breakdancing. The work explored my own relationship to hip hop and breakdance culture as a white, middle-class teenager from Oxford, using humour and performance to examine questions of identity, aspiration, and cultural belonging.
