Cornaro Residency
Cyprus School Art Lempa, Cyprus
September & October 2012
In September 2012, I was awarded the Cornaro Art Residency in Cyprus. For 5 weeks I was based in Lempa, near Paphos at the Cyprus School of Art.
The work culminated in an exhibition called Boundaries which for me symbolized so much of how I i saw Cyprus. Boundaries was not only a visible comment on new surroundings but also a new understanding of my home back in the UK. I became interested in the lives of the Cypriot farming community, how they are dealing with the issues of fragmentation, irrigation and distribution and how these small rural holdings make sufficient profit to survive. I looked at the divisions in the country, physical boarders, Greeks versus Turks, gender divides, the large influences of locals to tourists, wealth and poverty. Cyprus is steeped in ancient folklore and history and that has a massive influence today both in Art and the tourist trade.
My work was drawing led and developed into 3 areas:
boxes - metaphors of homes that were "left" or "commandeered" following the division of North and Southern Cyprus
puppets - symbols of gender and historic influences
chairs - man-made objects that became a metaphor for the histories of peoples and the north south and wealth divides.
