Home is Currently Unavailable

Here we go!


My next project is here

"HOME IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE"

and I need your help!

On 19/4/19 I will leave my home in Wantage, Oxfordshire for a 365 day creative pilgrimage, which will see me travel the coast of England, making work inspired by the surroundings, culture and the people I encounter nationwide.

- I will keep diaries and share them everyday on Instagram, for your entertainment (and also mine).

- I will talk to people in their local areas (with the help of my ‘hello can you stop for a talk’ sign) and see how they feel living in England in 2019.

- I will make larger works outside, both on paper and on salvaged objects, allowing the weather to affect them, and send these works back to an arranged base (my container in Letcomb Bassett - shout out mum) in preparation for an exhibition in 2020.

- I will also make and sell poems online as I travel, so everyone has a slice of this adventure.

FOR 356 DAYS ENGLAND WILL BE MY STUDIO!








...

Ok, now down to business.

This is a year long project and I need to raise  some funds for 2 basic and very important things....

1) Camping sites/Hostels/B&Bs. I will wild camp the majority of the time, but at least once a week it is vital I shower, clean my clothes and reboot. I have averaged the cost at £70 per week. 

2) Train and local bus fund. As much as I want to walk the whole time, I will need to travel inland to visit urban areas and I will need a contingency travel fund incase I fall behind schedule. Which I inevitably will. I have averaged the cost at £55 per week. 

Leaving the comforts of home and communicating with vastly different English communities is going to deepen and enrich my work more than ever before. I am so excited about this, but am very aware England is a vast and scary land. I will need local communities to make it work, and  online communities to support me and keep me going! Art is bravery, and it takes a brave act, such as this one, to broaden my mindset and make progressive art for all to eat.

ANY money to keep me going  from now through to april 2020 will be massively appreciated and put to productive use. I can't begin tell you how moved I have been from the support my social media following has given me. They have pushed me and inspired me to do bigger and bolder things.

I would love you to be part of this project, and help me realize this dream.

My check points are:

DOVER 
NORWITCH
HULL
WHITBY
NEWCASTLE
CARLISLE
KENDLE
MANCHESTER
LIVERPOOL
STOKE
BIRMINGHM
GLOUCESTER
BRISTOL
ST IVES 
ISLES OF SILLY
BRIGHTON
and back to DOVER.

There is a lot to get through in a year.

With your help, I can do it. 



As we stand, this country is in a state of fundamental change. To me, it’s a palpably uncertain time- it seems to be almost every day that I read news of displaced individuals and communities. As an artist, whose practice is so inextricably linked to England and how the nature of identity is shaped by our relationship to the land in which we live, I feel moved to reflect this feeling.

In many ways, my project begins on the 29/03/19 - the day of the Brexit vote. It is so important to me to get out there and explore as close to the result of this vote as possible.

I want instinctive reactions, from myself and others.

I want to get my hands dirty, and challenge my own perspective.

For me and for millions of English people, this year is a milestone.

I don’t know if it’s of hate or hope, but either way, I must use my artistic vision to make “Home Currently Unavailable” and reflect this intense time in which we live.

I often refer to poetry, as fishing. You have to go fishing for a poem. Well if that is the case, for me personally, based on everything I see, feel and hear in England, on 29/03/19 there will be a large bite, and it is my duty to react to it, and cease the opportunity to make progressive artwork.

Thank you so so much for your help.

Love, respect, love and love,

Gommie.