Anne Forgan reflects on her Hatching Residency
A place of permission.
I shouldn’t need it, but still I do.
Continue readingA place of permission
making art
No distraction
Matt Rheeston reflects on his Hatching Residency
For my Nest Residency I spent time exploring my creativity in a therapeutic way, through drawing, music, song writing and production.
Continue readingFinding Joy
Nicola Richardson and Marianne Taviner reflect on their Hatching Residency
We are Nicola and Maz, the Directors of Vortex Creates. Vortex is a Coventry based organisation who for nearly 15 years have specialised in igniting the imagination of audiences through transforming spaces and creating showstopping costumes.
Continue readingScratching the Surface
Selina Masih reflects on her Nestival Residency
I had a great time at The Nest, A two-week art residency in the studio ‘Helloland’. It was painted in a cheerful yellow which made me instantly smile. Two whole weeks to fully immerse myself in this project, I was super excited! For over 2 years I’ve been waiting to find time to explore ‘paint carving’ an art-form I came across during lockdown, created by the Australian artist Hannah Jenson.
Continue readingThe animal needs more space
Rosalind Harvey reflects on her Nest Residency
Recently I have been thinking a lot about space. The literal, physical space in which to do one’s work (Virginia Woolf’s ‘Room of One’s Own’), but also the mental space you need to carve out in which to write, to think, to create. I normally work from home and am very used to doing so (I’ve been a self-employed writer-translator for almost 15 years now), but after spending more time at home than even I am comfortable with during lockdown, my relationship to working from home has shifted.
Continue readingHELLOLAND
Kim Hackleman reflects on her Nest Residency
“Language is a life raft.”
Amanda Gorman
The Nest is a home base and shared workspace for Talking Birds, a company of artists based in Coventry, England, known for their “gently provocative projects which explore, and seek to illuminate, the profound and complex relationships between people and place”(1). This week I completed a two-week, funded residency inside The Nest, in the wonderful studio called ‘Helloland’.
Continue readingConditions of Creation
In June and September of 2022, B.O.O.K took part in a two-week residency at Talking Birds focusing on access riders.
B.O.O.K (Building Our Own Knowledge) is a working group of Black artists, curators, and researchers based in the West Midlands which re-distributes resources via artist residencies, commissions, and projects – with an emphasis on building sustainable ways of working/living and nurturing the development of ‘slow art’ practices.
Continue readingSatis House
Corinne and Daisy reflect on their Remote Nest Residency.
I’m Corinne, a disabled self-portrait artist. This year marks my fifth year of spending almost every day confined to the same 2 by 1.5 metre space, my bed. During my residency my only childhood and imaginary friend Daisy helped me transform a vintage dolls house into our childhood home. I’m Neurodivergent and was never encouraged to read as a child, but at the age of 15 read my first book Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’. It was a struggle and both my family and teachers discouraged me.
Continue readingFinding the “right” words
Olugbemi Moronfolu reflects on her Nest Residency
I started writing poetry as a child, mostly because I was confused.
There were many things that I did not understand.
I didn’t understand why I had to practice my pronunciation when other children did not.
Continue readingThe Shadow Factory
Rob Coletta and Craig McKay reflect on their Nest Residency
We are The Killer Show and we have been for some time. A surreal comedy sketch show that formed long ago in the hallowed age of 2007. We began working together while studying at Coventry University before going on to perform various shows at a variety of venues and events. The shows produced were often a mixture between live sketches and filmed material that would often collide with absurd consequences. Our material is often concerned with universal truths with existential stakes. With a large back catalog of shows including Picasso Did It, Mummy, Can you hear a Bin? and Diseased Rainbows we were riding high.
Continue readingWorking with waste
Tom Edwards reflects on his Nest Residency
My residency fell on a time that I was very busy with other work commitments so unfortunately I didn’t get to make the most of it.
My original idea was to start working on a tin metal marionette.
Continue readingExploring theatre with people who have qualms about theatre
Andrea Mbarushimana reflects on her Nest residency
I’m a writer and artist. I have mostly written poetry and my third pamphlet was published last year by Knives Forks and Spoons Press. I was also a core poet for the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival last year. This year, to capitalize on that success, I quit my day job to become a full-time freelance writer. Over the course of this year, my overwhelming desire is to focus on fun, risk and exploration in my work, in order to revive my poetry practice and write a novel.
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Words from the Birds 