Nest Residency

Don’t Touch My Hair

| Charlie

Rosa Francesca reflects on her Coventry Biennial Nest Residency

In 2021 I completed a Nest Residency on the subject of Black hair and the Natural Hair movement, particularly looking at how Black women’s relationship with their hair is often intruded upon, either physically by white people touching it without consent, or through unsolicited advice and comments  on its styling. My project was a cybernetic wig, using a variety of sensors to create an interactive wig that both entices and reprimands users to interact with the wig.

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a freedom i’d not felt before

| vornster

Tom Simkins reflects on his recent Hatching Residency

I finally managed to apply for my Hatching residency at Talking Birds.

I wanted to try out more movement and performance related work, and also explore my synesthesia. After a few initial ideas of how I might explore this, and some helpful and supportive conversations with the Birds I set out to see how I could explore or express my relationship with my senses in synesthesia through movement.

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The Drugs Don’t Work, But the coffee does

| Charlie

Filmmaker Adrian Dowling reflects on his Nestival Residency

It took me more than two months to apply to do the residency. I kept putting it off because I find those kind of things very difficult, but after attending one of the F13 meetings I felt quite comfortable in the space. Duncan Whitley [a former Talking Birds Resident] was pushing me, saying “Why don’t you do it? I think it would be good for you.” So I recorded a voice application with the help of my daughter, Kady, who’s doing all the technical stuff while I’m reading off some paper because I find it quite difficult to write things down.

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Action Rayz in 3 Dimensions

| Charlie

Jazz Moreton and Alan Wan Wijgerden reflect on their Nest residency

Over the course of this residency, we developed a shared artistic voice that built on our individual experiences of disability. We had a great time examining our shared practice throughout this residency. Although Alan has more professional experience (an age thing, not a professionalism thing!), Jazz has a mind full of fresh ideas and solutions to almost any creative issue.

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A window of uninterrupted music

| Charlie

Mason Le Long Reflects on his Hatching Residency with Talking Birds

To be honest, I thought it sounded too good to be true. Talking Birds promising to pay artists to come and work in their studios for ten days, and not even asking for any finished material at the end of it? I thought there must be more to it than meets the eye.

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Finding Joy

| Charlie

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.

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Scratching the Surface

| Charlie

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. 

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The animal needs more space

| Charlie

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.

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