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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Like a Fairy Tale

| Charlie

Shorna reflects on her Hatching Residency

“Talking Birds is a Coventry based company of artists, known for their gently provocative projects which explore, and seek to illuminate, the profound and complex relationships between people and place.” These lines from their website says a lot about this astonishing company. I have recently completed my two weeks residency there and feel very lucky to get this opportunity. I was placed in a beautiful studio, “Helloland”. I must say the name of the studio made me so happy because I was planning to illustrate a children’s book that will have illustrations of gardens. My studio gave me a perfect start. 

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Games and Gnit

| Charlie

Colour to Colour Theatre Company reflect on their Remix Residency at Talking Birds

The plan: Start the R&D phase of creating a show that can be toured. Play with all the resources that The Nest have provided us, and look for texts to adapt and work from. By the end of the residency we plan to have a few scenes ready to perform. We also plan to be ready to provide workshops for students at Coventry University. 

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HELLOLAND

| vornster

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’.

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Conditions of Creation

| vornster

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.

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Satis House

| Charlie

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.

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The Shadow Factory

| Charlie

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.

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