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 reading
Michael Snodgrass reflects on his Hatching Residency
My hatching residency raised a few areas to reflect on as a visual artist; a place and a studio space to go each day and create, a time to explore techniques, a chance to talk to other people about my work (and theirs), the opportunity to discuss work as it happens, respond to people’s thoughts and receive mentoring around social media and sharing work publicly.
Continue reading
Cody Maycock reflects on his Nestival Residency
I recently finished two weeks in my temporary studio space and it was exactly what my creatively blocked brain needed.
Continue reading
Indira Lakshmi reflects on her Nestival Residency
It’s always a pleasure to be at the Nest!
I spent the last two weeks on June in the Helloland studio. I had been working on building midi instruments with Arduino and Pure Data for some time, having made a rudimentary teddy-bear with potentiometers that control an FM Synth I’d programmed with Pure Data.
Continue reading
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 reading
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.
Continue reading
Nicky Bellenger reflects on her Nest Residency
This morning, in the fresh field,
I came upon a hidden nest.
It held four warm, speckled eggs.
I touched them.
Then went away softly,
having felt something more wonderful
than all the electricity of New York City.
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.
Continue reading
Ashleigh Aston & Gareth Price-Baghurst reflect on their Nest residency
We had an amazing 10 days with Talking Birds at The Nest in Coventry. Here’s a little vlog about our time with them!
Continue reading
Amanda Randall reflects on her Nest Residency
I had a great time in Helloland experimenting with making and photographing large paintings and drawings on the floor using natural pigments and mark making tools gathered from woodlands.
Continue reading
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 reading
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 reading
