Work in progress - Clare Charnley and
Lulia Togara
About work in progress:
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Clare and Lulia came together to discuss, as artists, each other's ideas for collaboration. A common-ground was found in the creation of a game; words and phrases from their conversations were laid out in a grid.
Moving horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, different combinations of ideas could be explored. They started by going straight down the first column using its words as a bubble of themes to base their story-poem on. Other ideas from the grid cheekily crept in.
Once it had been written, the artists set about making images. As they continue to build it, Clare and Lulia share with us their work in progress.
This is just the beginning...
The two collaborators invite you to watch their short film and play their game.
Pick a direction, on the grid below, and see if you can come up with something of your own. If you'd like to share what you come up with send it to us Assembly House, through our Instagram, Facebook or email.
About the collaboration:
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"Looking back on a project it’s easy to be glowing. Chatting together at the start was exciting, ideas zinging between us. However, making work together wasn’t as straightforward. We came in with very different experiences, aesthetics and work processes.
Working outside your comfort zone is by definition uncomfortable. Both of us had individual moments when we gulped and wondered how we were going to get through.
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But we did, perhaps because an excited belief in what we were doing together carried us. There were some initial misunderstandings, some of which turned out to be creative.
It’s an obviously worthy thing to claim - but we both genuinely grew through working together on this project. As well as insights into each other’s thinking, we learnt skills, boldnesses and new approaches from the other. By now we have figured out how to weave together elements of our individual thoughts so both of us are present in each word and image.
We can’t wait to continue working on our short film and we have ideas beyond the video to develop together too. We were well matched!
Many thanks to Alice from Assembly House for enabling this journey and thanks to Will for his tactful support. He was more helpful than he realised."
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- Clare and Lulia
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Work in progress was commissioned by Assembly House, as part of their Artist X Writer collaborative commissions. For these commissions we paired up artists and writers, who had not previously met or worked together, to create a brand new artwork.
This project was supported by Arts Council England and assembly House is supported by Arts@Leeds, part of Leeds City Council.