Jay Potrykus, experiments in living safely
Over November, we have welcomed Jay Potrykus into the OUTPOST studios residency space. Jay was selected for the final members residency of 2022.
OPEN STUDIO
Saturday 26 November
12-6pm
OUTPOST Studios, Gildengate House, Anglia Square, Upper Green Lane, NR3 1AX
JP: I was often told as a student that despite circumstances, artists should/can always find ways to make work; this was especially purported throughout Covid “you don’t need a studio to be an artist”. That’s probably true for some, but personally, a decent space is much needed, to step back and let work breathe and see how it holds up on its own. As a dyslexic I also need space to think! Sadly, space, just like time and money, is a luxury. So there was a pressure there. But I soon settled in and it has been a real privilege. It has felt like total freedom.
JP: I don’t make big objects, so filling the space was never going to be the goal. I am more interested in the organization of objects and space, creating quiet, intimate moments. My work deals with despondency and emptiness and I feel like the starkness of this space builds this sense of, I guess, loneliness. I have been doing quite a few different things this month. Marquetry is my ‘craft’ (historically, a decorative technique, where wood is cut and fit together flush, like a jigsaw, to form a pattern or image) but I will always want to work with objects and make assemblages, often intuitively. So far, the work produced is desperate in its form and subject, but it all aims to distil moments of humiliation and desolation, though outwardly a bit silly, using slapstick devices and nostalgia. I’ve been trying to find that murky, uncomfortable area between humour and deep sadness.
image credit: Maddie Exton