I wrote a reflective review after 2 weeks – this can be seen at https://richarddalgleish.net/review-of-my-artists-residency/

It is now another month since that review and 6 weeks since I returned from Italy so I wanted to write a short piece to express what this means to me now with more time between the residency and today.

I still have the sense that residency was overwhelmingly positive for my practice, giving space to create, to think, to interact with other artists and to learn from the curator. I have been wondering how I might feel were I to repeat the experience but this time with a narrower set of aim rather than approaching residency with a blank page and allowing myself to be swept along. I think a repeated visit would always have an element of unplanned space given that I would never know who else would be there, how we might get on or not get on and how much their work interested me. All of these things equally apply to the other residents. Part of reason I have been thinking about this is that I have just learned that the Open Fund at Creative Scotland is closing on the 30th August. I previouysly asked them for feedback on my previous application which was rejected. Creative Scotland offer feedback and allow another application for the same project. I have been considering applying again perhaps for attendance next year. Creatively, if I went, I would want to spend some more time in Rome visiting the Catacombs and the Appian Way where the ancient Romans buried their dead alongside the old Roman road. Within the small village of the residency I have been thinking about how to use the ossuary. I think some research on all the people who have moved from Italy to Scotland and then using still images or video footage which I coulkd then project onto the walls of the ossuary might be a way forward. In my previous application to Creative Scotland, I told them I wanted to explor sound recording and they asked my how this fitted with my practice. This turned out to be excellent feedback as prior to my application I had just a round idea and hadn’t drilled down to what it was I wanted to explore and to create / achieve. Things here for me to think on and potential for another application to Creative Scotland before this fund closes.

I created a piece around memorial using fragments of floor tile I found on a walk and an old poster which was inviting local people to a celebration of the life of a local man who had died. The poster was damaged by the weather and the man’s face and crucial elements of the message had been eaten away by insects or the weather. I know for example his name was Gianni and that the event was held in April 2024. I could do some research and try to find more details but I prefer not knowing. I transformed this into a new work based on memorial. One of things on original poster is a line of text which has survived, “il presente vale anche come ringraziamerto” This translates as, “The present is also valid as a thank you.” I appreciate that this might be a mistranslation but I like that there is potential to have made a mistake. I have been wondering if the translation of these words might offer me an off the wall title for my Major Project?

The other things which been going on is my collaborative work with David D’Agostino continues. One thing which has become part of this sharing is that David recommended a book to me, “The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life” by John Daido Loori. This been very interesting to me with ideas such as seeing the still space either internally or as part of the creation of works. I expanded on some thoughts when I offered feedback to a fellow student who was working on street photography and this was well received. David likes to pass on his thoughts on Zen or Buddist teachings and some of this can be interesting.

I will show some of the works I have continued to produce as part of this sharing. The pieces below use the scattering of Rebecca’s ashes as inspiration. I have experimented with wood ash, with black sand and with crushed walnut shells in a symbolic re-spinking of her ashes over river pebbles collected from the place we scattered her remains. I do not know if any of this work is close enought to feature in my exploration of the liminal and it might be something which sits off to one side or forms it’s own project. David gave me feedback on how ephemeral the ash felt yet at thje same time grounded in solid materials. Here, as is his own interest, he mentioned the Heart Sutra and that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Lots to think about. He also asked me if my work revealed Rebecca’s mortality and the personal anguish inside of me. “Facing the demons” he called it.