More details about my project - Julia Douglas

I am artist in residence at Timespan for 7 weeks, over June and July 2010, creating an exhibition (open 21^st August – 10^th October 2010) and a publication.

My work is usually inspired by the home and the relationship people have with the objects they put in them to make them their own. While I am here I plan to focus my attention on the history of Sutherland crofts and the crofter’s lifestyle and share some of the stories I collect about their lives, by pondering the relationship they had with their homes and the objects they put in them, and playfully transforming these into mixed media artworks. I'm thinking of constructing some sort of installation in the gallery and also making a lovely coffee table book packed with inspirational images and snippets of gathered stories.

I'm also going to work with enthusiastic members of the knitting group, who meet on a weekly basis in Timespan, and a handful of children from Helmsdale Primary School. I'm hoping they will be willing and able to help me make a piece for the exhibition. This cross-generational collaboration will not only help to develop closer relationships between the generations but also allow the knitting group to hand down some of their traditional skills to a younger generation, keeping these skills alive.