Guerrilla Studio at Vida e - A living installation with Tamsin Relly

‘Guerrillla studio at Vida e’ is driven by the unpredictability of an active environment to shape an artwork.

In starting I have arranged 100 blank canvases on a wall in Vida e Caffe in Greenpoint. The work, entitled ‘Heartbeat Two’ will then evolve over a three week period, as the blank canvases are replaced with portrait studies of people in the space.

The work follows a concept from 2005, when at …What if the World, I exhibited a similar 100 of such canvases to form one piece, entitled ‘101 Tchothckes – The heartbeat series’. The work completed in my studio, was autobiographic and focused on portraits of people close to me and my home and working environment. Arranged in a grid, they served as pixels to form a suggested heart shape.
I have repeated the heart shape as a starting point for this installation. This time the piece extracts different personalities as they present in public space. Each portrait holds an individual story, yet placed playfully together they become words in sentences that form a narrative of the surroundings.

The project both exposes the art making process and allows people to engage with it, breaking down the boundaries between artist and subject. Visitors are invited to contribute words, marks or drawings to the collective journal of the project and those who sit to be drawn, are asked to choose the placement of their portraits among the rest on the wall.
The frequented coffee shop of transitory moments and good chats is intervened with a space which is engaging, intimate and sometimes reflective.

The project is in its early days. Visit my blog journal for progress of the work and details of the times I’ll be on site: http://multimediations.org/tamsin
Join us for the closing evening on 24th November at 6pm, when individual canvases will be available for sale to the public.
The installation will be exhibited until the 25th of November

Vida e Caffe , Greenpoint, Cnr Portswood and main rd, Opening hours:
Monday – Saturday 07.00h – 17.00h, Sunday 08.00h – 17.00h, www.vidaecaffe.com