Robbie Coleman & Jo Hodges spent one month based at Tarset Village Hall in May 2021. Read more about their joint practice their residency experience here:

 

We currently live and work in remote rural South West Scotland and are fascinated by the multifaceted and changing relationships that exist in this context. As a result, our practice often takes ideas about place as a starting point. We make work that explores the interrelationships between differing ecologies, exploring layers of connection between past, present and possible futures.

We are interested in how people experience art in an out of gallery context and through our work explore and test relationships and strategies that might allow new ideas to resonate in the wider public space. Our work usually involves participation and collaboration whether that be with other artists, scientists, food producers, academics or communities. 
 
We have no favoured methodology or medium and allow the site and situation to guide our working processes. Our projects can range in scale and ambition from creating sites for conversation to large scale public events.

EDGE: Large sale interactive installation exploring the place where land and sea meet. Spring Fling 2017
Gipt 2: Medieval botanical illustration and sonified score. Tønsberg, Norway 2019

ENTWINED: Rural. Land. Lives. Art.

Jo and Robbie’s residency took place at a time when Covid restrictions meant community groups were still unable to meet at the Village Hall. Jo and Robbie devised gatherings and worked in ways that restrictions allowed, including meeting with the Song Reivers Community Choir, who sang ‘This is Home’ by Sophia Efthimiou for them outside The Holly Bush Inn. Jo and Robbie displayed the lyrics to this song on the notice boards outside of the village hall; the work unfolded over a week with each line of the song being displayed for a day, connecting the choir back to where they would normally sing. A second work, ‘Field Station:Here’ is in development and will be presented at the exhibition at Highgreen in September.

Biography

Robbie Coleman and Jo Hodges have a shared transdisciplinary public arts practice. Robbie has a background in sculpture and live art; project manages large-scale public arts projects and is Co-Director of the D-LUX light festival and co-curator of The Environmental Arts Festival Scotland. Jo Hodges has a background in Human Ecology and community development. Jointly their work investigates ecological and socio-cultural systems, processes and relationships, and explores new strategies for working in the public space. Their practice takes many forms including temporary and permanent works, site specific installations and socially engaged projects and processes. Their work is often led by context, where the outcome is determined as a result of process.

They are interested in research, experimentation and collaboration in the areas of environment and culture and in exploring the role of art in social change and place making.

They are Director-Curators of Sanctuary Lab, a public art laboratory that explores darkness, technology and place in the remote Galloway Forest Dark Skies Park.

www.colemanhodges.com

www.sanctuarylab.org