KILN Tent

KILN tent is a hand printed portable space where I host meals and conversations to grow a more critical understanding of hospitality (making room for another) and commensality (being together around a table) within the public and private sectors. This is needed to develop a genuine culture within society of hospitality as a way of life rather than something that we do. 

 

My aims as an artist:

• To develop my artistic research into commensality, hospitality and how art and food can cohabit in an art practice

• To help threshold places to connect and widen horizons of hospitality to their publics

• To grow a more critical understanding of hospitality and commensality in present society

• To grow a culture of hospitality as a way of life rather than something that we do

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Each meeting will involve food, fellowship and discussion. Will you become a host of the KILN tent so that we may consider how your life and work breathes creative hospitality. Come with an open mind, an empty stomach and an eagerness to explore this together. The adventure awaits.

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Why hospitality?

Hospitality means breathing artistic generosity through every aspect of life. The different communities that I have lived in have embodied and extended different forms of hospitality, shaping and developing my thinking on this. Our culture often thinks of hospitality as inviting friends for dinner or the hospitality industry. But what of our conversations, our art institutes, our daily lives; how do hospitality and creativity fit into these areas? This is where I often box their meanings and this is what I want to explore and question through my art. What if art could be an act of generosity? And generosity an act of art? What if people could interact with and delight in it? I would like my artistic communication to be just this: a model of hospitality. I want to re-centre my motives and enjoy living artistic hospitality. 

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Why print?

I am a printmaker because printing is hospitable in its very nature. I think that art should touch every area of society and printmaking’s diverse processes allow me to take art into these different areas of life. From the framed print on a gallery wall, to the intimate reading corner of a home, to the controversial politics on the streets, to the cat walk, fish and chip shop or dinner table. Print has made its home in all of these spaces because it is willing to go to and befriend the people who mix there. Print is personable and cares about people. I think this marries so well with the unpretentious nature of the meal, which has a welcoming effect on those who are intimidated by contemporary art.