My name is Liam O’Connor and from the 1 April this year, I will have a studio at the V&A as the Exhibition Road drawing resident. I’ll have access to this studio for a whole year and will be looking at documenting and working with the building site that will eventually be the site of the Museum’s new exhibition galleries in 2017.
This residency provides a fantastic opportunity to go behind the scenes of two very different worlds, and tap into the knowledge and experience of staff at the V&A and on the building site. I’m already looking forward to the new opportunities and directions this will open up within my work.
In particular, I’m looking forward to studying the Casts Collection. The Cast Court has always been my favourite space at the V&A, as facsimile is something that greatly interests me. A lot of my drawing is concerned with direct physical readings of the subject they describe, like rubbings, relief prints and photograms.
Before being selected for this residency at the V&A, I was at the British Museum and as part of my residency there I spent time with Mike Neilson, Head of Facsimile. We worked through the various techniques he uses to make replicas of their objects. I look forward to continuing my education at the V&A with the curators and conservators who look after this collection.
A building site generates so many temporary architectural forms, which often have a feeling of harmony or being complete. I would like to understand more about the techniques and motivations in making the V&A’s casts to see how they can inform the way I capture these temporary architectural forms on the Exhibition Road building site.
I can’t wait to get started in just over a month, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated on my progress via this blog.
