We’re delighted to share that artist Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom has been announced as the inaugural resident of the Donna Lynas Residency. The residency is a new opportunity for an artist at a key moment in their career, and has been named in memory of Donna Lynas, the Curator widely known for their support for artist development.
The residency is supported by four cultural organisations over three years, in a partnership between Wysing Arts Centre, South London Gallery, Modern Art Oxford and Somerset House Studios. The recipient will receive £16,000 a year for three years and the support of each partner – including mentoring, use of facilities and the potential for inclusion in public programmes.
Appau works across multimedia installation and performance, combining ready-made objects, sculpture, photography, sound, archive and self-produced moving image to create installations with multi-layered references, highlighting cultural collision. Appau incorporates snippets of film footage and fragments of sound into works, as well as collaborating with musicians for live improvisation. Appau was previously selected for Jerwood Solo Presentation 2019, where he presented an audio and video installation that brought together several ongoing investigations of his practice. Find out more about Appau’s Jerwood Solo Presentation installation.
Appau said,
“As someone who is rarely awarded prizes this opportunity comes with incredible surprise and excitement. It is reassuring to have the support in allowing me the time, space and facilities to experiment within my practice and I’m looking forward to exploring the possibilities that are now open to me and the potential of my work entering unexpected places.”
The Donna Lynas Residency celebrates Donna’s legacy, and comes at a critical moment in terms of conversations around artist pay, and the sustainability of artists’ long term careers. Each institution involved in the residency has a relationship with Donna, and in 2019, Donna invited the Studios to guest curate the influential annual music festival she founded, Wysing Polyphonic.
Find out more about the Residency on the Somerset House website.
