Please tell us who you are and what you’ve been working on recently.
KT: My name is Kerry Tenbey, an artist, curator, and researcher based in the North West. My making/research practice explores social histories and human connection to the material world through looking at traces, material marks and networks.
TD: My name is Tina Dempsey, an artist based in the coastal town of Fleetwood. Informed by ever expanding collections, my work takes naturalia, everyday objects and gifts, recontextualises and repurposes them in the form of the art object, a bookwork, a workshop, a conversation, an exhibition.
What drew you to each other’s practice?
Aside from working in close proximity as students and studio artists at Abingdon Studios, Blackpool, through conversation and observations of each other’s individual projects and processes of making, we identified shared ideas and enthusiasm for similar research areas.
How will you use the 1:1 FUND?
We are looking forward to having the time and space to work together and develop ideas from the conversations we have been having for some time. We are planning a site visit to collect some more robust research into trace evidence and natural histories which will help formalise our existing ideas. We can then spend time in the studio responding to this research both collaboratively and individually.
Why did you choose the idea you will be working on?
This could be because there are so many crossovers in our individual work that we have only recently discovered, and we are really excited at the possibilities of what working together could create. When you find someone else that’s as passionate about bits of rock and matchboxes as you, you have to explore that further and see what happens.
What is the one thing you most hope to gain from undertaking this work?
The most important aspect of this work is developing the foundation for our future collaboration. Without the 1:1 FUND, we may not have been able to afford the time to develop our ideas together.
