I have arrived in my beloved Berlin to start work with the Berghof Foundation for the next three weeks. This residency emerged from my desire to experience more of the rich working alongside in dialogue that I became aware was possible during the two years (2015-17) I spent in Berlin as artist-in-residence and Senior Research Fellow at Cinepoetics Center for Advanced Film Studies, Freie Universität. I discovered then the deep delight of painting alongside people who were engaged in a quite different world (in this case, film theory) and yet who were willing to explore connections with my practice. My work was invigorated – by the city, by the films we watched together, by our discussions about metaphor. I invited people to share my studio space at intervals and they went away refreshed, thinking a little differently after experience with paint and colour and form.
Complex connections (detail), acrylic and marker pen on crumpled paper, Lynne Cameron, 2022
After this, I developed my own version of an artist residency within an organisation, that would not only be about my work as influenced by the organisation but also about sharing some aspects of studio practice – the commitment, the joy of getting lost in painting, the excitement of emerging ideas.
Out of respect for their work and to connect with my long term interest in conflict transformation, I offered to trial this model of a residency with the Berghof Foundation. Coronavirus, and the need for people to work from home, has changed the residency model yet again, to online mode. Having developed an online ‘un-residency’, I realised that this had the very positive advantage of being able to be carried out from anywhere, including Berlin.
So here we are!
My temporary studio, with the painting Complex Connections
I’m not based in the Berghof Foundation office but up the road in Prenzlauer Berg in an apartment where I’m setting up a small temporary studio. I’ve carried a few supplies from UK and will replenish them from the riches of this city. So far I have some lovely cardboard to paint on (a box from the local Aldi), five Molotow markers from the nearby store that sells aerosol paints, some post-it notes, and some thin paper that was used for wrapping paintings in my suitcase.
I am really ‘trusting the process’, and excited to find out what can happen in the next three weeks of this almost-a-residency, working alongside in dialogue.