Roz Driscoll Residency at Space, Dartington Hall, Devon UK

During the month of April, Roz Driscoll had the first artist’s residency at Space, Dartington Hall, Devon, UK, in preparation for a collaborative multi-sensory installation, Just Under the Surface, in Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, London, UK, May 6-19, 2011

April was the warmest, driest, earliest spring in English memory, providing me with a glorious month at Dartington Hall, a 2000 acre estate in Devon with a rich legacy in progressive education, environmental practices and the arts. The extraordinary gardens, grounds and community of Dartington Hall and town of Totnes created the context for a rich, productive month. I worked in a spacious studio in the former home of the renowned Dartington College of the Arts, where I made sculptures and drawings in preparation for the installation in London.

See www.dartington.org.

In London, we installed Just Under the Surface, an immersive, multi-sensory installation in the Crypt Gallery, a labyrinthine crypt under St Pancras Church. My collaborators, with whom I had worked for over a year on the project, were Tereza Stehlikova, film-maker, Bonnie Kemske, ceramacist, and Anais Tondeur, textile artist. We considered the crypt our fifth collaborator.

Drawing on the mythological imagery of the neoclassical church of St Pancras, I envisioned the crypt as the Greek underworld—Hades, land of the dead. Five rivers flowed through Hades: Lethe, river of forgetfulness; Styx, river of hate; Cocytus, lamentation; Acheron, sorrow and pain; and Phlegethon, fire. I had made the five rivers in my studio in Massachusetts during the winter and shipped them to London. During the Dartington residency I added two rivers to reflect the modern psyche: the rivers of disconnection and meaninglessness. The installation was richly sensory and immersive, engaging visitors in body and soul.

See www.rosalyndriscoll.com and www.artintouch.co.uk.

(images below L to R: River of Disconnection, River of Fire, River of Hate, River of Meaninglessness)

Rosalyn Driscoll on Synesthesia

Synesthesia, or sensory crossover, has long been the domain of artists who combine visual effects with other sensory modes, such as hearing or taste, and the occasional odd person who perceives numbers or music as colors.

Although my sculptures explore the territory shared by sight and touch, I never considered myself synesthetic until my work was included in an exhibition called Sensory Crossovers: Synesthesia in American Art, curated by Sharyn Udall at the Albuquerque Museum in New Mexico. My sculpture-video installation, Second Skin, adds a contemporary note (and an example of using sight and touch) to mid 20th century artists who fused sensory modes: O'Keefe, Dove, Burchfield, Gottlieb, and others. Video of installation at http://RosalynDriscoll.com.

I learned that synesthesia is a special neurological condition, but scientists taking it seriously are discovering that it is more common, and that the senses are considerably more connected, than previously thought. Although my own crossovers between sight and touch are not involuntary or invariant, as they are in "true" synesthesia, I do perceive, think, make decisions (and art) in terms of inner feelings - not emotions but sensations. I wonder how many other artists, especially sculptors, perceive in such idiosyncratic ways.

Link to exhibition:
http://www.cabq.gov/museum/featured.html