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Caitlin Franzmann

What

Caitlin Franzmann undertook a three-month residency at torna, located on the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey. The residency included pragmatic research such as visiting cultural and social sites, discussing ideas with locals, production of a limited edition publication and screenprints, and exhibition of a new site responsive video/sound installation at torna. Outcomes of the residency were re-contextualised and exhibited at Metro Arts, Brisbane in July 2014. The exhibition, Invisible Movements was accompanied by a catalogue conversation with artist Merve Kaptan from torna.

The residency gave Caitlin time to research her interests in spirituality, architecture, movement and social connections. Through discussions, observation and research she discovered local places, writers and artists that inspired her practice.

Caitlin has since participated in group exhibitions including at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space and was recently awarded the Churchie National Emerging Art Prize.

When

March to August 2014 

Where

Istanbul, Turkey and Brisbane. 

Photo of woman at a desk

Arts Queensland contribution

$2200– Individuals Fund   

Outcomes

  • Caitlin learned to be more ambitious with her work and to take risks. The residency pushed her to explore new ways to present her work as well as exposure to new skills using arduino technology. With the support of others, she was able to produce a large-scale sculpture and an opening night performance in addition to the video and sound installation for her exhibition at Metro Arts in Brisbane. 
  • Work inspired from the residency will feature in the Primavera 2014 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney to which Caitlin has been invited to exhibit. 
  • New contacts developed through the residency have opened up further opportunities. Caitlin is now in discussion regarding a new collaboration work. 
  • Caitlin gained a stronger understanding of the way that she works—immersing herself into a place, observing people and reading fiction all contribute equally to her practice. She found Istanbul to be a vibrant, confusing and inspiring place. The tensions between tradition and modernity were interesting to explore, particularly within the neighborhoods, transport systems and social spaces. 

Photo of the installation

Learnings and reflections

Caitlin learned how environment and experiences can influence the creative process and reflected on the challenges in undertaking a residency in another country: 

I learnt that the quiet lonely times can fuel creativity as much as the soaking in of culture and new people. 

I discovered an attraction to poetry and voice and would like to explore this further in my practice. 

Upon reflection, I feel that I would have benefited from another month or two on the residency. This extra time would have allowed me to build upon relationships more. 

Language at times presented a challenge in terms of finding solutions to problems. This is where the residency host was incredibly important. On reflection, I feel I would have benefited from learning more of the Turkish language, particularly with developing work that involves social engagement. 

Another challenge was finding that there was so much inspiration that it was difficult to start to make work on only one project. How I dealt with this was by realising that I didn't need to resolve all of my ideas and that many of them could go into an ideas bank that I could come back to later. 

Caitlin had the following advice to offer to other people planning to undertake a residency: 

My advice to others going on a residency would be to maintain a balance between experiencing all that the place has to offer and taking time to reflect and research. 

 

Contact for further information

Email: caitlinfranzmann@gmail.com 

Phone: 0416 698 532

Website: www.caitlinfranzmann.com  

Links

Metro arts exhibition with links to catalogue

Blog of residency

 

 A pdf version of this case study (PDF) (338.89 KB) is available.