Rubens Ghenov

"My time at Township10 came during the summer of 2020 when the pandemic was still considered somewhat nascent. My family had begun cabin fevering, wanting to unlocate themselves away from the now too monotonous existence within, conflated with the strange new fear outside. When the invitation came to do a residency there along with the family, things felt miraculous. We were there for 3 weeks and I took 11 paintings. I paint slow. As with other residencies, I had to get used to the new environ in order to make. Both studio and cottage were sunlit that it made me concoct a schedule of going early to the studio. Strangely, and perhaps unbeknownst to Marjorie at the time, clay shards have been somewhat protagonistic to my practice. In the afternoons, I would go and scavenge these broken pieces from the nearby creek adjacent to the location of the studios. I started attempting to fuse shards from different pots together which led me to work on some things with Kyle. This was something I had been thinking of doing for a long time, but again, the opportunity here displayed itself miraculous. When time slows down vis-à-vis a new lack of responsibilities and some usual pervasive hecticness, space takes on new forms. The day adhered itself to a contemplative structure as opposed to having to dragoon itself thusly. Out of this milieu, a sudden change came to fruition that I am still unraveling in the studio. Previous resident, Jeffry Mitchell, slightly consecrated the cottage with a plethora of records, some of which have been favorites of mine, notwithstanding, incense. These coincidences were so absurdly apropos that the coincidental vanished and the affirmation that something was tetrising here concretized. It is not usual that residencies take on families, very few do, but to be able to do so there alleviated an anxiety of guilt or absence that can at times be felt when leaving my crew to pursue things solo. I also love the idea of being able to allocate space for a mentor to come and spend time whilst there. This made the residency feel as if it were tying ancient ideals with futures. A dojo and a temple. A place where making is thinking."