University Campus Suffolk   2008/2009

Isabella Pitisci

The AA2A scheme provided me with the opportunity to have focused time and dedicated resources to produce two new bodies of work, ‘Vanitas’ and ‘The Moment I Woke Up (II)’, and to research and test new ideas for future work.

The main series of work I produced ‘The Moment I Woke Up (II)’ seeks to combine conceptual rigor with the everyday, the mechanical with the sensual, and explores ideas of difference and repetition through a generic series of self-portraits taken in a transitional moment. For this project I photographed myself every morning as soon as I woke up, over a period of a year, using my mobile phone, which also acts as my alarm clock.

The School of Arts at University Campus Suffolk, Ipswich, provided a stimulating and supportive environment in which I was able to engage in creative dialogue with students, staff, and three other artists on the AA2A scheme.

On completion of the scheme, myself and the other three AA2A artists were given the opportunity to hold an exhibition of our recent work at the new UCS gallery, in the Waterfront building. This was a great chance to showcase our work to friends, colleagues, students and the public. The exhibition was well publicised and the private view was generously sponsored by the University and particularly well attended.

The dynamic mix of people I met through the scheme has been fantastic. I now feel part of a growing network of artists in the region and I have also established on-going links with the School of Arts at UCS.