Re-Domesticated
Description of the project

London based artists Kasia Garapich and Poppy Whatmore partner with Grymsdyke Farm and Polish Culture Institute, London to deliver Re-Domesticated - a project which will explore the relationship between art objects and functionality.

"Re-Domesticated" is an artistic project directed towards exploring the relationship between fine art and craft in rural setting. We will research and explore the history and heritage related to furniture making in the Wycombe area, famous for its traditional wooden furniture design and fabrication methods as well as potential links with other similar places in Europe, namely Zakopane in Poland. The project focuses on production and the reuse of locally crafted items. Re-Domesticated will see a collection of new artworks, created by artists Kasia Garapich and Poppy Whatmore, over a residency period at the Grymsdyke Farm, a research facility for artists/designers. Some of the artworks are planned as fully functional pieces of furniture, vessels and containers.

Re-Domesticated is dedicated to initiating interdisciplinary discussion on the relationship between art and utility with involvement from the local public. Over the duration of the project, we will make and exhibit the new work at the Grymsdyke Farm. The work potentially will be displayed at Wycombe Museum, the Library and the Speen Festival. The project will be concluded in an exhibition and a celebratory party event at the Farm, 29 June 2019. The exhibition opening event has a guest list of over 200 people, most of whom are from art, design and curating background. For instance invited guests include Glenn Adamson from Victoria and Albert Museum, Adam Sutherland from Grizedale Arts, Anna Wende-Surmiak director of Tatra Museum in Zakopane and Julita Dembowska, curator from Wladyslaw Hasior Gallery, Tatra Museum, Zakopane, Poland.

Kasia Garapich is currently working towards a practice-led PhD at the Slade School of Art, University College London. In addition to her sculptural practice, since 2013 she has been involved in art projects directed towards useful or socially significant outcomes and educational projects.
Between 2016 and 2018 she was an artist/educator at DemonstRAte and Create workshops with the Royal Academy’s London Heritage Department. In 2013 she curated and facilitated Coloring Invisible, a social art project in collaboration with artist Julia Vogl, at ArtBoom Festival, Krakow, Poland. Since 2013 she has collaborated with Grizedale Arts – for example the ‘House of Ferment’, (as a lead artist with Karen Guthrie), Village Table projects (2015) and she also initiated ongoing collaboration/exchange between Grizedale Arts and Tatra Museum in Zakopane.
Kasia Garapich divides her practice, first between studio-based sculptural work, involving found materials to create ‘extensions’ or ‘prosthetics’ to objects which have lost their functionality through dismemberment; and, secondly, socially useful or educational projects done in collaboration with established art organizations (Grizedale Arts, Royal Academy). She currently works on a series of performative sculptures with an emphasis on an art object’s usefulness. This project would have an immense impact on her work, allowing for the first time to join two aspects of her practice in one project - a sculptural studio work with research-oriented curatorial and educational work.

Poppy Whatmore facilitates architectural workshops (Newcastle University) supporting ‘thinking through making’ for practical research projects. From 2014 she teaches at the Mary Ward Adult Education and Art Academy, exploring space, construction and sculpture.
Before an MA at the Slade School of Art, Whatmore studied architecture (Architectural Association, London). She continues to explore the interdisciplinary nature between architectural practice and sculptural approaches, so therefore Grymsdyke Farm as a research centre is an ideal environment to develop a research project. Her current investigations explore where architectural spaces question identity – in particular when everyday life expose both dysfunction as well as function. Her current work subverts the ergonomics of objects, contrasting functional systems of architecture, everyday activities and processes of labour.
Poppy Whatmore has done extensive work with furniture in the past, mostly in the form of manipulating and re-designing existing functional objects. This opportunity would allow for extensive practical investigations to align with a collaborative body of work, therefore, questioning function in relation to theory. The facilities of workshops (CNC machines offered at Grymsdyke Farm and clay robotics) would facilitate, extend technological advances & align these with locally found materials, and already explored materials. Her work continues to develop between an inter-disciplinary dialogue of sculpture and architectural space.

This opportunity would allow an arena to expose both artists work to a cross-section of a public audience and to develop their practical research in a collaborative, multidisciplinary setting and to open up further opportunities of collaboration with Tatra Museum in Zakopane.

The research and developmental part of "Re-Domesticated" takes place at Grymsdyke Farm. It involves two members of staff (technicians) and Dr. Guan Lee, the director, as an informal design mentor/consultant and archives at the Wycombe Museum and Wycombe Library.
Grymsdyke Farm is a research facility and fabrication workshop for architects, artists and designers interested in materials and the process of making. Grymsdyke Farm was established in 2008 and it is run by the practicing architect Dr. Guan Lee whose main aim is to support a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach for creative making and facilitating an exchange of ideas, working methods, interests and expertise of practitioners from different creative disciplines. The farm further hosts conferences, seating 150 people indoors, catering up to 250 people. The farm has collaborated with established institutions such as the Victoria&Albert Museum. “Re-Domesticated” project aims to extend Grymsdyke Farm collaborations towards new networks - Grizedale Arts in UK and Tatra Museum in Zakopane, Poland.

Project is kindly supported by:

Polish Culture Institute London
Grymsdyke Farm