Over the last few years we have been asking artists to write blogs whilst undertaking their residencies at Sura Medura, Sri Lanka. These blogs are a mixture of experiences, musings, and approaches and are revealing in how each artist experiences their time at Sura Medura differently. 

All the blogs are posted on our dedicated Sura Medura Website here

Or for direct access to each of the artists blog series, you can click on their name below:

2019 Spring

Sue Hill

Imwen Eke

Pippa Taylor & Jony Easterby

Kathy Hinde

Jane Pitt

Anne Milne

Jamie Wardrop

Alice Cooper

2018 Winter

Zephyr Liddell

Dave House

Coco Loco

2018 Spring

Rob Mulholland

Sleepdogs

Emma Brierley

Subathra Subramanium

Brian Hartley

Periplum

2017 Winter

Anders Rigg

Flick Ferdinando

Helen Ottaway

Kyna Hodges

Lorna Rees

Rae-Yen Song

2017 Spring

Lewis Sherlock

Ross Whyte

Zoe Katsilerou

Joshua Sofaer

Mary Genis

2016

Nichola Scrutton

Natasha Russell

Sumit Sarkar

2015

Stephanie Oettl and Samson Ogiamien

John Rogers - Blog 1

- Blog 2

- Blog 3

- Blog 4

- Blog 5

Juri Cainero

Stephen Hurrel

Martin Janicek

Matteo Lanfranchi

2014 / 15

Alex Rigg

Adrian Schvarzstein

Elisabeth Wildling

2013 / 14

Hannah Brackston

Jo Hodges and Robbie Coleman

Sita Pieraccini

Tom Pritchard

Mark Vernon

Zweintopf

2012/ 13

Kit Mead

FEB - MAR 2019 Residency Line Up

For the 2019 Spring Sura Medura residency, we have invited 8 new artists to make new work, collaborate and be inspired by the beauty, culture, country and people of Sri Lanka.

Sue Hill  Sue is a WILDWORKS founding artist, who was born and educated in Cornwall. She has worked with many companies including Welfare State International, Emergency Exit Arts, Walk the Plank Theatre Ship, and the Royal National Theatre. In 1988 she joined Kneehigh theatre company, serving on their management team from 1994 – 2001 and helping to grow their distinctive style of theatre. From 2000 until 2006 she was Artistic Director for the Eden Project, developing their innovative interpretation strategy, commissioning artists, writers and performers to illuminate Eden’s ideas and messages. With her brother Pete Hill she has made many large-scale carnival images and earth sculptures, including the iconic Mudmaid in the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

Imwen Eke Imwen is a freelance producer and events consultant. Founder and Creative Director of New Party Rules, arts events company. She also work with companies and individuals across the arts, business and public sectors  exploring new models of audience engagement and interaction with culturally diverse audiences.

Pippa Taylor & Jony Easterby  Pippa Taylor is an artist and musician based in mid Wales.A multi instrumentalist playing piano, viola and fiddle. She is also an accomplished woodcarver and painter who has created both public artworks and exhibited internationally. Jony Easterby is an artist, designer, maker, producer, director, performer, a passionate naturalist and plants-man.Using both digital and analogue media, Jony investigates the boundaries between raw elemental materials, sound technology, composition, landscape and architecture.

Kathy Hinde Kathy Hinde’s work grows from a partnership between nature and technology expressed through audio-visual installations and performances that combine sound, sculpture, image and light. Drawing on inspiration from behaviours and phenomena found in the natural world, she creates work that is generative; that evolves; that can be different each time it is experienced. Kathy aims to create work that gives rise to a poetic and reflective experience that enriches an appreciation of the everyday, inviting a heightened awareness of the world around us.

Jane Pitt Jane Pitt is an artist based in Chatham Kent. Her work encompasses a range of disciplines including performance, sound, photography, animation and sculpture. After studying fine art at Brighton University she ran away with the circus where she learned to fuse her talents for performance and creating something from nothing, it is that fusion that forms the basis of her work today. Her work is influenced by live art, circus, illusion, itinerant showmen, magic, theatre, the natural and built environment.

Anne Milne  Anne Milne is an award-winning Scottish filmmaker. Her film María's Way was nominated for the European Film Award 2010, and won a BAFTA New Talent award as well as playing at numerous international film festivals, and picking up more awards. After being awarded a WorldView Multi Media Grant, she travelled to Nepal to shoot Himalayan Sisters which later won an editing award at the 2011 Underwire Festival. Since then she has been working on a number of commissioned films. Into Deep Space, a short film about the search for exo-planets was shown at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York and Dublin where it was awarded a Special Mention. In recent times she has been producing short documentaries with the Scottish Documentary Institute, the most recent Swan (2016) was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Short film and shortlisted for a Grierson Award. She has also been co-teaching documentary workshops with SDI/British Council in Libya, Pakistan, and Jordan. Anne is currently directing a film, Adventures in Dementia commissioned by STV and produced by Scottish Documentary Institute. It is due to be broadcast in 2019. She is also co-founder of DocKlub.

Jamie Wardrop Jamie is a Glasgow based freelance theatre maker and designer. He trained on the BA Acting Course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He is self-taught in projection, sound, film, composing and 3d animation, as part of the Edinburgh Hogmanay Festival 2019 Jamie created live visuals for Capercaillie, Carlos Núñez and the 20 piece Symphonic Ibiza playing Ibiza dance classics in the McEwan Hall. For the Hogmanay street party, he created a celebratory projection mapped live visuals on to the Bank of Scotland HQ on the mound. Other VJ credits for 2018 include Basement Jaxx, Forth Awards – Usher Hall, Rozalla, Amy MacDonald, Go West and many techno djs as part of his residency at SWG3, Glasgow.

Alice Cooper Alice is an Edinburgh-based theatre maker, actor and clown originally from Sydney, Australia.  She makes work for all ages and is passionate about sustainability and making work that has the environment at its heart. Alice’s show, Waves (‘a miniaturist gem’ The Observer) has been presented extensively including to Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, Auckland Arts Festival and New Zealand International.

NOV - DEC 2018 Residency Line Up

Exciting new developments are afoot with new residency artists announced at Sura Medura and The Snowball Effect project about to take flight. Stay tuned for more information soon.

UZ Arts are delighted to announce the next artists in residence at Sura Medura, Sri Lanka artist residency centre.

Zephyr Liddell Zephyr Liddell is a designer based in Glasgow, Scotland. Zephyr works with textiles, through fashion and live performance, using traditional and digital techniques. Her work involves finding innovative ways to dress and fabricate with materials, making space for movement and decorating space, using a material led design practice. From a shared studio in Glasgow she works collaboratively with artists and designers of all forms, facilitates creative workshops and works freelance as a Stage & Project Manager.

Dave House Dave House is an electronic musician, sound artist and graphic designer based in Edinburgh. He is the founder of The Noisefloor, a DIY music studio in Leith, and a tutor at Edinburgh College of Art.

Cocoloco Cocoloco is a performance company based in London, run by Trevor Stuart and Helen Statman, specialising in dramatic and comical street actions based on eccentric or stereotypic characterization and in bizarre and shocking theatrical shows. Cocoloco believe in the possibility that visual art and entertainment can join in harmony in most public situations, in a manner that can be understood by all ages and nationalities. The aim is to amuse but always with an intelligent structure; it may seem like simple fun but there will always be a hidden layer of sophistication. Cocoloco like to use humour as a device and are very informed by psychology and the cinema.

The end of Sura Medura residency exhibition will be in Hikkaduwa 7-9th December. Keep up to date with the artists' blogs and work during the November/December residency at the Sura Medura website.

FEB - MAR 2018 Residency Line Up

To kick off 2018 and a brand new Sura Medura Residency we have invited 8 new artists to make new work, collaborate and be inspired by the beauty, culture, country and people of Sri Lanka.

Sleepdogs is a collaboration between director/producer Tanuja Amarasuriya and writer/composer Timothy X Atack. Working in theatre, film and other media, they believe art should “make you feel stuff.” and “create emotionally resonant experiences for audiences.” Both artist brought up far from their birth countries and so their work is influenced heavily by “ideas of place and culture-clash” often using humour and dark themes.

Rob Mulholland is a Scottish sculptor and environmental artist whose work explores the relationship between humans and the natural world. Often incorporating mirrored surfaces that reflect his sculptures’ surroundings literally, Mulholland alters perception and purposely distorts the space they inhabit; creating the need for the audience to question their environment.

Emma Brierley is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer working in visual arts and performance.

Periplum are Claire Raftery and Damian Wright, an English theatrical company, who produce ground-breaking site-responsive & outdoor theatre performance, making work that is narrative-led and content-driven while bringing the intimacy of human drama into shows of a spectacular scale.

Subathra Subramaniam is an English choreographer, dancer, educator and artistic director of Sadhana Dance. Navigating the confluence of arts and science drawing from her belief that dance, her choreography can play a part in the public understanding and engagement with scientific concepts.

Brian Hartley is a Scottish artist based in Glasgow, whose work is a combination of visual art, photography and design. Integrating these skills with his experience as a physical performer, Brian has created multi disciplinary collaborative performance works through his company stillmotion.

Nov - Dec 2017 Residency Line Up

For the Winter 2017 Residency period, we are delighted to host 6 artists at the Sura Medura Residency.

Anders Rigg | https://suramedurafirstgestures.wordpress.com | Musician and Sound Artist
You can read Anders' Bio and blog posts here

Flick Ferdinando | https://www.facebook.com/Flick-Ferdinando-142516069179974/ | Physical Theatre Practitioner and Director
You can read Flicks' Bio and blog posts here

Helen Ottaway | https://helenottaway.blog | Musician and Sound Artist
You can read Helen's Bio and blog posts here

Kyna Hodges | https://kyna-hodges.squarespace.com | Photographic Artist
You can read Kyna's Bio and blog posts here

Lorna Rees | http://gobbledegooktravel.blogspot.co.uk | Theatre Director, Performer and Maker
You can read Lorna's Bio and blog posts here

Rae-Yen Song | http://rae-yen-song.tumblr.com | Visual Artist
You can read Rae-Yen's Bio and blog posts here

Feb - March 2017 Residency Line Up

For the Spring 2017 Residency period, we are delighted to host 5 artists at the Sura Medura Residency.

Supported by Creative Scotland:

Lewis Sherlock | http://www.lewissherlockperformance.com | Physical Theatre Practitioner.
You can read Lewis' Bio and blog posts here

Zoe Katsilerou | http://zoekatsilerou.com | Physical Performer, Singer, Theatre Maker and Musician.
You can read Zoe's Bio and blog posts here

Ross Whyte | http://www.rosswhyte.com | Composer, Sound Artist and Electronic Musician.
You can read Ross' Bio and blog posts here

Supported by Arts Council England and Freedom Festival Hull, we have:

Joshua Sofaer | http://www.joshuasofaer.com | Theatre Maker.
You can read Joshua's Bio and blog posts here

Mary Genis | http://culturemixarts.co.uk | Visual and Performance Artist, Writer, Designer and Producer.
You can read Mary's Bio and blog posts here

Oct - Nov 2016 Residency

UZ Arts and Sura Medura were delighted to host three artists during the Oct - November 2016 Residency period:

Nichola Scrutton | http://www.nicholascrutton.co.uk | Composer and Sound Artist.

Natasha Russell | http://natasharussell.tumblr.com | Printmaker.

And supported by Arts Council England and Freedom Festival Hull, 

Sumit Sarkar | http://www.kriksix.com/info.html#About | Visual Artist.

It also saw the return of Samson Ogiamein, who developed on the experiences he had during his 2015 residency to create new performance for 2016. 

UZ Arts were delighted to announce the names of this years artists in residence at Sura Medura. 

They were:

Juri Cainero - Switzerland

Samson Ogiamein - Nigeria / Austria

Stefanie Oettl - Austria

Martin Janicek - Czech Republic

Matteo Lanfranchi - Italy

Stephen Hurrel - Scotland

John Rogers - Ireland

As with previous years we asked each artist to write blogs of their time in Sri Lanka so that you can keep up to date with their experiences and gain insight into the work they are creating there. Updates from our director Neil, and links to the artists blogs will appear on the Residency Blog tab next to this page, and on the dedicated Sura Medura Website

The six week residency came to a close on the 12th December with Moving Through, a day and evening of installations, ritual, music, masks and costume. Hundreds of villages from Dodanduwa turned out for an amazing finale to a great residency. Congratulations to all and many thanks to Dodanduwa for hosting us.

Europeans Abroad aims to create bridges with artistic and cultural partners outside Europe in the form of residencies or co-productions. Calling on its experience throughout the European territory, the IN SITU network offers its partners and artists the opportunity to enhance their practices by discovering the realities of other continents.

UZ Arts was delighted to announce an exciting, innovative international programme of theatre and performance. There are currently Directors from 6 European countries to the Sura Medura International Residency Centre, Sri Lanka, to work with Sri Lankan performers and artists to create 6 new ground breaking shows. 

The shows are being developed through residencies which took place at Sura Medura over the winter of 2014/15. They have given the Directors the opportunity to explore and develop new work for Sri Lanka and international touring, with the 2015 programme specifically exploring current developments in art in public space in collaboration with the local artistic and wider communities. 

Each of the artists who took part in the residency programme has extensive international experience, much of which involves public engagement with local communities, either in the development of the work, or in the performance of it. The programme was been created with the support of In Situ and their Europeans Abroad fund, EUNIC Sri Lanka (consisting of the British council, the Goethe Institute, and Alliance Francaise) and the University of Visual and Performing Arts Sri Lanka as well as local businesses. 

The international directors were:

Adrian Schvarzstein (Spain / Itlay)  www.adrianschvarzstein.com

Since 1989, Schvarzstein has been working as a clown, actor and theatre director. He studied Commedia Dell'Arte in Italy and performed for many years with Circus Ronaldo in Belgium. His award winning shows have toured internationally and he intends to create a new Street Theatre Company for Sri Lanka.

Kitt Johnson (Denmark)  www.kittjohnson.dk

Danish dancer and choreographer Kitt Johnson has been developing her unique artistic universe for more than 25 years, with company Kitt Johnson X-act. She will be working with local Hikkaduwa families to create a tour of the village where, through her work, the  public with be introduced to local skills and interests.  

Alex Rigg (Scotland)  www.oceanallover.co.uk

As well as having thirty years of practical experience in building large-scale structures in timber, steel, cloth, and stone, he has also been creating and delivering live events using physical theatre, dance, sculpture and design since 1982. His company Oceanallover as created many innovative events, bringing new audiences to physical performance. He will work with local performers to create shows on the beach, in the clubs and in the city.

The international artists were:

Elisabeth Wildling (Austria)  www.elisabethwildling.com

Elisabeth is working in the fields of Visual Media and Digital Art. Her artistic work thematises altered spacial and temporal perception, by means of visual and cinematic techniques. She will be working in public space with projection and video mapping.  

Frank Bolter (Germany)  www.frankboeler.de

Frank is a German visual artist, working in public space to create large-scale collaborative sculptures from card and paper. For Sri Lanka, he will work with artists and the public to build a paper boat to sail back to Germany. 

Rodney Branigan (UK / USA)  rodneybranigan.com

Texas born and London based, Rodney Branigan is a singer songwriter with a virtuosi's command of his instruments and a stage show that has attracted international acclaim. He will be the programmes' musician in residence. 

For a sum up and final words on this residency, head over to our Recent Projects page. To read blogs of the artists' experiences during there time in Sri Lanka, please head to our dedicated Sura Medura website

Europeans Abroad aims to create bridges with artistic and cultural partners outside Europe in the form of residencies or co-productions. Calling on its experience throughout the European territory, the IN SITU network offers its partners and artists the opportunity to enhance their practices by discovering the realities of other continents.

This season six artists took part in the international residency programme from October 2013 to January 2014, funded by Creative Scotland's Creative Futures fund. Creative Futures, a Creative Scotland talent development programme aims to promote the professional development, capabilities, connectivity and ambitions of Scotland's creative practitioners and organisations.  Each of the artists undertook a 6 week residency ay the Sura Medura International Residency Centre in Hikkaduwa and they came from a range of different backgrounds, including performance, visual art and audio. 

Hannah Brackston

Hannah Brackston is a visual artist with a socially engaged practice currently based in Glasgow. Graduating from Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art in 2011, Hannah's work invites participation and promotes conversation and each project is developed in considered relation to research and context, people and environment.  

You can read Hannah's Residency Blog here.

Jo Hodges and Robbie Coleman

Jo Hodges has a background in Human Ecology community development and social justice,and has a diverse multi disciplinary practice, creating both permanent and temporary public works, site-specific interventions, time based pieces, exhibitions and performance. Robbie Coleman is a visual artist and designer who has created and collaborated on local, national and international arts projects in a variety of media including live art, sculpture, installation and film.  Jointly, their work is multi-disciplinary and of a temporary nature, combining forms such as performance, projected imagery, temporary installation and sound. They often create work by re-imagining and reinventing existing processes. Their current practice focuses on explorations of the human relationship to environment and examinations of the complexities of place within an ecological and philosophical framework of global challenges and their local consequences.

You can read Jo & Robbie's Residency Blog here.

Sita Pieraccini

Sita Pieraccini is an artist based in Scotland whose background in acting, music, directing and clown informs her work as author/performer. Recent works explore moments of upheaval and change through a magic realist narrative, which allows the extremes of inner and outer experiences to be presented alongside the everyday and mundane. Inspired by true stories, memories and real events as much as fables, folk-lore and fantasy, Sita uses elements from both non-fiction and fiction in the creation of performances which offer an examination and interpretation of humanity.

You can read Sita's residency blog here.

Tom Pritchard

Tom is an international performer of dance and theatre work, a facilitator of multidisciplinary improvisation and a published writer. He specialises in working with text in physical performance and collaboration across art forms, informed by his widespread improvisation research On The Stage Of The Present. In this research, he approaches various multidisciplinary strands of process and performance enquiry through his improvisation practice.

You can read Tom's residency blog here and here

Lindsay Sekulowicz

Lindsay Sekulowicz is an artist based between London and Scotland. She completed her BA(Hons) at the Glasgow School of Arts, in the department of Environmental Art and attained a postgraduate diploma at the Prince's Drawing School in London.  In her practice, Sekulowicz focuses on historical collections and biological studies. The consideration for material and form is fundamental to all of the works. Primarily, she works through drawing, painting and sculptural installations, utilising often basic and instinctive techniques, with time, study and looking being important factors in the making process.

You can read Lindsay's residency blog here

Mark Vernon

Mark Vernon is a sound artist and radio producer based in Glasgow. His arts practice encompasses live performance, soundtracks, installations and radio broadcasts - often blurring the boundaries between art, music, and broadcasting.  his key areas of interest are human voice, field recording and soundscape composition, musique concrete and the radiophonic composition of these elements in works for broadcast and live performance.

You can read Mark's residency blog here

zweintopf

zweintopf are an artist duo, Gerhard and Eva Pichler, mainly working with public space ad creating site specific installations. Their background is in architecture, and art history and exhibition respectively and since forming zweintopf in 2006 their work has moved away from the durable towards the ephemeral. Their work encompasses installations, street art and conceptual art, with diverse practices connected by a refined absurdity and an oblique view of the world.

You can read zweintopf's residency blog here 

The Sura Medura residencies are funded by Creative Scotland and the IN SITU Network

Image from Kit’s 2012 exhibition “1973” in The Galley, Carlisle. Photograph courtesy of Max Fox.

The Sura Medura residencies are funded by Creative Scotland and the IN SITU Network

You can also have a look at our UZ Arts Facebook page, UZ Arts Twitter and dedicated Roofless website, Roofless Facebook page and Roofless Twitter for real time updates on new developments.

Alongside Sura Medura, UZ Arts also arrange residencies in other locations for the development and delivery of artists work.

In 2012;

Maria McCavana visited Sura Medura and then went on to present her work at the Colombo Arts Biennale

Olivier Grossetete presented 'La Phare' - his first cardboard box tower on Scottish soil at the 'Burns Brightly' Festival in Ayr and then again in a new incarnation as 'The People's Tower', in Glasgow at the Merchant City Festival. Both projects were brought together as part of our “Roofless” programme. 

Sumit Sarkar toured his incredible hydraulic, anatomic condor 'Buzzbeak' in Lanarkshire and Shetland, again for the“Roofless” programme.

Neil Butler and Jon Biddel with Teatri ODA in Kosovo

Menikavan der Poorten at Cove Park

In 2011, Sura Medura succeeded Chandrasevana as an international residency centre. Before this, Chandrasevana hosted the following artists:

Ian Smith / Graeme Gilmour / Ewan Hunter / Hugh Watts / Gavin Lockhart / Mischief La-Bas / Fragile Theatre / Dries Verhoeven / Maria McCavana / Christian Eisenberger  

Email info@uzarts.com for more information

You can also have a look at our UZ Arts Facebook page, UZ Arts Twitter for real time updates on new developments.