Artist in Residence — Season 1

Jul 2018

Bryony Kimmings is a bold, sweary performance artist, whose best-known work is a song about vaginas. Launching Artist in Residence, a new strand in which artists immerse themselves in unlikely and fascinating places, this film sees Bryony take up residency in one of Britain's busiest sexual health clinics, where 2000 people are treated each week. Bryony asks patients to open up about the most intimate details of their sex lives and love lives, then follows them home and creates extraordinary performances. She makes a radical dating guide for newly-single Trevor; a musical performance about sexual confidence for carefree millennial Salome; and she also helps two sex workers, Jodi and Tina, lead a parade through a city where sex is often easier to find than love.

Jul 2018

Portrait artist Tai Schierenberg has painted the likes of Stephen Hawking, Seamus Heaney and the Queen. Now he embarks on his most ambitious subject yet: football. As part of a new strand where artists immerse themselves in unlikely and fascinating places, the film sees Tai spend a season as artist in residence at West Bromwich Albion FC, during one of their most turbulent seasons in living memory. What starts as a behind-the-scenes look at the beautiful game becomes an emotional drama as the club battles to stave off relegation, featuring unusually frank interviews with players, management and fans. The programme culminates in Tai unveiling a series of stunning portraits of West Brom players, ex-manager Tony Pulis, and some life-long fans.

Aug 2018

Darkly sweet social commentary is at the core of artist Rachel Maclean's multi-media fantasy worlds. In the final part of the strand in which artists immerse themselves in unlikely and fascinating places, Rachel Maclean spends a month living night and day in the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham. Occupying a shop and meeting visitors and workers, Rachel finds out if consumerism really does make dreams come true. During her residency she creates an extraordinary new piece of art - a short film that introduces a large, furry pink rabbit to the people of Birmingham, and poses the question R U satisfied?