Racheal Crowther, Mean time between failure, 2023.
Racheal Crowther, Managed Decline, 2023.
Racheal Crowther, Close Call Only (W1S 3ET), 2024.
Racheal Crowther, Mean time between failure, 2023.
Racheal Crowther, Managed Decline, 2023.
Racheal Crowther, Close Call Only (W1S 3ET), 2024.
Magnetic Residencies #3
Racheal Crowther
The Magnetic Residencies artistic committee met on September 24, 2024, and selected artist Racheal Crowther for a residency at Bétonsalon as part of the 3rd edition of this program.
Racheal Crowther will be in residence at Bétonsalon for 2 months, from March to April 2024. She will receive a grant of €2,500 per month, accommodation at the Centre international d’échanges des Récollets, a workspace and curatorial support from the Bétonsalon team, as well as networking opportunities with art professionals to develop her research.
The residency project
Racheal Crowther is interested in the biopolitics that govern the public and private spaces we inhabit, and that constitute their physical and psychological boundaries. She explores the social constructions that underlie the material functions of these spaces, drawing on the social, commercial and institutional environments in which she herself has evolved.
In her essay The Eternal Pursuit of the Unattainable (Montez Press, 2024), Racheal Crowther looks at the different uses and representations of perfume, from poison to counterfeit, and its power to influence consumer psychology. She demonstrates how the marketing of perfumes exploits the human yearning for something beyond the ordinary, and explores the issues linked to the socio-economic level that determines access to them, the expression of the gender identities that underpin them, and the history of the acquisition of olfactory materials.
During her residency at Bétonsalon, she hopes to deepen her research into olfactory materials by studying the way in which odours are used to influence mood and behaviour, based on studies at the ISIPCA (Institut Supérieur International du Parfum, de la Cosmétique et de l’Aromatique alimentaire) and the olfactory archives of the Osmothèque de Versailles, the largest conservatory of perfumes in the world.
Racheal Crowther
Racheal Crowther (b. Dublin, Ireland) lives and works in London. She holds a BA in Fine Art and Critical Thinking from Goldsmiths University of London and has just completed her Postgraduate Diploma from Royal Academy Schools, Royal Academy of Arts, London.
With an interest in biopolitical structures and the physical and psychological bounds of the spaces we inhabit (both public and private), she explores the social constructs surrounding material function; pulling from the social, commercial, and institutional environments she has traversed. These experiences are articulated through works which include hacking radio frequencies, sculptural sound pieces, and most recently exploring olfactive materials. She often uses found objects charged with memory and habit to make visible the psychosocial dysfunction within systems of governance & surveillance
Magnetic Residencies is supported by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni, the Institut français, French Ministry of Culture, French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the British Council.
Bétonsalon takes part in the Magnetic Residencies program, led by Fluxus Art Projects, built around tandem partnerships between institutions and residencies based in a French region (CAPC in Bordeaux, Frac Grand Large in Dunkerque, Frac Bretagne in Rennes and Villa Arson in Nice) and a British nation (Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire, Cove Park in Helensburgh, Aberystwyth Arts Center in Aberystwyth and Flax Art Studios in Belfast). Artists from each of the five French regions are invited to apply for the residency based in an associated British nation; artists from each British nation can apply for the residency based in the associated French region.
For the 3rd edition of Magnetic, a new tandem has been created between Gasworks in London and Bétonsalon for 2 2-month residencies for two artists, one based in Ile-de-France and the other in England.
