Joanne Coates

How did you get into making art?

You know…I guess against the odds. I didn’t have access to arts. I read books, consumed books. Anything i could read I would.

The first memory I have of making art was drawing competition for the nativity. My grandad made a lot of things and I would spend time with him.

I guess it was only so long before I put the two together..making things and telling stories.

What are you currently working on?

There is a tradition of going to look for stories but where I am on a farm, stories find me sometimes. I have been making work about being working class in this very rural space and where / if the intersection of disability meets that. It’s called Laborius.

This summer saw the UK general election come around. Every election Parliament commissions an artist to document the process, reflect on it and create a piece of moment that tells a story of that pivotal moment. I focused on decentralised places and the rural vote. For 36 days I travelled the country meeting candidates, first time voters and the electorate. Now for the next three months I will work away, reflect and make something based on that experience. Hopefully the exhibition will be early next year.

I am also working on socially engaged projects looking at growing and creating shared community spaces on the farm, a project in a rural village in the North East of England looking at Pigeon Fancying and looking at the history of work houses.

What inspired you to get started on this body of work?

Severe self doubt always help me get to work.

Seriously…this is something happening now where I live. I was l amost faced with it. This story of climate, class, housing. I felt I had to make the work and tell a story that’s perhaps different from the dominant discourse on rural life in the UK.

Do you work on distinct projects or do you take a broader approach to your practice?

I think my practice ties together but with all these different strands. Think of a landscape, the hill, the rocks, the soil, the grass. They all come together and create this wider vision of work but they are all seperate and distinct in their own ways.

What’s a typical day like in your studio?

I have a not so typical studio…After years of struggling to gt a studio space and not living close to a town, my partner got my a shipping container as my engagement present. I now have a studio but I’m working on it looking like studio. A basic day is lots of research, reading, a run or a walk, followed by some farming work I do to pay the bills, and then making work until the early hours of the morning.

Who are your favorite artists?

The film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky.
The writers Benjamin Myers, Rebecca Smith, Nan Shepherd and John Clare. I really love the work of Jen Delos Reyes.

Where do you go to discover new artists?

I love seeing work in unusual spaces. I will always keep a look out for exhibtions, shows, outdoor installations. I really like to go explore, witness, experience. I look online too for international artists but seeing work in person is like no other method.