(both laughing) collaborative interview
(both laughing) otherwise known as artists Nick Grellier and Emily Lucas collaboratively interview themselves for their forthcoming publication with Dialect Press, enjambments.
Who are you?
We are artists Emily Lucas and Nick Grellier. We’ve been working together as (both laughing) Collaborative since 2021 when Emily started interviewing Nick as part of Emily’s PhD researching the function of drawing as an autobiographical act.
(both laughing) Collaborative at houseworkwork June 2023
photo: Hatty Frances Bell
Why are you interested in words if you are artists?
It’s a conundrum.. we started thinking about how difficult language is: how it can be inadequate and limiting whilst being a universal means of communication. (both laughing) are constructing a manifesto: trying to find ways to describe making artwork where the language around their work is inherently sexist or low-value such as domesticity, drawing, autobiography, housework..words that speak of the embodied female as opposed to the thinking male… we needed more words!
problemsolutiondrawing 2021 ongoing
photo: Article Studio
As artists we see words as visual things and naturally play with both language, colour, fonts and layout (e.g. words within words) as a visual proposition. We see the enjambments as one-word poems and small works of art. To celebrate their ‘objectness’ we are delighted to be producing a book of selected enjambments (with glossary) in collaboration with Dialect Press.
What is the enjambments game? How did you invent the game?
Approaching the domestic word problem in the playful, ad-hoc way we make all of our work (we nabbed the word ‘enjambments’ from poetry syntax), we started jamming three words together to make one word, taking text from our large diagram, the problemsolutiondrawing and embracing accidents and ‘mistakes’ as always.
We made cards out of these individual words and then invited ourselves and others to pick three and jam them together to make one long new word and give it a meaning. It became a truly participatory, collaborative project, which has been played at evenings round the kitchen table, at our exhibition houseworkwork and at PhD symposium PROOF at UWE Bristol.
visitors at houseworkwork 2023 playing enjambments
Here are a few examples:
commondifficultyproject : An all-inclusive venture in which everyone takes equal, joyful responsibility.
delicateunapologetictext : Thoughtful writing that acknowledges not knowing and difficulty.
embodiedinteriorapproach : Art practice that begins with an intuitive approach, accepting and allowing for emotion and messiness.
houseworkwork : Is it really housework or work about house work – or just houseworkwork?
Aren’t you too old to play games?
Hell no! so much of what we do together has come out of not knowing and playing and finding stuff out. The game plays on different levels: it’s the serious business of finding new words for things that we found completely inadequate for the job. We embrace fun and use playing and game-making along with performance as methods to understand and discover.
The game is completely collaborative, and we can invite other people to play it with us. We’ve loved seeing how much engagement people have with it (word games are compelling) and the fact that there’s no competitive outcome and no fixed ending makes it very democratic. We think the premise could evolve to be played for different sorts of problems..a sort of solutionfindinggame (a playful method to find serious possible meanings from real life conundrums). We see care and collaboration as central to our manifesto, we are all in this together.
enjambments 2023
ink on watercolour paper
bath time reading at houseworkwork 2023
Photo: Hatty Frances Bell
Dialect Press are delighted to be publishing enjambments by (both laughing) - forthcoming 1st February 2024. Keep a look out for launch details and pre-orders coming soon!
More about (both laughing)
Artist duo Emily Lucas and Nick Grellier’s (both laughing) Collaborative work is grounded in drawing practice and rich research that explores, discovers, invents, solves problems and cracks jokes. We make artwork using low value, low fi materials and objects from around the home, including baby wipes, stencils, felt tip pens and printing stamps, in order to tackle the problem of emotion versus seriousness and other hierarchies both in the art world and wider society. Our remit is to generate new ways to talk, write and think about drawing and other art practices. The work is both playful and serious, celebrating difficulties and achievements. Together, we have begun to develop our own manifesto for drawing as a way to embrace mistakes, test out new ideas and acknowledge non-binary viewpoints and grey areas, giving value to the overlooked.
