Veronica Ryan featured on the occasion of her upcoming Freelands Award exhibition "Along a Spectrum" at Spike Island in Bristol, UK.

Along a Spectrum at Spike Island, your Freelands Award exhibition which opens in May 2021, will be your second show in Bristol. You stayed in the city for an extended residency as part of the project. How did the city affect you and your work?

It’s impossible for me to do a residency in a particular place without being aware of its history. I think I always see connections within the socio-political environment as well as in a place’s history. The deconstructing of ideas in my mind relates to how I arrive at conversations in my work. I have quite a fondness for Bristol: it isn’t far away from Corsham (Bath Academy of Art) where I went to art school, and I always remembered the [Clifton] Suspension Bridge. WO So, these connections were important. They made the place feel familiar and enabled me to have a closer connection to its incredible history and historical connections. I became particularly aware of Bristol’s history of medieval trade and the unique stone architecture, which is something that I drew on in my work. During a residency at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives, Cornwall, before my residency at Spike Island, I saw the fishermen making their nets. It was interesting to see how close this process was to crochet and knitting. I liked that element of craft and the idea that the same structure had these different purposes. This carried on in Bristol, where I would walk along the river and be reminded of the kind of knots used there.