Stewart Home and Clare Carolin: A process of figuring out the form and potential of the Centre for Suburban Research
Artist and cult author Stewart Home, and Hayward Gallery curator Clare Carolin were the first residents at the Centre for Suburban Research. Stewart and Clare's residency was largely unofficial because at this point in time we had not finished working out the pragmatics of how we would achieve the political insight into Belfast that we wanted to through running an artist in residence program in our home. So Stewart and Clare's stay with us became a pragmatic way for us to examine and iron out some of the questions we still had about the best way to go about structuring the official residency program.

The ultimate reason for Stewart and Clare's stay in Belfast was because we (Meabh and I) were at the time working for Catalyst Arts and decided we would love to have Stewart over to give a reading and maybe do some other things depending on what he was up for. We reached an agreement with Stewart regarding the in's and outs of this and set about getting him over. shortly before he came over he asked us if we could find room for a friend of his to come as well. The friend was Clare who essentially came on a fact finding mission for the Hayward gallery, with a view to finding out a bit about the Belfast and Dublin art scene's.

During their stay Stewart gave a reading at Catalyst Arts, made his performance 'Anti-riot' and gave a talk about his practice at the University of Ulster. He also showed his Film 'The Eclipse and Re-Emergence of the Oedipus Complex' and exhibited a series of photographs which were 'morphed' photographic images composed of superimposed images of him and his mother. Both the film and the photographs deal with Stewart's complex relationship with his mother, who he never met. For a good insight into this relationship it is helpful to have a look at Stewart's web site, or else read his new book 'Tainted Love', published by virgin. Clare, having seen Stewart's work many times in the past, set out to explore Belfast and Dublin's art world. I have to admit that I am still curious about what Clare's final opinion of Belfast was. It can be such a specifically strange place for people who are not used to its ways.

During the evening's of their stay with us, we would eat and chat. Luke would bend Stewart and Clare's ears with his eager urges to introduce them to his collection of board games and toys. It seem's that when there are new people in the house, no matter what you do, you are always second best choice as someone to play with. It makes you feel like the fat kid who never got picked at sports.

I think that this must have been quite a tiring experience for Clare and Stewart. It is hard sometimes to deal with a child especially if you are not used to them all the time. Children just don't possess the same levels of social acumen that adults do. I have to say though, both Stewart and Clare were very patient with Luke and played with him quite a bit, which made him very happy.

Yet, from Luke's perspective he must find it difficult meeting and sharing his house with new people. Playing with people is Luke's way of figuring them out. He is familiar with his games and it is through playing with them that he communicates with and gets to know other children: So it is only natural that he uses his games and his toys as a way of getting to know adults. Clare played a lot of games of 'Operation' with Luke. Clare told Luke that she used to play 'Operation' a lot when she was younger. Luke really liked Clare and still remembers and talks about playing 'Operation' with her when he talks about Clare and Stewart staying with us.

One of the crux aspects as far as working out the intracacies of what shape the offical Centre for suburban Research residency would take, was the experience of examining and understanding what it is like to live for a period of time in your own home with people you don't really know. Like always, Meabh and I were slightly nervous about Stewart and Clare coming to stay, but as soon as they arrived we were fine. I always think that what is interesting about the way artists relate to each other is that if you are traveling to a new city and you need somewhere to stay, and even if you've only ever met an artist from that place once, you can normally contact them and they can either put you up for a couple of nights, or else they can hook you up with somewhere else to stay.

What I find interesting about this whole scenario is that underpinning this act of generosity is a huge amount of trust. normally you wouldn't let just anyone come and stay with you, but Because they're an artist it's suddenly ok. I often think this aspect of the way artists interrelate is often more interesting than the actual work they often make when they are traveling. This is of course another reason why we conceived of the Centre for Suburban Research. This kind of interaction exists naturally in artists networks, so in some respects all we are doing is setting out to map it.

I think the final thing that must be mentioned is cooking for people. To be honest, Meabh did nearly all of the cooking for Stewart and Clare while they were hear. Meabh took this into her own hands Long before they got hear making menus and working out what she wanted to cook each night. when Meabh and I first moved in together we were about equal in terms of cooking ability. But Meabh has developed a real interest in cooking and can make some very good things that just surpass my present ability. therefore when she plans a week's menu for visitors she necessarily ends up doing more cooking than me because she has planned out several dishes that I cannot cook, or rather, that I have not yet tried to cook. the eventual outcome is me being put on chopping duty. this is something To watch for future residencies just because it would be easier if we were both able to cook the meals that were planned, that way the cooking workload could be shared.

Normally after such a residency process I would normally ask those in residency, in this case Stewart and Clare for some feed back on their experience. but as this Was not really a proper residency, it was more a situation that we could learn from to prepare the official residencies, then I fee we cannot really ask them for considered feed back on their experience of living with us for a week. But such a process will be vital for future residencies, if we are to achieve a balanced overview of what went on during the residency and how everyone's experience was.