Home - Back Lane West

We are a non-profit, artist-led residency, project, and meeting space in Redruth, Cornwall.

We are very grateful to be in receipt of public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England’s Emergency Response Fund.

If you are an artist or organisation seeking space please see our opportunities page for details.

Kei Langley and Samuel Bestwick

To kick off our 2022 programme we are hosting our first ever four month residency at Back Lane West. We’re really excited to welcome two emerging artists as our residents from January to April, Kei Langley and Samuel Bestwick, both based in Cornwall.

They will be sharing the space to develop independent projects, though they have previously worked together on Kei’s project Keskorra that was funded by CAMP’s 2021 Curator Residency.

During her time at Back Lane West, Kei will be looking into the intermittent bouts of allowed absurdity and mania through local traditions and rituals that disrupt the inactivity and serenity of rural areas. Specifically by means of her own childhood memories of growing up in St Ives and via the investigation of invisible and mysterious local elements.

Sam’s intention is to use the space to support his current practice as well as developing two new projects; both of which explore Cornish culture and its history, focusing specifically on the county’s changing relationship to the wider world. Through the residency he hopes to re-establish himself within the roots of his practice whilst also experimenting with and developing his use of moving image.

Liam Jolly and Krystle Patel

The final artists taking on the Back Lane West space this year are Krystle Patel and Liam Jolly, one based in London and the other in Cornwall, who will be presenting their project Pa-ra-did-dle. Until recently the pair had never met in person yet have collaborated to produce this project exploring ideas around what it is to be present through uncertainty and valuing process over final product, resulting in this dual site exhibition. The first iteration took place at Turf Projects, Croydon in November; this is the Cornish version.

Initially introduced at random for The Exchange, an online arts exchange programme set up by East Side Projects in Birmingham – and as a consequence of previous failed pairings – they took instant joy that chance had thrown them together, only to discover deep rooted similarities. These were not just specific to the way they approached and thought about their work, but also involved their interests, and specifically their relationship and experiences with beats, rhythms, sound and music. Both described the feeling of those fleeting moments when a relationship between things in a particular time and space come together to make sense, and sometimes don’t. They believe these experiences to be wholly personal and beyond control. Slippage’s between layers of consciousness within an instant, that encourages focus on the value of one’s momentary presence and contentment. A quiet internal pleasure.

Sharing material over several months – captured from isolated and personal, yet otherwise quite insignificant moments via text message – a dialogue composed of image, text and sound has evolved into a language enabling the pair to focus the work around ideas of coincidence, beats and bonds, that has resulted in an installation that presents an environment featuring many of these interrelating rhythms.

The opening reception of Pa-ra-did-dle at Back Lane West will be from 5pm on Saturday 11th December and all are very welcome to attend. The show continues over the weekend, opening from 11am-5pm on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th December.

Shallal

Cornwall-based arts charity Shallal are returning to the Back Lane West space for their annual residency this November. They are looking forward to the cross-disciplinary exploration and collaboration that the project space allows them.

This year their residency is comprised of two parts; the first half will be led by Anna Willis and Megan Burridge, third year Fine Art students at Camberwell College of Arts who are currently interning at Falmouth Cultural Services. They will be supported by Shallal’s creative director Jo Willis. Anna has been involved in Shallal’s previous residencies at Back Lane West whilst Megan is entirely new to the space, which should allow for some fruitful developments.

The second two weeks will be run by artist Phoebe Barnicoat and other Shallal Studio artists, as part of The Underworld Project.

“The Underworld is a multi-sensory creative adventure exploring Cornwall’s native flora and fauna through tactile visual arts and experimental sound, working with arts collective Moogie Wonderland, local schools, Kresen Kernow and lots of exciting artists.”

Artists include:

Eddie Callis, Stuart Blackmore, Sam While, George Clement Peer, Jo Lumber, Lisa Mortensen, Zoe Osmond and Shallal Dance Theatre.