Interview with artist in residence Sarah Byrne 8 January 202410 January 2024

Rene: What are you up to for your BCN residency?

Sarah: “I’m spending time with an idea which started as a half-joke and I now feel very emotionally attached to. While practicing yarn spinning, I started to personify the yarn I was spinning for a laugh, making representations of my friends ‘if they were a yarn’. I’d call them yarnsonas (yarn-persona). It was objectively hilarious, but also a really cute and unexpectedly touching exchange. I started to recognise the magic coming from the process of slowly hand-making an object totally inspired by a friend and my relationship with them, and then gifting this object to them. The joy in this started to overwhelm everything else, and became the thing I wanted to chase for more of. In this residency I’ll be formalising this a little more, exploring the language and display of this process. I’ll also be thanking the Wolverhampton School of Art for the 10 year relationship I had with it as a student and staff member by gifting the building it’s own yarnsona.”

Rene: What got you into making art?

Sarah: “I don’t think art is always something that we consciously choose to do, but something that we recognise we are already doing along the way. Certain personality types are drawn to creative outlets as a way of processing things, but whatever those outlets might be at different stages of their life is what ‘art’ is for them at that moment. I went to art school to learn about art, but I think a lot of the work I tried as an undergraduate wasn’t as authentically ‘art’ as the way my best friend and I would play with our dolls in my childhood bathroom, flooding the sink for their ‘beach’ and making zip lines out of dental floss.

So maybe my decision to make art wasn’t (and still isn’t) always intentional, but often something that just feels right as part of play, exploration and impulsion, and maybe only recognised in hindsight. I think leaning into this approach is what has kept me making art, and kept me feeling excited to discover what the art will look like next.”

Rene: Who or what is inspiring you right now (other artists, people, music, food, a book, land, nature… anything!)?

Sarah: “Home. I’m a self-confessed homebody, and because of my chronic migraine I like to surround myself with things that I’m able to engage with from home rather than being reliant on leaving the house to be a ‘good artist’. Being unwell and learning to crochet from my sofa accidentally became a pivotal part of my art practice, and I’ve continued to explore comfortable domestic spaces that are conducive to making, as well as nourishing the relationships present in my work. As I experiment with this process, I’ve been looking more towards the language of a home than the language of a gallery, using influence from interiors to drive my decisions. 

Also food. Can’t build a comfy space without good snacks.”

This interview took place on 5 January, 2024. Find Sarah Byrne on Instagram and also via her website.