We caught up with Linda Granfors following her recent residency at Convention House in October to hear reflections on her residency.
Linda Granfors is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans drawing, painting, ceramics, and performance. Her creative process is all about exploring and connecting with her surroundings, letting the places and histories she encounters shape her work. Throughout these explorations, drawing acts as a consistent thread: a way of experiencing and processing space. Works often involve an element of exploration and a deep connection with the environments she inhabits, with the process of making delivered by a dialogue with materials.
Residencies can create space to reflect on artistic process and its connection to new places, with an exploration of place as a large part of this process: ‘Not just travel, but stay somewhere and learn to know the place and people, get more out of it, see a place in a deeper way.’. She describes residencies as cultural baths – a chance to dive into a unique atmosphere and culture: ‘Residencies are like a cultural bath — you’re immersed in the atmosphere, and it’s all around you.’ Arriving in Leeds without too defined a plan allowed her to remain open to inspiration. She explored freely, letting her practice evolve organically in response to the city and its history, reflecting her belief that residencies should be about discovery:
‘If you come knowing what you want to do, it can defeat the point of doing it.’.
For some, residencies can be the means to finalise longstanding works, for others, it can be that chance to break from their usual working routine: ‘When I came to Leeds, I didn’t bring any other work with me. It was great to have the freedom to focus on whatever I wanted without distractions.’. Facilities on offer at Convention House, such as kilns and clay for ceramics, allowed her to dive into a creative process without barriers or logistical hurdles, and intuitively plan pieces that could respond to explorations.
There was an appreciation from Linda about the openness in Leeds to showing work in progress, something she found refreshing compared to Finland’s more perfectionist tendencies, ‘People seemed more accepting of unfinished work, and it felt less about being perfect and more about the process.’, reinforcing the importance of creative development as a collective and responsive process.
A sense of discovery marked Linda’s time in Leeds. She found inspiration in the city’s Victorian architecture, its dark, panelled interiors, and historical sites. Cemeteries, in particular, became a focal point of her residency, inspiring ceramic works that she described as a dialogue between the past and present:
‘The cemetery itself was like a time capsule from Queen Victoria’s time. I felt it was like communicating with the past, borrowing something from it, and connecting it to our time.’
Working with ceramics inspired by the Victorian cemetery embodied the essence of her residency: a bridge between past and present, rooted in the places explored. In leaving three statuettes of Queen Victoria, in Beckett Street Cemetery, alongside found objects, she hoped that she could affect some of the feelings of curiosity she had for exploring the space and the city in whoever was to find them.
Looking ahead, Linda and Aura will perform at The Nordic House of The Faroe Islands in Torshavn in early June 2025. And later during summer in Laila Pullinen Sculpture Park in Vantaa, Finland.
She also expressed an interest in seeking out new residencies across the UK, especially in the South of England, to explore more building on the insights she gained through time in Leeds.
The residency is a collaboration between the Finnish Artists Studio Foundation and the Helsinki International Artist Programme, and it is designed to foster cross-cultural artistic exchange between Great Britain and Finland.
Find Linda:
Website: lindagranfors.crevado.com | Instagram: @linda_granfors
