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Outer Spaces artist Rachel Hutchison selected for Venice Fellowship Programme, 60^thVenice Biennale, 2024

We are delighted to announce that artist Rachel Hutchison has been selected as the Outer Spaces Fellow at the British Pavilion during the 60^th Venice Biennale, 2024.

Outer Spaces is working with the British Council as a partner on the Venice Fellowships programme alongside 41 educational institutions and creative enterprises from across the UK and we are thrilled to be able to support Rachel on this career-defining opportunity. She was selected from a national open call to Outer Spaces studio holders and affiliated artists and will embark on her journey to Venice in August 2024.

The Venice Fellowships Programme is a unique opportunity for creative individuals, students, researchers, artists and professionals at the early stages of their career, to spend a month in Venice during one of the world’s most important art and architecture biennales.

Rachel joins a cohort of 66 who will conduct a self-directed research project alongside engaging with international

visitors as Exhibition Ambassadors, becoming the public face of the British Council and its commissioned work by artist

and filmmaker John Akomfrah RA.

Rachel graduated with a BA (Hons) in Painting from the University of Edinburgh in 2022. Describing herself as a typical

‘21st century artist’, Rachel has successfully continued to make work by adopting several other roles in life alongside her

practice, as a Learning Assistant, barista, supervisor and student. A rent-fee studio with Outer Spaces in Edinburgh

has afforded Rachel time and resources that she would have otherwise struggled to obtain so soon after graduating.

Reflecting on her practice Rachel told us:

As a working-class artist, my space in the art world hasn’t come easily to me. But I truly believe art is a universal language and a tool for connection with both ourselves and others, something I’ve always returned to. My practice is about externalising internal experiences, giving them a chance to materialise, take up their own space, and maybe even have a wee dance.

Rachel’s project will take inspiration from her surroundings in Venice and use this as a starting point to develop new work, considering the emotional journeys, displacement, and the shifting identities that she encounters along her way.

When describing her project, the artist said:

I believe that once we leave home, even home becomes foreign, a sentiment shared globally. I aim to create a series of emotive candid portraits en plein air of locals and visitors finding a sense of ‘home’ in their Venetian surroundings. This project will explore feelings of foreignness while visiting somewhere new or even one's own home, and the resilience emerging from such adversities. Using painting, drawing, and printmaking, I hope to depict an intricate tapestry of identity, including exploring the struggles faced by LGBTQ+ individuals and immigrants. Through this, I highlight the ways people make themselves feel at home despite displacement and inequalities.

Rachel will be sharing her experience with us throughout the Fellowship. Sign up to our mailing list and follow us on Instagram to stay up to date with her progress.

Full details of the Venice Fellowship programme can be found on the British Council's website here.

Listening All Night To The Rain, John Akomfrah’s British Council Commission for the British Pavilion will run from 20 April – 24 November 2024. More details here.