My Best Artwork

My Best Artwork is the next in our new series of ten window text commissions by artists, writers, and designers.

Following the 2021 series inspired by Meadhbh McNutt's Should artists write? workshops, many of the 2022 writers participated in Francis Whorrall-Campbell's workshops How to Write a Door and Walk Through, as well as other artists and writers also invited to participate.

The writers were invited to create one page of text – a completely open brief. The texts range from prose poems to statements, shared intimate moments and more, each capturing the different thoughts and feelings of the author. The texts have been designed by different artists and designers and printed in a risograph edition by Derry Print Workshop.

The texts are visible from CCA's windows, each for two weeks, as well as visible online here and distributed across our region. All 10 from the 2022 series will be available to buy as a fundraiser bundle later this year.

My Best Artwork, 2022
Author: Simon Farid
Designer: Fiona McDonnell
Printer: Derry Print Workshop
Risograph edition of 200

This project was made possible thanks to support from Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Art Fund.

About the author & designer:

Simon Farid is a sometime visual artist, occasional academic and most time invigilator at an art gallery in London. His creative practice and research focusses on his invigilation day-job as a site for study, taking various forms: solo visual arts practice; visual art collaborations with co-workers; outcomes in academia; secret artworks for himself or friends. This is an ongoing practice of self-research into his (and his co-workers’) contextual position, with end-aims of a deeper understanding of the functioning of the hierarchies he operates in and better material conditions in-and-outside-of the institution.

Simon's practice has always been a dual one, with a relatively safe public-facing practice and, in his own words, a more exciting, but necessarily covert, private practice. This is a practice that operates on an anecdotal scale, with the extent of an audience being just myself, or someone I love, or maybe my collaborators. This window text is an effort to articulate that truth, to make a very public-facing work that points towards this other practice, obviously not exposing the content but indirectly charting its margins.

simonfarid.com | invigilatorresearch.org

Fiona McDonnell is an Irish illustrator from Belfast with a distinct and colourful style of work. Often accompanied by commentary and self-reflection on social issues, music, film, or whatever else she may be interested in at the time. Fiona has worked with a variety of commercial, heritage, and creative sector clients such as LUSH, National Museums NI, and the Irish Art's Centre NYC.

About designing this print, Fiona says, "I wanted to play around with the amazing texture and colour overlays that can be achieved with risograph printing. I used this as a tool to visually represent the sentiment of Simon Farid's quote, which I can definitely relate to as an artist. I think when you first experience a piece of art, you rarely can appreciate the amount of unseen development work that goes into it. Sometimes these 'un-finished' pieces, with all their roughness and mistakes, really are the most important part of any 'final piece'. But an audience rarely ever gets to see them!"

fionamcdonnell.co.uk | @fionaamcd | @FionaaMcDonnell

This project was made possible thanks to support from the Art Fund and Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

The 2021 editions are available as a bundle edition to buy from CCA's shop as a fundraiser.