How did the experience affect you as an individual?
The scholarship felt incredibly precious. It meant I had the time to really absorb the art and history of Florence in a way that I would certainly never have been able to otherwise. I had the time to linger and look slowly and carefully, to chase up things that I was interested in knowing more about as well as things I didn't think I was interested in initially (but which later turned out to be fascinating to me). Being able to look at art close up and in person allowed me to understand aspects of its construction that I otherwise would have only wondered about and seeing works in context was also invaluable and taught me a great deal about display and curation and art history generally. The opportunity to learn from a talented local traditional bookbinder and printmaker was also a highlight for me.
What was the impact on your practice?
Numerous new routes of inquiry and research were opened up by my time there. Florence is spectacular for the way that power and politics are so clearly and transparently expressed across the city through its art collections and built environment. The way that all this plays into artistic representation of the natural world was something that has deeply affected my own work on a conceptual level. From a technical standpoint, having a wealth of egg tempera paintings to study was wonderful -- there really aren't many places in the world where this technique can be so readily studied! Having this opportunity made me think a lot about colours and pigment combinations, as did observing so many old frescoes.
Jodi Le Bigre, Blood Oranges, etching
