In 2018, Jessica Longmore and Sarah Sanders turned a chance meeting during a commute, into a regular opportunity to make work. On the Friday 17.25 Virgin Train from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester Piccadilly, Jessica and Sarah left all job talk on the platform and for 35 minutes per week, the train became the studio.
As artists and as friends; swept up by the grind of day-to-day life, both felt the need to pause; to be heard, to be in female company, to feel closeness, to reflect and to create. By consulting various conversation techniques, including guidelines for couples’ counselling, the two artists created a nurturing environment, where both the words and the silences became the work. These images summarise this precious, protected time and the journeys travelled.
Train Studio
Decide who is going to speak and who is going to listen
Speaker – Listener
Listener – Speaker
Guidelines for Speaker
Speaker chooses a subject to share with the listener, something meaningful.
Talk about your opinions subjectivity, as your own feelings and thoughts, not as absolute truths.
Include your emotions or feelings.
Speak in “paragraphs”. Give the listener a chance to respond to one main idea.
Guidelines for Listener
Show that you understand and accept what the speaker has to say.
Summarise the speaker’s most important feelings, desires, conflicts and thoughts.
do not ask questions, except for clarification.
do not express your own viewpoint or opinion.
do not Interpret or change the meaning of the speaker’s statements.
do not attempt to solve a problem if one exists.
