Reignite Artist Residency: Ruby and Yui
In 2025, Home Live Art continued its artist development programme Reignite with a public call-out offering artists a paid residency in our St Leonards studio. The residency provided time and space to focus on any part of their practice, plus funds to work with an “outside eye.” The local artists selected for the residency were Ruby Antonowicz-Behnan and Yui Yamamoto, who work together as a duet and reflect below on their week-long experience.
Ruby & Yui Artist Reflection
On the Reignite Residency with Home Live Art, we developed a new experimental sonic performance, with a public sharing and feedback session. Over the course of five days, we focused on investigating the use of our voices in composition, examining vocal techniques, sustaining single words to create harmony, and exploring phrases to build rhythm. We also examined spatial and immersive elements, including our movement and the positioning of the sound sources in relation to the audience.
What made this experience distinct was the opportunity to receive continuous feedback and to develop our work under the guidance of our ‘outside eye’, Ed McKeon. Our initial conversation with Home Live Art Director Katy Baird prompted us to consider our work in a different light, helping us to reframe our artistic intentions and methods. Ed offered valuable insights from both an audience perspective and as an expert in experimental music, which helped us refine the sonic and performative aspects of our piece.
The feedback from Katy and the team at Home Live Art was invaluable. Katy encouraged us to reflect on fundamental questions, such as our core motivations. This guidance helped us clarify our direction and intentions. The team also suggested potential local venues to present our work in the future.
The network of Home Live Art and our ‘outside eye’ allowed us to get to know local artists, musicians, and creative practitioners. It was a really worthwhile and productive week and hopefully created new opportunities for future collaborations.
About Ruby and Yui
We are an interdisciplinary artist duo working in experimental sound performance. Our practice brings together elements of theatre, sonic composition, and their relationship to space. Ruby Antonowicz-Behnan is an artist interested in analogue audio, the voice and language. Yui Yamamoto’s practice investigates the unspoken norms of society through a variety of media.
Reignite
Reignite is Home Live Art’s artist development scheme, part of our ongoing commitment to championing visionary artists making bold new work.
