Reignite Artist Residency: Shabnam Shabazi
In 2025, Home Live Art continued its artist development programme Reignite with a public call-out offering artists a paid week-long 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.” One of the selected artists, Shabnam Shabazi, reflects below on her week in Hastings.
Artist Reflection - Shabnam Shabazi
Photo by Christa Holka
When I applied for this residency, I imagined creating a sonorous outfit from shells and bells, a performative invocation of the ocean. When Marilyn Arsem came on board as my mentor, she encouraged me to leave that plan behind - to slow down, be in the moment, and let the place have a conversation with me. Collect. Observe. Listen. Don’t be prescriptive. Approach the residency as meditation. Her provocation became my anchor.
From the moment I arrived, I walked the shore, collecting shells, hag stones, crystals, and black spaghetti seaweed. Each object vibrated with memory and rhythm. They were not decoration or props, but language - fragments of the living world, pulses of the past, traces of life and death. Questions emerged: What is a shell? How does a once-living object carry memory and mortality? The tide revealed hidden forms, and I collected without agenda, letting the materials dictate the conversation.
The seagulls became teachers and collaborators. Watching one throw a shell to crack it open was astonishing - precise, instinctive, intelligent. Their calls wove into my vocal practice, guiding it toward sound that was untamed, alive, intuitive. Folkloric symbolism threaded through this: seagulls as adaptable, alert, free.
A dialogue emerged between voice, place, and animal intelligence.
St Leonards and Hastings pulse with history and folklore. The Winkle Club, with its small sea snail shells as tokens of community and ritual, reminded me of belonging. Aleister Crowley’s presence, his death in Hastings, his practice near my aunt’s house, added uncanny resonance. His Tarot imagery became a quiet companion alongside shells, hag stones, crystals, and seaweed, linking myth, magic and memory.
Back in London, by the canal, the contrast was stark - human-made, rigid, industrial. The shells carried mortality and impermanence; I reflected on life, aging, and transience. Blake’s dark satanic mills and Macfarlane’s Is the River Alive? shaped my thinking about human impact and the more-than-human world.
The residency didn’t end when I left the shore. It seeded questions and materials that continue to speak: durational performance, tidal work, working with birds, and biodegradable materials. St Leonards offered space to listen, respond, and continually return to the sea.
About Shabnam Shabazi
Shabnam Shabazi is an interdisciplinary artist and creative enabler transforming memory, embodiment, and spiritual practice into lived, transformative experiences. She creates intimate, inclusive spaces that fuse art, research, and community, empowering dialogue, healing, and collective imagination while reimagining home, history and belonging.
Reignite
Reignite is Home Live Art’s artist development scheme, part of our ongoing commitment to championing visionary artists making bold new work.
