Anna Macleod is an independent visual artist, researcher and educator based in rural Northwest of Ireland, she has exhibited extensively in Ireland and Internationally. Her work mediates complex ideas associated with contemporary, historical and cultural understandings of land and water.
 
For this research residency at PASAJ, Anna is looking at links between the forest waters that feed the ancient cistern systems of Istanbul, the construction methods of aquatic invertebrates Caddisflies, (order Trichoptera): known as ‘underwater architects’ and historical ‘spiolation’ building techniques. In the Pasaj studio at Barin Han, Anna has been experimenting with Paleolithic glue recipes to combine organic and man made materials towards developing sculptural works based on her research around human water cultures and contemporary resilience in this age of uncertainty.

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Kathryn Maguire is making diverse cultural references linking the past with the contemporary; exploring geology, the history of materials, building materials, and the circular economy. Her practice concentrates on lithics, minerals, mining, and knowing place from the mantle up.

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Her residency in PASAJ in Istanbul started with the ritual of touchstones in the fabric of the city. The research was informed and expanded generously by Dr. Mehmet Serkan Yatağan in the Faculty of Architecture- Building Materials Department, Gönenç Göçmengil Professor at the History of Science Department, at Istanbul University, Turkey, and Prof. Dr. Fatma Gülmez Yıldırım in the Faculty of Mines at Istanbul Techincal University. Maguire has explored rocks and minerals and fossils in the Istanbul area. She has attempted to make new rocks on her residency and to understand the experience of complexities of deep time visible in Istanbul's building materials.

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*With the invitation of Interface Inagh art space from Ireland, Detroit Stockholm from Sweden and PASAJ and Interface have started a long-term collaboration project. In 2023, through a series of residencies, each of the three initiatives will host an artist from the other in a residency program. This residency exchange project is  supported by International Residency Award of Arts Council Ireland.