As the Dazed Club x Mason & Fifth residency comes to a close, eight artists reflect on their experiences – and discuss their dreams for the future
With the Dazed Club x Mason & Fifth residency drawing to a close, we caught up with the eight artists who spent two months pushing the boundaries of their practice. Based at Mason & Fifth Westbourne Park, the artists had access to studios, creative spaces, and collaborative workshops, allowing them to experiment with new media, refine their ideas, and connect with fellow creatives. The residency culminated in the Material Conversations exhibition, curated by Hanna Ter Meulen, offering a platform to showcase their work and reflect on their creative journeys. Here, the artists share what they learned, what inspired them, and what’s next.
Daniel Santangelo is a London-based visual artist whose work draws on Black cultural expressions across the diaspora. Santangelo’s paintings explore heritage, identity, and the sacred through detailed worlds.
“During the residency I created a series of paintings called ‘Wainaba’. A lot of it came from diving into Ethiopian myths, while also reflecting on my own experiences and lived reality of growing up in London. It was a mix of heavy research and personal reflection that all came together in this new series.
“Lately I’ve been really interested in making the work more obscure, making it a bit stranger and harder to fully pin down. I like the idea of viewers sitting with that sense of strangeness, unease or awe. At the same time, especially for Black viewers, I want there to be a quiet feeling of familiarity, nostalgia and truth in what’s being shown.
“Right now I’m in a research phase. I’m focused on adding to my body of work, so I’ve been reading, watching films, and trying to take in as much as I can. I’m really interested in challenging the angles I’ve been looking at my work through and slowly moving closer towards making newer, clearer, more truthful art.”
YASMINA HILAL
Yasmina Hilal is an emerging artist and photographer whose work draws on alternative photographic techniques to explore memory, culture, and tradition in Lebanon and the Middle East.
“During this residency, I worked on a body of work called ‘99’. It looks at how prayer beads have been used not only in faith, but also as a form of meditation and tradition across different religions and throughout time in Lebanon and the Middle East.
“This residency gave me the space to slow down and explore these ideas deeply, researching, experimenting with materials, and reflecting on the universality of this simple yet powerful object. It became a way for me to connect spirituality, tradition, and art, while also looking at how rituals can carry different meanings across time and place.
“Right now, I’m continuing to grow ‘99’. I want to push it further by experimenting with sculpture and moving image, expanding the project into new forms of expression. My hope is to eventually bring this work together in a solo show, where I can create an immersive experience that reflects the depth of the themes I’m exploring.”
YAHVI DUGGAL
Yahvi Duggal is a London-based textile artist and educator whose practice, Peel Studio, transforms kitchen waste into handwoven textiles. Duggal’s work draws on zero-waste traditions to explore sustainability, storytelling and community.
“I created a series of woven pieces using biomaterials and elements made from the food waste of the Mason & Fifth’s Restaurant, Canal. Every day I worked with a surprise box full of kitchen scraps like onion skins, avocado pits, corn husks. These materials guided the colours and textures of my work. It became a diary of the kitchen’s rhythms.
“The residency gave me freedom to experiment and a community to share it with. Conversations with other residents and visitors often shifted how I saw my own work. I’m leaving with more clarity, new ideas, and friendships I’ll carry with me.
“I want people to see waste differently – not as something to discard but as something full of possibility. My work invites people to slow down, notice imperfections, and find beauty in what’s overlooked.
“After this residency, I’m continuing to develop biomaterials and weaving them into larger installations and functional pieces. I’m also preparing for upcoming exhibitions and running workshops to share these processes. Looking ahead, I want to build a studio that’s not just for making, but also for community and sustainable craft.”
MEENAKASHI GHADIAL
Meenakashi Ghadial is a London-based visual artist from Brampton, Ontario. Ghadial creates figurative oil paintings on metal that explore queerness, intimacy, and intergenerational experiences within the Punjabi-Canadian diaspora.
“I worked on two paintings of my grandparents using oil paint and graphite on metal. These two pieces were deeply personal to me, and reflect the intersectional nature of my identity as a Punjabi lesbian. Through painting my Naniji and Dadaji, I started to think about the ways their lives were different from each other as Punjabi men and women of an earlier generation.
“I hope people are able to see my work as a jumping off point for conversations about queerness in different cultures. Although my work is personal, my main goal is for people who relate to my work to feel represented. I want those who struggle to navigate their sexuality or gender identity in any way to know that they are not alone, and that queerness is such a nuanced experience.
“I’m working towards shifting from painting to more interdisciplinary work in sculpture and design. I want to learn electromagnetic etching and utilize steel for a series of sculptural works. I hope that I’m able to gain more experiences in the art world in London, and look forward to showcasing my work more widely.”
SUSAN KELLAWAY
Susan Kellaway is a painter from the North West of England whose practice revisits the tension and irony of her girlhood and lapsed Catholic education. Kellaway lures viewers into a sardonic, sexually transgressive perspective, often staging archetypal figures in ironic settings.
“I painted scenes exploring shame and seduction, influenced by my frequent trips to the National Gallery while staying in London. My paintings start off in a classical composition: naked women together in dreamy landscapes. As the women waited and wondered, the landscapes became unsettling with the insertion of the watchers: behind trees, at bus stops, peering out of car windows. Trees became a recurring component in my paintings, serving as both symbols of comfort and control.
“After this residency, I have been selected to take part in The Courtauld’s East Wing Biennial. The Biennial is an institution, having previously hosted artists like Tracey Emin and Paula Rego, so I’m beyond excited to be part of it. ‘Blancmange Rabbit, after Manet’ and ‘Should I Get the Bill?’ will live inside The Courtauld for the next two years! I’m currently working as Artist in Residence at a school in Guildford, which gives me a big, free studio space for the next 10 months. Which is very useful because I am in the midst of preparing for my next solo show coming up at Cass Art, Manchester, opening December 16th.”
MAXIMILIANO RUELAS
Maximiliano Ruelas is an interdisciplinary artist from Mexico whose work explores historical impositions, queer identity, and the social meanings of clothing. Ruelas creates chimeric imaginaries that question conventional ideas of landscape, the body, and the relationship between human and non-human practices.
“I started a textile and sculptural project that delves into the history of gutta-percha, the material that enabled the first global communication system and, with it, the expansion of colonial power. By exploring its histories of use and trade, I seeked to open a dialogue between the temporality of technological and capital development and the metabolic cycles of nature.
“I’m obsessed with feathers and puppets right now. Feathers carry so much meaning that is shared throughout cultures around the world. And puppets originated from ancient idols and appeared everywhere, and I love how humans have unique perspectives on both of those subjects.
“I have a solo show at Palma that opens at the end of September, and after that I’ll start a ceramic residency at Plataforma and Cerámica Suro in December, which will help me expand my practice in a new medium. I’m definitely foreseeing feathers and puppets in my future.”
TONIQUE SEWELL
Tonique Sewell is a London-based painter, originally from Jamaica, whose work explores the changing nature of materials over time. By blending everyday life in London with memories rooted in Jamaica, Sewell’s series-based work often incorporates cinematic techniques to emphasise perspective and composition.
“During my residency, I painted two paintings of a pathway, continuing my ‘Repair Shop’ series – one leading away, the other returning to where my grandmothers once lived side by side. My work is inspired by film, so these paintings were my take on one-point perspective – one of my favourite cinematic camera angles. I selected scenes that felt open and grounded, with touches of greenery that would quietly complement Mason & Fifth.
“The residency gave me the time and space to think more deeply about the direction of my art. Even the space itself – with a cinema room – helped me refine what I wanted to paint and reminded me of my love for film. I’ve never lived somewhere with that before. The residency definitely shifted the direction of my series; to be honest, even though I tell people it isn’t just about cars, it actually was in the beginning. I also met amazing people and have so much respect for each of their crafts. I enjoy working around people who do different things from me, because it inspires me to experiment.
“After this residency, I’m continuing to work on my ‘Repair Shop’ series. I’d love to do a solo show one day, and I feel this series would be the perfect introduction to me and my craft. Collaborating with my favourite brands is a dream of mine, so I think it’s time for me to start flooding inboxes – and hopefully, people start flooding mine too.”
DENIZ BEDIR
Deniz Bedir is a French-Turkish artist from Marseille whose work blends bas-relief and fresco using construction materials to create contemplative, ritualistic paintings. Drawing inspiration from the Mediterranean landscape, Bedir's practice explores ritual, process, and the creation of convivial spaces where viewers can feel welcome.
“On one part I made some new painting following my lifelong ongoing serie and tried some new format. And another I did some research on workshop I could make to share my practice. I was blessed to organize a workshop with Mason & Fifth thanks to Elliot Jack and Hanna Ter Meulen, which was amazing.
“I was really inspired by the space we were in and the workshop I experienced there and the one I made. I would like to develop my workshop practice to include it with my exhibition in the future. That is what inspires me right. As well as the new book from Eusong Kim, The Politics of Collecting. Can’t forget also that I’m happy that I got back to Marseille for the end of the summer to enjoy the sea and my family, who both carry me on the daily.
“Right now I'm just getting ready for my next residency so running errands and packing again. I will be part of the Aisp (Arts Intensive Study Program) at Firestation in Doha for a year. It’s a new program by the amazing Wael Shawky. So no plans but being fully committed to it. I’m really excited to be able to study and work outside the ‘western’ hemisphere with other incredible artists, discover Qatar, be able to be more connected with south west asia as a whole. And see how my work evolves from there!”