RFAOH Annual Report 2013/2014, 2014/2015, 2016/2017
Multi-year collaborative online project archive in print
Montreal/Tokyo—September 2026
Remember Residency For Artists On Hiatus (RFAOH)? The archive of this visionary online project is now in print.
In the spring of 2013 at the 52nd Venice Biennale, Montreal based artists/co-directors Shinobu Akimoto and Matthew Evans, with legendary Taiwanese American artist Tehching Hsieh as the sole member of their advisory board, officially launched Residency for Artists On Hiatus (RFAOH), and invited artists to pose their careers to engage with activities of their choice that were decidedly outside their art practice. Recognizing how contemporary art practices had become increasingly institutionalized with the growing number of MFA programs, contemporary art biennales, and the global art market, Akimoto and Evans were interested in exploring potential systems to accommodate the very real pressures artists face throughout their careers to keep up with the demands of the art world. Residency For Artists On Hiatus (RFAOH) offered a virtual space for reflection on alternative modes of creative living. Over the following five years, three distinct cohorts of international artists, 19 in total, joined the residency not to make art, but instead to undertake such diverse activities as group meditation, opening a bar, restructuring a college art curriculum, training for a 100km-marathon, moving to a foreign country and cultivating a “moonfarm” from scratch, working through grief by revisiting a mother’s journals, experimenting with Kombucha fermentation, continuing to create artifacts that were not considered art—and many more.
Now the entire duration of this sprawling collaborative project has been archived in a full colour, three-volume publication: RFAOH Annual Report 2013/2014, 2014/2015, and 2016/2017.
More than a project catalogue—RFAOH Annual Report documents a unique moment when “artists not making art” find ways to sustain their creative practices through connection, empathy, mutual support, and relationships that developed throughout the residency. On every page, the residents’ diverse engagement gives food for thought to the question, whether participating in RFAOH was an admission of failure as an artist. Each volume offers readers an opportunity to revisit the residency's highlights, while reminding us of a vast network of artists all over the world who exist beyond the “Art World”—their resilience, curiosity, and commitment to a life enriched by a boundless creativity let us reimagine creativity as a lifework. And where are they now?! Catch up with RFAOH’s ex-resident artists-on-hiatus at the end of each volume!
The three-volume limited edition catalogues are now available through RFAOH’s website: residencyforartistsonhiatus.org. Publication launches are also being planned for multiple locations worldwide including virtual spaces, which may feature presentations, discussions, and an opportunity to meet the co-directors and some of the participating artists. Dates and details to be announced.
For more information, review copies, interview requests, or ordering information, please contact: info@residencyforartistsonhiatus.org.
Learn more about the project and stay tuned for news of RFAOH 2.0 at: residencyforartistsonhiatus.org.
