Platform Bursaries 2018

This year b-side is working with a number of South West based arts organisations to offer development of practise opportunities for South West based artists. Platform bursaries are for emerging visual artists or established artists who are interested in exploring new ways of working in a site responsive/ temporary/outdoor context.

The recipient of the b-side and Arts University Bournemouth bursary is Brian Callinan. The bursary will include mentoring from the b-side and AUB teams and an opportunity to take part in the b-side festival 2018.

About Brian

“As a child I would create artworks out of plants, wood, stones, water and cowpat. I made hats out of dock leaves and wore them, dancing with glee around portal burial tombs in Ireland. Too often as we mature through adulthood we lose touch with the fascination we had as children for the world around us. Amazement, wonder and curiosity to question, probe and poke the environment defines me as an artist. I imagine what could be, and I make, experimenting with combinations and processes, utilising my environment, recycled materials and found objects to achieve what I know within. This can be quick or take months and years. I try to emphasize my role as an Artist, to imaginatively construct new understandings of our immediate environment. Triggering the viewer emotionally using subtle tools in the work to achieve this. For example, a hinge or a carefully selected piece of wallpaper, which could rekindle a past experience, memory or place. I’m currently experimenting with the work researching its effect on the viewer.”