Since its inception, National Sculpture Factory (NSF) primary objective has been to support the talents of artists, at all stages of their careers in exploring and developing their practice of art-making in all their forms of expression and production. To this end, NSF have developed a very successful core programmatic strategy which creates the time and space for young artists to professionalise their practice straight out of college in a supportive and productive environment.
The National Sculpture Factory gives out 4 graduate residency awards each year to colleges in the southern region: two graduate residency awards to the Crawford College of Art & Design; one in Fine Art and one in Contemporary Applied Art.
One graduate residency award to Limerick School of Art & Design in the Sculpture and Combined Media Department, and one Graduate award to Waterford Institute of Technology Fine Art Dept. This year, NSF have given 4 graduate residency awards and one special Kiln award for a graduate in Contemporary Applied Art at CCAD.
Residency awards include free studio rental for 3-6 months with some material stipends; technical and administrative support; curatorial and peer support; mentorship and free access to a number of our educational & technical workshops/lectures. Successful candidates are selected based on their Degree show submissions while also considering how the NSF can help develop the potential of their practice, and this often includes extra consultation with their college lecturers. It is worth noting that the selection for the WIT Graduate Residency has been postponed until the autumn in line with their proposed plan to host their Degree show exhibition in October. Announcement of the recipient will follow in due time.
Freida Breen – LSAD
Sculpture & Combined Media Graduate Residency Award 2020
Freida makes sculptural work that is primarily concerned with temporality, scale, material and encounter. She pays close attention to the inherent character of materials and works with them in an intuitive manner, tracing a tensile line between the methodical – rigour, a sense of time in making – and the direct presentation of matter itself, as it is, or minimally influenced.
Recent studio practice has deployed grafting as an aesthetic and poetic modality, linking it to ideas of exchange, encounter and the transmission of affect, in the cumulative graft upon graft of maker/material/space/viewer and so on. As it seeks integration, the graft is in a dynamic if variable and contingent process of unfolding between merged bodies, as yet unfinished in time or space, it is ongoing.
Ossin Hanrahan – CIT CCAD
Contemporary Applied Art Award 2020
“Mathematics is a beautifully delicate instrument, which we have used like a crude tool to express the complex nature of the physical world through brute force.
While we are always trying to comprehend reality’s vast complexity in a binary form, we miss the finesse of analogue information. This is why fractal mathematics caught my attention, as it suggests that nothing is measurable, as everything has infinite detail. I find mathematics is a simple way to communicate complex information visually and without the use of text or words.”
Philip Williams – CIT CCAD
Fine Art Award 2020
“Through my work I want the viewer to question their reality through their own perception. I believe that it is necessary for people to question their surroundings and how they perceive it and my work aims to shine a light on how what the viewer may perceive as reality can be changed and altered.
I believe Reality is as frail as what we can perceive and if I can show how much our perception of something that isn’t moving or changing can be altered, then reality might seem less definite.
The idea of unseen elements has been within scientific theory for centuries and my research focuses on many theories that embrace the existence of an accessible dimension above what we can understand.”
Eve Russell – CIT CCAD
Special Kiln award for Contemporary Applied Art 2020
“The theme of my work is survival and the primitive fight to support life in a dangerous environment.
Weeds are inspirational to my work as they simultaneously embody a sense of unease and awe; Japanese knotweed is infamous for being the most invasive non-native species in Ireland. However, I admire the strength and determination of this plant to break through concrete. Irish city-councils are determined to destroy every last plant with systemic herbicides, regardless of the health benefits associated with this plant in treating certain illnesses e.g. cognitive diseases, cardiovascular disease and promoting good digestive health. I find comfort in thinking that there is a weed fighting back. In a chaotic urban environment this supports the constant quest to maintain life.”
Image: Ossin Hanrahan
Source: Visual Artists Ireland News
