Bealtaine Artist in Residence at Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre
Each year Cork County Council in partnership with Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre invite an open call for artists over 50 years old to take part in a month-long residency at Uillinn, to celebrate Bealtaine. This year the Award went to Bernie Masterson.
Bernie Masterson is a visual artist and filmmaker working and living in Dublin. She studied at Limerick School of Art and Design in her early years, and returned to college from 2014 to 2016 graduating with an MFA from NCAD. She comes from a background in prison education as teacher / artist and over time this aspect of her teaching practice increasingly informed her visual art practice, with a shift towards a more socially engaged methodology that explores our human concerns. Key components of her practice include painting, drawing, research, film, editing, and sound design.
Can You See Me Now
Throughout her time at Uillinn, Bernie will be working on her multimedia art project, Can You See Me Now. The work explores the notion of identity as we progress into older years in life, and what that means in contemporary Ireland today. Bernie’s research will examine cultural attitudes, language, and behaviour in relation to ageing, with a multidisciplinary approach using film / drawing and painting as investigative tools. These inquiries will take the form of portraits involving both individual and group work as a means of self-reflection and encounter. The material gathered from this research through collaborative studio sessions will inform the development of a new creative lens-based work.
‘With my Bealtaine residency at Uillinn I hope to continue and advance with my artistic objectives exploring the theme of ‘identity’ and ‘displacement’. This subject matter has been one of the main focuses of my work to date, with projects like Incarceration Altars a public art project at Grangegorman in collaboration with residents of Mountjoy Prison Campus; Flight which addresses social anxiety and isolation and Who Owns My Body, the story of a young Irish trans. As individuals we are perpetually in a state of ‘becoming’ and the philosopher Michel Foucault describes this process as the ethics of the self. This opportunity facilitates a new point of reference dealing with our concerns as we age in a social, political and cultural context, in order to raise questions and promote critical dialogue. Creativity is ageless and provides many possibilities for engagement.’
Visit Bernie on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Studio 2 at Uillinn to find out more about her work! Keep an eye on the Arts for Health News page and social media for information on Bernie’s upcoming events.