Bryan Eccleshall
Since returning to art practice I have studied for a Masters and a Practice-led PhD. The research undertaken was focussed on how translation theory might be used to better understand visual reiteration.
Emerging from that research are two strands of practice. The first is practical. I make works that collide art works for many eras with other visual material (for example, images from science fiction films, contemporary news, ) to explore issues concerned with (to crudely summarise) ideology, religious fundamentalism, the refugee crisis, as well as embracing the feeling of being simlutaneously stimulated and overwhelmed by visual material. Lately I have become fascinated with pre-Renaissance imagery as it functions symbolically rather than representationally. Implicit in this work is a consideration of the nature of visual similarity and what that might indicate or reveal.
The second strand emerging for my doctoral research is pedagogical and informs the way I teach BA students, which I am keen to continue. I encourage students to develop a voice through comparing their work with others and to interrogate that relationship to reveal what underpins their approach to making, be it a process, a political concern, or something more psychological. Using works as 'yardsticks' against which things can be tested allows this to happen
I am ambitious to show my work more widely and to explore how artists might have faith in research methodologies founded in picture-making, and in reflecting on the work they make rather than illustrating theories generated beyond art practice.
Dr Bryan Eccleshall, FHEA
Education
2016: PhD in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. (Director of Studies: Penny McCarthy. Supervisors: Dr Sharon Kivland and Chloë Brown).2010: MA in Contemporary Fine Art from Sheffield Hallam University.1988: BA (Hons) Fine Art from Leicester Polytechnic.
In 2017 I was granted Fellowship of The Higher Education Academy.
Employment
Overview
After graduating in 1988 I pursued a non-art career. I spent several years working in various positions in book manufacturing / publishing. I returned to art practice in 2001, and in September 2005 pursued that practice full time.
Current
February 2012 onwards: Drawing and Painting Tutor, Open College of the Arts and Unit Leader of HE Level Four Drawing Course.
Historical
September 2012 – August 2017: Director/Trustee of Bank Street Arts, Sheffield.
March 2010 – September 2015: Associate Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University.
May 2010: Employed by the Research Group for Artists Publications and Site Gallery to install a large Sol LeWitt drawing as part of the an exhibition of the artist’s books.
September–October 2008: Co-artist on It’s Good To Be Me project at Retford Oaks Schools Cluster, Bassetlaw, culminating in an exhibition of over 100 works at BendInTheRiver, Gainsborough.
July 2008: Co-ordinator for Worksop, Fabulous Art in Bassetlaw.
June–October 2006 – 2008: Co-ordinator, FRED (an annual site-specific arts festival that took place each October throughout Cumbria).
November 2005 – December 2007: Administrative Assistant, Fold Gallery, Kirkby Stephen.
October 2005 – December 2007: Visiting Artist, Esthwaite School, Hawkshead. During the weekly hour-long Creative Club I have run about fifteen workshops, all on different themes with a changing group of children from all years in the school (ages 4 to 11).
June 2007: Ran workshops at The Pencil Museum, Keswick.
Spring 2007: Inset Trainer, Cumbria Schools.
June 2007: Co-ordinator for Art Strike! Funded by ACE, an artist led intervention at the Art 07 event at Kendal’s Brewery Arts Centre.
January–February 2007: Consultant artist to Life Box project, Workington. A six week project co-ordinated by SureStart, culminating in an exhibition at Tullie House Museum, Carlisle.
Residencies and Awards
2015
September: Winner of one of two student prizes at the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2015.
2012
March: Shortlisted for the 2012 John Moores Painting Prize.
2010
July (until August 2017): Artist in Residence at Bank Street Arts, Sheffield. This was an ongoing position and explains why a lot of my work has been shown there.
2008
May: I was part of a team of artists from South Cumbria to receive a NAN Go-and-See Bursary which allowed us to visit Berlin to forge links with artists there. This led to an award from the Arts Council to create and execute and touring show of our work.
2006
October–December: Landing Strip Residency at Art Gene, Barrow-in-Furness. Selected by rednile projects of Sunderland to collaborate with them.
Exhibitions, Conferences, Research, etc..
2019
October: Prosaic: Bloc, Sheffield (group show) - I am also a founding memeber of the curatorial team that delivers this ongoing project
May: Prosaic: Coterie Gallery, Rotherham (group show)
2018
June: Digital Rain: The Holt, Sheffield (solo show)
March: Digital Rain: Green Rooms Hotel, London (solo show)
2017
June: Monochrome Breach: An Exhibition of Drawings, Bank Street Arts (solo show)
April: Interviewed for a Radio Four documentary Copyright or Wrong?
2016
October: Attended Translation and Activism conference at UCC, Cork.
August: Collateral Damage (with Chris Graham). Exhibition and book launch at Bank Street Arts.
July: Attended inaugural meeting one the Intersemiotic Translation Research Group convened by UCL’s Dr Ricarda Vidal. I have been invited to contribute a chapter to a multi-authored publication, scheduled for publication in summer 2017.
March: Post, Bank Street Arts. A pop-up exhibition of work in support of my PhD submission. (solo show)
2015
September: Jerwood Drawing Prize. (group show)
July–August: Sans Terre made for Bank Street Arts Members Show Work in Progress (with Chris Graham).
2014
November: Presented a round-table discussion at the On The Image conference, Free University, Berlin. One of my works was also included in the accompanying exhibition.
January: 365 Drawings: Bank Street Arts, Sheffield. (solo show)
2013
November: Presented a paper at Generative Constraints conference, Centre for Collaborative Research, London
October: Decoding Grantchester Meadows (with Rachel Smith), art:language:location, Cambridge
May: After (1-12), Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield (solo show)
January: Plight: A Recovery, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield (solo show)
2012
December: 12-12-12, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield (group show)
June: Untitled 1-9, CADS, Sheffield (funded by The University of Sheffield) (solo show)
June: Tegel – Flights of Fancy, (with Karl-Heinz Jeron), Babylon Kino, Berlin
May: ArtText, (Exhibition and Symposium) Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
2011
Spring: An Exchange With Sol LeWitt, MASS MoCA, USA (group show)
2010
November–December: The Public Are Not Invited, The Workshop, Nottingham (group show)
November/December: Minutiae (with David McNab), Bank Street Arts, Sheffield (group show)
Summer: After and Gone, (the results of Artist-in-Residence position), Bank Street Arts, Sheffield (solo show)
2009
Spring: M3-M6 Unterwegs/Underway, Touring show: Lancaster, Preston, Berlin (group show)
2008
October: FRED, site-specific arts festival, Cumbria (group show)
June: The Bourne End Collection, Bedfordshire. Private Commission
2007
October: FRED, site-specific arts festival, Cumbria (group show)
May: Baker’s Dozen: Neo’s Gallery, Cockermouth (solo show)
2006
November: Sites Considered, Art Gene, Cumbria
October: FRED, site-specific arts festival, Cumbria
Publications
2018
December: Translating across Sensory and Linguistic Borders: Intersemiotic Journeys between Media (edited by Ricarda Vidal and Madeleine Campbell). I contributed a chapter that summarises the key findings of my PhD: 'An Analyitic of Making: Translating Berman's Twelve Deforming Tendencies'.
2016
October: 'A Definition of Translation' included in the multi-authored book Bartlett Drawing Research Series published by Post-graduate researchers at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
August: Collateral Damage (with Chris Graham). Twenty-four hand finished books that documented the previous year’s Sans Terre installation.
February: After After…: Reflections on Twenty Two Drawings
2015
October: 365drawings
September: Sans Terre, with Chris Graham. (Edition of 25) Part of a seventeen volume set, (London: Ma Bibilothèque) and launched at the Whitechapel Artists’ Book Fair. ISBN: 978-1-910055-15-1.
March: The Editions: Notebook Diagrams. (Edition of 25) Part of a post-graduate collaboration of 23 titles, launched at the Leeds Artists’ Book Fair.
2014
November: Tales from the Orchard (Bank Street Editions, Sheffield).
September: ‘Drawing After – Modular Reiteration as Research Method’, Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, Volume 7 Number 1 (Intellect Journals) ISSN: 1753-5190.
2013
December: Tegel: Speculations and Propositions (The Green Box, Berlin) ISBN: 978-3-941644-59-5
October: Decoding Grantchester Meadows (with Rachel Smith) (Lulu, London) ISBN: 5-800098-309697.
2012
April: NICK THURSTON: In My Own Words (with Sheffield’s Guerrilla Writers) (AND, London) ISBN: 978-1-908452-15-3.
2011
March: An Exchange With Sol LeWitt, Exhibition Catalogue (Cabinet Books/MASS MoCA, Boston MS) ISBN: 978-1-932698-52-7.
2010
February: MA Contemporary Fine Art Degree Show. A collaborative publication project. ISBN: 978-0-9558665-6-2.
2009
June: Project Biennale. A collaborative curatorial project launched as part of the Venice Biennale. ISBN: 978-0-9558665-5-5.
Curating
2011
Failure2011. An online project to assemble works by artists considered as failures by them. Each work was accompanied by a text explaining their position. In July 2012 the blog’s contents were included, as a large poster, in Artefacts of Failure at QUAD, Derby.
2006–08
FRED: I was one of the small team that delivered FRED, a site specific arts festival in Cumbria. I helped select the artists and their work and then co-ordinated their contribution, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the artist.
