Over the last three years, Chris Finnegan has been developing his visual art studio practice alongside his practice working collaboratively with young people in Cork. In recent community projects with Helium Arts, Greywood Arts and Kid Future Lab, he has worked with groups of young people using photography and sculpture as methodologies for collaboration and exhibition making. Through this residency and exhibition, he will continue to research bringing these two strands of his practice together and explore the areas where photography, play and collaboration overlap.

Chris’ project is based around the theme of play, specifically taking inspiration from the formal qualities of modernist child-centred pedagogies such as the Montessori and Reggio Emilia approaches. He is also interested in the intersection of these philosophies of learning with the theories of making developed by the Bauhaus, Constructivism and the De Stilj movement.

The residency will be composed of two activities: collaborative workshops and studio production. Groups of young people will be invited into the space for participatory workshops where they will play with materials, objects and the space to create sculpture and other interventions. Workshops scheduled over the four weeks will invite a range of ages from early years children through to 8-12 year olds. Alongside the workshops, Chris will work in the studio to develop the imagery and objects produced in them for public exhibition. Moving beyond a prints-on-the-wall approach, the children’s outcomes will be presented as photo-sculptures, photobooks and constructions. Over the residency the work will accumulate to fill the space and displayed in accessible, child-friendly ways.