Tuesday 23rd November
Website at : https://benmalcolmson.eu
Ben Malcolmson – Artist Talk
Artist and Curator, born in Belfast, living and working in Dublin
Graduate of Ulster university.
Grew up in Northern Ireland with Peace Walls dividing the Protestant and Catholic areas, in West Belfast in what are called the “Interface Areas”.
He initially showed us works he made during his undergraduate years of birds nests and walls.
Ben was othered whilst in Belfast due to the environment.
Enjoys sequencing and images side by side, and this shows off the contradictory nature of the natural and the wholly unnatural segregation of the communities.
Went to Kuwait with Making Marks opportunity via volunteering in the gallery at age of 19
Didn’t have an identity where the other artists from Wales, Scotland and England did. He also said that the others from the mainland Britain did not fully understand the troubles in Ireland and the nuances were missed.
He felt like he needed to research the River Farset and from looking into the local archives and libraries he found that it runs under Belfast in a concrete tunnel, the city gets its name from the river. He was using the river to produce cyanotypes of photos and photograms.
Using the Erasmus scheme he went to the Royal Academy of Art at the Hague for a week and having 11 classes per day meant being tired and worked hard.
The troubles are still “Ripe” in the island of Ireland
2019 used Polaroids on paper and looks like they stripped off the front to then move onto a piece of paper. These featured photographs of himself in various poses and this became a motif in some of his future works.
Videos of Starling Murmuration, photographing for 4 or 5 months.
Used linen showing some cyanotypes and had them hanging in the corridor of the gallery
He reminded us that these murmuration photos were not selected when he made them but after a couple of years they seemed to fit his current practice so he revisted them. It was a reminder that there are works you make today that might not seem relevant until a later date.
Used Microsoft Kinect to lidar scan his body and then screen printed them on to black painted glass, some of video and projecting.
If you can get work into a book then it travels more, than an exhibition which is short lived.
Sculptural Photography, installation based and video works
Worked in the gallery for a year as an assistant then interested in curatorial works
Worked with younger people to build up photography and art skills as well as confidence building.
Moved to Dublin in 2024
Working in a cross border region, a difficult place in the 80s and 90s
Paul Cerat and Willi Docherty photographed the borders and the British army areas
Gathering memories and photos from the public and then showed them in non-gallery spaces.
Resulted in a short film and was selected for the 2025 Belfast Film Festival
Recommends getting films out of the photography projects as these can go anywhere
Now working in a gallery an, Richard someone who handmade paper and then painted circles on it.
Next steps are a residency in Fire Station Artists Studios for a year which will allow him to further investigate his practice and see where that takes him.
Reflection
Overall it was a good solid story of an artist who came from virtually nothing, a single parent family with no expectations that he would go to university, to applying for scholarships, bursaries, funding, books, exhibitions, and competitions that would ultimately see him being a well travelled artist who finds it useful to share his time with younger artists, including the majority of the group here today.
Some of his work was great and I appreciate the patience he has shown to capture the video of the starlings, and also the other works reliant on the people bringing in their memories of the borderlands. It’s not easy to store, catalogue and then return the works to their original owners. It all takes time and organisation. He told a story about Northern Ireland that might not resonate with the younger members of the group, I still remember the Good Friday agreement in the news but to the yougner generation they might not be too aware of it.
Thanks to Laura for organising the exchange and Ben for sharing his time with us. It was inspirational and I’m sure will lead me to think differently about how I create and also present my work not only for the interim and degree shows but for the future of my practice too.
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