A View From Nowhere - The Photocopy Self Portraits by Sir Sidney Nolan (Burren College of Art)

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'A View from Nowhere' presents a collective response to sets and sequences of recently discovered photocopies produced by Sir Sidney Nolan (1917 – 1992), that were made in 1987 using a standard office photocopier as a creative tool.

Professor David Ferry, trustee of Sidney Nolan Trust and President of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, unearthed these previously unknown photocopy artworks by Nolan in the Trust's archive at the artist's former home. Bringing together a multidisciplinary team of artists and researchers, the Copy Collective presents a symposium and exhibition in response to these experimental and hardly-known aspect of the practice of one of the 20th century’s most influential modern artists.

'A View From Nowhere' marks the first public display of these photocopies that were made in Nolan’s office and study area and not in his painting or printmaking studio. They are very much a performative act and have distinct correlations to his work in opera, his own poetry and his fascination for new technology of the time. The exhibition not only sheds light on Nolan’s unexplored processes but attempts to also situate him within the broader context of international art, where his experimental approach to materials and technology reflects a deep and contemporaneous engagement with the possibilities of modern artistic practice.

This exhibition and programme mark the second occasion on which new insight into Nolan is showcased at the Burren College of Art, following on from the 'Celtic Image' (2018) exhibition and symposium, also in collaboration with Sidney Nolan Trust.

Copy Collective is an interdisciplinary research team. It includes artists, curators, and scholars from diverse backgrounds, working with or associated with institutions such as Oxford University, University College London, the Royal College of Art, Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, and Tate Britain, with knowledge and skills in art history, archiving, digital mapping, music composition, and exhibition sound design.

A research symposium was held on the 5 March 2025 to mark the launch of the show.
www.burrencollege.ie/a-view-from-nowhere/

'A View From Nowhere' is an initiative of The Copy Collective in partnership with the Sidney Nolan Trust and The Burren College of Art with support from the Canterbury Sound Studio.