Sian Bonnell will receive this year’s prestigious Photoworks Senior Research Fellowship in photography and lens based media at The British School at Rome. Her residency will run from April - June 2011.
‘I will be questioning the role of the photograph in creating fictions, the role of the camera as conduit for the intentions of the photographer and both the visual and written contexts surrounding these,’ says Sian, ‘I’m particularly interested in the role of ‘place’. How the intention of the artist/photographer can be conveyed via a still or moving image transforming an ordinary place into a sinister one or obversely a place of wonder.’
The Fellowship selection follows an open submission call to UK-based mid-career photographers. Photoworks Head of Projects, Celia Davies, explains, ‘The Fellowship is set up to support photographers practice; to provide a rare and much needed opportunity to create time and space for artists to develop their ideas in a conducive, stimulating and supportive environment. Sian was selected as we felt her proposal fully embraced Rome as a context in which to make new work. In relation to her own artistic enquiry, we could see that this opportunity would really allow Sian to push her practice forward and prove an important juncture in her career.’
Sian adds, ‘I haven't had the luxury of a prolonged period of time devoted solely to my practice since I was a student (and I know that I wasn't wise in my use of time back then). To be given time to study, travel and make new work is wonderful enough, but to be given three months in Rome is the most amazing opportunity. I know it will allow my work to refine and mature and for this I’m so grateful; I will employ it to the fullest.’
