Chris Finnegan is a visual artist from Cork City working across photography, sculpture, and participatory practice. Working with young people and adults in different settings, Chris’ practice sees him continuously developing methodologies for collaboration at the intersection of play and art making.

Play This Way looks at early years play and takes inspiration from modernist child-centred pedagogies such as the Montessori and Reggio Emilia approaches, as well as Simon Nicholson’s loose parts play theory.

During the residency, Chris will test play materials and transform the studio into a dedicated early years play space. These materials have been developed in collaboration with children in EY educational settings in Cork City.

Following this period of testing, the space will open to early years children and their families. Children are invited to interact with the space and materials – exploring, playing, imagining and having fun. As the space changes and evolves as a participatory installation, Chris will document the results of the children’s play; with photographic documentation accumulating in the space in different formats throughout the exhibition.

Triskel Sample Project Space is a new partnership between Triskel and Sample-Studios that will provide a visual arts project space for artists, especially emerging and mid-career artists, to test ideas and to develop new work that can be seen by the public. This offers tangible career development and audience engagement opportunities to artists on their ‘home turf’ where they have a safe space to develop new ideas, within which risk-taking is possible.

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