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artcase

Welcome to artcase my name is Sandra Symes and I am an artist and researcher living in Portland Dorset UK. My key interest is art that 'creates a sense of place' rather than art that 'is about a sense of place'.


My art combines found images and texts from a range of sources. Mostly I work through the medium of digital print and installation that explores the travel book as an artwork and different kinds of journeying. Exhibitions include 'Slider' at Test Space Spike Island, 'wayfarers' and '11 stations' at Spike Island Open Studios and 'Dreaming Japan' at the ICIA Bath. The digital short film OU-topos was shown for Architecture Week at the Watershed Bristol and a 'virtual book' was created for the Critical Topologies of Landscape website at Bath Spa University.


My art practice considers other forms of knowledge and practices and draws on insights from thinkers across cultural and philosophical streams including geography, philosophy, religion and the social. Thinkers from Europe and Japan that inspire me include Martin Heidegger, Bruno Latour, Nishida Kitaro, John Urry, Matsuo Basho and Dogen Zenji. I feel there is much to learn from one another's insight in an ever changing world that brings together previously separated cultural horizons.


Following an M.A. In Visual Culture (Fine Art) I was awarded an A.H.R.C. funded studentship at Bath Spa University where I presented a paper 'Locating Naoshima' which investigated how the ancient Japanese island of Naoshima has been rejuvenated by contemporary art practice. Working as an independent researcher for the University of the West of England I produced a qualitative report on the commissioning process for the Port Marine Public Arts Programme, Portishead.


Please use the Contact Me page to get in touch.