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ROBIN SULLIVAN

@bro_mate

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Hello folks!

After 8 long years of slow research, residencies, workshops, fields trips and collaborations I am gearing up for my biggest project yet! Telling the 6,000 year story of Gabbroic Clay and reinvigorating an ancient clay network across the southwest! (More details to follow over the next 12 months)

I am looking for artists, archaeologists, writers and researchers who work with or have been inspired by Gabbroic Clay from the lizard peninsula. So If you know of anyone please DM me or comment below!

To start building this network, over the next 6 months, I am looking to travel around, meet people and hear their connection to, and work with, this material history!

(📸 photo of me when I finally finish this work - other photos of related research projects so far 2018-2026)

Field trips and experimental archaeological work as part of ‘high on Hembury Hill, The Gabbro Bowl - Royal Albert Memorial Musuem (2018) @rammuseum

Studio work 2018-2023

3 month Residency with @rameprojectscornwall (2023)

Field trips and talks 2023-2026 by @bro_mate

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24 days ago

Upcoming talk | 17th September | 3pm

Hello all, my solo show And Everything And Nothing Has Changed currently showing at Roger Preston Gallery, located at Wheal Martyn Museum, is coming to a close on the 8th of October.

I’ve decided I do like the show, so will be doing a small closing event and it would be lovely if you could make it. I will be in conversation on Sunday 27th September at 3pm, It will be a chance to see the show and hear more about this body of work and how it’s changed my practice over the last 5 years.

As I said in my previous post - I have a number of bigger projects coming up and this was such a fab way to test showing this kind of work in an institutional setting, I’d love to see you there and see what you think.

If you are available, please book your free space via the link in my bio…

Love, Robin X taken in Wheal Martyn China Clay Museum by @bro_mate

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a month ago

Solo Announcement!!

Hello lovely people, In classic fashion I have a little show opening this Saturday at @whealmartyn and I’ve told no one about it!
I have huge anxiety about sharing my work - you may have noticed I barely post anything - so I’m not doing a big opening. It will open ~ casually ~ on Saturday and if I like it when I’ve finished installing I’ll invite you all to a closing party!

I think I do like it… The show is a documentation of my 2021 And Everything And Nothing Has Changed - it’s full of interesting bits and bobs from the project, documents and drawings and sketch books and gorgeous photographs by @ebbflowmediauk alongside a couple of documentary films they made for me, a podcast by the brilliant @kcmillyak , a giant kiln and a big gorgeous sexy ceramic standing stone.

Wheal Martyn is my favourite museum and it’s so fun I can’t wait for you all to go and spend a day there. V child friendly.

I haven’t shown in a gallery space in a decade and I really wanted to prove to myself and maybe some others that social practice belongs in these spaces too. I’ve got some big projects coming up so this its a little test and a chance to think about what I need to collect and do during a project to be able to show it elsewhere… next time.

Also I have no money so it’s rough and ready and lovely.

Hope you get to see it, it’s on for a few months!

Xx by @bro_mate

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2 months ago

Last week when I announced my @pallanthousegallery staircase comisison I shared with you the images of Cross Waves alone on an empty beach, a myth ! St Ives is far from empty and sculpture might look like it just exists but it takes a big labour of love.

Here me @eleanorturnbullartist and @bro_mate Robin Sullivan are with @sharp_the_artist on the camera taking the sculptures from @porthmeorstudios down to the quiet(er) end of Porthmeor beach. Swipe along to see the journey which to us felt like a procession. The sculptures came alive as soon as they were outside and even I was a little dazzled by their colours interacting with the strong sun light and reflections from the water.

I’m pleased to carry on sculpture making in St Ives despite how tricky it now feels to do compared to some slightly quieter times of the past when there was some more space. Nobody wants to hear the grinding and drilling of metal in the middle of st ives now, let me tell you. Thankfully I got to use what was one of the old fishing cellars at Porthmeor which made it doable and I had these well seasoned sculpture heads who are experienced in navigating the Cornish terrain- whether car parking or public realm sculptures stuff.

It was an unforgettable experience to get in the water with my sculptures with this crew followed by the most blissed out swim of the year so far. Also not pictured (was too busy enjoying it) was the perfect post sculpture swim lunch and cocktail at @st_eia . If St Ives can teach a person anything about being artist it’s to combine life and art and work and fun.

Thanks Eleanor, Robin and SHARP X and St Ives 💙 by @bro_mate

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2 months ago

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5 months ago

“Landscape isn’t just a physical thing; it’s there within us.”

We are thrilled to welcome the incredible @bro_mate to the Festival. They will be appearing @ashburtonarts today, Saturday 2nd May at 11am, in an event called Art, Place and the Ancients: remaking the past. Robin will be chatting with @lithicality about their fascinating work which bridges sculpture and performance and is deeply rooted in the prehistory of the British Isles.
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Also today @ashburtonarts we have at 0930 @rebeccambeattie in “Bewitched by Dartmoor , 12:30 Archaeologist Dr Lee Bray with Traces of Our Ancestors, and 14:00 @stone_lands @mssophiepierce @kirsteen.mcnish with Love Loss and Landscape

Then, if that were not enough, there will be a Mummers Play at @field.system at 1530 followed by the fantasic @grimspoundmorris and @newton_bushel_morris dancing outside @ashburtonarts
Full deets on website - link in bio -
Come join us it’s going to be a fabulous day ! by @bro_mate

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5 months ago

Two Together residency | Artist pair spotlight

Reflecting on their recently completed Two Together Residency at @PorthmeorStudios, Claye Bowler (@clayebowler) and Robin Sullivan (@bro_mate) discuss the evolution of their collaborative enquiry into the material site of Cornwall:

‘Initially visiting neolithic stones, and locations of known queer history, the residency evolved into an in-depth inquiry mapping the local landscape and specifically the many holes of west Cornwall.

We explored the functionality and interactivity of these holes. Re-categorising them as portals, hiding places, cruising sites, sites of voyeuristic entrapment, or of elemental penetration.’

🔵 The Two Together: Porthmeor Studios Residencies is an open call residency for pairs of visual artists held in partnership between @FreelandsFoundation and Borlase Smart John Wells Trust. Two Together enables an artist to invite a new person into their practice as a basis for peer learning through open-ended exchange and material exploration, living and working together across a month-long residency at the historic @PorthmeorStudios in St Ives.

Photos: Alban Roinard (@alban_roinard). by @bro_mate

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5 months ago

Making megaliths from scratch is a wonderous thing. Even more so when these are bringing people together today just as they did in the past.

Robin Sullivan, one of the most innovative artists working with place and pre-history anywhere, will be talking about his new additions to the megalithic landscape of Britain as a fantastic addition to the @dartmoortorsfest line up. Robin has kindly stepped in at the last minute to replace Peter Randall Page, who sadly will be unable to join us due to ill health (get better soon Peter x). Like all of us Robin has been very much inspired by Peter's art and the landscapes of moor and stone that they both live and work in.

@bro_mate works with clay and other materials to make deeply personal and engaging social artworks that bridge sculpture and performance including spectacular open air ceramic firings. Recent works include a major new public art commission for Newquay making 3 new megaliths in bronze from over 400 casts of places around the town that people there feel are special. The hope is that these will become new meeting places and sites of community. Proudly queer and very open about his bi-polar disorder Robin brings new perspectives to ancient ideas.

So please support Robin by coming to his talk - Art, Place and the Ancients: Remaking the past - on Saturday 2nd May 11:00 at Ashburton Arts Centre @ashburtonarts More information through the Dartmoor Tors Festival website – link in bio.

#megaliths #ancientstones #westcountry #contemporaryart #festival taken in Ashburton Arts Centre by @bro_mate

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6 months ago

@bro_mate and I are having an open studio this coming Saturday at 5 Porthmeor Studios in St Ives, Cornwall 1-5pm

We've been here in Cornwall for the last month exploring the mythic, neolithic & explicit landscape

Ps, if delving into our expansive, deep, cavenous, veiny..research isn't enough for you..it's also St Ives kite festival just around the corner 1-3pm too

Two together residency supported by Freelands Foundation

@freelandsfoundation @porthmeorstudios by @bro_mate

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7 months ago

First two weeks of two together residency with @bro_mate at @porthmeorstudios with @freelandsfoundation !

We've been thinking a lot about holes, types of holes, function of holes
Holes as hiding places, visibility, temptation, voyeurism, secrets, portals, emotion

We're also having an open studio in 2 weeks to close our residency on 28th March, 1-5pm. Studio 5

(Don't let the photos fool you, there's been 30-50mph wind which blows every different type of weather throughout the day, everyday) by @bro_mate

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7 months ago

Great workshop today with @sophiemeyer8485 from @queer_kernow at @kresenkernow

We explored the coldstores of Kresen Kernow, (contains 14 miles of shelving over two floors) and learnt how to research Queer experience in archives.

It was a really eyeing opening day and brought right to the front how emotive this work is. Queererasure and Queer oppression and criminalisation, but what was uplifting about the day was meeting lots of other great people and seeing the incredible work of @queer_kernow and others. A group carefully studying and working incredible hard to find, document, make accessible and preserve queer stories otherwise lost for ever. Thank you for giving us our history back and ensuring generations to come will be able to see themselves in the record of time. by @bro_mate

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8 months ago

Made a furnace, melted some Cornish tin and made a mini stone circle… obvs

In 2026 I really want to spend time playing in the studio and learning new skills so this is a great start!

Lots and lots and lots to learn. 🔥🔥🔥

The third and final Newquay monolith is nearly there… it’s in a tent, in the barn, with a little heater desperately trying to get to the plaster jacket dry… so I’m playing in the meanwhile… last week I just sat around waiting for it to dry and it was miserable. This week I’m channeling a friend and trying to make the most of each day and what’s in front of me! by @bro_mate

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9 months ago