Susan Brind
Susan Brind
- Lecturer and Researcher (Semi-Retired)
- ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5088-863X- Professional Title
- Reader in Contemporary Art: Practice & Events
- Job Title
- Lecturer and Researcher (Semi-Retired)
- School or Academic Area
- School of Fine Art
- School or Academic Area Supervised for
- School of Fine Art
- S.Brind@gsa.ac.uk
- Contact Number
- 0141 353 4748
- Professional Address
- Department of Sculpture & Environmental Art School of Fine Art Glasgow School of Art - Stow Building 43 Shamrock Street GLASGOW G4 9LD
Biography
Using sculptural and time-based meda, disseminated through artefacts, installations, events and publications, I work independently and collaboratively with Jim Harold, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Examples include: Cambridge Darkroom, 1991; Camden Arts Centre, London, 1994; Art Museum of Estonia, 1998; London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, commission, 2001; RSA Edinburgh, 2008; CCA Glasgow, 2011; Renmin University, China, 2015; Agios Sozomenos and Potamia, Cyprus, 2018; The Lighthouse, Glasgow, 2020; and in 2020 and 2021, online and hybrid exhibitions and events for Cyprus Buffer Fringe at the Home for Co-operation.
I established GSA’s Reading Landscape group with Nicky Bird in 2014, fostering interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects with external partners. Specifically:
• Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law & Governance;
• INCAScot Contemporary Archaeology network;
• Creative Centre for Fluid Territories – international, inter-disciplinary research questioning place identity; and
• University of Glasgow – “Wastelands and the City” network and seminar series (2023 ongoing).
Research Interests
Overarching interest is in the body as a site of understanding in relation to: experience of landscape, definitions of place, place as palimpsest, art/archaeology methods, border territories, and site-specific or -responsive artworks and curatorial strategies.
Grants
Funding for Research Projects:
2023, ‘Landscapes of Energy & Extraction: Field Guides – Nos. 1-3’ (Co-I with Michael Mersinis), GSA/Scottish Funding Council, £3,500.
2019-20. ‘Practicing Landscape: Land Histories & Transformation’, Exhibition and related symposium (Co-I with Jenny Brownrigg and Dr Nicky Bird), GSA RDF, £6,379.
2019-20. ‘National Island Plan – Embedded Artist Commission’ (Co-I with Monica Laiseca) Scottish Government Islands Team, £16,500.
2018-19. ‘Law, Art & Resilience’ (Co-I with Dr Nicky Bird, GSA and Dr Francesco Sindico, University of Strathclyde, Centre for Environmental Law & Governance), Royal Society of Edinburgh, £9,000.
2017. ‘Cabinet Interventions’ residencies, workshops and exhibition at Pollok House, Glasgow (Co-I with Shauna McMullan and Joanna Peace), Royal Society of Edinburgh, £19,557.50.
2016-17. ‘Creative Centre for Fluid Territories travelling colloquia in Nicosia (2016) and Bergen (2017)’. (Co-I with Shauna McMullan), GSA RDF, £7,500.
2014. ‘Practicing Landscape research journey’, (Co-I with Dr Nicky Bird) GSA RDF, £3,000.
In addition to these research projects, I have been a named researcher in applications for two art/archaeology research networks 3M#DO (2019-20) and INCAScot (2021-23), both supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Funding for Curatorial Projects:
1998-1999. ‘Artists Research Fellowships, (PI for Visual Art Projects, Glasgow), Scottish Arts Council – National Lottery Fund. £66,000.
1993. ‘Breathing Form’ for The Ruskin School of Drawing, University of Oxford, (co-I with Brian Catling), Arts Council of Gt Britain and Southern Arts, £15,142.
1992-1994. ‘The Reading Room’ - new commissions by three writers and eight artists on the theme of the Reading Room, for presentation at gallery and non-gallery venues in London, Oxford and Glasgow, (Co-I with Jane Rolo, Book Works, London), Local, regional and national arts funders, £59,823.
1991-1992. ‘Artweek - Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival’ – two-week festival of art at over three hundred sites in Oxford and surrounding area, (PI) funded by local and regional funding bodies, £52,718.
1992. ‘International Artists Plener’, 2-week residency for eight artists developing international initiatives, (PI) Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and European Arts Festival, £10,745.
1991. ‘Surface Tension’ exhibition and events for Smith Art Gallery, Stirling. (Co-I with Elsie Mitchell) Scottish Arts Council and Arts Council of Gt Britain, £6,295.
1989-1990. ‘Art Matters Now’. Berkshire Artists Group & Southern Arts lecture series. (Co-I) with Anne-Marie Watkins, Southern Arts, £1500.
Funding awards for independent and collaborative practice:
2013. Curious Arts – No. 6, publication project with Jim Harold, Royal Society of Edinburgh, £7,500.
2007. One-month Residency at Hospitalfield House, Arbroath. Royal Scottish Academy, £555.
2000. ‘bad air [mal’aria]’ permanent commission, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, £5,000.
1998. Artist’s Award, Scottish Arts Council, £8,000.
1997. Small Assistance Grant, Scottish Arts Council, £750.
1994. Mysteries of the heart for The Reading Room. Book Works, £500.
1992. Guest residency in Düsseldorf, Southern Arts Board, £885.
1990. ‘The mind betrays the body’, for Smith Art Gallery, Stirling, Scottish Arts Council, £2,500.
1990. ‘The mind betrays the body’ - multi-monitor video installation, Arts Council of Great Britain,
£3,795.
1989. Temporary Exhibit at Reading Museum & Art Gallery, Southern Arts Board, £850.
1989. Slade School of Art Project Award, £500.
1988. Photographic installation, Southern Arts Board, £600.
PGR Supervision Interests
Supervision interests:
Apologies – I am no longer able to take on any new PhD researchers requiring supervision.
Current PGR Students
2020 to date Susan Roan (Working title: Listening to Languages of Labour – Between Body, Text and Image: A Visual Exploration of Languages of Birthing Embodiment in Contemporary Oral Narratives of Home Birth in the UK) – Primary Supervisor.
Former PGR Students
2019-2025 Noah Rose (Sculpting the Linguascape-Ag Dealbhú an Teangadhreach: Unearthing place-based knowledge in the Irish language through expaded sculptural practice) – Primary Supervisor.
2019-2024 Helen Angell-Preece (Three Auto-geographies Weaving Into (and Out-of) Place: A Post-colonial Approach to Re-mapping Spaces of Home and Belonging) – Primary Supervisor
2017-2022 Teiji Wallace-Lewis (The Canadian Family Farm - A Case Study of a Settler Colonial lieu de mémoires) – Second Supervisor.
2014-2018 Catherine Weir (The Digital Index: Creating immediacy through the integration of digital photography and captured data) – Second Supervisor.
2005-2011 Alex Spaulding (‘Aurally Immersive Installation Art’) – Director of Studies.
2011-2014 David Gracie ('Subversive Art as Time, Place, and Counterculture: The San Francisco Bay Area 1945-1965') – exited at M Phil stage - Second Supervisor.
2002-2004 Supervised 15 successful M Phil completions focused on Art and Design in Organisational Contexts – Primary Supervisor.
Teaching
Based in the Department of Sculpture & Environmental Art, I’ve covered various roles:
2021 ongoing 3yr Tutor / Reader in Contemporary Art: Practice & Events (awarded 2013)
2017-2021 Acting Head of Department (1.0)
2011-2017 Pathway Leader, M Litt Fine Art Practices – Sculpture (0.2)
2006-2011 Academic Co-ordinator, SOFA Friday Event Lecture Series (0.2)
2006-2010 Fine Art Pathway Leader – MRes in Creative Practices (0.2)
2004-2006 Acting PhD Co-ordinator and Research Developer (0.5)
2002-2004 Course Leader, MPhil Art & Design in Organisational Contexts (0.5)
1999-2002 Specialist Tutor, MPhil in Art & Design in Organisational Contexts (0.2)
1999-2015 4yr Academic Co-ordinator (0.5)
Latest Additions
- Brind, Susan, Harold, Jim and Hale, Alex (2025) Hamiltonhill Claypits: After images, After things, After us.
- Carter, Justin, McCausland, Onya, McNally, Danny and Robertson, Frances (2024) Practicing Landscape Field Guide No. 3: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Material Agency and Meaning. Practicing Landscape: Field Guide, 1 (3). Reading Landscape, Glasgow. ISBN 978-1-7385275-6-4
- Carter, Justin and McCausland, Onya (2024) Common Ground. In: Practicing Landscape Field Guide No. 3 Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Material Agency and Meaning. (2024). Landscapes of Energy and Extraction, 3 (3). Glasgow School of Art - printed by J Thomson, Glasgow. Production support by Good Press, Glasgow, pp. 5-47. ISBN ISBN 9781738527564
- Wall, Gina, Hale, Alex, Mersinis, Michael and Brind, Susan (2024) Practicing Landscape Field Guide No. 2: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Landscape as Archive. Practicing Landscape: Field Guide, 1 (2). Reading Landscape, Glasgow. ISBN 9781738527571
- Wall, Gina and Hale, Alex (2024) Landscape as Archive. In: Practicing Landscape: Field Guide No.2: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Landscape as Archive. Practicing Landscape Field Guides: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction (2). Reading Landscape, pp. 3-41. ISBN 978-1-7385275-7-1
- Mersinis, Michael (2024) Surface Tension. In: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Landscape as Archive. Practicing Landscape: Field Guide (2). Reading Landscape, Glasgow, pp. 42-51. ISBN 978-1-7385275-7-1
- Mersinis, Michael (2024) Silk Town. In: Practicing Landscape: Field Guide No. 1 Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Mining the Animal. Practicing Landscape: Field Guide (1). Reading Landscape, Glasgow, pp. 8-26. ISBN 978-1-7385275-4-0
- Brind, Susan and Bird, Nicky (2024) Practicing Landscape Field Guide No. 1: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Mining the Animal - Foreword. In: Practicing Landscape Field Guide: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Mining the Animal. Practicing Landscape Fieldguides, No. 1 . GSA/Good Press, Glasgow, Glasgow, pp. 1-5. ISBN 9781738527540
- Mersinis, Michael, Hodson, Elizabeth, Harold, Jim, Brind, Susan and Bird, Nicky (2024) Practicing Landscape Field Guide No. 1: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Mining the Animal. Practicing Landscape: Field Guide, 1 (1). Reading Landscape, Glasgow. ISBN 9781738527540
- Hodson, Elizabeth (2024) 'From Mimesis to Symbiosis' in Practicing Landscape Field Guide No. 1: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction: Mining the Animal. In: Practicing Landscape Field Guide No 1. The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow. ISBN 9781738527540
