My practice has been described as an attempt to understand and explore the planet as a sculptural object – to test its limits, to sense its processes and to report back on how it feels. Recent works have pictured human-kind’s fragile position on this ball of rock and have explored our entangled interdependence with our fellow ‘Earthlings’ – the trillion other species, the gasses and the rocks that we share this planet with, and that we humans tend to call ‘nature’. Within my work I often travel to new contexts and learn from people, scientists, and technicians that help me bring back a personal vision from the ends of the world.
Recent projects include a body of work made in a watery, modernist ruin found off the coast of Florida; a journey across Europe and Africa tracing the 0º Greenwich Meridian; a live video-transmission from the deliberate sinking of a ship to create an artificial reef and a film featuring the artist walking the perimeter of a shrinking island. Other older projects include a video-work recording the journey of a domestic chair as it is carried to the edge of space beneath a weather balloon and a drawing project sending back live digital-drawings from a two month journey to Antarctica.
Recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Atchugarry Foundation Miami (USA), Galerie Polaris (Paris), Kunstverein Sprinhornhof (Germany), The Exchange in Penzance (UK) and Musee des Beaux Arts (Calais). Recent group shows include exhibitions at Parafin (London), Maison Rouge (Paris), ACC Gwangju (Korea), Turner Contemporary (UK), CCCB (Barcelona), Palais de Tokyo (Paris) and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (Australia). In 2019 the first iteration of my public artwork ‘The Erratics’ was unveiled in Cambridge University (UK) and in 2010 my largest permanent public artwork to date ‘Liverpool-to-Liverpool’ was unveiled at the centre of Liverpool (UK). My works feature in many collections around the world including in France: Centre Pompidou, FRAC Basse Normandie & FRAC Franche-Comté; in England: in the Government Art Collection & the Arts Council Collection and also in the MAST Foundation in Italy amongst others.
I was born in Braziers Park – a utopian community in Ipsden, Oxfordshire. I studied at Central St Martins and then the University of Reading. My practice takes a variety of forms – ranging from video, to digital drawing, installation work and writing. I am also Professor of Fine Art at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.