UPCOMING / ON NOW

Terra Nexus (part II)

Opening in March 2021 (subject to change)

Proposition Studios, London South Bank
Check back for more details soon.

A Grotesque, Gut-ter-al Goddess

Around this time last year I presented Artemis of the Lea, my vision of a riverine fertility goddess celebrating human waste as part of natural cycles of renewal and rebirth.

SEX, SEWERAGE AND THE SUBLIME: mind map from Artemis research

Continuing several of these themes, this year I am showing Medusa of the Mushrooms in TERRA NEXUS, an exhibition interrogating the role of the human as part of ecology. Curated by Gabriella Sonabend for Proposition Studios.

 

 

 

 

These bulbous Medusae are not the decapitated monsters of Greek myth, but refer to a more ancient heritage of chthonic goddesses and the masked seeresses interpreting voices that echo from deep within the earth. Continue reading “A Grotesque, Gut-ter-al Goddess”

Terra Nexus

Visit TERRA NEXUS, a new immersive show at Proposition Studios.


17 artists, including me, have been commissioned to produce new work responding to the role of the human in ecology. Each of our spaces join up to create a labyrinth of possible worlds.

It’s a fantastic, unusual and genuinely immersive show – book tickets now!

As part of the process Proposition Studios took us on a field trip around 3 sites at the forefront of ecological management of agricultural land in the UK.

The field trip was a rare opportunity to be introduced to new ecological means of working productively with the landscape. We visited 3 sites: Martin Crawford’s Forest Garden in Totnes, Wakelyns agro-forestry in Suffolk and rewilded agricultural lands at Knepp in Sussex.

The size of British fields have been defined by the way they are used, specifically, the size of crop-spraying machinery. In some imaginings this is not the future of farming; the future of the British countryside might be wilder, more densely hedged and more plentifully varied in its flora and fauna. Seeing these possible worlds make for radical propositions. Travelling with other artists working with complementary themes and disparate practices sparked fascinating thoughts and conversations which I hope will be carried forward into the show.

EXHIBITION

Wednesdays – Saturdays 11am – 7pm
10 Oct – 30 Dec 2020

There is no private view due to COVID, but across multiple spaces the exhibition lends itself well to socially-distanced viewing. Book tickets now
£10 full price
Concessions available

Address
Surrey Wharf, 30 Malt St, off Old Kent Rd, London SE1 5AY Map
Tube: Elephant & Castle or New Cross Gate then Bus 21, 53, 78, 172, 453

Artemis of the Lea

Photo: Matt Clayton

At the end of last year I was pleased to present my first outdoor installation, at the Queen Elizabeth Park (the Olympic Park) in East London.

It was commissioned by UCL Culture in collaboration with researcher Dr. Tse-Hui Teh, who researches water infrastructures and especially the way that populations use and relate to water.

The project is not so much about water management technology, but the interplay between the individual and infrastructure, from our bodies to the landscape.

Continue reading “Artemis of the Lea”

New commission

I’m working on a new commission for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Trellis is a programme bringing together artists and researchers from UCL to create new public realm works to be shown for a short period in October 2019. Read a summary of the project below.

(Confusingly, the video above follows a different partnership, which wasn’t taken forward)

 

Dr. Tse-Hui Teh (Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning) and Dr. Lena Ciric (Senior Lecturer in Microbiology) are working with artist Amanda Lwin on a project that seeks to change people’s feelings about urine. As a society we’ve forgotten that urine is an incredible, free source of nitrogen – pee is regarded as a waste product and flushed down the drain, along with litres of drinking-quality water. Rather than consuming fossil fuels (in the production of ammonia) to fertilise our fields, while wasting both water and urine, the project proposes ways to celebrate urine as a useful, natural product linking our bodies to fertility, water infrastructure and the landscape.

The project involves the production of watering cans that double as (female) urinals which are, over the summer, distributed to allotment holders and community garden volunteers in the boroughs that surround the Olympic Park. In the autumn, the participants in the project gather at the Park to witness their vessels being festooned on a frame, which converts into a water fountain. A kind of temporary water fountain that disappears after two weeks, as the participants retrieve their vessels. The artwork becomes an ephemeral celebration of water, so essential to our cities yet so strangely invisible.

Read more

Free electronics workshop for artists

I’m pleased to be a recipient of an a-n artist development bursary allowing me to organise a basic electronics workshop for artists. The workshop will be in July with kind support from Platform Southwark.

This workshop is intended for people with little or no experience of electronics to start to develop practical skills that will be helpful in building interactive exhibits that include electronic elements. In two days we won’t make you a master, but we’ll help you get over the initial hurdles and feel comfortable building and experimenting with simple electronic circuits. Continue reading “Free electronics workshop for artists”

A Worldwide Web on the worldwide web

Pleased that my work A Worldwide Web of Somewheres is being included in Google Expeditions, an immersive education app that allows teachers and students to explore the world. Here’s the 360º photo that will be included.

The images look best on Google Photos’ website. See the rest of the artworks in 360º here – it works particularly well on smartphones.

I enjoyed their Q&A … Continue reading “A Worldwide Web on the worldwide web”

Bruno Latour on the EU

“It is by the intricacy of its regulations, which are attaining the complexity of an ecosystem, that it shows the way. Exactly the sort of experience that one needs to approach the ecological mutation that is straddling all borders”

– Bruno Latour, from Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime

Unreal Estates: read all about it

Unreal Estates is an exhibition about home, and what it means to live in a place.

‘Witty, critical, thought-provoking and sparking off unexpected synergies’

‘Clearly a joyous thing’

Six artists have each been working with a fiction writer to respond to properties on the market within a mile of Homefinders Estate Agents, where the exhibition takes place. Their new collaborative works examine ideas of domesticity, psychological interiority, emotional space, and private histories.

Each individual artwork or text can be read as a standalone work, yet additionally complements its counterpart as collaboration. But even on top of that, when gathered together, the images and texts can be read another way. They also record the multiplicity, the textures, the dreams, imagination and memories of this city, now.

 

The homogenised aesthetic of property-as-asset is contrasted with the exquisitely rich and deeply personal interiors of fictional homes created by artists and writers.

 

As quoted by Hackney Citizen:

“You can read the exhibition as exactly what it is on the surface – a group exhibition of high quality work about domestic interiors. Indeed, the whole experience is nothing without the clever and delightful contributions of the artists and writers. It’s perfectly fine to leave it there. But when you turn it over and look at it a different way, it becomes something else. And you can carry on turning it and looking at it, and all these different interpretations and allusions interweave and fan out, into the wider city.”

Announcing Unreal Estates

I’m delighted to announce the launch of a new project, Unreal Estates.

An exhibition of newly commissioned painting and writing on the subject of domestic interiors, the project takes place in a working high street estate agency.

Gathered together, the works are a subtle comment on the state of the property market and the trend of property as investment, as opposed to a place where private lives are lived.

A new nomadic estate agency tours the UK.
First stop: London

EXQUISITE DOMESTIC FANTASIES BROUGHT TO YOU BY EXPERIENCED AGENTS

Continue reading “Announcing Unreal Estates”

Ahead of the opening of her first curatorial project Unreal Estates (an exhibition which responds to the current housing climate held in an actual Dalston estate agency), we spoke to artist and east London native Amanda Lwin about her favourite spots. Read more >

Infrastructure & Superstructure – a walk around the City

At the end of Part I of our walking tour around the City of London I stood everyone down the steps to the Thames near Cannon St and talked about the Hanseatic League, Cannon St’s suburban services, BT Mondial House, waste disposal barges at Walbrook Dock, and Julian Baggini‘s ideas about systems, efficiency and Britishness.

Feedback from the tour:

‘Infrastructure & Superstructure’ was an eye-opener and Amanda’s expertise and enthusiasm inspiring. Thank you!

I attended Amanda Lwin’s walk and I thought it was amazing. I didn’t realise it would be based around history of the area/buildings which I was very pleasantly surprised about. Amanda was really sweet and to my surprise she took us to a few spots I wasn’t aware of – which is great!

We had a wonderful talk and tour by Amanda Lwin, on the infrastructure of the City of London. I couldn’t recommend this highly enough. Amanda was knowledgeable, engaging and thoughtful, and had obviously put a lot of effort into preparing. The walk was fascinating and we learnt so much.

Continue reading “Infrastructure & Superstructure – a walk around the City”

Nocturnal Creatures

Pleased to be taking part in Nocturnal Creatures, an evening event hosted by Whitechapel Gallery on 21 July.

Free to attend and accessible to all, highlights of the programme include:

  • An immersive audio-visual environment created by Tom Lock especially for a new building in Broadgate
  • Hourly performances of Alexis Teplin’s mesmerising performance Arch (The Politics of Fragmentation) at the Whitechapel Gallery
  • Artist-led tours of artworks installed across the surrounding area for the 8th edition of Sculpture in the City
  • The premiere of audio compositions created in response to East End sites, Sculpture in the City x Musicity

I’ll be leading a walking tour of the City of London, provisionally titled ‘Infrastructure & Superstructure‘.

Book here

READ MORE

Nocturnal Creatures Press Release