| Dates: | born 1967
| | Biography: | 1967 Born in Manchester.
Lives and works in London
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1996 Victoria Miro Gallery, London
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998-99 Near, Sharjah Museum of Art,
United Arab Emirates
1998 Diving for Pearls, HMS Onyx and
HMS Plymouth, Liverpool
1997-98 Pictura Britannica, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Sydney;
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide;
Museum of New Zealand
Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington Private
Face -
Urban Space, L. Kanakakis Municipal
Gallery of Rethymnon, Crete
(organised by the Hellenic Art Galleries
Associates)
1997 Material Culture, Hayward Gallery,
London
Experiment (GB), Kunstverein,
Trier/Kubus, Hannover
Joy-Joy, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow
Summer Collection 97, South London
Gallery, London
Multiples: Ideas for Sale, Cornerhouse,
Manchester
Studio Time, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
Within These Walls, Kettle's Yard,
Cambridge
At One Remove, Henry Moore Institute,
Leeds
Fragile, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano;
Musee des Beaux-Arts de Tourcoing,
France
1996 New Contemporaries, Tate Gallery,
Liverpool;
Camden Arts Centre, London
1995 Station Deutschland, Kunstlerhaus
Bethanien, Berlin
1991 New Waves, Merseyside Maritime
Museum, Liverpool
FURTHER READING
Murphy, B. Pictura Britannica, Museum
of
Contemporary Art, Sydney 1997 | | | Source: | "Trace, 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art", Festival catalogue | | | Date of source: | 1999 |
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| | Description: | Artist's Statement:
Proposal for the Remake of a Classic
British War Movie
At the centre of the Western
Approaches Control Room is a
landscape: one that was both a
changing political and geographical map,
secret and secreted away. Through the
1940s this was a representation of a
time and place like no other, one that
changed and shifted daily and even
hourly in response to the dramatic
horizons, places and narratives
happening in real time across thousands
of square miles to thousands of lives.
These events were controlled and
monitored from various positions at HQ,
but our attention is inevitably drawn
towards the simple, primary-coloured
boat shapes that are pushed and pulled
across the scene like the chips
collected by a croupier at a roulette
table. Comparisons to Greek gods - or
their contemporary political counterparts -
are difficult to ignore.
A large model of a submarine (2 metres
long) and a German U-Boat, rusted and
displaced, rest on the bodies of crushed,
burnt-out cars. Nearby, a tank and a
Stuka bomber - again German WWII -
have also come to rest on a collection of
wrecked Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Alfa
Romeo and Honda cars. The turret of the
tank rotates slowly as it looks for a
target. Is this a defensive tactic? The
body of the vehicle has already been
scarred, possibly by petrol bombs or by
the burnt wrecks crushed beneath it. The
aeroplane, in contrast, seems to have
dropped into the scene. It isn't going
anywhere with a rusted engine and
twisted propeller blades. A large truck
circa 1950 represents the only real
possibility of movement. It may be the
worse for wear, but is apparently mobile
judging from its unlikely cargo of furniture.
As with previous works we are given
further insight into the scene by virtue of
a collection of miniature colour and black-
and-white video cameras that are sealed
within the interiors of many of the
models.
On a simple monitor nearby we are
taken inside the submarine's apparently
still operational engine room; into the
turret of the moving tank - more confined
and less secure than you might imagine -
and into the driving seat of the truck, a
crashed car, and the cockpit of the
plane.
Our point of view changes, constantly
moving us into and then out of the
models. Perceptions of scale and place
shift unexpectedly. Our sense of time is
disrupted by the live images, which are
reminiscent of fleeting moments from a
war movie. This sense of temporal and
physical disorientation could not be
more different from the god-like vision of
allied and enemy warships in the defunct
Control Centre. Here, the model-maker's
versions of the real open up the official
history to the possibility of other, less
determined, narratives.
| | Description Source: | "Trace, 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art", Festival catalogue | | Description Source Date: | 1999 | | Gender: | male | | Type: | person |
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