In 1844, Charles Sturt set off with a company of men into the Australian interior. Along with him he brought a boat, hoping to sail it on the great “inland sea” at the centre of the continent, the existence of which he was completely certain of.
This work is a tribute to Sturt and all those like him who perhaps should have given up, but did not. (more…)
The Amstelpark in the south of Amsterdam is notable for a determined idealism in its layout and features, an admirable striving for peace, restfulness, and order in hopeful disregard for its location between a motorway and busy railway line.
The installation Amstelpark parapark is intended as both a respectful acknowledgement of and a critical comment upon this idealism. (more…)
To err is almost human was an artistic publication project, carried out in collaboration with the designer Cecilia Costa. It has as its subject a machine which I have built for writing, drawing, cutting, and carving. (more…)
The title of this work refers to a concept of the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1951), that of “la Durée” (“the Duration”). This concept is rather hard to explain but in effect posits that time as measurable and quantifiable (seconds, hours, years) is quite different from time as experienced by conscious individuals. This inner life, or time, is the Duration. (more…)
In May of 2008 I was involved, along with other students of the Dutch Art Institute and curator James Beckett, in preparing a work explaining the Here As The Centre Of The World project for the Kunstvlaai in Amsterdam. (more…)
The title of this piece comes from a line in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”, a religious allegory from the 17th century. Christian, the protagonist (and my near namesake) must journey from the City of Destruction to Mount Zion, on the way shedding his heavy burden of sin. (more…)
Following on from my participation in the Here As The Centre Of The World workshop in Diyarbakır in March 2007, I also took part in the final workshop of the project in June of the same year, this time in Enschede. (more…)
“SYB is getting better in Beetsterzwaag”. Kunsthuis SYB is a platform for contemporary art located in the small, sleepy village of Beetsterzwaag in Friesland. Myself and Bani Bannwart established a ficticious development company with big plans for an enormous new art museum in the village. The point was to pose some questions about the public’s automatic acceptance of what is done with their environment, and where this may lead. (more…)
I play here a duet with a fickle partner; three pieces of masking tape which, although instructed which notes they should play by me, nevertheless stop doing so at the time of their choosing. (more…)
In March 2007 I travelled with other students of the Dutch Art Institute and others to Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey, to take part in a workshop as part of the Here As The Centre Of The World project. This workshop was intended as an exercise in transnational collaboration, using the streets of the city as the location for artistic research and engagement. (more…)
This video was made in front of a former prison building in Diyarbakır, Turkey whilst visiting that city as part of the Here as the Centre of the World project with the Dutch Art Institute in March 2007. (more…)
Fietscamera – “Bicycle camera” is just that; a journey filmed around the square adjacent to my house on a bicycle. (more…)
Can a machine appreciate beauty? This is an important question, but it is perhaps more important to know if a machine can form it own opinions about what is beautiful and what is not. If it can, then we shall need to re-evaluate our perceived positions as the masters of art and the arbiters of taste. (more…)
I scream, you scream, but he screams. Language is complicated. This work responds to a call for works related to the present simple; that verbal form which describes an action habitually occurring or a state of being not restricted to the immediate moment. (more…)