Artist
I am a public artist based in Scotland with a diverse practice exploring relationships, systems, and change. My work is rooted in process, public engagement, and cross-disciplinary collaboration, with a particular focus on creating participatory experiences that foster connection, reflection and transformation. Responding to site, place, or community, my work takes many forms from site-specific interventions to sensory installations and collaborative processes.
With a background in Human Ecology, community development, and social justice, I bring a research-driven approach to public engagement. I am interested in experimentation, critical inquiry, and the disruption of dominant narratives. My work explores how art can be a catalyst for personal, ecological and societal change.
I have collaborated with cultural institutions, environmental agencies and communities to co-create public artworks and temporary environments that open space for dialogue, creativity, and transformation. Past projects have been developed in partnership with organisations such as the Jam Factory (Lviv, Ukraine), the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, the Centre for Infection, Immunity and Evolution (University of Edinburgh), the Hutton and Rowett Institutes (Aberdeen), and the British Society for Immunology. These collaborations have explored a wide range of interlinked themes, including soil and the food system, creative regeneration in post-industrial cities, the social construction of landscape and ecological justice.
I work collaboratively with Robbie Coleman on an ongoing basis. See the Coleman & Hodges home page.
I am co-creator of The Museums of the Future Now a participatory project exploring futures thinking and Sanctuary Lab, an an off grid art laboratory in the Galloway Dark Skies Park.
WORKS
The following sections are currently being updated.
Creative Engagement and Development
BECOMING EARTHLY
In 2020 I was selected for Becoming Earthly Run by The Barn Arts, Aberdeen, this was an experimental learning space which aimed to create the conditions to open up new innovative forms of ecological practice that respond imaginatively to the challenges we now face. The programme ran July – September 2020.
EMERGE MENTORING
In 2019 I worked for Upland, mentoring a young artist for Emerge. Emerge is a 9 month programme of mentoring, networking and training for emerging artists who have a connection to Dumfries and Galloway. https://www.weareupland.com/news/emerge-2019-recipients-announced-and-mentors-matched-29012019
CAMP BREAKDOWN BREAK DOWN
In 2015, I attended an 11 day artist led camp exploring petrosubjectivity and cultures of survival in a post oil world 2015. Breakdown Break Down was a long term effort to organize cultural workers, artists, activists, and those interested in surviving climate breakdown, to de-industrialize our sense of self and produce the civil society that will help us endure ecological collapse. More info http://www.breakdownbreakdown.net/
SHONA PROJECTS
In 2015, I headed to Eilean Shona Island to be part of a pilot project to collectively learn about diverse and non-arts specific topics that can inform artistic and creative practices for the future. We experienced temporarily inhabiting an unpopulated island and participated in a structured programme of events that explored ideas around the human sensory experience, related to the natural qualities and physical remoteness. http://www.shonaprojects.com/
Presentations:
ART, DESIGN AND ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE. LIFESPACE, DUNDEE. Speaker at Art, Design and Antimicrobial Resistance. LifeSpace Art & Science Discussion Event at LifeSpace gallery, Dundee. September 2015
“Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of microbes like bacteria, viruses and parasites to evade treatment by antibiotics and other drugs. This is an increasing threat to global health as new resistance mechanisms emerge and spread across the world. Microbial life has long captured the interest of many artists. So what can artists contribute to the interdisciplinary approach required to both tackle antimicrobial resistance, and increase public awareness of this important issue?”
EDGES : SURFACE : BORDERS EXHIBITION AT TENT GALLERY, EDINBURGH. Exhibition opening and presentation/discussion. November 2015
PRESENTATION AT FERTILE GROUND CONFERENCE. Artists presentation of A New EIA for Natural Scotland at the Fertile Ground Conference at Dunbar. The theme of the event was environmental art towards change. Oct 2014 LINK
MOVING OUT SYMPOSIUM. Presentation of Sanctuary Lab at ‘Moving Out’ Symposium, “An exploration into the exciting range of art taking place outside conventional venues across Europe, the UK and Scotland exploring the significance of publicly engaged art. See http://www.uzarts.com/moving-out-symposium. Part of the Galoshans Fesitval.
CONTEMPORARY ARTS IN RURAL CONTEXTS. Presentation of Sanctuary Lab. The seminar was organised by Chrysalis Arts and explored how artists working in rural environments or with rural themes are developing new platforms and approaches to visual arts practice. The programme showcased current examples of innovative artistic practice from across the UK, explored how artists are engaging with some of the issues facing rural communities, and offered an international perspective on contemporary rural practice and the benefits of networking, collaboration and co-operation. Settle, 2017.
Coleman & Hodges 