Bridge Street Gallery, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, UK.
I made this installation in an old boat shed during the first Covid lockdown. I tried to frame my thoughts as a journey inwards, reflecting upon my worth when human contact was drastically reduced. It started as I passed an old man sat outside his flat, he was sanding a chair when he shouted over “you’ve got to do something”, the following day he was painting the same chair, and shouted, “Well I can’t go anywhere so may as well”. It struck me that if all we had was ourselves, in our own environments, would we find a core of who we really are? Sound by Ben Grant.
Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, UK
Far Skerr is a disused lime kiln on Cocklawburn beach, about 2 miles south of Berwick-Upon-Tweed. I had a strange emotional reaction to the remains at the edge of the beach; I felt sad and moved, as if I was watching a laid down giant, slowly sinking into the sand, the hope for things being better it represented now forgotten and left behind. I found concrete pieces on the beach and wired them onto plinths I made so visitors could use tools to chip, scratch and file them. The plinths were made form recycled fencing from Cote Syke Farm. The drawings I developed from rubbings I made on the stones of the kins.
Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, UK
More than 10,000 people were killed at Flodden during the English Scottish wars, when they were caught in the marsh created by the dip in the underlying rock. The marsh is now drained with a ditch to improve agricultural production. The large acrylic paintings are copies of digital images taken jumping into and lying in the ditch at Flodden. The interactive sculpture of was built with recycled timber fencing and plastic sheeting from a silage pit at Cote Syke Farm, and filled with local soil and water.
Torriano Primary School, London, UK
2019
I helped Nursery and Reception children produce a display for their hall during the school’s Work Week. We knew many different types of jobs existed, so became interested in the actions we had to make with our bodies to complete tasks associate with each job. So, for example visiting police told us they spent lots of time walking, and our caretaker told us about sweeping. And our gardener told us about digging. We then used the same actions to make large scale art works.
I carefully drew these pictures of oak trees using charcoal on Fabriano paper.
I was interested in the resonance of the trees as a re-presentation of long held beliefs of Englishness, when digital technology and global economies were making us rethink sense of community and belonging and right wing anti-immigrant parties were gaining traction for Brexit.
I worked from digital images I made of oak trees I discovered walking in London.
The texts are made from spray paint on paper, and map where I walked.
Torriano Primary School, London, UK
2017
Working together with EYFS and KS1 children we made work for a large exhibition that aimed to tell our community about challenges we were facing because of the damage we were inflicting on the environment and some things we might to to help. We presented music, dance, films, paintings, sculptures and installations to convince our audience to take action.
2013-2014
Art Shed Gallery and Studios, London, UK
An artist, 3 curators and a school full of children worked to create a gallery and arts studio in an inner city London school.
South Hackney Parochial Trust, London, UK
2013-2014
A collaboration with local school children, Prideaux House, the musician Juwon Ogungbe and Custard Architects to create a living archive of experiences living in South Hackney.
Institute of Education, London, UK
2013
The work combined children's paintings of contemporary educational theory and resources from an early years classroom re-contextualised within a modernist gallery space.
Argyll and Bute Council, Isle of Bute, Scotland
2009
Installations created with children on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, using a small quantity of the vast volume of plastic washed up on the beaches.
MODA, London, UK - Limerick City Gallery, Limerick, Ireland - Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Canada - Light House, Glasgow, Scotland
2001-2006
Design No8 was the result of the efforts to build a bungalow in an art gallery within a specific time. Based on one of the original designs by the architect Jack Fitzsimons available in his book Bungalow Bliss (1976), this was part of a research project for 'Space People Make- Bungalow Blitz'.
Galerie 101, Ottawa, Canada - Galerie Observatoire 4, Montreal, Canada - Contact Gallery, Norwich, UK - Kirby Gallery, Knowsley, UK - Pilgrim Gallery, London, UK
Pictures from an Ordinary Childhood
1997-2005
A series of paintings based on photographic images from my family's photo albums.
Kirby Gallery, Knowsley, UK
2001
The exhibition was the result of a collaboration with Alice Wharton, then aged 90, who had lived in Kirby since it had been a village, surrounded by farms and open countryside.
City of Ottawa Art in Public Spaces Commission, Ottawa, Canada
1995
Installed on a derelict open space in the Lower New Town neighbourhood used by groups of people including sex workers and homeless young adults.
Gallery SAW, Ottawa, Canada
Invitations were issued to the patrons of the National Gallery Canada and the Ottawa Art gallery to attend the opening of Tableau Vivant: Another Piece of Fine Art by Jim Grant.
Galerie Articule Projects, Galerie Articule, Montreal, Canada
1994
This installation was created in a closed down foundry in Vieux-Montreal. The area was once a thriving industrial sector of the city and had recently been re-zoned for gentrification.
Galerie Observatoire 4, Montreal, Canada
An installation using materials found on the site of a demolished factory that had originally produced hats in the Lasalle neighbourhood of Montreal.