Third Text
SIMON FAITHFULL
Simon Faithfull’s practice has been described as an attempt to understand and explore the planet as a sculptural object, to test its limits and report back from its extremities. Faithfull often builds teams of scientists, technicians and transmission experts to help him bring back a personal vision from the ends of the world. Recent projects include a journey across Europe and Africa tracing the 0º Greenwich Meridian, a live video transmission from the deliberate sinking of a ship to create an artificial reef, and a film featuring the artist walking through a burning jet plane. Other projects include a video work recording the journey of a domestic chair as it is carried to the edge of space beneath a weather balloon, a drawing project sending back live digital drawings from a two-month journey to Antarctica, and an animated film developed from drawings made on a walk out of London along the A13 trunk road (a Channel 4 TV commission with Arts Council England).
Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Galerie Polaris (Paris, France); Musée des Beaux Arts (Calais, France); Fabrica (Brighton, UK); FRAC Basse Normandie (Caen, France) and the British Film Institute (London, UK). Recent group shows include exhibitions at Maison Rouge (Paris, France); ACC Gwangju (Korea); Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK); CCCB (Barcelona, Spain); Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France) and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (Perth, Australia). In 2010, Faithfull’s largest permanent public artwork to date, Liverpool-to-Liverpool, was unveiled in the centre of Liverpool, England.
Faithfull was born in Braziers Park, a utopian community in Ipsden, Oxfordshire. He studied at Central St Martins and the University of Reading. His practice takes a variety of forms, ranging from video to digital drawing, installations and writing. Faithfull is also a Reader of Fine Art at Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.
