Bio – Anna Fairchild

Biography

Biography

Dr. Anna Fairchild BA, MA, DFA

Artist Statement

Anna Fairchild is an artist and researcher working with sculpture, photography and film. She has exhibited and curated both nationally and internationally.

Fairchild graduated in 1988 from Kingston University with a First Class degree in sculpture. In 1990 she moved to Istanbul to live and work as artist and teacher. Returning to the UK in 2001, she set up a studio completed a Masters in Fine Art by Research in 2012 from the University of Bedfordshire. Continuing her practice and research, she successfully graduated with a Professional Doctorate in Fine Art from The University of East London in 2019.

Her practice situates itself in the threshold, or liminal space between physical and conceptual felt experiences in the ambiguity between emergent unseen and recognisable forms.

An intuitive material led engagement with Jesmonite plaster, which echoes Michael Polanyi’s ideas that tacit forms of knowledge ‘…show more that we can tell…’ about the world, lets colliding fragmented memories, of place and experience coalesce. These individual or clusters of objects, which seem to precariously cling together chimes with the intention that the objects resonate with fleeting moments of synchronically torn experience in the continuous flow of time. The shapes, forms, colour and material are intentionally reminiscent of things, and yet, at once, imaginatively ambiguous. These are forms that may remind us of clouds, horizons, cliff edges, winged things, fossils or organic forms.

The work draws inspiration from both physical and social geography; fungi & lichen; cave deposits; chemical and calcium landscapes; Brutalist & Post Modern architecture; water running down a cobbled street mapping through space and time; fruit juice fountains on street markets. The seepage of contrasting colour and textural experiences of place, both present and remembered, is intended to invite the viewer to experience a shift from actually real to virtually real space.

1.Polanyi, M, The Tacit Dimension, p.4, 1966 UK
2.Madge, C & O’Connor, H, Mothers in the making?: exploring liminality in cyber/space 2004 UK

Solo Exhibitions

2022: Brutal-Lab, Departure Lounge Gallery, Luton supported by Luton Culture Trust
2021: Congruous, Salon 12, Saturation Point, London, sculpture installation & artist’s talk (Invited)
2021: Igneous Staring, Cloud 9 Residency exhibition funded by Arts Council England supported by Eastcheap Projects, Letchworth Garden City (Awarded)
2019: Mill Flow, Mill Green Museum Gallery, Hatfield, Hertfordshire. (Selected)
2019: The Fluid and the Fixed: Materiality and Place, University of East London
2018: Virtual Shift, (As You Change So Do I) Luton Culture/Arts Council England, The Storefront, Luton Bedfordshire. Sculpture and light installation (Invited)
2018: Displaced, Cement works, Container Space, UEL, London
2017: Displace, Plaster works, Container Space, UEL, London
2015: University of East London, The Light Well Gallery, (Exhibition and seminar presentation)

Group Exhibitions

2022: Brutal Light, AVX Luton, Hat House (Invited)
2022: Black Swan Arts, Frome (Selected)
2021: Cluster, Howards park Corner, supported by The Broadway Gallery Letchworth & Letchworth Culture Project (Selected) https://www.broadway-letchworth.com/cluster
2021: Correspondence 01 The Broadway Gallery Letchworth & Exeter Phoenix Gallery (Selected) https://www.broadway-letchworth.com/ANNA%20FAIRCHILD%20%26%20ANDY%20CLUER
2021: Jointly funded & supported by Arts Council England, Letchworth Culture Project & Eastcheap Studios Letchworth. Window Gallery Sidewinder, 2021 sculptural installation with coloured light (Selected)
2020: Blakefest 2020, Virtual Visions, curated by Mikey B Georgeson, Film work Songs of Fig and Apple (Invited)
2020: Looking for Obsidian short film invited by The University of East London, Sensorium, curated by Mikey B Georgeson
2020: The Querentologists, Dekka Arts Margate. With Sian-Kate Mooney & Hedley Roberts (Invited)
2020: Made With… Cross Lane Projects, Kendal, Cumbria; 5 Sculptors, curated by John Stephens (Invited)
2019: Inside, Inside/Refrain, The Stone Space, London. Sculpture and light installation (Selected)
2019: Miniscule Part 2, parallel programme at the Venice Biennial, Italy, curated by Vanya Balogh, Miniature direct cast sculpture (invited)
2019: Miniscule, Cross Lane Project Space, Cumbria, curated by Vanya Balogh, Miniature direct cast sculpture (invited)
2019: Pupa, Atelier de Melusine, France, In Between Things Text & Photographs (invited)
2019: Ask (Love) Art Festival, Istanbul Concept Gallery, Turkey, Istanbul Fluid, Short film projection (Invited)
2019: NoHat Performative Women’s Art Festival, Bedford. Virtual performative sculpture and drawing with QR code installation (Selected)
2018: Protocol, Q Park, London, curated by Vanya Balogh (invited)
2018: Inside, Inside/Outside, Eastbury Manor, Barking Residency (Selected)
2018: Glutative, Mill Green Museum, Hatfield, group exhibition, Digital scans direct printed on acrylic glass (invited)
2018: Fourth Year Professional Doctorate Showcase Exhibition 2018, UEL London
2018: Pint of Science; Creative Reactions. Collaborative project with Dr Dennis Chan, Cambridge University Clinical Neuroscientist (invited)
2018: Dry Run#8, Chiara Williams Contemporary Art Margate (Selected)
2017: The Crash, Q Park, London, Performative Drawing, curated by Vanya Balogh (invited)
2017: Experimental Film Club, Istanbul Fluid at Market Gallery, Glasgow, (Selected)
2017: Blakefest, UK, Performative Drawing piece, curated by Racheal Searle and Mikey Georgeson (invited)
2017: Salon Open Call, Angus Hughes Gallery, London. Photographic film still (selected)
2017: PassPort Brittania at Safehouse 1, Peckham London curated by Rekha Sameer (invited)
2016: Artists Toys, Curated by Rekha Sameer, Berlin, Germany (Invited)
2015: ARTMASTERS, The Truman Brewery, London, (curated and exhibited)
2009: Northern Print Biennial, Photographic print exhibited, Newcastle, UK (Selected)
1997: Cartographers curated by Zelimir Koscevic; International exhibition of work inspired by maps and cartography; travelled to Zagreb; Warsaw; Maribor (Selected)
1996: Harita Hatirarlar (Map Memories) British Council Gallery, sponsored exhibition, Ankara, Turkey (Selected)

Awards & Residencies

2022: Shorlisted for the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award
2022: Drawing Conversations 4, Research presentation Brutal (Light) Foraging, Huddersfield University (Selected)
2021: Arts Council England funded CLOUD 9 residency, Eastcheap Project Space, Letchworth Garden City, Herts (Awarded)
2018: Inside, Inside/Outside, Joint residency with Mikey B Georgeson and Lucy Renton at Eastbury Tudor Manor, Barking, London (Selected)
2018: As You Change So Do I, Luton Culture and Arts Council England, Residency at The Storefront, Luton, Bedfordshire (Invited)
2016: Inside, Inside, Residency at the 2016 Istanbul Design Biennial parallel programme, Supported by Istanbul Foundation for Arts & Culture (IKSV) (curation and participation)
2016: Residency and exhibition at Trinity Buoy Wharf Docklands, London (Selected; curation and participation)
2016: Directional Forces Summer Residency, Psarades, West Macedonia, Greece in conjunction with University of East London (Invited)
2016: Artoll Residency, Dusseldorf, Germany, with Directional Forces at UEL (invited)
2016: Dungeness Residency & Exhibition, The Container Space, UEL, London (curation & participation)