Damien works with digital and found media, drawing on free-media principles, mixing “low” with high-tech equipment and strategies. She re-purposes and recycles found and donated materials, exploring the technology we use and discard, and the content it conveys. Working with actual and virtual materials, she often collaborates with other artists and - through socially engaged projects - the wider public.
Her work was originally print-based 3D; often based on children’s stories and toys, it has been shown in venues as diverse as phone boxes and the National Art Library. From 1998 she increasingly used digital techniques, allowing her to explore media often inaccessible to her and other D/deaf people. Works include De@fsite for the Photographers Gallery, Aerial (x-space commission for inIVA), Songbird, (sonic/acoustic work developed through a LabCulture Residency and exhibited as part of ‘Re:Thinking Time’), and AWSoM, the Ambient Weather Sound Machine (with Stuart Bowditch) shown at a range of sites including Banff NMI.
Other sonic and digital collaborations with Stuart Bowditch include Vibe³ (commissioned by ECC and shown across Essex) Vibe³C (commissioned for Outside09), Vibe Cube Southend for TAP Gallery, 'Automatic Listening', (commissioned by FirstSite), supporting Peter Cusack's 'Favourite Sounds' project at the Digital Exploration Centre (DEC), Georingtones, a 'Sparks Will Fly...' commission, Signpost, (Village Green 2010/Artside 2011) and as co-lead artists for the Rochford Art Collector Series. Solo projects include the Scanography series commission at Barking Hospital, 'Chimerascope' (commissioned for Essex 2012 Legacy), Sundrown, the Lost Property Office (for Metal's "On the Line" programme), HOFS-Centric, part of the Hadleigh in Place programme (for ACAVA), and "A Map of the Isle of Dogs" for Bow Arts Education. Recent projects include TANSTAAFL (Agency of Visible Women) and Object-Orientation , as part of Shape's "Ghosts in the Machine" at Tate Modern.
Previously a Creative Partnerships practitioner, with a post-graduate qualification from the Institute of Education, she regularly designs and facilitates education and participatory projects for age-specific and inter-generational initiatives in galleries, educational, and community settings. In 2014 she piloted the WYWH? digital workshops for West Berkshire Council (returning in 2015), and was one of three artists in residence for the QEOP Summer School partnership managed by Space Studios and the Legacy List. Projects in 2015 included the River Crouch Festival (April-July '15), and leading the visual arts element of Random Dance Company's programme for "Schools (not quite out)..." at QEOP, and creative workshops for NDCS's "Helping Hands" programme, a peer support scheme for deaf young people. From September 2015-October 2016, she was a Lead Artist/Research Practitioner on the Open Estate programme for Studio 3 Arts, and developed school-based projects for Bow Arts in Battersea, Poplar, and the Isle of Dogs. She is a regular contributor to Focal Point Gallery's Education programme, currently working on the CATA Start initiative; previously Bronze (and now Silver) Arts Award leader, plus a contributor to their innovative Family Art Days.
Other sonic and digital collaborations with Stuart Bowditch include Vibe³ (commissioned by ECC and shown across Essex) Vibe³C (commissioned for Outside09), Vibe Cube Southend for TAP Gallery, 'Automatic Listening', (commissioned by FirstSite), supporting Peter Cusack's 'Favourite Sounds' project at the Digital Exploration Centre (DEC), Georingtones, a 'Sparks Will Fly...' commission, Signpost, (Village Green 2010/Artside 2011) and as co-lead artists for the Rochford Art Collector Series. Solo projects include the Scanography series commission at Barking Hospital, 'Chimerascope' (commissioned for Essex 2012 Legacy), Sundrown, the Lost Property Office (for Metal's "On the Line" programme), HOFS-Centric, part of the Hadleigh in Place programme (for ACAVA), and "A Map of the Isle of Dogs" for Bow Arts Education. Recent projects include TANSTAAFL (Agency of Visible Women) and Object-Orientation , as part of Shape's "Ghosts in the Machine" at Tate Modern.
Previously a Creative Partnerships practitioner, with a post-graduate qualification from the Institute of Education, she regularly designs and facilitates education and participatory projects for age-specific and inter-generational initiatives in galleries, educational, and community settings. In 2014 she piloted the WYWH? digital workshops for West Berkshire Council (returning in 2015), and was one of three artists in residence for the QEOP Summer School partnership managed by Space Studios and the Legacy List. Projects in 2015 included the River Crouch Festival (April-July '15), and leading the visual arts element of Random Dance Company's programme for "Schools (not quite out)..." at QEOP, and creative workshops for NDCS's "Helping Hands" programme, a peer support scheme for deaf young people. From September 2015-October 2016, she was a Lead Artist/Research Practitioner on the Open Estate programme for Studio 3 Arts, and developed school-based projects for Bow Arts in Battersea, Poplar, and the Isle of Dogs. She is a regular contributor to Focal Point Gallery's Education programme, currently working on the CATA Start initiative; previously Bronze (and now Silver) Arts Award leader, plus a contributor to their innovative Family Art Days.
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News
April'18 TANSTAAFL series, "The Agency of Visible Women" - Beecroft Gallery 17 Feb-14 April 2018. On the panel at Money, Worth and Well-being 12 April at Twenty One. March '18 "Ghost in the Machine" Tate Modern 1-4 March 2018. Silk River Beecroft Gallery 2-31 March 2018. February '18 Showing new work, the TANSTAAFL series, in "The Agency of Visible Women" Beecroft Gallery 17 February to 14 April 2018. The Beecroft are also showing the Silk River flags from 2-31 March. October '17 - The Silk River scrolls will be exhibited in the Nash Conservatory, Kew Gardens Sunday 22 to Friday 27 October 2017 - 100% Southend has been extended until Sunday 22 October at FPG's Twenty One venue September '17 - The Vibe Cube CD has now been acquired by the British Library as part of their collection of Stuart Bowditch's work, my collaborator for that project. - You can see the collaborative work from Lee Moon, myself Southend Hindu Association & children from Westborough school on the Southend scroll for Silk River. The Southend walk is on 24 September. |
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