Writings

Artist’s Statement
2022

Short statement on my practice.


Eight Variants of Tactical Absurdity
2024

Eight Variants of Tactical Absurdity in (Post)Conceptual Art: An Overperformance of Typological Exactitude included as chapter in book Contemporary Absurdities, Existential Crises, and Visual Art, edited by Katherine Guinness and Charlotte Kent, and published by Intellect books.



A to Z: Visualising Every Word in the Dictionary
2022

Exposition A to Z: Visualising Every Word in the Dictionary in Alphabetical Order published in peer-reviewed journal VIS: Nordic Journal for Artistic Research. Edited by Serge von Arx and Eliot Moleba, VIS #8 brings together seven expositions under the theme “rules and alternatives” in order to ‘question and dissolve the gap between rules and alternatives by fusing, obliterating and subverting that dichotomy.’



PhD thesis
2020

Doctoral thesis The Use of Tactical Absurdity in (Post‑)Conceptual Art Practice, written as part of practice-based PhD research project at Winchester School of Art/University of Southampton.



Doing Things Alphabetically
2020

Essay Doing Things Alphabetically: Sartre’s Autodidact and Tactically Absurd Practice published in peer-reviewed journal Writing Visual Culture, Volume 9, ‘Artists and the Philosophers We Love,’ edited by Alana Jelinek.



Searching for the Perfect Welsh Mountain
2019

Essay Searching for the Perfect Welsh Mountain: A Performance of Tactical Absurdity published in peer-reviewed journal Performance Research, Volume 24, Issue 2, ‘On Mountains,’ guest edited by Jonathan Pitches and David Shearing.



Dear Exhibition Visitor
2018

Exhibition text for solo exhibition A to Z: The First Seven Years at Gallery Oldham, Manchester, UK.



Roses Like Manure, Roses Like Manure
2018

Exhibition text for Tim Greaves exhibition Roses Like Manure, Roses Like Manure at Leslie Gallery, Berlin.



Why Can’t You Just Let Things Be Absurd?
2017

Response to comments left by visitors to Searching for the Welsh Landscape exhibition at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, written as part of PhD research.



I Did It My Way
2017

Text written for performance event Punctuation Marks in an Eternal Sentence: The Show at Alfred Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel in 2017



I Guess You Could Say I’m a “Conceptual Artist”
2017

Exploration of the formal, methodological, and theoretical implications of an alignment of my practice with the term “conceptual art”, written for PhD research.



Interview: The Most Boring Game in the World
2016

Interview by curator Matteo Bittanti about absurdity, humour, and the video I’ve Always Wanted to Travel Across America, which was included in the exhibition Travelogue at Palazzo Ducali in Mantua, Italy. Published 7 Sep 2016 on the project website, Travelogue.



Interview: Laugh? I Could Have Cried
2013

Discussion about humour in art with Mel Brimfield and Anthony Shapland, commissioned by g39 Gallery, Cardiff for their 2013 publication It Was Never Going to be Straightforward.



Things, or The Journey
2013

Blog written during residency at Est-Nord-Est in Quebec, Canada, describing a series of walks in and around the village of Saint-Jean-Port-Joli. Beginning as a spontaneous and open-ended exploration of the environment, the narrative becomes more and more fixated on the psychological state of boredom, before finally resolving into a paradoxical pursuit of uninteresting experience. The blog gave rise to the installation The Museum of Uninteresting Experience and subsequent performance A Curiously Unremarkable Journey.



Ha Ha Road: Exhibition Guide
2011-12

Exhibition guide featuring texts about 25 artists included in curatorial project Ha Ha Road at Quad gallery, Derby in 2011 and Oriel Mostyn gallery, Llandudno in 2011-12; texts co-written with Anna-Sophie Springer.



How Many Friends Do You Have?
2010-11

Exhibition text for Seecum Cheung exhibition Alphabet at Apiary Studios, London.



The Painting
2010

Text documenting durational performance The Painting, based on the act of visiting the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin every Thursday evening for six months in order to look at the same, single painting (the identity of which is never disclosed). The text has also been delivered in the form of a performative slide lecture at Kunstraum Richard Sorge, Berlin.



Neither Here Nor There
2010

Text written for publication accompanying exhibition Nude as the News at 91mQ Art Project Space and Kunstraum Richard Sorge, Berlin, edited by Sunshine Wong.



Being Somewhere
2009

Blog written during residency at Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, Germany, describing the daily activity of visiting the same, largely unchanging area of landscape. Initially motivated by a sense of novelty at discovering a new environment, the activity gradually loses all sense of purpose as interest in the location wanes. A series of bizarre and arbitrary actions performed within the moorland are accompanied by increasingly desperate attempts to project meaning into them. An edited version of the blog provides the script to the video Being Somewhere.



Interview: How to Live
2008

Interview about residency project How to Live by Melanie Zagrean & Pierre Wolter, in catalogue Dave Ball: How to Live, published by Galerie Art Claims Impulse, Berlin.



Review: Rational Review of 2007
2008

Review of video screening and panel discussion event Rational Review of 2007 at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, London; published in a-n magazine, Mar 2008.



I Don't Know Why But Fish Are Just Funny
2007

Dissertation for MA in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London.



Rupture, or The Dream of Painting a Wave
2007

Essay for MA in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London.



Enacting Bas Jan Ader
2007

Essay for MA in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London.



Review: Thomas Demand
2006

Review of exhibition Thomas Demand at Serpentine Gallery, London; unpublished.



Review: Ugo Rondinone Zero Built a Nest in My Navel
2006

Review of exhibition Ugo Rondinone: Zero Built a Nest in My Navel at Whitechapel Gallery, London; published in Dogmanet magazine, Feb 2006.



Review: Francis Alÿs Seven Walks
2005

Review of exhibition Francis Alÿs: Seven Walks at Artangel at 21 Portman Square & National Portrait Gallery, London; published in Dogmanet magazine, Nov 2005.



Review: Tina Keane Le Jardin
2005

Review of exhibition Tina Keane: Le Jardin at Sketch, London; published in Dogmanet magazine, Sep 2005.



Review: Open Systems Rethinking Art c. 1970
2005

Review of exhibition Open Systems: Rethinking Art c. 1970 at Tate Modern, London; published in Dogmanet magazine, Aug 2005.



Review: James Ireland This is a Test
2005

Review of exhibition James Ireland: This is a Test at Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham; published in Dogmanet magazine, Jul 2005.



Review: George Shaw Ash Wednesday
2005

Review of exhibition George Shaw: Ash Wednesday at Wilkinson Gallery, London; published in Dogmanet magazine, Jun 2005.



Review: Becks Futures 2005
2005

Review of exhibition Becks Futures 2005 at ICA, London; published in Dogmanet magazine, May 2005.