Installation shots from Fathom, a solo exhibition by Simon Faithfull at the Exchange, Penzance, UK, Sept-Oct 2019Residency Outcome 1: Fathom, a one-man show by Simon Faithfull
Fathom presents a series of works by Simon Faithfull exploring our relationship with our mostly liquid planet. Charting dreams, fears and premonitions of ‘the deep’, the show consists of video, drawings, and photographs. A series of photographs and two videos shot in the Everglades National Park, Big Cypress and at the Dome House of Cape Romano during Faithfull ARTSail residency constitute the core of the exhibition.
Residency Outcome 2: Simon Faithfull Fata Morgana, a one-man show at the Atchugarry Foundation, Miami, Sept. 10-Nov 6, 2021
CLICK HERE to view images from the exhibition.
Curated by Ombretta Agró Andruff, Executive Director, ARTSail Residency and Research Initiative, Fata Morgana embarks on an aquatic journey from the wetlands of Big Cypress to the Nordic Sea and the Adriatic through a series of photographs and films.
The Fundación Pablo Atchugarry presents British artist Simon Faithfull’s first solo exhibition in the US.
PLACE: Fundación Pablo Atchugarry, 5520 NE 4th Avenue, Miami, FL 33137
The Fundación Pablo Atchugarry in Miami is excited to announce a collaboration with ARTSail, a Miami-based multi-faceted platform that connect artists with climate activists, scientists and marine experts to investigate how climate change and man-made pollution are impacting the South Florida waterways and assist them in the creation of tangible outcomes with climate advocacy value.
Featuring a combination of work created by the artist in response to his ARTSail residency, in 2017 and 2018, along with a few earlier works, through a series of photographs and films, the exhibition takes the audience on an aquatic journey spanning from the wetlands of Big Cypress, to the choppy waters of the Gulf of Mexico, all the way to the Nordic Sea and the Adriatic.
The film Re-enactment for a Future Scenario #2: Cape Romano, constitutes the most significant outcome of Faithfull’s residency, and combines footage shot during two separate visits to the remnants of a luxury villa built by a retired oil producer in the late 1970s, and abandoned after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, along with found images of the interior and exterior of the house while it was still standing on dry land. A figure is seen standing on the half-submerged ruins, his back to us, staring out at the horizon…he seems to be caught in a dream, or better, a nightmare of a post-apocalyptic future, or maybe, as the artist states: “a memory from a future that never quite happened”.
In another video, Self Portrait: Big Cypress, the same figure is now immersed chest-deep in the heart of the Everglades wetlands, the absurdity of the image brings to the fore open-ended questions: the bucolic and yet eerie settings make us wonder whether he is practicing some form of meditation, or has been caught by a sudden flash-flood episode.
Throughout Faithfull’s oeuvre, nature and the landscape within which the artist chooses to perform his actions play a critical role that goes beyond that of a simple stage or a source of inspiration: a tree, a body of water, or an abandoned man-made structure become the de-facto collaborators with whom Faithfull shares the title of co-creator. Humor and the absurd are recurrent strategies in Faithfull’s practice, and they often mitigate the sense of dooms-day scenarios that descriptions of his work might bring to mind. Whether he is clinging to a pole in the middle of the sea, as in Self Portrait: Florida Bay; or hanging from a tree in the desert landscape of Earthscape no. 1: Wadi Rum; or nonchalantly taking a walk on the seabed at the bottom of the Adriatic Sea in Going Nowhere 2, Faithfull exposes the frailty of the human condition and mankind’s hubris, without falling into the trap of existential anguish.
As the artist stated at the end of our second Dome House expedition: “We find ourselves in a very strange moment and I think oddly enough that’s also full of absurdity and humor…”: his vision, much better than any words, can truly express the precariousness of our fate and that of our planet.
Fundación Pablo Atchugarry is a non profit institution, founded in Manantiales, Uruguay in 2007 by the sculptor Pablo Atchugarry. In December 2018, the Fundación Pablo Atchugarry opened its second location, in a space adjacent to the Piero Atchugarry Gallery, in the neighborhood of Little Haiti, in Miami, FL, located near Miami’s Design District. The exhibition program combines both contemporary and modern art, to bring a refreshing look at art history and to foster an understanding of how art movements can influence each other through time and space.
Based in Berlin, Simon Faithfull’s work has been exhibited extensively around the world. Recent exhibitions include solo the shows Fathom at the Exchange, Penzance, UK; Elsewhen at Hestercombe Gallery, Somerset, An Arbitrary Taxonomy of Birds at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Memories From The Future at Galerie Polaris (Paris); Sprinhornhof Kunstverein (Germany), Musee des Beaux Arts (Calais), Fabrica (Brighton,) FRAC Basse Normandie (France) and the British Film Institute (London). Recent group shows include exhibitions at Parafin (London), Maison Rouge (Paris), ACC Gwangju (Korea), Turner Contemporary (UK), CCCB (Barcelona), Palais de Tokyo (Paris) and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (Australia). 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. Within his work he often builds teams of scientists, technicians and transmission experts to help him bring back a personal vision from the ends of the world. He works with a variety of media – ranging from video, to digital drawing, installation work and writing. Faithfull was born in Braziers Park – a utopian community in Ipsden, Oxfordshire. He studied at Central St Martins, London and then the University of Reading. He is also Professor of Fine Art at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.