Artist in Residence Programme Launched
Released: 26 September 2006
The ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, based at the University of Edinburgh, will officially launch its first artist in residence programme on Wednesday 27 September 2006, at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh. The programme is being run in association with the Gallery.
Visual artist Alistair Gentry has been appointed to the residency and will work with the Forum for six months. Alistair’s brief is to create an experimental arts project based on the complex relationship between genomics and society. He will also build and deliver an associated public engagement programme to help to increase accessibility to this area of research. Planned events include seminars, lectures, workshops and a series of evening ‘salons’ for artists, scientists, students and interested others. The residency will culminate with a performance of new work early next year.
Welcoming Alistair Gentry, Professor Steve Yearley, Director of the ESRC Genomics Forum, said: "I was really intrigued by Alistair's previous work and feel that his video-images will be able to convey the excitement and expectations around genomics and people's genetic identities in fresh, vigorous and accessible ways. It's a treat to have him working at the Forum".
About Alistair Gentry
Alistair Gentry is an artist and writer whose work has been seen and heard in art galleries and festivals throughout the UK and the world, in print, on stage, television and on radio. His work remains diverse, but he currently works primarily with digital video, animation and performance.
In 2005-2006 he was selected as one of the Arts Council England/English Heritage artist fellows at Berwick Gymnasium. The result was Phantom Power, a solo exhibition of new digital moving image and animation work. Since undertaking a residency at ArtSway gallery in the New Forest during 2002 he has maintained a close relationship with them, and is now one of the gallery’s official associate artists. He showed work at the 2005 Venice Biennale in ArtSway’s groundbreaking and critically acclaimed New Forest Pavilion exhibition.
Other works include webcast stories of his experiences as the first man on Mars, deliberately confusing and mutually contradictory gallery fact sheets, a floating house at the Aldeburgh Festival and a collaboration with illustrator Joe Magee on the shopping centre surveillance film Hypnomart for Channel 4 television.
He is also the author of many short stories and two published novels, with another novel recently completed and a fourth in progress. He is a founding board member and editor of the UK’s most widely read new fiction website Pulp.Net. In addition to publishing new stories and interviews every month, it also provides workshops, mentorship and advocacy for aspiring writers, especially those who are currently under-represented or excluded entirely from the publishing industry.
www.alistairgentry.demon.co.uk
Ends
Additional notes:
Images of Alistair’s previous work are available for publication.
ESRC Genomics Forum
Led by Professor Steve Yearley, and based at the University of Edinburgh, the Forum is part of the ESRC’s Genomics Network (EGN) a £12 million investment examining the numerous aspects of the social and economic significance of genomics. The EGN ranges across 6 universities and involves over 100 researchers, PhD students and support staff, as well as a rotating cast of visiting research fellows. The Forum is working to integrate and connect the diverse strands of EGN research with policy makers in the UK and abroad, as well as business, the media and civil society. We also seek to develop links with social and natural scientists working on genomics in areas as diverse as GM crops and food, animal genetics and embryonic stem cell research. Talbot Rice Gallery
Talbot Rice Gallery is named after David Talbot Rice, Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh from 1934 – 1972 and was established in 1975. The Gallery has a commitment to showing work by Scottish and International artists both in group projects and in monograph exhibitions. The Gallery promotes knowledge, understanding and new ideas, realised through thematic exhibitions, events and publications.
Talbot Rice presents up to 5 major exhibitions per year in the Main White Gallery and additional projects in the round room space. During the year a variety of exhibitions are shown in painting, sculpture, drawing and installation. A full menu of public events supports the temporary exhibitions programme
Contact name:
For further information, please contact: Emma-Elizabeth Hargreaves, 0131 651 4746
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