AARON WILLIAMSON
Contact: aaron@elsordo.com

Age 45, male, British nationality. Profoundly deaf and registered as disabled.

As an artist my engagement with performance, objects, place and space is entirely transformed through the experience of becoming profoundly deaf over the course of some twenty years. Informed by this radical personal alteration, my art practice takes an interdisciplinary approach. Hence, my artistic projects remain open to innovation according to circumstance and I have explored working with performance, installation, photography, video, sculpture, text, choreography and digital art – often combining elements within one work. In the last ten years I have created performances, publications, installations and artist’s videos in Britain, Europe, Japan, Greenland, China and North America. In 1997 I completed a Doctoral thesis on performance, writing and bodily identity entitled ‘Physiques of Inscription’ at the University of Sussex. My publications include Hearing Things (Bookworks – 2001) and A Holythroat Symposium (1993). I was awarded the Helen Chadwick Fellowship in Rome, 2002, and am currently an AHRC 3 Year Fellow in the Creative and Performing Arts at BIAD, UCE (2004 - 07).
I am the Artistic Director of the collective of disability artists, 15mm Films – see www.15mmfilms.com

PERFORMANCES (Selected):

Mimi Ga Totemo Tooi (My Ears Are Very Far Away) – four performances in four Japanese cities (Tokyo, Nagano, Nagoya, Maebashi) - Nippon Performance Art Festival, NIPAF 06 (February 2006).

Tilting at a Blood Moon – South London Gallery, (January 2006).

The Bogeyman – Beaconsfield Gallery, London, (November 2005).

Earth Head, La Bisbal, Spain (September 2005).

Copa D’Amore – Halle, Germany, (June 2005).

Wild Boy – Solo show, a six week durational performance installation and video work at the Showroom Gallery, London (April – May 2005). An earlier version was presented at Gallaudet University, Washington USA (April 2005).

Belong – 2nd DaDao Festival, Beijing, China (August 2004).

Rollin’ – Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia University, Chicago (Nov 2003).

The Cross Patch – Den Bosch, NL. (July 2003).

Icemitten - Nuuk and Sisimiut, Greenland – (May 2003).

Charisma - HGKZ, Zurich; NRLA, Glasgow; RialtoSA Rome; 2001 - 02.

Clippetyclop – ongoing musical performance (lead vocalist), various - including the Electric Renaissance Festival, Halle, Germany (June 2005)

Home Turf – Public Performance, Derby Marketplace, April - May, 2001.

Whittling – Den Bosch, Netherlands, November 2000.

Obscure Display – Performance/ installation, Victoria and Albert Museum, Nov. 2000.

Sonictraps – Installation / performance, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham Sept – Oct 2000.

Anti-Speak – Performance, Tokyo; Buffalo, New York; San Diego; Phoenix; Toronto; The Henry Moore Foundation, England and the Geneva Festival, (Jan – March 2000).

VIDEO WORKS (selected):

The Staircase Miracles – 15mm Films video work, (as Artistic Director and performer), shown at The Ikon Gallery Birmingham, (June 2005), The Serpentine Gallery, London, (December 2005).

Lives of the Saints - Video Projection - Tate Modern, London, April 2003; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, June 2004, Ian Potter Museum, University of Medlbourne, Australia, 2005. Edition purchased by the Arts Council England Collection, 2004.

‘Francois Truffaut’s ‘the Wild Child’ as if passing through the mind of a young, noble savage’ – video installation component of Solo Exhibition at the Showroom Gallery, London, April 2005.

The Electricians – 15mm Films short, premiered at NFT, London June 8th 2003 (Artistic Director and Performer). Award winner at Picture This Film Festival, Calgary, Canada, 2003.

Translation/Translatio - Video Installation - Café Gallery, London, May 2003; ‘Responding to Rome’, Estorick Collection, London, 2006. Edition purchased by the Arts Council England Collection, 2004.

Acute – video loop produced at Civitella Raniera Centre, Umbria, Italy in collaboration with Philip Ryder (July, 2003). Purchased by the Arts Council England Collection, 2004.

Five Smokin’ Televisions – Video Installation, Ferens Gallery, Hull, May - June 2001.

AWARDS/ PROJECTS:

Currently 3 Year AHRC Fellow in Creative and Performing Arts at BIAD, UCE. (2004 – 07)

Artistic Director 15mm Films, a disability artists collective – awarded National Touring Funding for videowork ‘The Staircase Miracles’ to be exhibited at The Ikon Gallery Birmingham and the Serpentine Gallery, London. (2004 – 05). See 15mmfilms.com

Awarded the Wheatley Fellow in Sculpture at the University of Central England, Birmingham, (2002 –03).

Awarded the ‘Innovate’ Fund by London Arts to make a film short entitled ‘The Electricians’ (2002 – 03). The Film premiered at NFT, June 8th 03.

Awarded the Arts Council of England Helen Chadwick Fellowship 2001 – 2002 at the British School in Rome and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, September 2001 until April 2002.

Recipient of ‘One to One’ Individual Artists’ Bursaries in Live Art1999/2000, a joint bursary initiative by the Live Art Development Agency and London Arts Board. The Bursary included a period of training in digital arts at InIVA, London.

A book on the ‘Hearing Things’ project, including studio photography and
generative texts was published by Bookworks in March 2001. The book
received an award from A.C.E’ s Live Arts Publication Fund.

Documentation of performance and video works can be viewed on web-site: http://www.aaronwilliamson.co.uk

ACADEMIC/RELATED:

1992 – 97: D.Phil. (University of Sussex) - Thesis entitled ‘Physiques of
Inscription’, awarded Doctorate degree, June 1997.
1992: M.A. Twentieth Century Literature (University of Sussex).
1990: B.A. (Hons. - First Class) Combined Studies (Brighton Polytechnic).
1994 – 96: Research Fellow in Performance Writing, Dartington College of Arts.
1998 – 99: Arts Council of England Fellow in Contemporary Art and Writing at
the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University.
2000 - 02: Advisory Panelist to Visual Arts, National Touring Programme, ACE
and to Visual Arts Dept. London Art.
2004: Member of ACE Visual Arts Task Group.
2005: Faculty Panel member, British School at Rome.

TEACHING:

From Sept. 2003: 0.5 Lecturer in Fine Art, BIAD University of Central England.

2002 – 03: Visiting Tutor in the Department of Visual Arts, Goldsmiths College, University of London. Visiting Lecturer to BIAD, UCE; University of Portsmouth and University of Derby.

1995 – 2001: Visiting Lecturing in fine art, performance and writing to various institutions including Ruskin School, Oxford; University of California,San Diego; University of Buffalo New York; York University, Toronto; Maastricht Kunstakademie, NL; Dartington College of Arts; School of Fine Art, University of Central England

1994 – 95: Research and Teaching Fellowship at Dartington College of Arts to launch the opening year of the Performance Writing course. Taught several modules including ‘Performance Enquiries’, ‘Interdisciplinary Collaboration’ Delivered lectures on Fluxus, Artist’s Books, Performance Theory, etc.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

BOOKS:
Fresh Today – (48 pp; Arnolfini Gallery 2003 – b&w photos and texts.
Hearing Things (60pp; Book Works 2001 – texts and colour photos).
Sonictraps – Involuntary Head Sounds (texts to accompany installation at
the Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, 16 pp, 2000).
Energies of Writing (& Tertia Longmire, 32pp, Sound and Language, 1998).
A Holythroat Symposium (112pp; Creation Books, 1993).
Cathedral Lung (112pp; Creation Press, 1991).

CONTRIBUTIONS (Selected):

Cover feature for Art In Sight Magazine, ‘Performance Film’ (June 03).
Essay for ‘Art, Lies and Videotape’ exhibition catalogue (Tate Liverpool, Oct. 2003)
Introduction to Hayley Newman, ‘Performancemania’ (Matt’s Gallery, 2001)
‘Exposures’ – performance images (Live Art Dev. Agency / Black Dog 2002).
‘Writing Art’ essay in Art Monthly Oct 1999; republished by SIRS on-line.
Conductors of Chaos: The Picador Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (1996
Performance Research Journal 2:3 and 4.3 (Routledge, 1997; 1999).
Random Access 2, (Rivers Oram/Glasgow School of Art, 1996).

OTHER:

‘Victor and Aaron’ essay by Louise Stern on the Wild Boy performance installation at the Showroom Gallery, published in the Showroom’s ‘Annual’ January 2006.
Exhibition Catalogue, The Showroom Gallery, London 2005 – text by Kirsty Ogg.