Fiona Carruthers is a UK-based, disabled artist working across installation, sculpture, performance and photography.
My creative motivation and ambition are profoundly affected by my experience of living in the remote countryside and coastal areas of Lincolnshire. Forty Percent of Lincolnshire’s land is at or below sea level and the consequences of the changing climate on the well-being of human and nonhuman ecologies across the region, are easy to see. Uncertainty here is palpable: personal and ever-present.
Physical disability and post-traumatic growth, outcomes of having survived local flooding, have furthered my understanding of what it means to be human and how inextricably linked we are to nature, other humans, other species, and the land and sea. From my exposed position of survivor, it seems obvious that the world is not things, but processes: transformation, shape-shifting and mutuality. Survival, I realise, is an unsought, unspoken and powerful imperative that drives all forms of life.
Typically, my work manifests as transience, fragility, precarity and uncertainty. On-the-point-of-collapse installations, performance and constructions using found and ephemeral materials from the marsh and wetlands of Lincolnshire. These are choreographed so that each component, including viewers’ behaviour, has an integral role in the work's ongoing existence. Self-awareness and cooperation in and around the work are essential.
My work is offered as an invitation to slow down, to linger and to engage with the process of sensing. A physical connection between my work and its viewer remains crucial to my desire to (re)connect human physiology with the environment.
VideoClip: The Great Rehearsal / Motivations and Process 4:53
BIO
Recent Qualifications
2022 MA Fine Art: Digital (Distinction) Central Saint Martins, London
2020 PG Diploma Fine Art (Distinction) University of Lincoln
Recent Exhibitions
Solo
Sep.22 ‘Below the Radar’, North Sea Observatory, Lincolnshire
Jul.19 ‘Uneasy Calm’, Sam Scorer Gallery, Lincoln
Group
Jun.24 'Our Stories are Wild', Derby Cathedral, UK
Feb.24 'Future Perspectives' Multi-disciplinary Symposium. The Barbican Creative Hub, Lincoln Arts Centre, UK
Oct.23 'Artists in the Now'. A UK New Artists-MashUp exhibition, Lincoln, UK
Sept.23 'MarksSpacesThings'. SafeHouse 2, Copeland Park and Bussey Building, Peckham Rye, London
Sept.23 'Method Lab'. Trace Gallery, Nottingham, UK
Jun.23 "Berm'. UAL Alumni Showcase, South London Festival, Tension Fine Art, London
May-Jun. 23 'Points of Return'. The Umbrella, Concord, Massachusetts, USA [1st May to 25th June]
May.23 'Showcase'. Martin Hall Gallery, Loughborough University, UK
Sep.22 'ArtHouse MK6' A group exhibition for Milton Keynes Heritage Open Days, UK
Aug.22 'Bookmark'. A pop-up at the Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool, UK
July.22 'Tension Graduate Show', Tension Fine Art Gallery, London
Jun.22 'The Rehearsal’, Central Saint Martins, London
May.22 ‘Renewal’, Doddington Hall and Garden’s, Lincolnshire, UK
May.22 ‘MayShow.22’, x-church, Gainsborough, UK
Feb.22 ‘Merch’, Lethaby Gallery, Kings Cross, London
Nov.21 ‘One Step Greener’, Project Space Plus Gallery, University of Lincoln
Jun.21 ‘Eccollective’, The Usher Gallery and Collection Museum, Lincoln
Jan.20 ‘My River’, Cross-disciplinary symposium/workshop. Mansions of the Future, Lincoln
Jun.19 ‘Collision’, Courtyard Gallery, Museum of Art and Archaeology, Lincoln
Awards, Prizes and Memberships
Jan.24
East Midlands Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN EM) Artist Platform
Jan.23
Member of Primary, Nottingham: an artist-led visual arts organisation prioritising artistic research, studios and residencies. It runs a free public programme of exhibitions and events
Oct.22-Jun.23
AA2A Residency, Loughborough University Creative Arts
July.22
TENSION ART PRIZE Central Saint Martins
Jun.22
FINAL PROJECT PRIZE UAL, Central Saint Martins
Jun-Jan. 22
‘Sounds of the Outmarsh’, Arts Council England (ACE) DYCP Grant
Mar-Jun. 21
Environment and Sustainability Artist in Residence Award. The Usher Gallery and Collection Museum, Lincoln
Feb.21
UK New Artists + No Jobs in the Arts Commission
Jul.19
Regional ArtEscape Award with solo show ‘Uneasy Calm’, Sam Scorer Gallery, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK