ALISTAIR GENTRY
SELF PORTRAIT WITH BANDAGED EAR "As far as I can judge, I am not actually mentally ill." (Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, shortly after cutting off part of his ear and giving it to a prostitute.)
I’m a writer and artist, or an artist and writer. Since the late 90s I have made and shown visual arts work across Britain and internationally. My work is diverse, encompassing video, animation, installation, photography, text, performance, sound works, programming, electronics, roleplaying and various hybrid genres or formats derived from them. These commissions and self-initiated works have been seen and heard in digital media, on radio, television and the stage, in art galleries, at film festivals, in print and on the net. Group exhibitions include ‘New Forest Pavilion’ at the La Biennale di Venezia 2005, ‘Blink’ at Gasworks Gallery, London in 2006, ‘Broadcast Yourself’ at Hatton Gallery, Newcastle and Cornerhouse, Manchester 2008, plus many other shows and festivals in the UK, Hong Kong, China, the Netherlands, Poland, Estonia, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Canada, the United States and Japan.
Much of my work involves oratory and storytelling. Interests and influences on my work include physics and life sciences (and the fringe or pseudo-sciences that exist in the mainstream’s shadow), science fiction, traditional and contemporary folklore, little-known aspects of history, psychology, psychiatry, and the esoterica and Forteana of Britain, Europe and Asia. Recent works have extensively researched and documented factual backgrounds, using scientific or academic forms and research methods either earnestly or satirically.
I have been artist in residence for New Media Scotland, the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum at the University of Edinburgh (2006-2007) and Contemporary Art Terminal, He Xiangning Art Museum Shenzhen, China, 2007), among others. 2004-2005 I was the recipient of an Arts Council England / English Heritage Berwick Gymnasium Artist Fellowship, along with Semiconductor and the German artist Robert Scheipner. 2009-2010 I devised and toured the performance lecture with live video and actual necromancy ‘Magickal Realism’, inspired by the life and work of Elizabethan polymath John Dee. Yes, long before Damon Albarn did his sodding opera about the same subject. At the start of 2011 I was artist in residence at KINO KINO Senter for Kunst og Film in Norway, where I made the filmed and live performance versions of ‘Stendhal Syndrome’ and ‘Abyssinian Gold (Vexations, After Henry De Vere Cole)’.
I’m the author of many short stories, reviews, critical texts and two published novels (‘Their Heads Are Anonymous’ and ‘Monkey Boys’). ‘Uncanny Valley: Collected Short Stories’ was published in 2008. In October 2010 ‘Career Suicide’ was published— it’s a non-fiction book about the practicalities of working as an artist when you’re not considered famous, controversial and/or cool, and don’t want to be. Future works include another novel.
I was an Associate Artist at ArtSway gallery until the Arts Council killed them. I am still an artist member of the Contemporary Art Society. I’m also a founding member of the economic and professional research group for artists in the East of England, Market Project: in April 2012 we are publishing a book about the artists in the group, with new commissioned texts by British art writers.
