CV

Selected Publications:

Eastern Bloc Songs: Party, Pop & Politics (Centrala, 2018)

Whitby Goth Weekend (David Severn, Beam Editions, 2018)

Eastern Bloc Songs: A Sampler (Nottingham Contemporary, 2016)

Exotica Suite & Other Fictions (Shoestring Press, 2015)

Black Glass: New & Selected Poems (Shoestring Press, 2015)

And Stand a Ruin Amidst Ruins: Recent Paintings (Tristram Aver, 2015)

The Holcombe Tarot (Limited Edition, 2014)

Disappearances & Peel Street Codex in A Box of Things (Sidelong, 2014)

Durban-Corbières (Holger Martin, 2014)

Marine: A Story in Eight Objects (Nottingham Castle, 2013)

Wood & Ink (Shoestring, 2013)

Coney Island…The Summer of Love (Michael Forbes, 2013)

Spirit Wrappings (Nottingham Contemporary, 2012)

The Apple Sequence (Orchard Editions, 2011)

Emblems (Shoestring Press, 2009)

Marginalia (Peterloo Poets, 2001)

Selected Exhibitions, Commissions & Events:

Wilds & Entropicalia Cover Art (The Soundcarriers, Phosphonic, 2022)

Ubu Film: Altered State/Spiral (Renaysonce Fayre at RCA/Everything Forever, 2021)

Further Adventures In Class & Contemporary Art (CAMP, 2019)

Works From The Hallucinated Archive (Bonington Gallery, 2019)

Eastern Bloc Songs: Party, Pop & Politics (Centrala, 2018)

The Buried Moon (Strange Names Collective, Lakes Ignite, University of Cumbria, 2018)

Extext: Opera Film (Catherine Carter/Serafina Steer, Film Free & Easy, 2018)

Love Witch Cinematic Happening (Nottingham Contemporary,  2017)

Forest Bathing/The Clearing (Strange Names Collective, University of Bedford, 2017)

Telekinesis: Ghost Pornography & Fabricated Phenomena (Watch-It Gallery, 2017)

Eastern Bloc Disco & Hungarian Special (Centrala, 2017)

The Naming of Clouds (Philip Stanier & Penny Newell, Somerset House, 2016)

Eastern Bloc Disco with UrBororo (Nottingham Contemporary, 2016)

Behold! The Markets Shall Erase Our History! (Nottingham Contemporary, 2016)

Avant Garde or Last Minute (Sunscreen/EM15 at Venice Biennale, 2015)

The Angel of History, Sitges & Ruins (Josepa Munoz, Primary/Wysing, 2015)

Exotica Suite (Paul Isherwood, New Art Exchange, 2015)

Fantasmagorie (The Drawing Board, 2015)

Filmoteka (Nottingham Contemporary, 2014)

The Holcombe Tarot at Beyond (QUAD, 2014)

A Walk Through The Underworld (Sidelong, 2014)

Folklore, Ritual & The Modern Interior (Xero, Kline & Coma, 2014)

Make Believe: Re-imagining History & Landscape (Nottingham Castle, 2013)

Disturbances II for Event Horizon (QUAD, 2013 – 14)

Desire Machines & New Worlds (Syson Gallery, 2014)

The Family Bible & Other Fables (Syson Gallery, 2013 – 14)

Convulsive Beauty: A Fabricated Lecture (Nottingham Contemporary, 2013)

Performing The Curtain Rituals/The London Girls (Primary, 2012)

Decoding Monkey (Nottingham Contemporary, 2012)

The Apple Sequence (Neville Gabie/Contemporary Art Society, 2011)

Reading Genet/Writing As Curating (Nottingham Contemporary, 2011)

Disturbances (Annexinema, 2010)

The Enigma Of Robert Holcombe (Hatch, Embrace Arts & Nottingham Castle, 2010)

Communist Rock’n’Roll (Nottingham Contemporary, 2010)

Wunderkammer (Sideshow Nottingham, 2010)

Online:

The Serendipity Project (Archive and Found Materials Project)

Write Here At Nottingham Contemporary (Documentation of a Spring 2011 Writing Residency)

A further Miscellaneous gathering of links to online material is here.

Film:

Ubu Film (Part 3): The Chancellor’s Song [after Alfred Jarry] (Kuhle Wampe/Chloe Langlois, 2019)

Extext: Opera Film (Catherine Carter/Serafina Steer, 2018)

The Love Witch Cinematic Happening: Playlist (2017)

Exotica Suite: Playlist (2015)

Fantasmagorie (2015)

The Angel of History, Sitges & The Ruins (Josepa Munoz, Work in Progress, 2015)

Kashif Nadim Chaudry: Swags & Tails (2015)

Exotica Fragment (100 Second Commercial) (2014)

The Boundary (Julian Hughes, Photo Canopy, 2014)

Breath Variations (Hilary Nicholls) (Britten in Oxford, 2013)

Marine: A Story in Eight Objects (Remixed) (Nottingham Castle, 2013)

Five Apple Songs (Bohunk Institute, 2013)

Entropicalia (The Soundcarriers, 2013)

Language Commercial (The Social Media Takeaway, 2013)

Film Strip: A Reconstruction (2012)

The Serendipity Loops (2012)

Disturbances (The Advisory Circle, 2010)

Misc Other:

Hospice Residency: co-managed by Nottinghamshire Hospice and Writing East Midlands, running from September 2013 to January 2014.

Brittle Star: Regular column on matters relating to poetry and writing in Brittle Star magazine (appearing three times each year, edited by Jacqueline Gabbitas & Martin Parker). First column, Full Spectrum Poetry, appeared in issue 38 (June 2016), followed by The Lyric Mode in issue 39 (November 2016). The most recent columns, A Metaphor Backed By Law, A Thousand Empty Bowls (A Provocation) and Rainwater Puddles on a Crazy Golf Course, appeared in issues 40, 41 and 42.

Dawn of the Unread: Research and writing of general contextual and embedded content as part of the team behind a digital comic book project, focused on historical and contemporary writers and literary characters with Nottinghamshire associations. Ongoing through 2014 and 2015.

Photocanopy: Contextual essay and voice-overs scripted and delivered on three films by Nick Williams, following photographic projects by Brian Griffin, Julian Hughes and Jill Cole. Commissioned by Burton College and The National Forest (April/May 2014).

Writing Objects: Three workshops at Primary in May/June 2014 exploring relationships between text, voice, object and image in works by Alfred Jarry, Leonora Carrington, Amos Tutuola, Vera Chytilova, Jayne Cortez and Jan Svankmajer, among others. Each session invited a different response to Jonathan Baldock’s commissioned installation. Notes on these sessions are here, here and here.

Convulsive Beauty – A Fabricated Lecture With Illustrations: Fictional paper on the relationship between works by Robert Holcombe and the Polish sculptor Alina Szapocznikow delivered as part of Nottingham Contemporary’s ASCO symposium, Shimmering, Shining, Vomiting, Glitter – The Poetics & Politics of Disgust (14 Nov 2013). Video footage can be viewed here.

Breath Variations: Collaboration with composer Hilary Nicholls to produce a 5m choral work for performance by Schola Cantorum of Oxford as part of the Britten in Oxford Festival (9 November 2013) and broadcast on Radio 3’s The Choir (8 December 2013).

Hatch: Back: Ongoing commission to work with photographer Julian Hughes on documenting the activities of Nottingham-based live art and performance platform Hatch, beginning in 2011 and continuing to the present. The text documentation is archived, reverse chronologically, here.

Double Fictions: Stories in the place of Art Criticism: Series of four workshops at Nottingham Contemporary culminating in a public event and publication. Devised and presented in collaboration with Sarah Jackson during the Francis Upritchard and Alfred Kubin exhibitions, Summer 2012.

Write Here at Nottingham Contemporary: Residency and mix of open and community workshops at a new contemporary arts venue in Nottingham, undertaken during the Jack Goldstein, Anne Collier and John Newling exhibitions (January to March 2011). Supported by Writing East Midlands.

Writing Art: A series of four workshops focusing on critical and creative writing in relation to contemporary art, drawing on works featured in Nottingham Contemporary’s segment of British Art Show 7. Each section set writing exercises in a particular mode, ranging from poetry and fiction to critical writing, journalistic reviews and broader history and theory.

A Mandinka Song: Theme & Variations: Lyric commissioned by Seckou Keita Quartet, 2008.

The Protein Songs: Commissioned by Retina Dance for Eleven Stories For The Body, Distance To Our Soul The show toured UK and Europe during 2005/6, texts appeared in Poetry Review (issue 96:1, Spring 2006).

Other Employment:

2009 – present: Freelance writer/editor/tutor: Working with Place, Backlit Gallery, CAMP, Art Review (Remark), Nottinghamshire Hospice, Centrala, NADFAS, New Art Exchange, Hatch, East Midlands Visual Arts Network, Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, QUAD, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, Annexinema, Crystal Clear Creators, Staple, The Literary Consultancy, Primary, The Double Negative, Nottingham Visual Arts, Nottingham Contemporary, Writing East Midlands, Derbyshire County Council, LeftLion, Neville Gabie/Contemporary Art Society, Creative Times, Nottingham Writers’ Studio, Southwell Poetry Festival, a-n news, NT International College and more.

2006 – 2009: Founding member and board member at Nottingham Writers’ Studio.

2006 – 2010: Editor of eight issues of Staple, a magazine of new poetry, fiction, essays, interviews and artwork whose contents included an anthology covering the regional identity and literary achievements of the East Midlands, a trio of loosely connected issues exploring the relationships between writing, visual art, music and film, and an issue on the highs and lows of the publishing industry, guest-edited by Rebecca Swift of The Literary Consultancy. Staple ceased publication in 2010.

2004 – 2009: Freelance Arts Journalist, Metro (Associated News): Regular contributor of theatre, visual arts and dance features, interviews and reviews, for editions in East Midlands, West Midlands and North East regions, including interviews with Martin Creed, Richard Deacon, Willie Doherty, Joy Gregory, Annette Foster, Vibeke Glarbo, El Anatsui, The Singh Twins, Kay Adshead, Abdel Abdessemed, Heidi Tikka, David Hancock, Jeanie Finlay, Arthur Pita, Philippe Petit, Neeta Madahar, William Ivory, Richard Deacon, Arturo Herrera, Richard Alston, Gob Squad, Wendy Houstoun, Hetain Patel, Julian Marsh, Bernard MacLaverty, Ken Russell, Cornelia Parker, Julian Opie, Sir Richard Attenborough, Christopher Le Brun and many more.

1999 – 2001: Assistant to Ali Gunn at Curtis Brown literary agency in Haymarket, London, on occasional freelance basis.

1998 – 2012: Freelance Editor with The Literary Consultancy (TLC): Literary and commercial manuscripts reader, primarily fiction, poetry, history and autobiography, for London-based consultancy TLC.

1996 – 2004: Freelance Arts Journalist, The Big Issue In The North, Manchester: Various interviews, features, reviews from 1997 – 2004: including features on JMW Turner, JRR Tolkien, Ted Hughes, Technology in Visual Arts, Joe Orton, Sensation, Lari Pittman, The Kirov etc, and interviews with Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili, Dave Allen, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mary Woronov, Jarvis Cocker, Gregory Isaacs, Kathryn Williams, Jah Wobble, Ian Duhig, David Mitchell, Courtney Pine, Mercury Rev, Kate Rusby, Alan Plater, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Steve Bell, Emily Lloyd, Chuck Palahniuk, Carl Davis, Tony Harrison, Michael Grandage and Ian McDiarmid, Johnny Vegas, Ross Noble, Jamie Cullum, Tim Etchells, Isaac Julien, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Rankin, Linda Smith, Linda Grant, Annie Whitehead, Horace Andy, Kathryn Hunter, Eliza Carthy, Barry Hines, Steve Reich, and many others.

1995 – 1998: R.V. Lecturer in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University: Tutor on undergraduate BA writing modules.