Skip to main content

Filippa Dobson

I am an artist and PhD Candidate in the School of Design, University of Leeds where I have a University Scholarship. I previously studied at the Leeds College of Art.

All my current practice concerns a cup and ring marked rock, the Badger Stone, on Ilkley Moor. From my position as a printmaker, my practice based research has been the catalyst into performance and latterly, land art. Recently, the First Cut land art piece as a response to the positive and negative impact of wild fire, incised a cup and ring mark into the heather using a tractor and flail mower in collaboration with head gamekeeper, Simon Nelson. Correlating public art with Neolithic rock art, my practice creates a visible link between an ancient past and a contemporary community who work and walk on the moor.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2005-2006 King Street Studios, Pately Bridge.
2005-2006 The British Craft Trade Fair, Harrogate.
2006 Life Works. Yorko Gallery, Harrogate.
2007 Bradford Open, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford. First prize winner.
2008 Northern Design Competition. Highly Commended, Fine Art category.
2008 Waterwheel. Armley Industrial Museum, Leeds. Site specific projection of a working water wheel.
2009 Atrium Gallery, St. James Hospital.
2009 Re-form(at). EXP 24, Ways of Looking Festival, Leeds Curated by Cherry Kino. Film
2010 and she married a whale. Northern Design Competition. Leeds Metropolitan University. Winner of the photography category.
2010 Free-Range, Tetley Brewery Wharf, London.
2010 the pigsty. Art in Unusual Spaces, 42 New Briggate Gallery, Leeds. Curated by Yvonne Carmichael. Back projection.
2010 circles and lines. Leeds City Art Gallery Open Show. Film.
2010 Leeds Psychogeography Group. University of Leeds. Two films. Curated by Tina Richardson.
2011 and she married a whale. Peninsula Arts Whale Festival, University of Plymouth. Film.
2011 my shite life. Bank Street Arts, Sheffield International Artist’s Book Fair.
2011 Best of Write me a picture. Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds. Curated by Suzannah Evans.
2012 Linear Progressions. Shine, Leeds.
2012 Close to Home: artists reconsider the local. A collaboration between Land2, East Street Arts and the School of Design, University of Leeds.
2010-2013 PAGES: 16th Leeds International Artist Book Fair, 2013. Parkinson Court, University of Leeds.
2013 Lyrical Art. White Cloth Gallery, Leeds. Shortlisted photograph.
2013 watter trees.  Bolton Abbey Estate, Christmas Art Trail. 26th December 2013 – 5th January 2014. Performance and exhibition (permission granted by the Estate).
2014–2017 PAGES: 17th Leeds International Artist Book Fair. The Tetley, Leeds.
2015 neo:art prize   neo:art gallery 27, Bolton. Shortlisted photograph.
2015 Common Bodies. East Street Arts, Leeds. Installation curated by Tom McGinn. Three, three-minute animated films.
2015 Bradford Open. Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford.
2015 TAG Art. Theoretical Archaeology Conference (TAG), University of Bradford.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2010 and she married a whale. GallerA1, Granton Lighthouse, Edinburgh. Installation and film projection.
2011 Brightwater Archaeology Tours, Orkney and Shetland. Resident Photographer.
2012 Yeld solo exhibition. 2012. East Street Arts, 4 High Court, Leeds.
2013 Yeld: rites of passage exhibition. School of Design, University of Leeds.
2015 Yeld exhibition, 2015. Vernon Street Gallery, Leeds College of Art.
2015 A glisk on watter. School of Design, University of Leeds.
2016 The First Cut. School of Design, University of Leeds. 2nd December 2013 – 4th January 2017.

Performance

Those marked with an asterisk are solo.

2013 the lying stanes. Ilkley Moor. 26th January 2013*
2013 the lying stanes (corset). Vantage:rez, Ellington House, Leeds. 27th June 2013. Shortlisted performance*.
2013 ad/dressing the stone. Performance and Field Trip. Ilkley Moor, 29th November 2013. ‘Considering place in practice-based research symposium organized by Dr Judith Tucker on 28th - 29th November 2013. The performers were Filippa Dobson, Paul Hurley, Nina Kane, Deborah Sanderson and a BA student Lois Blunt. Photographs by Alison Lloyd.
2014 effluviale. Ludus Festival. 4th April 2014*.
2014 effluviale. Bearing Flux Group, Malham, Saltaire, Eccup Reservoir. 26th January 2014, 31st March, 26th April 2014. The Bearing Flux Group was a confluence of Yorkshire-based artists comprising Filippa Dobson, Gillian Dyson, Paul Hurley, Christopher Mollon, Maria Spadafora and Adam Young.
2015 Talking Stone. Ilkley Moor. Ilkley Art Trail final event. Projection mapping and curated art walk/ night hike. Sponsored by Ilkley Arts and part-funded by CePRA (Centre for Practice-Led Research in the Arts), University of Leeds. Technical support by LUMEN Arts, Leeds & event marshalling by Ilkley Arts & Leeds Creative Time-bank.
2016 The First Cut.  19th September 2016 - Present. Permission granted by Natural England. Sponsored by Ilkley Arts, Bradford Metropolitan District Council and the Bingley Moor Partnership. Design & project planning by Filippa Dobson. Heather cutting by Simon Nelson. Film by Clare Charnley with text and still images by Filippa Dobson. General factoring by Neil Joseph Pattinson.
2016 The First Cut. Ilkley Arts and the Ilkley Literature Festival (ILF) event, Ilkley Parish Council Town Hall. Film showing, fable written and read by Filippa Dobson and Reset written and read by ILF Apprentice poet Mark Pajak.
2016 The First Cut. Ilkley Arts Creative Networking event, Ilkley Arts Studio Space, 21st March 2017. Film and fable*.
2017 PoliKana. Cornmill Arts Space, Ilkley. Curated by Gary Winters (Lone Twin).