Lily Markiewicz

Artist Statement

My work is about dis/placement, especially in relation to culture, language and territory. I work with video, photography, sound (often digitally generated and manipulated) and occasionally performance, often in a site-sensitive manner. Most of my works are grounded in the ordinary everyday and use domestic, low-resolution production methods (e.g. non-professional camera-formats); my images are of the most basic familiars (sand, water, naked bodies), located in local familiars (parks, pools, homes). I often build enclosed or enclosing spaces for them, which the viewer is free to negotiate on their own terms. Nonetheless, my work also resonates something more unfamiliar, gestures towards something unknown or hidden. What I present may potentially be recognised, yet it is also quite foreign; something one may be drawn to, yet is also frightened of. As much as I create spaces the viewer can enter into, I also deny access to the very space that is created - thus inviting hesitation, doubt and ambivalence, but also considerations about dwelling in general, and belonging in particular.

My work, firmly located in the now, nevertheless takes its clues from the past. The most appropriate metaphors to describe my working process come from the fields of archaeology, anthropology and psychoanalysis. For like in archaeology and psychoanalysis, my work is both an unearthing of forgotten or hidden elements and a reformulation of something hitherto not named or seen. Like the archaeologist or the ethnographer, I focus on the details of everydayness and its artefacts and like an anthropologist, I am interested in various systems, cultures and their meanings. Ultimately however, my work is a research space in which I formulate ideas and speculate about being in the world.

Education

• 1980-81
  • J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt [Philosophy], Germany.
• 1981-85
  • Reading University, (BA Joint Hons. Fine Art & History of Art), Reading, England
• 1985-87
  • Slade School of Art (H.D.F.A. Experimental Media), London

Awards/Grants

• 2009
  • 1st prize, Award winner, Professional category, Fotoexpo09, Poole
• 2008
  • British Council Exhibition Award
• 2002
  • British Council Exhibition Award
• 2001
  • Audrey and Stanley Burton Trust Award
• 1999
  • British Council Exhibition Award
• 997/8/9/00/02
  • Kent Institute of Art and Design Research Awards 1
• 1997
  • Westminster Arts Council Photography Bursary
• 1994
  • British Council Travel Grant
  • Arts Council of Canada, Foreign Artists Visiting & Travel Grant
• 1992
  • British Council Travel Grant
• 1987
  • Julian Sullivan Award
  • AM Dommett Trust Scholarship
• 1985
  • RW Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Achievements

*An asterisk in the listings below indicates a catalogue/publication/website.

Selected Exhibitions/Screenings include:

• 2011
  • Artists books Salon Taeger, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
• 2010
  • Distance and Sensibility Calvert 22, London, England*
  • EMAF, International Film Festival European Media Arts Festival, Osnabruck, Germany*
• 2009
  • FOTOEXPO 09 KUBE (The Study Gallery), Poole, England*
  • Evolution Lumen, Leeds Metropolitan Gallery, Leeds*
  • Fieldwork AnTobar, Tobermory Arts Centre, Mull, Scotland*
• 2008
  • Proportional Heresy (solo) World Museum Liverpool: Planetarium* (Liverpool Biennial)
• 2007
  • Adventures in Sound SOUNDplay Festival, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto. Canada
  • Slip Frame A.P.T. Gallery, London (invited screening, curated by Anne Robinson))
  • Close at Hand CAP Projects, London
• 2006
  • Time, Flesh & Nerve Lounge Gallery, London, England*
  • Heaven Das Haus, (German Kulturstiftung), London Biennale
  • Talkshow Lounge Gallery, London, England*
  • Migratory Aesthetics, University Gallery Leeds, England*
• 2005
  • Dash 291 Gallery, London, England
  • ‘Joanna Jones-work in progress’ Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art, Cyprus
  • Art ‘after Landscape’ Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, England*
  • Still Moving – Moving Still Photographers’ Gallery, London, England
  • Electives Morley Gallery, London, England
• 2004
  • Art ‘after Landscape’ Dean Clough, Halifax, England*
  • UK-CAN Video Exchange CCA Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, Scotland*
  • Experiments in Moving Image Old Lumiere Cinema, London, England*
  • UK-CAN Video Exchange YYZ, Toronto, Canada*
  • Selected British video works V-Tape, Toronto, Canada
• 2003
  • TransitARTen, Vogelfrei 5 Vogelfrei Festival, Darmstadt, Germany*
  • UK-CAN Video Exchange* South London Gallery, London*
• 2002
  • Shorts Film Festival Kriterion Cinema, Amsterdam, Holland
  • Unpainted Pictures Centre for Art Tapes, Halifax, Canada
  • Promise II (solo exhibition) Mount St.Vincent University Gallery, Halifax, Canada*
• 2001
  • Lightbox Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury, England*
  • Mute Loops The Lux Gallery, London, England*
  • Vernissages et Nocturnes L’Espace Huit Novembre, Paris, France
  • Places (solo exhibition) University Gallery, Leeds, England*
  • Places to Remember II (solo exhibition) Centre CATH, Parkinson Court, University of Leeds, England*
  • Performance and Cinema festival Studio 303, Montreal, Canada* Harvey’s Bodies (with Joanna Jones) The Metropole Galleries, Folkestone, England*
• 2000
  • Volumes (of Vulnerability) Standpoint Gallery, London, England* (travelling)*
  • L’immagine leggera Palermo, Italy
  • Swimming to Jerusalem (solo exhibition) Oriel 31, Newtown, Wales
  • Split Film festival, Croatia
  • Jonctions IV Constant vzw, Brussels, Belgium*
  • World Summit on the Arts (e_lounge) National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Canada
  • VideoEx Kino Xenia Zurich, Switzerland
• 1999
  • Medway Open Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham, England*
  • Viper Picollo Cinema, Lucerne, Switzerland*
  • Promise (solo exhibition) The Koffler Gallery, Toronto, Canada*;
  • Impakt T Hoogt Cinema 1, Utrecht, Holland*
  • EMAF Lagerhalle, Osnabruck, Germany*
• 1997
  • Hit and Run Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland*
  • A Conversation (solo exhibition) The Lux Cinema Foyer, London, England
  • Pandaemonium Lux Cinema, London, England*
• 1996
  • Rubies and Rebels Barbican Cinema, London, England*
• 1995
  • After Auschwitz – Installations Imperial War Museum, London
  • 10th Dublin Film Festival Dublin, Ireland*
  • International Culture Festival Krakow, Poland
  • Feminale, Intern Film & Video Festival Cologne, Germany*, Special Opening Event;
  • Silence Woke me up today (solo exhibition) Gallery Articule, Montreal, Canada

Touring Venues include:

• UK/CAN Video Exchange: YYZ, Toronto/ Cinemateque, Brighton/ Showroom, Sheffield/ CCA Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow/Tranz-Tech Festival, Toronto
• The Best of EMAF: Proyecton Culturales, Madrid/ Shortfilmfestival Manchester/ Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen/ Koki, Freiburg/ Neues Kino, Basel/ Olive Edison, Fribourg/ Koki, Giessen/ Goethe Institute, Glasgow/ School of TV, Dundee/ Kunsthaus, Dortmund/ Goethe Institute, Warsaw/ Goethe Institute, Krakow/ Filmfestival Emden/ Goethe Institute, Hong Kong/ Goethe Institute, Bangalore
• The Price of Words: Studio Voltaire, London/ Witte de With, Rotterdam/ ICA Institute for Contemporary Arts, London/ Appendiks, Copenhagen/ Manifesta 4, Kunstverein Frankfurt/ Dean Clough, Halifax/ Gallery Portikus, Frankfurt. It was also included in a number of touring exhibitions organised by Bookworks and Revolver (an independent German Publisher) which toured extensively in Europe and the United States.

Selected Invited Lectures & Presentations at:

• 2010
  • Distance and Sensibility Panel Discussion - Chaired by David Crowley - with Pavel Büchler, Marysia Lewandowska
• 2009
  • Keeping Account, UCL Urban Laboratory Seminar: Landscape and Memory. University College, London
• 2007
  • Slip Frame, a panel discussion on the space between frames, looking at digital and film frames, painting, memory and affect, APT Gallery, London, organised by London Metropolitan University.
• 01/05
  • Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) Migratory Aesthetics Research Seminar
• 07/02
  • NASCD, Halifax, Canada Summer School, Fine Art/Media
• 10/01
  • Lancaster University, Lancaster Department of Social Sciences, PhD Seminar
• 10/01
  • Lancaster University, Lancaster Department of Fine Art (BA & MA)
• 04/00
  • Leeds University, Leeds Department of Fine Art (BA & MA)
• 09/99
  • York University, Toronto, CAN MA in Fine Art
• 09/99
  • University of Guelph, Toronto, CAN MA in Fine Art
• 09/99
  • Concordia University, Montreal, CAN Cross-disciplinary Postgraduate Studies
• 07/99
  • Goldsmith College, London MA in Fine Art
• 04/95
  • Southbank Centre, RFH, London Exhibition Talks
• 03/95
  • Imperial War Museum, London Exhibition Talk & Workshops
• 02/94
  • Brynmar College, Philadelphia, USA Visiting Lecturer (Graduate school)
• 03/94
  • Concordia University, Montreal, CAN Visiting Lecturer (Postgraduate Programme)

Employment (current)

• 01/00
  • Consultancy and editing (freelance) Advising, editing and teaching in the areas of digital production and post-production, specialising in video and photography. Clients include: BBC/Adam Shaw, Palfinger, Medicine sans frontieres and various artists.
• 09/97
  • City Literary Institute Lecturer - Digital Video and Film

Past Academic Employment (selected):

• 09/03 - 06/09
  • University of the Arts, Camberwell Associate Lecturer - Video and Life-project Electives
• 09/02 - 07/05
  • University of East London Senior Lecturer - BA Cultural & Innovation Studies
• 01/04 - 03/05
  • University of Leeds Senior Lecturer - MA Fine Art and Feminism
• 09/97 - 03/03
  • Kent Institute of Art & Design Senior Lecturer - BA & MA Fine Art
• 01/90 - 03/00
  • St Martin's School of Art Lecturer - PTBA & PTMA Fine Art
• 02/95 - 07/95
  • University of East London Lecturer & Unit Organiser Media Workshop
• 09/93 - 07/95
  • London Guildhall University Lecturer - BA Communications (Scriptwriting)
• 01/91 - 06/94
  • Sheffield Hallam University Lecturer - Fine Art
• 03/94 - 03/95
  • Concordia University, Montreal, CAN Visiting Lecturer
• 01/92 - 06/93
  • University of Northumbria Lecturer - MA Fine Art

 

Symposium/Conference presentations:

• 2008
  • Memory Matters. Forgetting to Remember/Remembering to Forget’ Conference, University of Kent (September)
• 2006
  • Slade and Bartlett School, London TOPOS: The Moving Image Between Art and Architecture (DRIVEN) (accepted)
  • Centre CATH, University of Leeds, Congress CATH: The Afterlife of Memory: Memoria/Historia/Amnesia (Splitting the difference) (accepted)
  • Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Art Present: trauma/art/presentation ICIA at the University of Bath (Respondent) (Invited)
• 2005
  • Centre CATH, University of Leeds, Congress CATH: The Ethics and Politics of Virtuality and Indexicality (The paradox of intentionality) (accepted)
  • Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) Migratory Aesthetics (Some thoughts on feeling at home- ii) (Invited)
• 2004
  • Henry Moore Institute & Leeds City Art Gallery Becoming Helen Chadwick (Loop-my-loop - The paradox of duality) (Invited)
  • University of Leeds & University West England Art 'after landscape': memory, place and identity (Some thoughts on feeling at home - i) (accepted)
  • Syracuse University & De Moyne College, USA The International Association for Philosophy and Literature IAPL: Virtual Materialities (Out of the Blue - an Artists Narrative) (accepted)
  • University of East London at SOAS Culture and the Unconscious 2 (Threshold:visibility) (accepted)
• 2001
  • University of Leeds, Centre CATH Places and Memories (Places) (accepted)
• 1993
  • Sheffield University Incisions: A Symposium on the Body and Installation (part of Sheffield Media Show) (Trans/formation - Re/location) (Invited)

Work in collections:

Tate Gallery, London - Victoria & Albert Museum, London - Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA - Museum van het Boek, Netherlands - University Gallery Leeds Collection, Leeds - Manchester Metropolitan Library, Manchester - University of Vermont, USA - Louisiana State Library, USA - several private collections

Curated film/video screenings:

• 2009
  • Passing through mixed screening for Evolution Festival, Lumen, Leeds
• 2002
  • Centre for Art Tapes, Halifax, Canada,
• 1997
  • Frauenschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
• 1994
  • Feminale, Cologne, Germany
  • Gallery Articule, Montreal and Gallery 101, Ottawa, Canada
• 1988
  • Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • Stadtkino, Vienna, Austria

• 1998
  • Consulted on "Story time", Candid Arts Trust, London and travelling
• 1995
  • Consulted on "After Auschwitz", South Bank, London and travelling

Selected Bibliography include (Books/Catalogues/Journals only):

• 2013
  • (forthcoming) Disappearing Traces: Holocaust Testimonials, Ethics and Aesthetics, Dorota Glowaka, Washington University Press,
• 2008
  • Heretical Grace; (Exhibition Essay) Gareth Evans.
• 2002
  • Promise II, (Exh. Cat.), Dorota Glowaka, Mount St. Vincent Art Gallery, Halifax
• 2001
  • Promise, (Exh. Cat.), Devora Neumark, Griselda Pollock, Koffler Gallery & Leeds University
  • Places (Exh. Cat.), Ian Hunt, Leeds University
• 1998
  • Breaking Crystal, (ed.) Ephraim Scher, University of Illinois Press
• 1996
  • ACT 2, 1996 #02, Alexia Defert, p.77-78; An Intimate Distance, Rosemary Betterton, Routledge
  • Bookworks, A Partial History & Sourcebook (ed.) Jane Rolo/Ian Hunt, Bookworks p.101-103
• 1995
  • Art & Design #41, Peggy Rawes
  • New Feminist Art Criticism, (ed.) Katie Deepwell, Manchester University Press, Debbie Duffin
  • After Auschwitz, (ed.) Monica Bohm-Duchen, Lund Humphries
• 1994
  • Blaue Wunder, (ed.) Hohenberger/Jurischik, Argumente Sonderband, Marion Kranen

Publications

• 2012
  • Closing In Artist’s Book, Verlag LRM, London,
• 2010
  • Stilles Leben Artist’s Book, Verlag LRM, London, with an essay by Annemarie Taeger.
• 2008
  • Nachtstücke (Night Pieces) Catalogue Essay Night: a time between, Royal West of England Academy,
• 2007
  • No place – like home Book Chapter in Migratory Aesthetics. Eds. Samuel Durrant and Catherine Lord. Rodopi Press Amsterdam, forthcoming. (Invited)
  • The paradox of duality Book Chapter in Becoming Helen Chadwick, Ed. Griselda Pollock, Prestel 2007 (Invited)
• 2006
  • Some Thoughts on ‘feeling at home’ essay in Journal of Visual Art Practice 5:1, pp. 21-28, doi: 10.1386/jvap.5.1.95/1 (Invited)
  • Distant Lands are here - Adam King Essay for exhibition pamphlet and Website (under construction) LAF Artists Group (Invited)
• 2005
  • Looking for a new audience in Frauen und Film FuF (Women and Film) 2005/6 (Invited)
• 2003
  • Taking Time Catalogue Essay Andrea Thoma/Mara Zoltners, Dean Clough & Jack Olson, Illinois (Invited)
• 2000
  • The Pool Artists Book, Millennium Box, Gefn Press, London 2000 [Invited]
• 1997
  • “You don’t...? Article in the Jewish Quarterly, Summer 1997 and the Guardian: 09/07/97 (Invited)
• 1996
  • Places To Remember II Artists Pages in ACT 2, Writing Art, Pluto Press, 1996/2 (Invited)
  • "Thank You For E'vry...' Review in the Journal for Performance Research, Routledge 1996/1 (Invited)
  • Untitled Artists Pages in the Journal for Performance Research, Routledge 1996/1 (Invited)
• 1992
  • The Price of Words Artists Book, Bookworks, 1992 (commissioned)

 

Lily Markiewicz

e-mail: lilym.again@gmail.com
websites:
http://vimeo.com/lilymarkiewicz
www.liverpool.com/features/best-of-the-biennial.html