Skip to main content

Dr Iain Adam Biggs, RWA

lain is a Visiting Research Fellow Bath Spa University and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Dundee. A former Associate Professor in Visual Art Practice at UWE, he was founding coordinator of LAND2 and is a founding co-convener of the PLaCE International network. Trained as a painter and printmaker, he continues to supervise and examine doctoral students, make artwork, write, undertake collaborative projects and serve as a mentor to artists. He has a BA Hons Fine Art from Leeds University, an MA from the Royal College of Art, and a PhD from UWE, Bristol. He has taught and examined visual arts related work at Masters and Doctoral level across the UK and was the founding editor of The Journal of Visual Art Practice. His primary research interest is in deep mapping and, in the context of ecological concerns, related issues of memory, place and identity.

Contact Information

website: www.iainbiggs.co.uk

Professional practice & experience

Current Academic Positions

Honorary Research Fellow, Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art & Design, University of Dundee, Scotland; Visiting Researcher, Environmental Humanities Research Centre, Bath Spa University, England.

Other Positions

Academician, Royal West of England Academy, co-convenor of the following networks: PLaCE International (UK), LAND2 national network, Contributor to Utopias Bach Collaborative.

Qualifications

1973 BA Hons Fine Art (2.1), University of Leeds
1982 MA (by thesis), Royal College of Art
2005 PhD, University of the West of England, Bristol

Appointments since 2005

2017-18 External Examiner, MA Myth and Ecology, Dartington College.
2016 Honorary Visiting Research Fellow, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee (renewed 2019).
2015 Visiting Researcher, Environmental Humanities Research Centre, Bath Spa University (renewed 2018).
2014 Moore Institute Visiting Fellowship, NUI, Galway.
2013-14 Visiting Research Fellow, UWE, Bristol.
2009–13 Associate Professor Visual Art Practice and Director, PLaCE, UWE.
2005-08 Senior Visiting Fellow, University of Lincoln.

Recent Examiner Roles

2023 External examiner, PhD (University of Limerick)
2020 Internal Examiner, PhD (University of Dundee)
2019 External Examiner, PhD (Limerick)
2018 External Examiner, PhD (University of Dundee), External Examiner PhD (University of Leeds), External examiner PhD (University College, London)
2017 External Examiner, MA Myth and Ecology, Dartington College, External Examiner PhD (Norwich University of the Arts), External Examiner, PhD (Limerick School of Art and Design), External Examiner, PhD (Falmouth University)
2016 External Examiner PhD, Trinity St David, University of Wales
2015 External Examiner PhD (Aberystwyth University)

External Grants and Awards

2015 Awarded the Derek Balmer PPRWA Painting Prize “for excellence in painting" at the 163rd RWA Annual Open Exhibition.
2008 “A Grey and Pleasant Land?: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Connectivity of Older People in Rural Civic Society” Major ESRC grant.
2003 AHRB small research award.
2000 AHRB small research award.
1999 SWA grant of £1000 (as member of In House).
1994 British Council Travel Grant.
1985 $1,000 Research Grant, Marsdon Foundation, New York.
1977 Arts Council Minor Award for Printmaking.
1974 Boise Travelling Scholarship, Slade School of Art, London.

Selected Professional Practice, Publications, and Other Public Output (2004–2021)

2024

  • Evaluator for the Gleann na Phúca, A Glen River Creative Climate Action Project, Cork, Irish Republic.

2022

  • Consultant for the Irish/Scottish project: The Rural Reimagined: Connecting Irish and Scottish Artists and Writers with Rural Practices and Narratives.

2021

  • Consultant for the Irish/Scottish project: The Rural Reimagined: Connecting Irish and Scottish Artists and Writers with Rural Practices and Narratives.

  • Creative Engagements with Ecologies of Place: Geopoetics, Deep Mapping and Slow Residency, Routledge 2020 (Mary Modeen and Iain Biggs)

  • Requested mentor for Kristi Tait, final year MA Art and Social Practice student, Centre for Island Creativity, Shetland College UHI, Lerwick.

2020

  • Book chapter ‘Ensemble Practices’ in Cameron Cartiere and Leon Tan (eds), Routledge Companion to Art in the Public Realm, London & New York, Routledge.

  • ‘Walking Away? From deep mapping to mutual accompaniment’ in Helen Billinghurst, Claire Hind & Phil Smith (eds), Walking Bodies: Papers, Provocations, Actions, Triarchy Press.

2019

  • Erin Kavanagh & Iain Biggs, ‘The Crow Road: performing bridge-making’, Green Letters, 23:3, 286-305. https://doi.org/10.1080/14688417.2019.1687003

  • Performance lecture (with Erin Kavanagh) The Selkie: figuring, an essay and paper (with Ciara Healy-Musson), Animism, Thin Places, and Porous Margins: a heterodox dialogue? at the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, Cork.

2018

  • ‘Notitia, trust, and “creative research”’ in Katja Hilevaara & Emily Orley (eds), The Creative Critics: Writing as/about Practice, London & New York, Routledge.

  • ‘Christine Baeumler’s Mycelial Art Practice’ in Colleen J. Sheehy (ed.), Pollinators at the Plains: Christine Baeumler’s Defiant Garden for the Plains, North Dakota: Plains Art Museum.

2017

  • ‘Re-Visioning “North” as an ecosophical context for creative practices’ in Timo Jokela & Glen Coutts (eds), Relate North: Culture, Community, and Communication, Rovaniemi, Lapland University Press.

  • Artist contributor and presenter: ‘In Praise of Wetlands’ shown at In the Open, Sheffield (ASLE UKI with LAND2 conference: CROSS MULTI INTER TRANS). Performed presentation: The Crow Road, with Erin Kavanagh.

2016

  • Imagined Landscapes, RWA Bristol (Feb 6th – June 12th), Co-curator and exhibiting artist.

2015

  • “‘Incorrigibly plural’? Rural Lifeworlds Between Concept and Experience,” Canadian Journal of Irish Studies Vol. 38 nos. 1-2, pp. 260–279.

  • Awarded the RWA’s Derek Balmer PPRWA Painting Prize at the 163rd RWA Open Exhibition for the work Washington & Vicinity (Arlington betrayed).

2014

  • Jane Bailey, Iain Biggs and Dan Buzzo (2014) ‘Deep mapping and rural connectivities’ in Catherine Hagan Hennessy, Robin Means, Vanessa Burholt (eds), Countryside connections Older people, community and place in rural Britain (Bristol: Policy Press).

  • ‘Singing Across Thresholds’ in James Elkins (ed), Artists with PhDs: On the New Doctoral Degree in Studio Art (2nd edition), New Academia Publishing, pp. 159-168.

  • Artist member of NOVA as part of the AHRC-funded project: HydroCitizenship: Re envisioning and reconnecting communities as eco-social formations through arts and humanities centred interdisciplinary research (Bristol workgroup).

  • Invited Speaker 12th Waddenacademie Symposium (June 11-12) Terchelling, The Netherlands.

  • ‘Beyond aestheticism and scientism: notes towards an ‘ecosophical’ praxis’; (with Bronwyn Platten) Engagement and Embodiment: A Body of Art in Healthcare; and (with Brett Wilson, Barbara Hawkins & Stuart Sim) ‘Voices Off’ in Brett Wilson, Barbara Hawkins, and Stuart Sim (eds) (2014), Art, Science and Cultural Understanding, Champaign, Illinois: Common Ground Publishing.

  • Keynote paper at: ‘Resilience – just do it?! A workshop for PhD candidates, early career researchers and senior researchers and practitioners,’ Groningen University, October 9 – 10.

  • Exhibitor, 162th RWA Annual Open Exhibition (3 works).

  • ‘From another place: notes on context’ for Louise Ravelli, Brian Paltridge, and Sue Starfield (eds), Doctoral Writing in the Creative and Performing Arts: the researcher/practitioner nexus, London: Libri.

2013

  • Selector, Drawn Royal West of England Academy Open Drawing Exhibition.

  • Mentor for the artist Pauline O’Connell under the Irish Connect mentoring Programme.

  • Landscape, Art and Uncertainty (Group exhibition) Southampton City Art Gallery (September 2013– October 2014).

2012

  • Bailey, J & Biggs, I (2012) ‘Either Side of Delphy Bridge": a deep mapping project evoking and engaging the lives of older adults in rural North Cornwall,’ in Journal of Rural Studies (guest editor Paul Milbourne), online publication 13-MAR-2012 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.01.001.

  • Drawing, Permanence & Place (installation in group exhibition) at the Kronbacken – Erfurt, Germany.

  • Drawing Permanence and Place 2, museum voor vlakglas- Ravenstein, The Netherlands, Aug 19th - Nov 1st 2012.

  • Shadows traces undercurrents October 16-November 16, 2012: Katherine E. Nash Gallery Regis Center for Art (East), University of Minnesota.

  • ‘The Southdean Project – essaying site as memory work’ (2012) in Geography and Memory: Explorations in identity, place and becoming (eds Dr Owain Jones and Dr Joanne Garde-Hansen), London & New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

2011

  • ‘The Spaces of “Deep Mapping”: a partial account’ in Journal of Arts and Communities Vol 2 No 1 (July 2011), pp.5-25.

2010

  • Artist’s book: editor and contributing artist - Debatable Lands Volume Two: 'These Debatable Lands' ISBN 978-0-9560266-0-6, Wild Conversations Press, Bristol for TRACE.

  • 5 book works in The Art of the Book: Journals Then and Now, an international travelling exhibition of artist book journals, diaries and letters - shown at: Gallery 210, University of Missouri-St. Louis, UWE Bristol, and Winchester School of Art.

  • ‘Essaying Place: Landscape, Music, and Memory (after Janet Wolff)’ in Process: Landscape and Text, eds Adeline Johns-Putra & Catherine Brace (Amsterdam & New York, Rodopi).

  • ‘The Sowdun Project - testimonial imagination, Borders ballads, and the politics of (dis-) enchantment’ in Cultural Memory: Reformations of the past in the present and present in the past, eds Malcolm Miles & Vardan Azatyan (2010), Plymouth, University of Plymouth Press.