Fiona Curran  

Fiona is an artist based in London, she initially studied for a degree in Philosophy at the University of Manchester before completing a BA and MA in the School of Art at MMU, she is currently researching for a practice-related PhD at The Slade School of Fine Art, University College London provisionally titled "(Dis)Locating Reality: Towards A Fractured Topography of the Present".

"My research is focused on the effects of technology on concepts of natural and synthetic space in relation to landscape and ecology. My practice appropriates visual material from historical representations of landscape often utilising marginal, overlooked forms from the decorative and applied arts. There is a recurring utopian impulse, formal idealism and sense of escapism present in the work that re-registers in a contemporary palette borrowed from the computer screen and advertising. My research is centred on three interrelated concepts: territory, acceleration and entropy, and draws theoretically from the works of Virilio, Serres, Sloterdijk, J.G.Ballard and Robert Smithson."

Recent projects include the organisation of the exhibition and symposium "Surplus to Requirements?" at the Slade Research Centre, London (2011) - an event that explored questions of value in relation to Arts and Humanities education and research; conference presentations at The Bartlett School of Architecture, London and Parsons The New School of Design, New York (2012); the group exhibition 'Translate/Transcribe' at The Central House of Artists, Moscow (2011); Selection for The Guasch-Coranty International Painting Prize, Barcelona (2010); a site-specific work for the Tatton Park Biennial (2010) - this project won the 2011 RIBA MSA Small Projects Award http://www.the-msa.co.uk/msa-design-awards/2011-design-awards/item/106.html ; a solo show at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff (2010) and the launch of a collection with The Rug Company, London (2008).