CuratorSpace Artist Bursary #11: Tim Shore

Tim Shore is a visual artist living in Derby. He works with moving image, site-specific installation, drawing and books. He is particularly interested in the histories and narratives of the marginal, ephemeral and overlooked, and how luck, chance and anxiety can be embodied in his work.

"Since 2016 I have been exploring elements of my Romany Gypsy family history. Independent curator, Angela Kingston mentored me for CVAN East Midland's Document project which culminated with a group exhibition at Artcore, Derby in 2018, where I showed a selection of materials and tentative artists' books called 'Keep out of sight'. I took a deliberately oblique approach to examining my family history and focused on a familiar bird: the Pied Wagtail, which is bound up in Gypsy lore and mythology.

I continued to explore identity and heritage for 'Middle Bound' at QUAD, 2018. I was one of 16 Midlands artists tasked with 'exploring the social fabric at the Heart of England'. The installation 'tackled themes of community, heritage, family, diversity, local history and industry'. In 2018, I exhibited work that referenced memories of my grandmother's tea leaf readings in Artcore's 'Ritual and Rites' exhibition. My artists' books exploring my Romany Gypsy family history have also been exhibited at book fairs in the UK and internationally; Turn the Page, Norwich; Pages, Leeds; and MAB2018, Malmo, Sweden.

I intend to develop and expand my work about my family history through continuing to work with Angela Kingston as well as meeting with Prof. Heather Shore at MMU and hopefully the Roma writer Damian Le Bas. I also intend to visit the Gordon Boswell Romany Museum in Lincolnshire. These conversations and research collaborations will enable me to approach the topic sensitively, as I'm conscious of the danger of objectifying Romany people and I'm aware of my material distance from this lived family history."

You can see more of Tim's work here. 

More news