Christian Newby

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

My working interests include ways in which the conventional implementation of applied arts and design techniques, can and are being resisted and recast; subverted away from hierarchically adverse roles of artist, designer, publisher and fabricator. What new idioms can we devise from conventional tools and techniques by misusing, re-wiring—by the experimentalism of the amateur’s hand, and by the terminus of the finished artwork? What can we learn from textiles as a form of activity rather than as decorative artefacts? How can DIY publishing further elucidate this formation through a diverse register of voices, stories and didactic instruction? I am looking at equivalences across different methods and mediums in order to rediscover essential social and technological capacities and aims, shining a light on the act of making, both individually and with others. Currently, I’m looking at the industrial carpet gun as a case study in how the roles of artist, artisan and fabricator are determined by terminal belief systems in productivity and skill--redirecting the tool’s centre of gravity as a commercial device through a speculative, multidisciplinary approach.

Artwork