Contact mail@leecampbell.org
http://www.axisweb.org/p/leecampbell-1/
I make interactive, participatory, public, community and collaborative art within a conceptual framework. I do this to investigate the boundaries and possibilities of working with the public, and what it means for the artist, viewer and participant.
Over the last twenty years, my work has not been consistent in form, but the same basic preconceptions have been at the root of my practice: I am concerned with the idea that art can change people and I attempt to build ways of evaluating that change into the work itself. This has taken many forms, including live painting and video installations, developing and exhibiting interactive learning applications and making games designed to promote critical thinking. In short, I have consistently been concerned with ‘engagement’ as medium in itself.
I feel that when people physically interact with artworks they express their thoughts and emotions in more obvious, outward ways than when they engage passively or internally. I do not feel that interactive, participatory or collaborative art is better than static artworks, but they are more useful for my practice. Creating work that physically involves the audience, implicates them in the outcomes, employs them in its construction or provokes them into critique is a way for me to understand them better, to understand myself better and to understand art better. I use art as leverage to manipulate the ‘real world’. This feeds back (via the affect display of the participants) into the artistic process.
I have been informed by the educational theories of B.F. Skinner, who postulated that learning can be measured through change in a person’s behaviour, and the idea (that I first encountered during a seminar hosted by philosopher Ray Brassier) that cultural production may be able to profoundly alter the consciousness of humanity. While evidence for both of these is lacking, I feel it is useful to entertain their possibilities.
Education
2002
M.A. Fine Art Goldsmiths College
2002
Post Graduate Diploma Fine Art Goldsmiths College
1999
B.A. Fine Art Kingston University
1996
Foundation Art & Design University of Wales Institute Cardiff
Selected Awards and Residencies
2011-13
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know Cardiff and Vale College – Cardiff/Vale of Glamorgan
A self-initiated project, funded by ACW and CAVC, culminating in three exhibitions and a time-capsule.
2007
Reinventing Llanedeyrn Maelfa Shopping Centre – Cardiff
A self-initiated residency, funded by Cywaith Cymru, in a soon-to-be redeveloped shopping centre.
2003
The Observer Student Artist of the Year Award – Observer Magazine
Selected Exhibitions
2015
Project 300 Made In Roath Cardiff
2014
Formal Interference Le Murate Florence
2013
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know (pt3) ArcadeCardiff Cardiff
2012
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know(pt1) Milkwood Gallery – Cardiff
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know(pt2) Canonhill Arts – Cardiff
I’m Game ArcadeCardiff – Cardiff
2011
BigLittleCity The Cardiff Story – Cardiff
2009
Made in Roath The Gate / Milkwood – Cardiff
2007
Reinventing Llanedeyrn Maelfa Shopping Centre – Cardiff
Welshing tactileBosch and Milgi – Cardiff
2005
Fleamarket #2 Temporary Contemporary – London
Gates Centre for Contemporary Public Art – Skopje
Coagulation Tactile Bosch Cardiff
2004
Love & Bullets Transition Gallery – London
Hero m2 Gallery -London
Fleamarket Temporary Contemporary -London
nth Architecture m2 Gallery – London
2003
I’m Desperate, Love Me! Catto Contemporary – London
nth Art 001 Ols & Co – London
2002
Truck 3 peripatetic exhibition – London
Beautiful Tomorrows Espace d’Art Yvonamor Palix – Paris
2000
Outhouse Rich & Famous Gallery – London
Assembly Stepney City – London
1999
Breaks & Pieces Stanley Picker Gallery – London
Solo Show Rich & Famous Gallery – London
Art For Us All Riverside Studios – London
1997
Outpost 4 Former Telephone Exchange – London
I am an active member of CAAPO (www.creativeassault.org) and have participated in all CAAPO events and artworks since 2012.