Darren Neave
I am an artist and researcher currently undertaking a doctoral award at Leeds Beckett University. My practice-led research navigates the preposterousness of olfaction with sculptural resurrection, with links to re-use, ecological demise, corporeal embodiment and memory. I link this research with consumerist delight and disgust, embracing commodification, the written word, neuro-divergency, working-class and a queer rurality.
‘This oscillation provokes my practice, providing it with constant nourishment, not immediately apparent. As a neuro-divergent artist (I also have dyslexia), my style of art-production, writing, thinking and presenting is perpetually evolving and shape-shifting. Nothing is neuro-typical, discordance and anxiety becomes part of the questioning and how work is made’.
‘My research work acknowledges the sensorial re-purposing of objects as sculpture. I suggest a re-application of consumerist techniques in a more absurdist manner - resurrections incorporating the languages of visual merchandising, display, make-overs with audio-visual film techniques to harness and encapsulate, unlocking our senses and ensnaring us’. (A play on peacocking and eye-catching flagship-store presentations alongside the cinematic).
‘I connect with Laura U. Marks’ writing via film references and visual depictions of smell and how, through visual and audio languages, do directors depict the olfactory and gustatory through theatrical mise-en-scène, with gestures and antics?’
I currently co-direct (with Dale Wells) the turntable gallery in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire. The first dedicated space for contemporary art within the town.
I recently gained an MRes from The Royal College of Art in London, I have an MFA from the University of Lincoln and a BA from the University of Leeds (Bretton Hall College)
I work between Grimsby, London and Leeds.
I have shown all over the world, including London, New York, Beijing, Berlin and Grimsby.
News
I have started my PhD at Leeds Beckett University, after a long year at the RCA in London, I was able to work on a proposal for further research looking into the olfactory and sensorial re-purposing of objects as a method for art production.
This practice-based research examines the ways in which scent, via everyday (commercially available) items can be used to re-purpose unwanted objects (recycling) as a method for making artworks. The work featured utilised a found small copy of the Venus de Milo and Marmite - the smell is incredible - does Marmite therefore become associated with the artwork?
In March I opened the turntable gallery with Dale Wells in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire. The gallery continues to go from strength to strength and become a vitally important space within the community.
We have a full programme for the following year including some very well-known artists! Please find the gallery online at www.turntablegallery.uk and on instagram @turntablegallery.
I have been invited to contribute a profile for the British Artist Network Member directory.
Take a look and have a look through the website.