Studio Alec Finlay
Designer/Maker
Alec Finlay is a Scottish-born artist, poet, and publisher based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Much of his practice explores human interaction with the natural environment, and considers how contemporary culture relates to the landscape. Particular areas of interest are ecology, sustainability, and renewable energy. Finlay’s work weaves together art and poetry, and his recent works have increasingly integrated new technology – specifically QR code – creating multiple points of access for audiences, embedded directly within the landscape, online and via mobile phone. Finlay works in a range of media, including text, sculpture and collage, often in collaboration with other artists and writers.
Finlay has recently been shortlisted for the Northern Art Prize 2010.
Finlay’s work has been widely exhibited at The Bluecoat, Tate Modern, Norwich Castle Museum, ARC Gallery (Sofia), and HICA (Highland Institute for Contemporary Art). Exhibitions include:
sky-wheels & Sky Colour Wheel, audio-visual installation & print (AV Festival 10, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, 2010)
rock, paper, scissors neon installation (ARC Gallery, Sofia, 2008)
Specimen Colony, permanent installation, exhibition and publication (The Bluecoat, Liverpool, 2008)
Waterlog (Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich and touring to Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich and The Collection, Lincoln, 2007)
Finlay’s commissions include a number of permanent public artworks across parks, gardens, and wilderness landscapes throughout the UK.
50 Apples for Hartley Wood, a permanent public artwork, artist edition and print (National Glass Centre, Sunderland, 2010)
white peak / dark peak, an audio-visual word-map of the Peak District National Park, combining 70 poems with 18 poets to produce an interactive guide-book and bespoke website (re : place, Derbyshire Arts Development Group, 2010).
Mesostic Interleaved, permanent public artwork, poem-signs, publication and bookmarks (Edinburgh University Library, 2009)
Woodland Platform & Xylotheque, permanent public artwork and renga workshop (the hidden gardens, tramway, 2005)
Home to a king (3), a nation-wide series of installations on native woodland species (Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Durham Botanic Gardens, Springburn Park, George Square Gardens, ongoing)
Finlay has recently been awarded a Vital Spark Award from Scottish Arts Council (with Ken Cockburn) to create an audio-visual word-atlas of Scotland, the road north.
Schools’ projects and commissions include:
Mesostic Curriculum, poem-signs and web-book (Milton Keynes Academy, 2009; Community School of Auchterarder, 2008)
Creative Partnerships artist - worked with eight schools in the Durham and Sunderland region to create poems and questions for the books Mesostic herbarium (with CDrom) and The Book of Questions, as well as multiples, artist posters and a lightbox installation Eyes, featuring the eyes of every pupil.
Finlay was selected for EAST 2005 and was winner of the Scottish Design Awards 2007 for best work of art in the public realm. He has undertaken numerous residencies, including BALTIC, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC), and most recently Jupiter Artland.
Notable publications include the award-winning pocketbooks series, One Hundred Year Star-Diary (morning star, Kileder Partnership, 2008), and Mesostic Remedy (morning star, 2009).
Q&A's
Describe your creative practice in 20 single words.
I work across all artforms, and frequently collaborate with other artists, designers and makers.
Describe your influences using 30 single words or short phrases.
The world as I find it.