Approved: 16.08.2006

Duncan Mountford

Artist, Gallery educator, Lecturer / academic, Technician, Writer

Approved: 16.08.2006

The focus of my work between 1998 and 2003 was the relationship of installation theory and practice to museums, specifically museums of science and natural history. The contention was that museums are installations - works of imagination. This enables such objective institutions to be interrogated for their connections to themes of memory, loss, and melancholy. The research drew on a wide field of

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    Artist Statement

    The focus of my work between 1998 and 2003 was the relationship of installation theory and practice to museums, specifically museums of science and natural history. The contention was that museums are installations - works of imagination. This enables such objective institutions to be interrogated for their connections to themes of memory, loss, and melancholy. The research drew on a wide field of reference, beginning with the critique of the museum as institution and ending with the ruin of the museum as a cultural and personal metaphor. The work since 2003 develops the above central ideas and draws on both the history and philosophy of the natural sciences, museums and scientific institutions, and on how history leaves traces that can be discerned in multiple contexts. These themes are addressed via installations within which are placed optical ‘devices’ of lenses, mirrors, and lights with integral video and photographic slides. The videos are explicitly non-narrative, fragments that enable cross connections with no imposed linear structure. This video is mediated via the lenses and mirrors within the devices, and this in turn makes the viewer aware of their relationship with the video imagery - the devices providing one optimum viewing position. In like manner, the photographic slides are unclear (uncertain is the term I prefer) and the end result of the mechanism of projection rather than a stand-alone image. Since 2007 my research has included a questioning stance towards the European Enlightenment perspective of the world with specific regard to the Far East – a term that itself illustrates this point. The work examines contemporary readings of culture and history alongside the critical examination of Eurocentric perspectives.

    CV & Education

    Education

    1998 - 2003  PhD Fine Art by Theory and Practice, Nottingham Trent University, UK

    1993 - 1994  M.A. Sculpture, Winchester School of Art, UK

     

    Current Positions

    2015 - 2019  Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Fine Art, National Taiwan University of Arts

    2013 (to present)  Visiting Assistant Professor (part-time), School of Fine Art, Taipei National University of the Arts

     

    Solo exhibitions

    2023 - Haunt, VT Artsalon, Taipei, Taiwan.

    2022 - The Office of Arcana, MoCA Studio Space, Taipei, Taiwan.

    2017 - Space Station, SeeART Space, Taipei, Taiwan.

    2017 - Make it up as I go along, Hsinchu, Taiwan.

    2015 - The Chamber of Uncanny Objects, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    2015 - A Cabinet for NTU, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    2013 - Daci Village Project, Tainan, Taiwan

    2011 - Study Void, Ox Warehouse, Macao

    2010 - The Problem of Knowledge 2, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan

    2009 - Institute, Plan 9, Bristol, UK

    2008 - Through a Glass Uncertainly, Dartington Gallery, Dartington College of Arts, UK

    2007 - A Sense of Wonder and the Problem of Knowledge, Ginza Art Lab and Koiwa Project Space, Tokyo, Japan

    2005 - Mnemosyne, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

    2001 - The Archive of Lost Knowledge, The Yard Gallery, Wollaton Hall, Nottingham

    2000 - ordinary facts arranged within time, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham

    1996 - Lost/ Found The Glass Box Gallery, Salford

    1996 - Traces, South Trafford College, Manchester

    1995 - 23 August 1994 Skillion Warehouse, Liverpool

    1993 - My Subject is War, Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead

    Group exhibitions

     

    2023 - The City & The City, O Bank Foundation Exhibition Space.  With Anna Mo and Ray Kiang of Empty Art Collective

    2021 -  The Embassy of Doggerland, exhibited in C Lab, Taipei as part of the group exhibition Transcodage.

    2019 - 2020 Silent Running, Project produced as a member of Empty Art Collective.  Exhibited at Songshan Cultural Park, Taipei (2019), and Horticultural Building, Youth Park Wanhua, Taipei (2020)

    2017 - 2018  -  Station 3, in M-Space: Formosa Sculpture Biennial, Pier2, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

    2017 - Solomon's House, in Moving Anchor, National Taiwan University of Arts Museum, Taiwan

    2016 - Singer, in Hieroglyphic Memory, Bopillao Historic Space, Taipei, Taiwan

    2016 - Wall, in Wandering x Intervening, Sly Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan

    2014 - Crystal Eggs, Nanhai Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

    2014 - The Rings of Saturn, Arts Lab AKIBA, Tokyo, Japan

    2013 - MOCA Taipei Video Exhibition, external screen outside MOCA, Taipei, Taiwan

    2011 - 10 x 10, Taipei Artist Village, Taipei, Taiwan

    2004 - Airborne System mode, Ox Warehouse, Macau, China

    2000 - Brief Encounter, Melbourne, Austrailia

    2000 - Raid, Derby, various sites

    2000 - The Box Project, The Museum of Installation, London and Tour

    1997 - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, The Doctor Duncan Exhibition, Museum of Liverpool Life

    1995 - Group Exhibition, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool

    1995 - Group Exhibition, Mream, Melbourne, Australia

    1994 - Group Exhibition, Winchester Gallery, Winchester

    Workshops 2011 - Young Designers Workshop, Kun Shan University, Tainan, Taiwan Residencies 2011 - International Fellowship, Taipei Artist Village, Taipei, Taiwan 2010 - Artist Residency, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan