Edward Clydesdale Thomson Bio
CALM BEFORE THE STORM Radius, Delft, The Netherlands 2022
Where Shall We Plant the Placenta? A Tail of a Tub, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2022
spellbound CBK Zeeland, Middelburg, The Netherlands 2022
rivier, boot, stad Dordrecht’s Museum, Dordrecht, The Netherlands ongoing
bound to the miraculous online ongoing
Grazer Kunstverein is moving Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria ongoing
Microplastics Rain Down from the Sky Division of Labour, Art Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2020
Buffer zones Paradise Works, Manchester, UK 2019
landfall O&O funding, CBK, Rotterdam 2019
An exhibition of posters Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2018
wild care tame neglect - exhibition Frankendael Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2018
below the soil, between the branches, above the clouds Into Nature, biennial, Drenthe 2018
how to kill a tree Frankendael Foundation, Amsterdam 2018
Tuin van Toorop Jan Tooropstraat, Amsterdam 2018
noon Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland 2017
the necessity of art Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria 2017
wilder beings command Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland 2017
wild care tame neglect Frankendael Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2016
poster club Het Wilde Weten, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2017
The Society Machine Malmo Konstmuseum, Malmo 2016
Static Gravity Het Wilde Weten, Rotterdam 2016
Crossing Borders Expanding Frontiers ramfoundation, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2016
As the lake said to the boat Kunsthuis SYB, Beetsterzwaag, The Netherlands 2015
Nothin Shakin but the Leaves on the Trees Marabouparken konsthall, Sunsbyberg, Sweden 2015
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain CCA Derry~Londonderry, Lismore Castle Arts St Carthage Hall 2015
Belief and Productivity O&O funding, CBK, Rotterdam 2014
The Non Urban Garden: tuinen van de 21e eeuw Afdh & Kunstvereniging Diepenheim 2014
iaspis Open House, spring 2014 iaspis, Stockholm 2014
The Distracted Gardener & The Plumbing Subverter Yeo Workshop, Singapore 2013
Late Nights & Early Mornings Kunstraum, London 2013
25 Years Rotterdam City Collection Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam 2013
here is always somewhere else Forum Triangulare, Oud-Rekem, Belgium 2013
Abilities Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam 2013
Lost & Found at the Flügelbus Lost & Found, Amsterdam 2013
causa finalis Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam 2012
As if an entrance is over there- Lecturis, Eindhoven 2012
Rijksakademie Open 2012 Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdamm 2012
The research and destroy department of the Black Mountain College W139, Amsterdam 2012
We are rolling galerie-j, Geneva 2012
There was a Country where They were all Thieves Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam 2012
Secret Gardens TENT, Rotterda, 2012
FlowerCASTLE Kasteel Keukenhof Art Foundation, Lisse 2011
FlowerCASTLE
Documentation, ‘Borderline Picturesque & the Recounting Prospect (part three)’, audio description on vinyl record, 8 minutes 44 seconds, 2010
FlowerCASTLE
Documentation, ‘Borderline Picturesque & the Recounting Prospect (part three)’, audio description on vinyl record, 8 minutes 44 seconds, 2010
FlowerCASTLE
Documentation, ‘Borderline Picturesque & the Recounting Prospect’, wooden dressing screen with direct print B&W photo print, 2m by 3.3m, 2010
FlowerCASTLE
Documentation, ‘Borderline Picturesque & the Recounting Prospect’, wooden dressing screen with direct print B&W photo print, 2m by 3.3m, 2010

‘In a green shade, (Butterfly house)’ is a sphere with one continuous image across its entire surface, in the much same was as a globe, in that there is no left or right, top or bottom. The image is a photo-stitch consisting of images of the interior of the butterfly house at Rotterdam zoo.

Still at the Rotterdam Zoo, I was equally fascinated by the butterfly house. A most unusual, progressive form of looking was created by the enclosure: a form of fully immersive vision. The enclosure is a densely planted greenhouse which you can navigate using its looped path. The butterflies surround you, everywhere yet elusive. Visitors freeze like disjointed trees awaiting flittering settlers or hunt with frenzied zoom and feverish snapping. In the enclosure you don’t know where to look, the environment fully immersive, and thus most importantly the visual hierarchy completely broken. Many times I tried to photograph this experience, but always failed to capture what I found so radical. I was not interested in representing this experience, but rather of attempting to create a work that to some degree simulated it. At a certain moment I realised that it was me standing there with the camera which was spoiling my shot by creating the very visual hierarchy who’s absence I wanted. Realising this pushed me towards an idea of creating in a sphere a kind of inversion of the butterfly house, thus creating an image without a stable position in which to look at it.

‘Borderline Picturesque & the Recounting Prospect, (part two)’ is a wooden dressing screen with a landscape photography printed directly across the laser cut mdf panels. This work was inspired in part by the lacquer dressing screens of Eline Gray, and in part by the patterns and aesthetics I encountered in Northern Norway. I believe the way we encounter an image is of fundamental importance to its reading. With this work I was interested in experimenting with the possibilities of challenging the cultural hegemony of image based works being staged on a wall. It was my intention to experiment with destabilising the position from which you’re meant to experience an image; taking the sideways glimpse as an alternate model and the dressing screen as a domestic object that exemplifies the glimpse.

‘Borderline Picturesque & the Recounting Prospect, (part three)’, a sound work, addresses the desire and myths of exploring a foreign and forbidding landscape. I had images from Norwegian Polar Research Centre translated into text by a professional audio describer. This specific form of translation attempts to objectively convert the visual information into language and in so doing de-contextualise the images, leaving their underlying seduction abstract from any concrete situation. It is my home that the resulting works go beyond specific local politics, and speak more generally about our relationship to the land we occupy and the myths we build around that.

Borderline Picutesque & the Recounting Prospect

Download FlowerCASTLE in PDF.

Rijksakademie Open 2011 Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam 2011
a green thought, in a green shade Art Amsterdam MK Gallery 2011
Prix de Rome 2011 Smart project space, Amsterdam 2011
Borderline Picturesque & the Recounting Prospect Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromsø, Norway 2010
New Graffiti, Old Revolutions MK gallery, Rotterdam 2010
A group show Croxhapox, Ghent 2010
Done to a dead end & the dead or alive sale SD&G, Rotterdam 2010
Edward Clydesdale Thomson SECONDroom, Brussels 2009
A Leopard, Some Monkeys, Numerous Butterflies, Dozens of Peacocks and a Sublime Vista 4th Issue NOWISWERE, Contemporary Art Magazine, London 2009
Open Office for Words ADA, Rotterdam 2009
Imaginary Cinema - Discussion WDW 653, Rotterdam 2009
Residency at Het Wilde Weten, Rotterdam WDW 653, Rotterdam 2009
Impromptu Affairs DEK 22, Rotterdam 2009
Selbstzweck Private Collection 2008
Residency at Kysten Tromsø Kysten Tromsø 2008
Small Talk with the Janitor Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam 2008
My Travels with Barry, MA Graduation Show Tent, Rotterdamt 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing? Expodium, Utrecht 2008
Observing Construction NEST, Netherlands Architectuurinstituut (NAi) Rotterdam 2007
This is how it must feel to be there Pakhuismeesteren, Rotterdam 2007