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
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
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
'Untitled'; backlight poster print in rotating display box; 3.3m X 2.3m; 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
Docmentation; 'Untitled'; backlight poster print in rotating display box; 3.3m X 2.3m; 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
Docmentation; 'Untitled'; backlight poster print in rotating display box; 3.3m X 2.3m; 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
'Untitled'; backlight poster print in rotating display box; 3.3m X 2.3m; 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
Publication cover; HC ON THE MOVEEXPODIUM EDITION ON ART AND URBANISM; 2008; design CEVER°FRANKE
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
Preview of publication; artist’s contribution; HC ON THE MOVEEXPODIUM EDITION ON ART AND URBANISM; 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
Preview of publication; artist’s contribution; HC ON THE MOVEEXPODIUM EDITION ON ART AND URBANISM; 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
Performance documentation; Thank you for not Photographing; 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
Performance documentation; Thank you for not Photographing; 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
Preview of publication; artist’s contribution; HC ON THE MOVEEXPODIUM EDITION ON ART AND URBANISM; 2008
Just what is it that makes that thing so different, so appealing?
Performance documentation; Thank you for not Photographing; 2008

At the invitation of Expodium Utrecht I participated in a six-month project together with four other artists to look at the city’s Hoog Catharijne shopping and transport centre which at the time was about to undergo a large renovation. The project ended with the exhibition ‘JUST WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES THAT THING SO DIFFERENT, SO APPEALING?’ in the shopping centre. My work for the project consisted of three parts. Firstly a performance where I ask thirty students of photography to use the shopping as their subject for one particular Saturday afternoon, the shopping centre being a location in which photography is usually forbidden. Secondly during the exhibition I showed two still life images I’d taken of cakes and ice-cream in the shopping centre’s rotating advertising displays. And thirdly for the accompanying publication the images taken by the students during the performance formed my contribution.

Starting to work in response to Hoog Catharijne my initial reaction was to begin to investigate, through a process of photographing on location, repeatedly visiting, trying to formulate a standpoint, to extract a point of interest. After the first day photographing, it was apparent that this would lead me nowhere. I think there are two reasons for this. Firstly HC initially seems generic, like so many other non-spaces, devoid of the traces of durational occupation, the kind of traces I love to work with. Certain objects and situations almost beg to be photographed; they exude the possibility of visual pleasure and seem to demand you to photograph them. For me there were none of these in HC however photographing a situation almost always bestows importance up on its subject. My reaction was not to photograph. There was nothing that grabbed my attention and nothing I wanted to highlight. Secondly when I was photographing I did not feel comfortable. The guards questioned me about permissions, it is not allowed to photograph without one, and the passers by seemed irritated by me. When photographing in public space I always seem to cause a spectacle. People stop and stair, both at me, and what I am photographing. They ask questions, some are interested others annoyed.

After my first day photographing I returned home disgruntled, my approach had seemingly achieved nothing. However soon I began to realise that perhaps this opened up a new way of engaging with HC. In every image there is an agency of power through observation and display. Photography is forbidden in HC yet there are photographs displayed everywhere. Why?

HC is clearly a private space that has public responsibilities. Its position between train station and city centre has forced it to execute social functions. This along with the HC’s attempt to mimic the appearance of public space, I think has blurred the line between public and private. An idea began to form around utilizing the spectacle that photographing creates to test these questions.

Hoog Catharijne’s interior of hard surfaces and photographs denies the possibility of a visible history of occupation, while illustrating an illusionary form of inhabitation. The photographs exude visual pleasure. They are seductive. Beautiful people in beautiful clothes lining the walls. But to me the photos seem to cancel each other out in a cacophony of colour and form. But why do they cancel each other out? Are there just too many images or is it something deeper, to do with the hermeticism of the illusion they display? As I pass by these images, I can be attracted by the women they show, or the image of a life I would like to lead, but there never seems to be a way to imagine my way inside the illusion. The life shown is complete and I stand on the outside looking in. The images reiterate a hierarchy of unachievable desire and keep the viewer in an outside position. Ownership and control of the illusion remaining with the image. Can an image be introduced that allows the viewer to take control of the illusion by participating in the creation of narrative, braking with a hierarchical construction of visuality?

Unwilling to photograph on location I began working in my studio, experimenting with creating images of objects. Deliberately choosing objects that were not historical artefacts, where there was little agency or depths in their associations. But choosing objects that were pure display, mostly sweets, ice creams and decorations. I bought these objects and returned to my studio, placing them on my table and experimenting with arranging them in compositions. Taking these objects into my messy studio environment immediately created a contrast between their bright colorful display and my studios stained, messy and plane interior. The images float in between categorization. Part of their agency I believe is through the obviousness of their staging. It is obvious that you are looking at a set up, yet it looks like an accident. The photos demand to be looked at but in so doing expose their fiction as an illusion.

Curated by Bart Witte & Luc Janssens of Expodium, Utrecht

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Observing Construction NEST, Netherlands Architectuurinstituut (NAi) Rotterdam 2007
This is how it must feel to be there Pakhuismeesteren, Rotterdam 2007