Fathom

Still from Re-enactment for a Future Scenario no.2: Cape Romano, by Simon Faithfull.

Fathom presents a series of works by Simon Faithfull exploring our relationship with our mostly liquid planet. Charting dreams, fears and premonitions of ‘the deep’, the show consists of video, drawings, and photographs. The work weaves fictions and conjures impossible, dream-like images – but images that are nevertheless built on very real physical actions. In each work the artist’s body is placed in precarious and absurd situations where he is either stranded, sinking or engulfed. Borrowing language from ‘slapstick’, the work uses a sculptural physicality to picture, but also to embody, man’s precarious position on this planet – a position that leads to an absurd or desperate humour.

Based in Berlin, Simon Faithfull’s work has been exhibited extensively around the world. Recent exhibitions include Elsewhen at Hestercombe Gallery, Somerset till 30 June, and An Arbitrary Taxonomy of Birds at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin till September. Faithfull was born in Oxfordshire, UK, studied at Central St Martins (London) and then Reading University. He is a Reader in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.

See Read More below for list of works or view FATHOM guide to works

Faithfull has also curated an international group exhibition, Europe After The Rain, at Newlyn Art Gallery. Inspired by Max Ernst’s 1942 surrealist painting, the exhibition presents dystopian terrains and imagined landscapes to come.

Self Portrait – Halley Research Station, Antarctica, 12.05am
A self-portrait made on a two-month journey to Antarctica with the British Antarctica Survey.
(Digital photograph, 2005)

Re-enactment for a Future Scenario 1: EZY1899
Shot in Manchester Airport’s ‘fire-simulation-rig’, EZY1899 could be a film from a future time – a future that has lost track, or forgotten, why it was that we flew.
(HD video, 12min, 2012)

Self-Portrait: Big Cyprus, Everglades
A figure stands in the murky waters of Florida’s Everglades – whether he is stuck, lost, or waiting is not clear.
(HD Video, 11min loop, 2019)
Realised with the support of ArtSail & ArtCentre, Miami, Florida

Self-Portrait: Florida Bay
A figure clings to a pole in the still waters of Florida Bay, at the southern tip of Florida. Why he is here, or how he came to be in this predicament, is unclear.
(Digital photograph, 2019)
Realised with the support of ArtSail & ArtCentre, Miami, Florida

Re-enactment for a Future Scenario 2: Cape Romano
Stranded on the half-submerged ruins of a futuristic ‘Dome Home’ (off the coast of Florida), a figure is haunted by memories of a home – before its foundations were washed away by a series of hurricanes.
(HD, 6min, 2019)
Realised with the support of ArtSail & ArtCentre, Miami, Florida

REEF
The Brioney Victoria was intentionally sunk off the coast of SW England, beginning a metamorphosis from boat to artificial reef.
(HD, 9min 2014)

Drawing #1089 – Readying the Brioney Victoria
A drawing made whilst the Brioney Victoria was being prepared for its final journey.
(Digital drawing, inkjet print, 2014)

Self-Portrait – Wreck of the Brioney Victoria, -25m
A month after the sinking of the Brioney Victoria, a self-portrait taken in the wheelhouse.
(C-type Digital Photograph 2014)

Going Nowhere 2
A short, silent film presents a walk through a landscape at the bottom of the Adriatic Sea.
(HD Video, 5min, 2011)

Dead Sea Level (minus 418m)
A proposal for a new work made at the Dead Sea – the lowest point on the Earth’s surface.
(Digital drawing on digital photograph, 2007)

Liverpool to Liverpool (Bridge)
The view from the bridge of the Joni Ritscher as it crosses the Atlantic.
(HD video, 2min Loop, 2009)

Liverpool to Liverpool (drawings from 14 days at sea)
Drawings made on a 14-day container-ship journey crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
(34 digital drawings, 2009)

Liverpool to Liverpool (journal entries from 14 days at sea)
Accounts of daily life on the ocean, presented on metal signs on Penzance promenade.
(14 text-panels, 2009)