Aaron Williamson
Stephen Cripps Studio Award
2013/14
Aaron Williamson’s work is informed by his experience of becoming deaf and by a politicised, yet humorous sensibility towards disability.
During his Stephen Cripps Award with Acme, Aaron created The Living Studio - a public work, in continual transformation, inspired by images of the performance-sculptor Stephen Cripps’ studio between 1975-79 . Rather than being simply an open-studio arrangement, Aaron was ‘operative’ during visits, constantly at work on transient compositions that re-used materials (or ‘arcane scrap’ in Cripps’ term) to create temporary assemblages and compositions before dismantling them to construct new ones.
Recent exhibitions include: Venice Biennale, Italy; Nippon Performance Art Festival, Japan; DaDao Festival, China; ‘Intercambio’, Argentina; Columbia University Chicago, USA; Taipei Performance, Taiwan; ‘Eruptio Action Art’ Transylvania; ANTI Art Festival, Finland; the British School at Rome and many other European venues. Aarons work has been shown at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Serpentine Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Hayward Gallery, South London Gallery, The Showroom, Gasworks, ICA (all London); Spike Island & Arnolfini Bristol; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Bluecoat & Liverpool Biennial; Chapter Arts, Cardiff.
Stephen Cripps Studio Award
The Stephen Cripps Award was a partnership between Acme and the Henry Moore Foundation between 2014-17. It provided artists with a rent free studio at Acme's High House Production Park studio building, mentoring support and a bursary to support their practice.