BENJEANSHOUGHTON

Ben Jeans Houghton creates work in sculpture, installation, film, photography, drawing, writing and performance. He has exhibited internationally in Germany, Greece, Japan, North Africa, South Asia, and the USA, whilst regularly exhibiting in the UK with organisations such as BALTIC, SpaceInBetween, CIRCA Projects, Globe Gallery and CORNERHOUSE. With Matthew Giraudeau he is a founding member of the ARKA Group; a fluid collective of creative collaborators who aim to make scientific and philosophical concepts tangible to a wider audience through the delivery of innovative and poetic Visual Art. Ben recently completed a set design for Susan Sontag’s play ‘Alice In Bed’, a piece of fiction ‘Coping With Theandor’ for Yorkshire Sculpture Park as well as ‘You Are Here’ an exhibition exploring spiritualism and narrative at Globe Gallery (UK).

◤ You Are Here & That Is Something – 2012
Exhibition: HD Digital Video | 35mm Photographs | Sculpture

A body of work about the space created between acts of looking, remembering and imagining, into which we pour meaning; the otherness of experience and the moments in which we recognise its face. Commissioned by Globe Gallery.

◤ Yugen – 2012
HD Digital Video | 35mm Slides | 16mm Archive Footage | VHS

A film that utilises the mechanics of essay, poetry and still life to investigate its oneiric content.

◤ Beginnings – 2012
Chairs | Meteorites | Blackout Hoods | Cyclic Audio Narrative

Created by Ben Jeans Houghton & Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau (The ARKA Group). Beginnings is an immersive Installation that tells the story of our universe from the point of view of a Meteorite, as it travels from the big bang to earth, where it is molested by human culture before the red sun swallows everything, only to begin again. Commissioned by Space Inbetween Gallery.

◤ Tsu – 2011
16mm Colour Film | 35mm Slides

A film in which a seven year old girl speaks in past tense about an imagined future where children rewrite history in the wake of a natural disaster. Commissioned by Creative Partnerships.

◤ On Arka – 2010
Lithography

A series of eight Lithographs created after a period of research at The Royal Victoria Infirmary's Morgue and Specimens Archive. After the artwork was drawn on to Bavarian Limestone they were processed and printed by Master Tamarind Printmaker lee Turner of Hole Editions, UK. The Lithographs were commissioned by the Business Collectors Network and now form part of a collection currently owned by the Laing Art Gallery. Editioned and available for purchase here.

◤ SPORE / ATOM – 2012
Site Specific Ocular Sculpture

A sculpture commisioned for the 5x5 Public Art Festival in Washington DC, USA. When looking through Spore / Atom which pointed into the atrium of The National Building Museum, a huge black sphere could be observed seemingly hovering in the space. Commissioned by DCCAH

◤ The Ocelli – 2012
HD Digital Video | 16mm Archive Footage

Created by Ben Jeans Houghton & Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau (The ARKA Group). The Ocelli is a film about the development of perception in children and the ascent to sentience of a 2000 year old mushroom. Commissioned by Ideas Tap.

◤ Walking For Joan – 2012
2519 words

A piece of fiction for Yorkshire Sculpture Park that takes the form of a tour, lead by an eleven year old boy through forests, past objects, to an end in song. Commissioned by COPY

◤ Extramission – 2011
Hi8 | VHS Archive Footage

Created by Ben Jeans Houghton & Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau (The ARKA Group). Extramission is a film in which a scientist takes his beliefs out into the field to test them, loosing himself at the hands of his questions. Commissioned by CORNERHOUSE Manchester.

◤ Black Cloud – 2012
35mm Photographs | Publication | Print

A printed Edition and Publication that chronicle a huge fire that burnt in the Ousbourne Valley, Newcastle. Including photography and poetry accompanied by an essay by Iris Priest. Commissioned by CIRCA Projects.

Both the Edition and Publication are available here.

◤ The Arka Dream Foundation– 2011
Photographic Documentation of Durational Performance

A month long performance in London in which the Artist slept in a hand made tent in a different home each night before photographing it and travelling to the gallery to mount the new image each day. Commissioned by CRASH.

◤ On The Ark And I – 2009
Hundreds of Found Objects

An Installation that displays an archive of found objects arranged by colour in response to Charles Darwin's beginnings as a collector. Commissioned by Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

◤ Alice In Bed – 2013
Set Design | Costume | Cyclorama

Design for Set, Costume and Cyclorama for Susan Sontag's Alice In Bed Directed by Tess Denman Cleaver of Tender Buttons Theatre Company. This contemporary reworking of the play was designed specifically for the historic site of the Stephenson Works in Newcastle UK.