Jeremy Welsh

Jeremy Welsh is a visual artist and Professor, currently engaged as Dean of the Department of Fine Art at Bergen Academy of Art and Design. Welsh was Professor and Leader for MA studies in Fine Art at KHIB between 2004 - 2012 and was formerly Professor of Intermedia at the Art Academy of Trondheim.

Jeremy Welsh's work as an artist has encompassed many media and areas of practice including video, sound, performance, photography, installation and public commissioned artworks. His current series of works, combining photo, digital print, video, sound and text, was commenced during an artist residency at Artspace, Sydney, in 2009.  The image above comes from a series of composite works entitled MaZine, forming part of the ongoing project.

During the 1980's he worked with artists' media centre London Video Arts (Later known as LUX), where he was responsible for arranging exhibitions and screening programmes, and where he curated many selections for international video art festivals. In the late 1980's he established The Film & Video Umbrella, together with film theorist Michel O'Pray, as a curatorial and production resource for exhibitions of artists' film and video. In 1990 Welsh was appointed as Associate Professor, later full Professor, in Intermedia at Trondheim Academy of Art where he taught until 2001, when he moved to Bergen Academy of Art and Design.

Supervisor for Research Fellows
Hege Charlotte Faber, NTNU
Pedro Gómez-Egaña, Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2008-2012)
Trond Lossius, Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2003-2007)

Member of evaluating panel/opponent
Oslo National Academy of the Arts
Valand School of Fine Art, Gothenburg University

Fields of Competence
Video & time based electronic media, photography, installation, sound, text

Artistic Research Focus
Place and the construction and interrogation of notions of place through the interrelations of image, memory, text and sound. (current)

Dialogue between digital media and the expanded field of contemporary painting (long-term collaborative project with painter Jon Arne Mogstad and sound artist Trond Lossius.)

Artistic Research Projects
Re:place
Re: place is a collaborative research project in which the notion of "place" is investigated through a range of artistic practices including moving image, installation, photography, sound, text and performance. Within the project umbrella, a number of individual and group artworks are being developed, alongside a series of discursive events including seminars, lectures and discussion-workshops. Re: place is a collaboration between KHIB, Oslo Academy of Art, the Grieg Academy, the media arts organisations Bergen Center of Electronic Arts and Atelier Nord, and Kino Kino, center for contemporary art and film in Sandnes.

Se: (to look, to observe)
The project Se: (to look, to observe) was initiated during a residence at Artspace, Sydney, in 2009 and has been developed through 2012. The fundamental method and research focus of the project can be expressed as "Image gathering as visual research". This project is a further development of themes and practices that have been central to earlier works, combining video, photography, audio and text, often exploring the relationships between image and place, using the production of images as a way to engage with places and spaces that evoke a response or call for interaction. The image series "maZine" is part of this project.

Dialogue/Transition
A collaborative project investigating the dialogue between static and dynamic (digital) media within the expanded field of painting. Together with painter Jon Arne Mogstad and sound artist Trond Lossius, a number of installations, workshops, site-specific interventions and exhibitions have been produced over the period between 2003 - 2010. The project is currently inactive, but will be revived when a suitable opportunity presents itself.

Mogstad/Welsh's recent projects are two large commissioned permanent artworks. One of these, entitled "The Lowdown", was produced in 2009 for Halden Prison in South East Norway. The most recent is "Brukerveiledning del 1 + 2" (User Guide part 1 + 2) completed in 2010 for a new post terminal at Lørenskog, near Oslo.

Exhibitions and Publications
In January 2012 Welsh curates the exhibition Tracking Tracing at Stftelsen 3,14, Bergen, with work by three Australian artists.

In October 2010 Jeremy Welsh was curator/conference chairman for a symposium in connection with Meta Morf, a festival for art & technology taking place in Trondheim, and organised by Espen Gangvik of TEKS. Recent exhibitions featuring Jeremy Welsh include BGO1 at Bergen Kunstmuseum (29 October 2010 - 30 January 2011) where he showed Please Note After Image a collaborative installation with Trond Lossius and Jon Arne Mogstad. In March 2011 Jeremy Welsh organized the exhibition Strawberry Butterflies and Peppermint Cats as part of the Borealis festival of contemporary music. The show featured work by two former KHIB students, Susanna Kajermo Törner and Mona Aspen Simonsen, as well as graphic work by Jeremy Welsh, and archive images from a collection of late 1960's psychedelic graphics.

In March 2010, Welsh participated in an exhibition entitled "Silence" at Macquarie University Art Gallery in Sydney, where he  exhibited a short video work and a series of three large Giclée prints. In summer 2010, together with Trond Lossius, he  presented an audio-visual work based around the remains of 2nd. world war German bunkers on islands off the west coast of Norway, for a conference that took place on Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

In 2009 Jeremy Welsh produced a series of exhibitions and publications. "Water and Glass" was a four-screen High Definition video installation presented at Atopia, Oslo. A photo series & HD video work "Through A Glass, Darkly" with images recorded in Lofoten, was featured in the travelling exhibition "Transitions" which was shown at five galleries in Australia between 2008 - 2010. The video from this project was also published as a dvd supplement to the academic journal SHIMA: the journal of research into small island cultures (2009). Also in 2009, a short video "Here Comes The Night/Walk The Dog" was featured in "Blink" an international selection of artists' videos, featured at a number of festivals around the world. In autumn 2009 he published "Shadows, Markings, Other Stories" a book of photographs and texts, issued by KHIB. Also in 2009, he contributed to the anthology "Rethinking the Contemporary Art School", published by the press of Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and launched at the New York Book Fair in October 2009. Other published writing in 2009 included an interview/conversation piece for the anthology "Localised", issued by ctl_z publishing in connection with Bergen Biennale Conference, September 2009, and a catalogue essay for the exhibition Polar Star by former KHIB student Cecilie Bjørgås Jordheim.

During 2008 - 2009 Welsh, together with artist Synne Bull and Atelier Nord, the artists' media centre in Oslo, developed BUU: Bureau for Unstable Urbanism, as a collaborative platform for artists and other cultural producers with a specific interest in the urban environment. During 2009 BUU arranged a conference, Cities Re-imagined 1, at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo and an open-air film and video screening event in Cologne, together with the artists group Kjubh Kunstverein. An exhibition, also with the title Cities Re-imagined was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Novi Sad, Serbia, in July 2010, featuring film and video works by nine Norway-based artists. In September 2010 another exhibition in the Cities Re-imagined series was held at the gallery ROM for kunst & arkitektur. Jeremy Welsh participated in both exhibitions with the video work "Spatial Traces", a collaboration with Robert Worby.

Collections
National Museum, Oslo
Trondheim Art Museum
Norwegian Arts Council
Trondheim City Council
Telenor Art Collections
National Gallery of Canada
ZKM media collection, Karlsruhe
Museum of The Moving Image, BFI, London
Rewind: research archive of British Video Art, Duncan of Jordanstone College/University of Dundee

Public commissions (permanent or long-term)
Pirbadet, Trondheim
Halden Prison
Norwegian Post Office distribution center Lørenskog
St. Olavshospital, Trondheim

Temporary public works
Moving, Ålesund, 2013 . outdoor video projections on building facades
Media Facades festival, outdoor public projections, Berlin, 2010
Public Screens: electronic art for display screens in public buildings, produced by i/o lab, 2009
Intervall: interventions in public spaces in Bergen, produced by curate.no, 2008
Video projections in Oslo Central Station, 2004
Overtures Am Wasser, exhibition & public art projects, München, 2005
Artists on Spectacolor, commission by Artangel for Piccadilly Circus, London, 1989

Conferences and seminars (selection)
Cyberconf, international conference on Cyberspace, Oslo 1994
Media and Ethics, art & technology conference, Helsinki, 1996
Screens, festival & conference, Trondheim 1997 (curator & organiser)
Seminar on Art & Moving Images, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 1998
The Bridge: seminar on painting and digital media, KHIB, Bergen, 2002
ELIA biennale conference, Dublin, 2004
ELIA teachers conference, Barcelona, 2005
Painting and The Moving Image; seminar connected to Carnegie Art Award, Stockholm & Copenhagen, 2005
Urban Interface conference, Oslo, 2007
Art, Technology, Architecture, seminar, Bergen Kunstmuseum, 2008
RGB Neighbours: seminar on video art, Leeuwaarden, Netherlands, 2009
Cities Re-imagined, conference, Oslo 2009
Meta-Morf; Art, Technology, Public Space, Trondheim, 2010 (curator/moderator of conference)
Placeholders, seminar, Bergen, KHIB, 2011
Re:place seminar, Bergen, KHIB, 2012
Tech-stiles: conference on textile art & new technology, Førde, 2012
Sensuous Knowledge conference series, presenter/keynote/moderator at annual conferences between 2004 - 2009

Recent exhibitions  (selection)
Paradox: directions in Norwegian Video Art: Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, February - July 2013. 
Retrospective: artists film & video in Norway 1960-1990, Stenersens Museum Oslo 2011
BGO1, Bergen Kunstmuseum, 2010-11
Cities Re-imagined exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Novi Sad Serbia 2010
Cities Re-imagined exhibition, ROM Kunst & Arkitektur, Oslo 2010
Silent Spaces: Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney, 2010
Atopia, gallery for film & video art Oslo, 2009
Transitions, travelling exhibition Australia; Sydney, Melbourne, Cowra, 2009
LMW; Dialogue Transition, Visningsrom USF Bergen 2006
Analogue, artists video 1970 - 1990, Tate Britain, 2006
Tracing Space, Bergen Kunsthall, 2005
British/Canadian Video Art, South London Gallery, 2004
LMW; Dialogue Transition, Kristiansand Kunsthall 2004
Where am I now? Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo 2003
Video Topiques, Museum of Contemporary Art Strasbourg 2003
Dream vs. Reality, Galleri F15 Jeløy/Moss, 2002
Trondheim Kunstmuseum, 2001
Trøndelag Senter for Samtidskunst, 2000

Publications (selection)
Texts published in the following:
Catalogue essay for "Paradoks" exhibition at National Museum, Oslo, 2013
Catalogue introduction, Tracking/Tracing, Galleri 3,14, Bergen 2012
Polar Star: exhibition catalogue, Cecilie Bjørgås Jordheim, 2010
Deterritorialisations; Art & Aesthetics in the 90's; Spartacus Forlag, Oslo
Rethinking the contemporary art school; Nova Scotia College of Art & Design press
Diverse Practices: A critical reader on British video art: John Libbey, London
Video Loupe: video artist Catherine Elwes: KT Press, New York
Culture, Technology & Creativity: John Libbey, London
Photo/Video: Rivers Oram Press, London
Video, Taida, Media, UIAH Helsinki
SHIMA journal on Art & Island Cultures, vol II, 2009
Convergence, journal of research in new media technologies: contributor, reviewer & member of editorial board
Plus essays for numerous artists'catalogues, anthologies, journals and magazines.

Curatorial projects (selected)
Young and Loving; international contemporary glass art, Galleri S12, Bergen 2012
Tracking/Tracing, contemporary art from Australia, Galleri 3,14 Bergen, 2012
Vatn; Connecting People: video art exhibition for 150 year anniversary of the Telemark Canal, 2011
Strawberry Butterflies & Peppermint Cats: art & psychedelia, for Borealis Festival 2011
Microscope: a very small video exhibition, KHIB, Galleri 1,59,  2008
Film & video art series for Bergen Cinematheque, 2007-2008
Magnetic North; video art from Norway & Great Britain, Film & Video Umbrella travelling exhibition 2000
Screens: Art on, for and through the screen: Trondheim Kunstmuseum & Nidaros Cathedral Museum, 1997
Breaking Eyes, Nordic media art: Färgfabrikken, Stockholm & MUU, Helsinki, 1996
Blood, Sweat and Sausages: Nordic Video Art, The Kitchen, New York, 1993
A Thoughtful Gaze; video of Bill Viola, Film & Video Umbrella travelling exhibition 1988
The British Edge; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 1986
Channel 6: international video festival, ICA, London, 1986
British/Canadian Video Exchange, London & Toronto 1984

                                                                                                                                                                                     For more information and documentation, see Jeremy Welsh's personal website and blog
Artistic Research Reports on the KHiB-web:

FoU-rapporter KHiB