Antony Hall CV | Biography

Antony Hall creates discrete objects that attempt to defy entropy, harnessing elements of potential or kinetic energy and self-perpetuation. His work explores mechanical or fluid motion as well as biological phenomenon such as the behaviour of animals. These works are often minuscule or apparently simple; yet invite closer observation revealing deeper levels of complexity. His working process involves identifying behaviours and developing control structures [devices & instruments] within which unique, specific phenomena can exist, for example; 'Bubbling mass' 2012 or 'Coffee Vortex' [2002], or sustaining the life of microorganisms in a droplet of water 'Pond Life' [2001]. These works assimilate phenomena, which being susceptible to change within themselves and the environment that directly surrounds them, require to be nurtured. Through presenting active processes, the work is a continuous play on potential failure and possible solution, where failure is as important as resolution.

Research: Experiments in art and perceptual illusion: Exploring methods used in experimental psychology within the framework of an artistic practice. This PhD project is based at MMU in partnership with and Body Eyes And Movement [BEAM] Lab Manchester University. Funded by the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP) Scholarship Award. The research centres around the artistic re-creation and re-appropriation, of science experiments for purposes of experience. Taking methods from experimental psychology, workshops are prototyped through a process of feedback, reflection and action. Initial experiments test newly discovered multisensory illusions; in which participants are asked to create and embody 'unfeasible' objects or participate in simulations of out of body experiences.

↪See blog for research and work in progress

Follow me: instagram @tonazoid / Twitter @TabletopE
Contact me to inquire about workshops info@antonyhall.net

Online text, interviews, profiles, reviews:

Is it art if no one can see it?
Artists are in a unique position, being able to play with assumptions and expectations, a certain state of perception, one assumes on entering the gallery space, a readiness to look closely and absorb. Potentially looking closely and reading meaning into things they would otherwise consider banal...↩]

"...Antony Hall’s series of experiments catches our attention, in particular “Perpetual Puddle Vortex: Experiment No. 3”, in which a flat dark pool of black ink visibly and audibly drains away through a hole in its centre. We wait to see if it will empty. We wait some more, yet the pool remains full to the plinth’s brim. A technical feat, yes, but accomplished with a filmic brilliance that lends the piece a hypnotic quality. In this piece it was not the puddle that resembles life, but the plinth and the gallery space; drinking and replenishing the endless fluid..." Tim Howard, reviewing 'On The Move' at Gazelli Art House http://artwednesday.com/

↩ "Tech Know: Etch A Sketch and robotic swarms at Future Everything" By Andrew Webb, BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13443240

↩ Recreational science and Physical Oscillators: Interview with Antony Hall at Victoria Baths http://theshriekingviolets.blogspot.com/2011/05/recreational-science-and-physical.html

↩ Enki features in 'See Yourself Sensing' Redefining Human Perception'
http://www.amazon.com/See-Yourself-Sensing-Redefining-Perception/dp/1907317295

↩Enki discussed in "Art for Animals; Art aimed at the perceptual systems of non-human species" "...Louis Bec attempts to set up a dialogue between two speciated parts of the same genus of fish. Anthony Hall also works on communications and perceptual reflexivity with weakly electric fish. Marcus Coates stages a series of actions with animal materials and behaviours with interaction with other species as the prime goal. Some of this work is rightfully absurdist, whimsical, self-trivialising. But all of it moves towards setting up actual, multi-scalar and imaginal relations with animals that involve a testing of shared and distinct capacities of perception..." by Matthew Fuller.

↩Enki article features in 10th edition of el niuton magazine, 'Ecotecnologia'
http://www.elniuton.com p59-68

↩ Interview with Regine of we-make-money-not-art..
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com

↩ Interview in Prague relating to Enki. Edited and directed for scientific magazine PORT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBrjBaAcGtw

↩ Artists talking, http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/artists_stories/single/360092

↩ Open Frequency - new contemporary art http://www.axisweb.org/ofSARF.aspx?SELECTIONID=30

↩ Expanding the Lab: A Conversation Between Artists Working with Science http://www.axisweb.org/dlFULL.aspx?ESSAYID=36

↩ Further Press and media related to Owl Project at www.owlproject.com

↪Hele Shaw Cell Problem 2012

↪Bubbling Mass 2013

↪Perpetual Puddle Vortex 2012

↪Ink Drip 2012

↪Evaporation series 2004-2013