I will use the bursary to create a new body of work culminating in series of large scale immersive and participatory exhibitions through the 2 year period, the final one to be held in Darlington 2027. This will be a development of my most recent exhibition ‘Cucumber Season’. I want to expand on the exhibition making techniques of building large architectural structures and deepen my research into ideas of identity, Englishness and Nationalism. Themes the exhibition explored that are at the forefront of our cultural and political spectrum.
The bursary would be split into the following categories:
– Exhibition Production Cost
– Research Trips
– Material research and experimentation.
Exhibition Costs
For Cucumber Season I created a large tower from reclaimed children’s wooden Wendy houses and installed sculptures inside it. With the Dover Prize I want to create a series of exhibitions containing different types of architectural structures that will house sculptures. The same Wendy House will be used each time to create a different structure, the first of which will be a large Wooden Galleon. The Galleon is a motif that will be used as metaphor for the Nation, it reeks of Englishness and speaks about class, colonialism and power. These exhibitions will be immersive, with viewers being able to enter purpose-built environments creating what i hope to be quite rich and theatrical experiences.
Research Trips
Visit the Vassa Museum in Stockholm Sweden which houses a salvaged 17th Century Gunship adorned with amazing wooden carvings. Seeing images of this ship was a huge inspiration for this new body of work and I would use the bursary to see it in person. I would also visit maritime museums in the UK, including the Mary Rose in Portsmouth.
Material Research and Experimentation
I’ve recently been combining different materials to make sculptures, readymade objects, ceramics, metal, papier mache and air-drying clays. This is something that will continue in y studio throughout the project.
I’m a sculpture who makes life size figurative sculptures. I use a combination of materials, clay, paper mache, polystyrene, metal, wax, and readymade objects. My work appears crude and grotesque, but is rooted in satire and humour. The work is political but always aims be theatrical and entertaining. The two are not mutually exclusive.
I’d like to talk about my most recent exhibition, ‘Cucumber Season’, which takes it’s name from a period in English History where the king and parliament didn’t sit, meaning no laws could be passed. Therefore any news reported during this period was deemed irrelevant or frivolous and became known as silly season or cucumber season. The focal point for the exhibition was a large architectural structure made from reclaimed children’s wooden Wendy houses. This designed was based on an architectural folly, essentially a piece of functionless architecture, which you will find in the grounds of stately homes across the UK. A symbol of power and opulence for the landed gentry of the 17th Century.
The structure housed a series of ceramic busts, which functioned in this instance like gargoyles or grotesques you might find on a church. I used the motif of a Knight, which is something although not exclusively feels very English, its full of pomp and ceremony, it’s absurd, it’s camp, there is an inherent violence within it, the show obviously speaks about the concerns of Nationalism, which is raising its ugly head. Masculinity is apparent within it but it also speaks of class which is a English institution in itself.
The show is a portrait of the nation, an attempt convey uneasy feeling around our current political and cultural climate, and the vitriol that comes with it.
BA (Hons) Sculpture Camberwell College of Art, London 2005 – 2008
MFA Glasgow School of Art 2012 – 2014
In 2024 I received an Artist Project Grant of £7,500 from the Arts Council to help produce my exhibition ‘Cucumber Season’ at Strange Cargo Arts in Folkestone. The grant allowed me to create an ambitious large scale exhibition the likes of which I have not been able to do before. I focussed material research and experimentation work with new materials, clay and Pewter, to create a new body of work. I was able to invest funding into the production cost of the exhibition, allowing me to create a large architectural structure which housed my new sculptures.
In 2011 set up and and ran PLAZA PLAZA, an artist led project space and studios in Elephant and Castle, London. I left in 2012 to Study in Glasgow. I resumed my role in 2018 when I returned to London. PLAZA PLAZA’s aim was to provide a space for unrepresented younger/emerging artist to exhibit with an emphasis on freedom and experimentation. I ran the space until 2024 when I moved to Margate.
In 2018 I was commissioned by Arts and Heritage to produce an exhibition at Washington Old Hall, a National Trust site in Tyne and Wear. Myself an artist Lindsey Mendick created a Sculptural installation in the buildings dinning room, consisting of figures from the buildings history. Expanding on research carried out by the buildings original founder, a local historian, we explored the local areas history and folklore create an exhibition that blurred the two to create a unique mythology for the area.
I was commission by Goldsmiths CCA (London) to create a new artwork for their exhibition TESTAMENT (2021) which explored the role of Monuments in contemporary Britain. Artists were asked to propose ideas for new monuments. I created a satirical monument to the political class in the UK entitled ‘England, Their England’. It was a work that took aim at the attitude of the Boris Johnson Government during the time of Covid/party gate. My was reviewed in the following publications:
The Independent
Time Out Magazine
Studio International (online)
The Art Newspaper
Hyper Allergic (online)
I was the 2017 Fellow in Contemporary Art Practice at the British School at Rome. This was a 3 month long residency which allows artist to immerse themselves in Rome’s rich artistic history and culture. It was a pivotal moment in my career, one which cemented my passion for making sculpture again, something I had not done for some years.
Email: dominic.watson@hotmail.co.uk
Address: 2 Stanley Road, Clifftonville, Margate, Kent, CT9 2DL, GB
Local Authority: Thanet District Council
