I want to bring together three strands of my practice—social observation, historical re-enactment, and political empowerment—to explore how collective resistance in the past can offer strategies for understanding and resisting today’s technological disempowerment.
Through lens-based visual work, workshops and collaboration, I aim to create a visual and emotional arc from the textile mills of the 19th century to the tech monopolies and gig economy of today. Can we resist or redirect the operations of capital in an algorithm dominated future? How instructive were the Luddites in their struggle? Why did they not attack the tanner and linen industry of Darlington?
I am in the unique position to bring together:
-my experience to merge historical imagery with fashion photography. I’ve photographed Levi’s Vintage Clothing campaigns using period-correct styling and street-casted collaborators. My photoshoots are spaces where participants reflect on their lived conditions and imagine alternatives.
– I work long-term with sustainable clothing networks (e.g. Fibershed, OurCommon.Market) that understand the tension between craft and extractive fast fashion—echoing 1820s dynamics: monopolies, automation, deskilling, workers struggling to unionize and the Jacquard loom as a proto-computer.
– as a cargo bike courier, I witness the realities of dark kitchens, gig-labour, inequality and AI’s threat to my own livelihood. I record these experiences in photos and voice-overs and conversations with riders trying to unionise.
Thematically, this project weaves together the legacy of the Luddites, textile&clothing culture, Big Tech, and the gig economy —big ideas grounded in direct personal and political experience. The bursary would arrive at a pivotal moment, allowing me to deepen my research, strengthen the participatory elements of my practice, and expand my lens-based work into community-led re-enactments and workshops. It would support further exploration—moving beyond documenting systems of power toward engaging others in collectively reimagining them.
This approach builds on previous collaborations with the Labour History Archive and draws on ideas developed through conversations with Jeremy Deller and my involvement in Brian Eno’s HardArt collective.
I aim to involve Darlington residents through collaborative workshops and photoshoots, culminating in a public exhibition.
Part one is a textile workshop possibly in collaboration with craft groups in the region like Fibershed North or Darlinton’s Pimms and Needles. Such gatherings often prompt inspiring conversations about work, place, and identity. The resulting handmade objects could double as costume for photo sessions and exhibition later – embroidered Deliveroo jackets, rebranded UberEats boxes, or hand-knit masks as a mystical Luddite resurfacing of craft and skill.
Part two would consist of mini-reenactments of historical imagery, building on my successful project with the Labour History Archive in Manchester. Participants could include local EE call centre workers reflecting on AI and job precarity or locals and shop owners imagining thriving futures for their high street or the impact of drone deliveries piloted by Amazon in Darlington.
The project will offer participants an empowering, creative way to articulate contemporary struggles through Darlington’s industrial past.
The exhibition will engage audiences locally and beyond. I’m already in conversation with FOAM (Amsterdam), Kaune Contemporary (Germany), Camera Austria, Liberation (France), and FT Magazine, who have expressed interest in exhibiting or publishing the work—helping to raise the Dover Prize’s profile nationally and internationally.
I am an artist with 20 years experience working with political groups and communities, using photography and video—though more recently expanding into staged events and historical re-enactments. My work focuses on political and social themes including climate, democracy, the commons, and alternative narratives to consumerism. I use a wide range of methods in my lens-based practice: documentary, fashion, staged portraiture, video, installation, and performance—always in service of shaping new political imaginaries.
I worked briefly in Wolfgang Tillmans’ studio in 2000, where I learned to move fluidly between editorial, fashion, art and campaigning contexts.
I have collaborated with activist groups (Extinction Rebellion, UK Uncut, Reclaim the Streets), NGOs (Amnesty International, Shelter, Benetton UnHate Foundation), and collectives like Brandalism/Jonathan Barnbrook. These projects are often collaborative and participatory, using image-making as a space for empowerment and reflection. I have photographed intentional communities and Eco Villages across Europe which led to an international touring exhibition (UK, Germany, Spain,. My work on civil liberties and Security Operations was exhibited at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (Sunderland), Sala Rekalde (Bilbao) and Museum of Modern Art and Illustration (Valencia). Mayday At Mayfair, a series about protest and luxury branding featured in the main exhibition at the Festival International Des Art de la Mode, France and was acquired into the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Leon (MUSAC). I have exhibited across the UK (including twice in north-east England) including : Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (Sunderland), The People’s History Museum (Manchester), the V&A, the National Portrait Gallery, John Hansard Gallery, Photographers Gallery, The Courtauld Institute Eastwing Collection, National Portrait Gallery. International solo and group exhibitions include: Museo del Xopo (Mexico City), FOAM (Amsterdam), Centro Cultural Montehermoso, the Museum of Modern Art and Illustration (Valencia), Galleria Espai Visor. .
In 2018, I had a retrospective solo exhibition at Benetton’s Fabrica in Treviso convened by Oliviero Toscani. Talks and lectures: Norwich University (convened by Gustav Metzger), Camberwell Art College and LCC. My images have been published in magazines including Adbusters, Another Magazine, ARCH+, Camera Austria, Dazed, Exit, I-D, New Yorker, New York Times Magazine and Photoworks.
No formal art graduate degree. After graduating with a Master of the Laws in 2000 I briefly joined Wolfgang Tillmans’ studio in London.
Art Prize Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany, 2008
Project Grant, ACE in collaboration with NGCA Sunderland, 2008 for touring exhibition ‘European Communities’.
My documentary ‘Earthriot’ about an activist choir touring through the UK and culminating at Glasgow’s COP 26 Climate Summit has received multiple awards including:
Cannes Short Film Festival 2023
Close:Up Edinburgh Docufest, 2023
Mannheim Arts and Film Festival 2023
Cotswold International Film Festival , 2022
Brussels Capital Film Festival , 2022
MY NAME IS CLIMATE Film Festival, 2022
Filmmakers United International Film Festival, 2023
For the last two years I have been part of HardArt, a collective organizing political change by way of culture, meeting fortnightly at Brian Eno’s studio. Members include, Jermy Deller, Gavin Turk, Cornelia Parker, Clare Farrell and many others including faith leaders, economists and writers. In March 2024 we organised the Fête Of Britain – a large-scale four day cultural Citizens Assembly in the Aviva Studios in Manchester.
I am part of the leading groups working for change in clothing culture and away from fast fashion: https://www.ourcommon.market/ and https://fibershed.org/team/ Defashion Dorset and https://www.trashclub.world .
I work closely with https://www.notheretobeliked.studio on things like the Heatstrike, bringing unions closer to climate activism preparing their members for heatwaves.
I am also part of the https://www.citizensarrestnetwork.org/ holding CEO’s of water and fossil fuel companies accountable.
I have played a central role in The SpaceHijackers 1999-2014 a group of creative activists concerned with capitalist architecture and public space. After we disbanded I continue my involvement in various community organising events and groups at Limehouse Townhall, East London.
Arts Council England
NGCA, Sunderland
Museum of Contemporary Art Castilla y Leon, Spain.
National Portrait Gallery, London
Photographers Gallery, London.
Museum of Contemporary Art Castilla y Leon in Spain purchased the series Mayday ant Mayfair, 2005
National Portrait Gallery, London, 2007
Bishopsgate Institute and Mayday Rooms acquired the archive of the SpaceHijackers in 2021
photoworks; Text: Julian Stallabrass, 2011
℅ Vienna Magazine, 2015
Fashion Photography Next ; Thames & Hudson, 2014
Qvest Art Special; Interview with Magda Keaney; 2011
El Pais, Exhibition review, 2008
The Independent, Nick Hall, 2008
It came from the streets, I-D Magazine, Interview with Mark Hopper, 2003
Camera Austria, 2003
Kaune Contemporary Gallery, Cologne
Espai Visor, Valencia until 2020
Rachmaninoffs, London, until 2008
Email: studio@immoklink.com
Address: Flat 27, Orwell Court, Pownall Rd, London, Greater London, E8 4PS, GB
One Response
20 years experience, political concerns, proposal particularly interested in textiles/recycling – Labour History Archive and draws on ideas developed through conversations with Jeremy Deller and involvement in Brian Eno’s HardArt collective. Wants to bring together 3 strands of practice ‘social observation, historical re-enactment, and political empowerment—to explore how collective resistance in the past can offer strategies for understanding and resisting today’s technological disempowerment’. Dover Art Prize 2021 winner Laura Wilson explore Darlington’s associations with linen through textile mills, Immo’s proposal interested me in terms of whether the nature of commerce and society here (influence of Darlington Friends) may have offset some more active instances of protest as epitomized by Luddites. The areas they wish to explore feel topical in my view and Darlington does have a longstanding heritage in textiles, including linen production, and with Patons & Baldwins. Within the interview, if they’re selected I’d be keen to explore:
* Whether a DAP award at this time may inform development of his practice, which is longstanding?
* How they may approach public engagement in this area?
* The two part proposal sounds interesting to me, provided it engages and reaches beyond those already actively engaged in these concerns, what approach would they take in engaging participation and engaging wider public?
* The proposal mentions potential engagement with some of the employees of bigger enterprises based in the borough – how might artist engage with corporate bodies and their employees ethically?