In 2023 I created the St.Gallen Clicker, to commemorate the 125th Year of the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. Throughout the year I collected unwanted plastic from every department in the University. Intricately assembling and reconfiguring the found plastic, I was able to reinterpret and work with materials that members of the university used everyday. This process created an inseparable tie between site and artwork, cultivating a stronger personal sense of purpose and community engagement. I see the Dover Art Prize as the ideal opportunity to take this approach to the next level, on a larger scale.
Working with used and unwanted plastic that I collect in Darlington, I will explore the town and meet its inhabitants. I am curious what I will find; whether the objects are unfamiliar to me and how they reflect the infrastructure and industry of the town and the day to day lives of the population. Alongside the plastic I find on the street, I propose to utilise the Point North’s connections to engage with and collect unwanted plastic from different community groups. The wider the variety of contexts I connect with, the wider the breadth of materials I will be able to work with.
Within the studio I will intricately cut, reconfigure and reassemble the collected materials on a larger and more ambitious scale. Through this process I wish to make the mundane unrecognisable and breathe new life into the broken and unwanted. The bursary will enable me the time and space to work on an immersive scale. I want to create an artwork that the viewer is able to enter; a complex and detailed infrastructure, much like the town itself.
The Dover Prize offers the ideal opportunity and resources to develop my practice outside of my day to day surroundings, routine and financial restrictions. This change of situation is inherent to creating an artwork that will take my practice to the next stage. The opportunity to have mentoring sessions and be part of a new artistic community will provide the guidance and support to help me create and manage the process and the opportunities it offers to the best of my ability.
Throughout the two years I will be rooted in the local community of Darlington. With the help of Point North, I will be able to meet with different members of the community, raise awareness of the project and collect broken and unwanted plastic from them. Their day to day materials will be the sole materials I work with in the studio.
I see this approach as engaging with the local population from the beginning. I believe It is a means to generate a sense of connection between the population and the finished work that I make. I hope that what I create will allow a space for people to reassess the plastic they use in their daily lives and their definitions of what art can be, on an immediate and tangible level.
The finished piece will stand as a monument of our times and in particular of Darlington. Colourful, intricate and monumental in scale, I see it as a work that will attract attention and pull people to visit the area. With the public platform and network that the Dover Art Prize enables, I believe that we can gain coverage and exposure on a national scale.
My Practise begins with the broken and overlooked parts that make up the mundane fabric of my everyday surroundings. Be it a bottle cap, chewing gum, or a plastic crate; the work starts as a direct encounter; when I see a quality within a subject that is fantastical and unfamiliar. Working directly into the subjects, I develop particular processes that redefine, displace and subvert the identity of the object and its ties to value, purpose and place. Cutting out graffiti tags, reconfiguring bricks, and reassembling discarded plastic to create new forms and meaning. What we decide to discard and overlook speaks as much of our culture as what we choose to keep and treasure. Joining, mending and reconfiguring, I see the odds and ends of our material culture as a means to build a new and unrecognisable world of my own. It is in this space that I find humour, intimacy and an escape from the overwhelming scale and complexity of modern culture. Upcoming Exhibitions
2025 Solo exhibition at Des Bains, Bloomsbury, London
2025 Group exhibition at Museum of Art and History of Guanajuato in collaboration with Guadalajara 90210, León, Mexico Solo Presentations and Duo Exhibitions
2023 Kunststoff, 125th Year Anniversary, the University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
2023 Shallow Haunts, Kupfer, Tower Hamlets, London
2022 CLICKERS, Xxijra Hii, Lewisham, London
2021 In from the Cold, The Stone Space, Waltham Forest, London
2020 Season of Fire from the Passenger Seat, Raw Labs, Newham, London Selected Exhibitions
2025 The Naming of Parts, Arbeit Studios,Tower Hamlets, London
2025 𝘔𝘦𝘤á𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘝𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘝𝘰𝘭. 7: 𝘢𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘵é𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰 𝘥𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘢 𝘧á𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢, Guadalajara 90210, Mexico City, Mexico
2023 Gilbert Bayes Award Group Exhibition, The Art House, Wakefield
2023 Gilbert Bayes Award Group Exhibition, Royal Society of Sculptors, Kensington and Chelsea, London
2022 Forms without Forms, Asylum Studios, Rendlesham, Suffolk
2021 Echo System, Thamesside Studio Gallery, Woolwich, London
2020 GARGLE, Raw Labs, Newham, London
2020 Inner Space, Oliver Beer Studios, Westminster, London
2019 Adjacent Directly, Unit1 Gallery, Shepherds Bush, London
2019 Perpetual Shift, The Koppel Project, Westminster, London
2017 Catch of the Year, DIENSTGEBÄUDE, Zürich, Switzerland
Education
2017- 19 MFA Sculpture, Slade School of Fine Art
2010- 13 BA Hons Fine Art, Chelsea School of Art and Design
Scholarships and Awards
2021 Gilbert Bayes Award, Royal Society of Sculptors
2019 Deans List of Academic Excellence, Slade School of Fine Art
2018 Deans Bursary, Slade School of Fine Art
2017 Felix Slade Scholarship, Slade School of Fine Art
2014-16 Art@Tell, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland
Self-initiated and Self-Curated Exhibitions
2023 Wailing Moon, Staffordshire Street Studios
2018 Holiday, ARCADE, Islington, London,
2017 CRUMBLE TOWN, SET Space, Southwark, London, (self-initiated and curated)
2015 Little Mountains, Embassy Tea Gallery, Southwark, London, (co-curated)
2014 London/Vienna Calling, Semperdepot, Vienna, Austria, (co-curated)
Lectures
2022 Artist Talk, LCC, London
2020 Artist Talk, Conscious Isolation: Fine Art Lecture Series
2020 Artist Talk, Norwich University of the Arts
2020 Artist Talk, Slade School of Fine Art, London
2019 Artist Development Talk, Chelsea School of Art and Design
Upcoming Teaching
2025 The University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Workshops and Teaching
2023 Plastic Camera, a Lecture on Packaging, LCC, London
2023 Scavenger Hunt, UCA Farnham
2023 Scavenger Hunt, The University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
2023 Scavenger Hunt Animation workshop, LCC, London
2023 A to Z, LCC, London
2021 Scavenger Hunt, Newcastle University of Architecture
2015-20 Workshop 53, London. Principal and Technician of self-initiated wood workshop
2019 Out of Hand, Clay and Glass Fusing Workshop, Newcastle University of Architecture
2019 Charette Week Leader, Newcastle University of Architecture, BA1-MA2
2019 Slade Summer School Tutor, Mapping Space- Perspective Drawing Workshop
2019 Slade Summer School Studio Assistant.
2014-2015 Arts For All Assisting Art-based projects with Adults who suffer physical side effects from HIV.
2014-2015 Arts For All. Helping with Art workshops twice a week, with children aged between 5 and 14.
2014 Recycling Workshop, Headington School, Oxford
The St.Gallen Clicker was a project commissioned by the University to commemorate their 125th Year Anniversary.
The St.Gallen Clicker was purchased by the University of St.Gallen Art Collection, Switzerland. The work stands in the University as part of their permanent collection.
Selected Commissioned Projects available for public viewing
2014 Paul Smith, Floral Street
2013 Paul Smith, Berwick Street
2013 Frontier Economics
2012 Frontier Economics
Residencies
2020 Duo, Unit1 Gallery, Shepherds Bush, London
2019-20 Almacantar Studio Award
2019 Slade Summer School Residency, Camden, London
Email: lewisdavidsonartist@gmail.com
Address: Flat 10, Pepys House, Kirkwall Place, London, E2 0NB, GB
Local Authority: London Borough of Tower Hamlets
