JILL TOWNSLEY
NEWS
© Jill Townsley 2018 | terms & conditions
January 2022
Jill starts a 3 year artst residency at the new Centre for Biomimetic Sosietal Futures at the University of Huddersfield. This multi-disciplinary research centre aims to expand biomimetic research beyond its more traditional STEM and design focus to develop cross-disciplinary projects that address the shape of societal futures.
December 2021
On Thursday 9th December 2021, at 11am (GMT) online: Resonances artist Jill Townsley and scientist/philosopher Nicole DEWANDRE (DG EC-CAB) will present the results of their ongoing collaboration and of Jill's residency with the SciArt project at the Joint Research Centre, to the European Commission (Italy). This will include premiering a new 24min video Jill made with Nicole, called: The Present as the Space between the Present and the Future.
Drawing from Hannah Arendt's political thinking, they will consider the term "transformative literacy". Through visual means, Jill will play with themes such as time, temporality, natality, and Arendt's theoretical triad of labour-work-action. They will discuss their collaboration process and present the possibility of future publicly authored artworks.
Their work aims to tread a creative path between the polarized states of ecological catastrophe and denial, by harnessing the energy of "now" through present curiosity and cooperation.
March 2021
Jill Will be giving a public lecture at the University of Huddersfield, on Thursday 18th March at 2pm Its open and free for all, and will be available after the live presentation too.
Heres the Link:
https://research.hud.ac.uk/art-design/events/adaresearchpracticetalks/
June 2020
“The FOREVER-DO Game: A big data fishing expedition” is an essay jointly authored by Townsley (artist) and Carlo Ferigato, (researcher in computer science).
The essay outlines their collaboration and researchfor the Forever-Do Project. Made while Jill was artist in residence at the JRC Italy (where Carlo works).
You can find the essay on page 83-102 in the book:
“Technology, Design and the Arts – Challenges and Opportunities”, Edited by Earnshaw R.A. Liggett S. Excell P.S. and Thalmann D. Its a Springer publication, Cham, Switzerland, 2020.
ISBN 978-3-030-42096-3.
Its open access so free to read online so please do have a look, both at our chapter and all the other great projects in this book.
Springer Web site: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-42097-0
or if you prefer you can read it on google books: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/Ggk-
Its also available to buy in a hard and soft cover.
May 2020
Jill will be discussing her work and collaboration with Carlo Ferigato, at the Milan Digital Week (virtual event), with the DATAMI curator: Freddy Paul Grunert and Moderator: Giannio Malossi (Blumine)
Its on the 26th May at 11am (10am UK)
February 2020
The Exhibition Plastic Matter at the Art and Design Gallery, University of Hertfordshire is open 25 February - 18 April 2020. The exhibition presents contemporary works from eight artists who consider plastic's potential to become something more treasured, look at how hastily we consume and dispose of it, its environmental impact and its future role in society. Jill is presenting the video Spoons and new sculptural work - Infestations. Here is a link to the Exhibition information: https://www.uharts.co.uk/?dm_t=0,0,0,0,0
December 2019
DATAMI opens at the BOZAR Brussels on the 10th December - 20th January 2020. Here is a link to the event: https://www.bozar.be/en/activities/160618-datami
Jill is presenting a short video that doccuments The FOREVER-DO Project, that she developed with her collaborator Carlo Ferigato at the JRC during her time as artist expert to the EU Commission in 2018-19.
Please find a link to the doccumentation here: https://vimeo.com/379591103
October 2019
The Resonance III exhibition DATAMI opens at the Joint Research Centre, Italy. Here is a link to the event: https://resonances.jrc.ec.europa.eu/installation/forever-do-project-collaboration
September 2019
My collabouration with Computer science researcher Carlo Ferigato continues and I am woring in Italy at the Carl Friedrich Gauss Laboratory at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) for the European Commission. Building a large scale site speciffic sculpture with Grace Haigh and Dr Puy Soden. Watch our timelaps video: https://vimeo.com/379586665
March 2019
A public installation: 'The FOREVER-DO Game' will be presented at Milan Digital Week https://www.milanodigitalweek.com/
This is a socially relational public happening, in which people visiting Digital Week on the 14th – 17th are invited to follow a set of instructions, resulting in coordinated interactions in space and time. A data trail of sculptural forms builds over 4 days, presenting a record of human interactions.
The project is outlined here: FOREVER-DO
January 2019
Jill is currently working as an ‘Artist-In-Resonance’, a residency at the JRC laboratories in Northern Italy. Collaborating with researcher Carlo Ferigato on the FOREVER-DO project. FOREVER-DO explores the idea of ‘fishing’ into data sets generated by coordinated behaviours. The aim is to catch coherent patterns of data and represent them in visual artwork.
The work will be presented at the Resonance III Festival at the JRC, Ispra site, Italy. Then moved to an important European venue, in order to stimulate dialogue with the European public on science, art, society and the role that the European Union can play in their daily lives.
November 2018
FOREVER-DO is a collaborative project between artist Jill Townsley and researcher Carlo Ferigato, who works at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) for the European Commission. Our project has been selected by the SciArts panel, based at the JRC Italy site, and will now be developed for the 2019 Resonance III Festival ‘Big Data’, to be presented in October 2019.
July 2018
Listen to Jill talking about her working practice on USMA radio. https://www.spreaker.com/user/usma_radio/jill-townsley
This was recorded during the Resonance Summer School at the JRC in June. Other artists involved in the event can be heard on this link: https://www.spreaker.com/show/jrc-resonances-summer-school
June 2018
I am partisipating in the Resonances summer school for; artists, and scientists from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy, on 25 - 29 June 2018. The flagship initiative of this SciArt project is the "Resonances" festival, joining art and science to support EU policy making. The 2019 Resonances III theme is "big data". At the Resonances festivals artists and scientist collaborate to exhibit artistic installations. The summer school lays the foundation for the 2019 Resonances III 'big data' festival in 2019.
https://www.facebook.com/ResonancesII/
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/event/other-event/resonances-summer-school-big-data
April 2018
Exhibition: ‘PLACE, SPACE, ACTION’ and ‘Market Hardware’ are open to the public from Friday 06 April until Saturday 14 April 2018 at Temporary Contemporary initiative, Huddersfield Queensgate market.
PLACE, SPACE, ACTION, is a group show of 22 lecturers from the University of Huddersfield, presenting works from sculpture, painting, illustration, photography and video-work.
The small scale new experimental work I have in this show utilises waste packaging from the postal system
May 2018
Stones - Film/Doccumentry – for the exhibition Thought Positions in Sculpture can be viewed at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3qB-SDxDgg
An interview with me discussing the work Stones is right at the end.
January 2016
As part of the exhibition Thought Positions in Sculpture, narratives are being generated by the artists in the show.
This week's thought position comes from Jill Townsley - take a look here - https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/researchcentres/st/thoughtpositionsinsculpture/jilltownsley/
For further details of the exhibition and research project, see https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/researchcentres/st/thoughtpositionsinsculpture/
October 2015
Exhibition: 'Thought Positions in Sculpture' Huddersfield Art Gallery. Curated by Dr Rowan Bailey
Friday 16 October 2015 – Saturday 09 January 2016
Link To Website: https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/researchcentres/st/thoughtpositionsinsculpture/
September 2015
Exhibition CARBON meets SILICON at Oriel Sycharth,Glyndwr University. Catalog link here: http://glyndwrpix.co.uk/carbonaugust2/#p=34
ITA15 Art Expo and Workshop - Link: ita15artexpoandworkshop
March 2013
Jill Townsley wins the Juried Press Award at the 7th International Arte Laguna Prize at the Venice Arsenale
Link: http://www.artelagunaprize.com/component/content/article?id=986:jill-townsley.html
January 2013
Solo Exhibition: 'Sisyphus' opens at Huddersfield Art gallery on Saturday 26th January. The show continues until
April 13th
December 2012
TOIL - Critics choice for one of the top ten exhibitions in Washington DC during 2012 -
September 2012
My new solo exhibition TOIL opens on the 8th September at Project 4 Gallery in Washington DC, it continues until October 13th
Gallery Link: http://www.project4gallery.com/
September 9th 2012
Jill will give a public talk about her new exhibition TOIL at Project 4 Gallery, Washington DC. from 2pm - free
REVIEWS 2012
Some fantastic reviews for TOIL exhibition especially one here from the art critic at the Washington Post - 'Art that only looks robotic' By Michael O'Sullivan Friday, September 21, 2012
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/misc-events/jill-townsley,1238967/critic-review.html
Here is the review for TOIL in the Washington City Paper:
April 2012
'Spoons' will be exhibited at ATHICA - Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, in Athens Georgia USA between April the 22nd and June 24th 2012.
Link: http://www.athica.org/exhibit.php?ID=138
September 2011
I have a commissioned essay in the book 100 things not worth repeating: on repetition Edited by Marianne Holm Hansen, Designed by Marit Muenzberg Published by LemonMelon, 2011. LInks: http://www.lemonmelon.org/index.php?/publications/100-things-not-worth-repeating-on-repetition/
http://www.criticalm.org/repetition/index.html
£ 10 | Softback | 242 pp | 16.5 x 21.5 cm
ISBN 978-1-908260-01-7 | Edition of 350
September 2011
Jill will be giving a public 'artists talk' on September 3rd 2pm at the Towner Gallery where her work Till Rolls has been commissioned for the exhibition Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive. This event is free. Link to event
July 2011
Till Rolls (as above) is my newly commissioned work for the Towner Gallery Eastbourne. It consists of 10,000 till rolls each with the middles extruded to a hight of upto 3 meters. The work is 5.7 meters square, and has been made for the exhibition COMPULSIVE, OBSESSIVE, REPETiTIVE. The exhibition will run until the 18th September 2011 and entrance is free. This is a group show of large scale sculpture by Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, Brendan Jamison, Susie MacMurray, Claire Morgan, Jill Townsley and Henry Seaton (Rex Henry & Graham Seaton).
April 2011
The exhibition ‘Textures of Time’ opens on the 7th April at the Frederick Parker Gallery, Commercial Road London. Taking the notion of temporality as its point of departure, this exhibition will feature works by Jeremy Evans, Jill Townsley, Ian Giles, Emily Speed, Ben Woodeson, Joby Williamson, Jörg Köppl and Yonatan Vinitsky, as well as live events and films.
January 2011
I have just completed a commission for the offices of Clifford Chance in Washington DC. The sculpture is inserted into the body of the main desk in the new offices, that have been extensively redesigned and refurbished by the architects firm Gensler.
October 2010
Jill will be delivering a paper entitled The Process of Repetition: Transgressing the Boundries of Fine Art, Craft and Design at the 2nd International Forum of Design as a Process from the 28th to the 30th of October at the University of Averio, Portugal.
www.latin-design-process.net/Latin-Design-Process/home
Jill will be reading a paper entitled The Process of Repetition - Digital Representations of Repetative Labour Through Time at the SoftBorders New Media Art Conference and Festival in Sao Paulo Brazil between the 18th and the 21st October
I will be exhibitiong work in the forthcoming exhibition The Plaza Principle in Leeds City Centre. Curated by Chris Bloor and Derek Horton
The Plaza Principle website is now online at:
http://www.theplazaprinciple.org
September 2010
A review of my exhibition Moments of Repetition writen by Robert Luzar is published in the Summer Edition of the Journal: ARTFRACTURES QUARTERLY
July 2010
Spoons has just been Published in the Over and Over chapter in Sowanyway Magazine. ISSN 2043-6408 Edited by Derek Horton and Lisa Stansbie.
http://www.soanyway.org.uk/jilltownsley.htm
March 2010
Moments of Repetition - solo exhibition
Saturday 20th March - Saturday 3rd April 2010
The Nunnery Gallery, London
Private View Friday 19th March 6 - 9pm
Satie 840 hass been included in the exhibition Making and Unmaking, Repair and Repetition: Curated by Helen Carnac you can see it at Axis Arts on: http://www.axisweb.org/atSelection.aspx?AID=2418
December 2023
Solo exhibition Collaborating with Nature presents artwork in response to the rich and varied biomimetic research undertaken ant the University of Huddersfield, where Jill is artst in residence at the Centre for Biomimetic Sosietal Futures.
The exhibition runs from the 12th December through to the 13th January