Having found solace and peace over the last year walking in the English countryside, the exhibition is a response to the way in which its landscape has historically and presently often been used to evoke feelings of nationalism. Fitzpatrick uses this appropriation as a subjective analysis of himself and his Englishness framed against things such as the conservative rhetoric behind countryside preservationists, the ghost histories that lie beneath the soil, landlords and ancient gods, hares, foxes and rabbits, and the current popularity of representations of a pre-christian englishness as a form of representing a dominant culture as an underdog or victim.
Jamie Fitzpatrick (b.1985, Southport, UK) lives and works in Edinburgh, UK. He graduated in 2015 with an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, having gained a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, Philosophy and Contemporary Practice in 2009 from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee. Awards include: Vordemberge-Gildewart Award (2016), shortlist; XL Catlin Art Prize (2016); UK/RAINE Saatchi Gallery Sculpture Prize (2015); New Contemporaries (2015 and 2016); Cowley Manor (2015), shortlist; LAND Securities Award (2015).
He has been exhibited internationally at galleries, institutions and art fairs including: Contemporary Forward at Touchstones Rochdale Museum, Rochdale, UK; Exeter Phoenix, UK; ICA, London, UK; Camden Arts Centre, London, UK; Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; Sheffield Museum, Sheffield, UK; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK; Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK; Backlit, Nottingham, UK; Pangaea Sculptor’s Centre, London, UK; Cowley Manor Sculpture Garden, Cheltenham, UK; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK; VITRINE London, UK and Basel, CH; Deborah Bowman, Brussels, BE; Litóst gallery in Prague, CZ; PADA Barreiro, PT; Cassina Projects with ARTUNER, New York, US; ARTISSIMA, Turin, IT; and POPPOSITIONS, Brussels, BE; ASC Gallery, London, UK; Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, UK.
Residencies include: Eastside International Los Angeles Residency (US, 2017), Biruchiy contemporary art project with the British Council (Ukraine, 2016); Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre, London (2015); The Leatherseller’s Company (2014); Telfer Gallery, Glasgow (2012); John Kinross Scholarship, Florence, Italy (2010); Cite International des Arts, Paris Residency (2014); and Scottish Sculpture Workshop (2009).
