This main studio website is designed to provide an overview of Andy Bullock’s art practice and will be updated frequently. You can also download a ‘Catalogue of works and editions’ with an extensive presentation from the artist’s archive – and for the dedicated Mass Observation project website click here.
About the artist
Andy Bullock MFA (aka Andy B), pictured here with a Nightwatcher™ sculpture, is a UK based multidisciplinary artist working across all mediums. He has always been fascinated with all that connects us as human beings, the invisible synaptic threads that make us intrinsically, us. His latest work is focused on the deep-surveillance societies in which we live and in particular our developing relationship with Artificial Intelligence and its use to influence public opinion in contemporary propaganda. The Mass Observation project explores these issues through the lens’ of the Nightwatchers™ and challenges the core tenet of our understanding of the balance between security and privacy, the ethical use of technology and the true meaning of freedom in the digital age.
‘WHO FEEDS THE MACHINE? / Mass Observation’ – download the free 44 page catalogue
This is the most extensive body of work that Bullock has produced to date – over 40 paintings, 2 print series, sculptures, installation and NFTs make up this comprehensive look at the increasing use of AI and deep-surveillance technology in contemporary propaganda.
In such a short space of time AI, through releases from several major corporations, now touches many aspects of our lives – to download the catalogue click here – to visit the dedicated Mass Observation website click here.
Selected solo exhibitions
1). Solo exhibition at The Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford included a commission for a large Knot Sculpture located in the foyer plus numerous paintings from the Knot Variation series. 2). The installation RISE (for Ukraine) was exhibited in the iconic Coventry Cathedral as part of the Global Peace Forum. 3). AWAKEN (installation view), solo show at Darl-e and the Bear gallery, Oxford, UK.
The Knot Variation paintings
These paintings are the result of an extensive fine-art research project that Bullock undertook looking at the similarities in thinking between conceptual artists and mathematicians working in the abstract field of topology, and in particular knot theory. This series of paintings is a response to, and inspired by, the work of noted mathematician C.H.Dowker (1912-82) the author of ‘Dowker Notation’. For background info you can download an illustrated essay ‘A Brief Treatise on Knots’ click here. To view the Knot Variation paintings collection click here.
Domesticon
With text superimposed over scenes of the everyday, the mundane, Bullock exposes the fragility of our relationships by saying the unsaid in these domestic psychodramas. For the series click here.
Topological Interventions
These sculptural works are an extension of the Knot Variation paintings, being representative of endless, mathematically-inspired knots. Bullock creates these sculptures in the landscape environment and films the construction before also documenting their existence with photography; the sculptures are then unmade, leaving the video and photography as the only only evidence of the artworks having ever existed in these locations – a record of the performative process. Image here ‘Topological Intervention (water) no.1’ 2021. For the series click here.
Spectral Knots
The photographic works in this series represent entirely metaphysical knots constructed using a real-time light-painting technique. The movement of a light source exposed for a few seconds to a camera creates these enigmatic images. These knots are the most ephemeral, elusive versions having never truly existed in physical form at all. Bullock refers to these works as spectral knots, evoking an essence of a spirit, of a life, of a person? Image here is ‘The Unsaid’, 2021.
The Rape of Gaia
At once beautiful and grotesque, this image has become an icon of Bullock’s investigation into the anthropocene epitomising, as it does, the very state we are currently in regarding the rape of our planet, Gaia or mother-earth. This image is a perfect and stark metaphor for our disregard for our own futures, from the denuding of rainforests to the over-production of cheap-farmed animal protein and all the ethical issues this raises. ‘The Rape of Gaia’ is an editioned photographic print direct to aluminium panel.
The History Tiles sculptures
The anthropocene denotes the geological period that humans have had a direct effect on the natural world; our environment, our planet. This period, according to the latest research from geologists and scientists, will be clearly marked by, among other things, a strata of chicken bones long after humans have become extinct. The bones represent our reliance on this most intensively reared of meat proteins – the humble domestic fowl we call a chicken. We raise, slaughter and consume over SIXTY BILLION birds a year to sate the world’s desire for cheap protein. These sculptural works are made from cast chicken bones, arranged in tessellation of brightly coloured tiles sprayed with automotive paint and lacquered to a highly polished finish. To find out more about the science behind the art see the article in New Scientist Magazine here. To view the History Tiles collection click here.
Do Not Speak / Do Not Breathe / Do Not Think
Mixed-media triptych (screen print, collage, acrylic paint on canvas) created at the same time as the Demon Studies, this is another visceral response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Demon Studies
This ongoing series of small-scale paintings started during the first pandemic lockdown aims to portray the fear and paranoia felt by many people, not least Bullock himself. He has been very open about his own previous mental health issues and the enforced entrapment of the lockdowns brought all the traumatic thoughts back to the surface, resulting in the ‘Demon Studies’, near-auto paintings, feelings expressed directly to canvas, no brushes. For the series click here.
God Bless America, 2005/25?
Bullock made this sculpture in 2005 in response to the Gulf war and the invasion of Iraq by the US and UK. It is a direct and visceral response to that situation and made of cast plaster, barbed wire, razor wire and acrylic paint; sadly, it feels as relevant today as the day it was made.
I Will Always Love You … and other stories
This sculpture/installation is the first of a planned series of mirror works which will all follow the same format of a message (written by whom, to whom?) on a mirror surrounded by a string of lightbulbs. The message is intentionally ambiguous, is it a ‘note to self’ or a message for an unnamed lover? As with much of Bullock’s practice he is confronting us with questions about ourselves, asking us to look deep into our motives and innermost thoughts; nowhere is this self-questioning expressed so eloquently and directly as it is here with ‘I Will Always Love You’.
