You are here: / / Chris Fry
The image shows a grayscale portrait of a smiling person with short hair, standing in front of a striped background. The person wears a dark top.

Chris Fry

Adjunct Professor

Contact:
Email: fryc@richmond.ac.uk
School: School of Communications, Arts & Social Sciences

About

I am an artist, curator, and academic based in London. At Richmond I am the associate Dean for Research and I teach research methods, and art and visual cultures.

My research explores the relationship between art, space, and power. Recent and ongoing projects focus on London Heathrow, its neighbourhoods, and airspace. In 2019 I was awarded an Arts Council Project Grant to curate the group exhibition and public programme Air Matters. Learning from Heathrow, hosted at Watermans Arts, London, Oct. 2019 – Jan 2020. This research has opened onto further study of the relationship between art and the international airport under neoliberal regimes.

Research interests

  • Art and spatial politics
  • Art and cultural policy, including the role of art and art institutions in regional, national, and international relations
  • Art and curating as research
  • Art in relation to activism, the commons, and the public sphere
  • Art in relation to environment and political ecology
  • Cities, especially London and its peripheries
  • Political theology
  • PhD. Art. Goldsmiths, University of London
  • MA Art. Chelsea College of Art and Design
  • BA Hons. Practice and Theory of Visual Art. Chelsea College of Art and Design
  • BA Hons. Theology, Oxford University
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Research and Writing Methods

Art and Visual Culture

  • AVC 5205 Art in Context
  • GEP 3150 Visual Thinking
  • GEP 4180 Research and Writing Methods
  • Ferguson, N. 2021.  ‘Migrating Landscapes. The Aircraft Wheelbay and the Politics of Global Transfer’. Anthropocenes No. 2. (Forthcoming)
  • Ferguson, N. 2019. Air Matters. Learning from Heathrow. Oct. 19- Jan. 2020. Watermans Arts Centre, London TW8 0DS, https://www.watermans.org.uk/events/air-matters-learning-from-heathrow
  • Ferguson, N. 2019. Dwelling as Resistance. Heathrow Expansion and the Art of Dissent. Places Journal. Available at: https://placesjournal.org/article/dwelling-as-resistance/
  • Art Night Open. 2019. Nick Ferguson and Adrian Lee. Site/Ad-Site. Info available at: https://2019.artnight.london/artist/nick-ferguson-and-adrian-lee/
  • Deptford X Fringe. 2018. Nick Ferguson and Adrian Lee. Site/Ad-Site. Info available at: http://nickferguson.co.uk/site-ad-site/
  • Ferguson N. 2017. ‘The Monuments of Kings Cross. a Visit to the New Ruins of London’. Journal of Cultural Geography Vol. 34 No.1. Feb. 2017.  Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08873631.2016.1231372
  • Ferguson. N. 2015. ‘Futuro Estate’. In: Imitation Game, curated by Alexandra MacGilp, Maraya Art Park. Sharjah, UAE. Available at: http://maraya.ae/exhibitions/view/imitation-game/37
  • Ferguson, N. 2015. ‘Speedscaping’. In: Macay, R (ed.). 2015. When Site Lost the Plot. Urbanomic
  • Ferguson. N. 2015. The Mobile Landscape. Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston upon Thames, London. Online version available at:  https://www.stanleypickergallery.org/online-works/nick-ferguson-the-mobile-landscape/
  • The View from the Road. 2015. Goldsmiths Art Research Space, Feb 23 – Mar 5, 2015
  • Creekside Open, APT Gallery, Deptford, London, June – July 11
  • Cube Open, Cube Gallery, Portland Street, Manchester, Nov.- Jan. 11
  • Fox Training Tower, London Festival of Architecture, Teddington, Middlesex, June 10      
  • Creekside Open, APT Gallery, Deptford, London, June 09
  • WRO 09, 13th Media Art Biennale, Centrum Sztuki Wro, Wroclaw, Poland, May – June 09
  • ‘Migrating Landscapes’. Unruly Landscapes: Mobility, Transience and Transformation Colloquium. June 18 -19, 2020. MoHu, University of Padova and CeMoRe, Lancaster University.
  • ‘Politics of Air’. Air Matters Symposium.  Watermans Arts, London, November 9, 2019. (Organiser and Convenor).
  • ‘Airspace Matters. Aircraft Wheel-wells and the Political Geography of Air at London Heathrow’. Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, London, August 2019.
  • ‘Building Flying Thinking’. Art and Mobilities Inaugural Symposium. Lancaster University, July 2019. Pop up journal available at:  https://www.academia.edu/37180057/2018_Art_and_Mobilities_Network_Inaugural_Symposium_Instant_Journal_Peter_Scott_Gallery_
  • ‘Capsule’. Landscape and Evidence Roundtable, Kingston School of Art, July 2019.
  • “…nonart is more art than Art art”. Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, January 2018
  • ‘Dwelling as Resistance. The case of Transition Heathrow’ Geographies of Inequalities. 7th Nordic Geographers Meeting, Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, 18 – 21st June 2017
  • London is Open. Cultural Diplomacy in Post Brexit Britain. Richmond University, London, March 2017. Symposium Organiser
  • ‘Gender, Meaning and Place’. Urban Encounters, Urban Materialities. Tate Modern and Goldsmiths, London, October 2016. Panel Chair.
  • Teaching a Fox to Appreciate Art. TED talk. ISH, The Hague, October 2016. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHY9s4naWOI
  • Speed, Space, Suburbia. Artist’s Talk. Maraya Arts Centre, Sharjah, UAE, 9 November 2015
  • ‘Country End – Town End’, Kings Cross Symposium: In this Neck of the Woods, Central St Martins, London, June 2015.
  • Speedscaping. Performance Lecture, Stanley Picker Gallery, London. May 13, 2015
  • Ferguson, N and Kim, K. 2015. ‘P/U/B -Topos. Art Research, the English Public House and the Dialectics of Drunken Knowledge’. Transvaluation. Making the World Matter, Gothenburg, May 2015
  • Kate Corder and Nick Ferguson. HOW: Heathrow Orchard Walk. ‘Harmondsworth to the Heathrow Sheraton’. April 2015.
  • Re-visioning the Urban. International Visual Arts & Cultures Colloquium, Richmond, the American University in London. 14 November  2014. Panel Chair
  • Architecture and Sculpture: Alliances. Across RCA. Royal College of Art, 28 October 2014. Speaker
  • The Aesthetics of Indifference. International Visual Arts & Cultures Colloquium, Richmond, the American University in London. 7 March 2014. Speaker
  • Urban Encounters. Urban Materialities. Tate Britain. 5 October 2013. Speaker and round table panel member.
  • Art and Publicness: The Role of Public Art in the Development of New Forms of Publicity, SKOR & Goldsmiths Art Research Symposium, Goldsmiths College, 21 – 22 March 2011. Speaker
  • In, Out, Shake it All About: Objects, Artists and Ontology, Goldsmiths Art Research Symposium, Goldsmiths College, 9 – 10 May 2011. Speaker and organiser
  • Research as Catastrophe, Goldsmiths Art Research Symposium, Goldsmiths College, 6 – 8 Dec. 2010. Speaker and Organiser
  • Money, Space, Art. This is Not a Gateway, Festival of Cities. Hanbury Hall, Hanbury Street, London 22 – 23 Oct. 2010. Speaker
  • The East London Line: The Role of Visual Artists and Collaborative Practice in the Process of ‘Regeneration’. Nick Ferguson in discussion with artists Harold Offeh, Hilary Powell and Mark Wayman. Artprojx Space, Beacham Place, London. Thurs 26 June 2008
  • Remembering the Future: Cultural Memory and the Politics of Transformation. The Magical Mysterious Regeneration Tour Conference. Artists, Architecture and the Future of the City. Tate Liverpool, 18th – 20th June 2008

February 2018. Outreach event: Talk and Workshop. Orleans Park School VI Form, London Borough of Richmond

June 2018. Outreach event:  Heathrow Sound Walk. Orleans Park School VI Form, London Borough of Richmond

October – December 2019. Curated Community Workshops. Watermans Arts, London Borough of Hounslow