DUNHILL & O'BRIEN

The Sculpture Stories
 

Dunhill and O’Brien have been exploring ways that they can look at, think about, and make sculpture together since 1998. Their latest project  The Sculpture Stories has evolved in response to a challenge that they have taken rather literally by PostROOM,who have invited them to conduct a ‘total take over’ of the gallery (that doubles as Macrae and Bell’s kitchen-dining-room) and a screening space (that doubles as their garden shed). 

 

This intrusive installation will disrupt the heart of their home, converting it into a low-tech bespoke film studio with a dexion structure supporting outsized film props, a home-made copy table, a tracking device and storage for research material, housed in and around Macrae and Bell’s dining table, chairs, sofa and crockery cupboard.  The transplanted studio will be used to make two short film works which reflect on an equestrian sculpture that has haunted Dunhill and O’Brien’s studio practice for some years.

 

In the Shed other short films, that touch upon methods, materials and dilemmas that continue to preoccupy them will be screened. Triggers for these works include, how to avoid ‘overworking’ when modelling a clay head; fundamental problems with armatures; a cartoon questioning Henry Moore’s relentless productivity; a sleepless night worrying about a sculpture made decades earlier; a sculpture professor’s belief in the transformational power of the plinth; a 17 tonne gift made to Barbara Hepworth; mistrust in the perfect sculpture studio, and a bucket used as a tool for enlarging 3D forms.​

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Opening Saturday 11th April

11.04.26 - 9.05.26

Open Tuesday - Saturday 2-6pm

Or by appointment

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Biographies

Dunhill and O’Brien have been working collaboratively since 1998. Based in London their most recent project for Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum was a large-scale multi part installation on a house sized platform involving over one hundred participants.

Their preoccupation with sculpture and its often absurd and troubling logistics has led to residencies in a range of contexts including the British School at Rome and the European Ceramic Work Centre s’Hertogenbosch, Holland.

With a shared quest, to bypass their individual taste, they have devised elaborate strategies; employed kinetic elements; advertised as artists who dig holes for free, and at times called upon the input of teams of participants. Research has included visiting 19th century Fuji like mounds in the Tokyo region, measuring ‘celebrity’ boulders in the UK countryside, and interviewing dentists, rock climbers, masseurs and others who employ tactile knowledge.

They have benefitted from awards from the Arts Council England, the Art & Humanities Research Council and the Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation and their work has featured in solo and group shows at galleries and project spaces including: AirSpace Gallery (for the British Ceramic Biennial); Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Holland; Das Weisse Haus, Vienna; Tallinn Art Hall Estonia; Estorick Collection; Danielle Arnaud Gallery; White Conduit Projects; PostROOM, the Setouchi Triennale; and Limerick City Museum and Art Gallery.

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Mark Dunhill completed his MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 1977. He exhibited widely across the UK and Europe while working as a visiting lecturer and later in more senior roles at various UK art schools and universities, before joining Central Saint Martins, where he worked as dean of the School of Art and academic dean until 2017. Through his pro-bono role as executive board member of the European League of Institutes of Art he was active in supporting international collaborations.

More recently, alongside his art practice with O’Brien, he has worked as visiting professor at the Estonian Academy of Art and served as a trustee for New Platform. Art. Dunhill is an advisor to Pangaea Sculpture Centre, a trustee for the Kenneth Armitage Foundation, and supports his local community in South London through his work with a residents’ association.

 

Tamiko O’Brien completed an MA in sculpture at Chelsea College of Art in 1989 and went on to undertake a Henry Moore Fellowship before working as a visiting and associate lecturer at a number of institutions including UEL, UWE and Aki Kunst Akademie. She was founding chair of the Fine Art European Forum and worked pro-bono on various EU initiatives. After some years as a senior academic at UAL, she served as principal at City & Guilds of London Art School leading it through major academic and infrastructure developments. She has continued to engage as professor emerita since stepping down in 2022.

O’Brien is currently a member of the Fine Art Faculty of the British School at Rome, and, alongside her art practice with Dunhill, she works with bereaved families as a Humanists UK accredited funeral celebrant. 

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