Caitlin Griffiths
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"I want something from you. I want to know where you are, how you got there, who you think you are and who you’d like to be. I collect pieces of people and build myself among them.”
I am a visual artist working across performance, photography, video, text and drawing. Central to my work is the idea of identity being created through a process of exchange. I am interested in both the external exchange - our interaction with other people, and the internal exchange – our recalled experiences and memories. Both these concepts are rooted in common psychological theories of how we build the self.
I often work with paid participants in the creation of my work. Previously I have worked with scientists, academics, clairvoyants, journalists, translators, psychotherapists, psychologists, actors, Conservative voters, stroke survivors, tulpamancers and the general public.
My video works are often based on established conversational structures: e.g. interviews, talking therapies, a date. For example, in Exchange I recruited people who speak someone else’s words for a living (including a clairvoyant, an interpreter and an actor) and gave them double the opportunity to speak their own words and in the resulting short film they each appear to be interviewing themselves.
In Love and Red and Blue I recruited a Conservative voter (in contrast to me, the other participant, who is a member of the Labour party) and using Arthur Aaron’s psychological experiment to ‘accelerate intimacy’ we undertook an experiment to see if we could fall in love. The final film installation sees us progress through a series of ‘environmental placebos’ from a first date, a formal dinner date, and a wedding ceremony.
My performance works are small and participatory, for an audience of one. They require the presence and active participation of people, making human beings and conversation a key medium of my work.
CAITLIN GRIFFITHS MPhil, BA (Hons)
Born 1977, Birmingham, UK.
Lives and works in Manchester
AWARDS & PRIZES
2019, DYCP, Arts Council England 2019, Shortlisted Greater Manchester Art Prize
2016, Homegrown, HFWAS Performance Development Programme
2016, a-n Professional Development Bursary
2015, Sluice Screens Prize - runner up
2014, Grant for the Arts, Arts Council England
2012, Grant for the Arts, Arts Council England
2010, Worcester Open Jury Prize
2009, Grant for the Arts, Arts Council England
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019, Everything we call real, Paradise Works, Salford, UK 2018, While we belong to ourselves, Swiss Cottage Gallery, London, UK
2011, In to View, Aedas Presents, Birmingham
2009, Treasure Seekers VIII, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, Birmingham
2008, Cuckoo, Fine Art Bath, Bath
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023, Objects at Axel Obiger, Berlin, Germany 2019, All our still lives posed, PAPER Gallery at Manchester Contemporary, UK
2019, Greater Manchester Art Prize, Bolton Museum & Art Gallery 2016, Sluice Screens, Islington Mill, Salford
2015, Backbone, HFWAS, Birmingham
2015, Sluice Screens, Hospital Club, London
2015, GNARL Festival Video Showcase, Lincoln Performing Arts Centre
2014, Exchange Rates, Bushwick, NY, USA
2013, Worcester Contemporary Open, WM&AG
2013, Thrift Radiates Happiness, Municipal Bank, Birmingham
2013, Band / Ties BCU, Birmingham
2012, Band / Ties, WIP Kontshall, Stockholm, Sweden
2012, FRAME Clarke Gallery, Birmingham
2011, TROVE at The Burlington Fine Art Club, Manchester
2011, Paris Correspondence School, Minnie Weisz Studio, London 2011, Paris Correspondence School, Trove, Birmingham
2010, Making it, Faking It, Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham 2010, Open Submissions Exhibition 2010, Corn Exchange & New Greenham Arts
2010, Glorious Rubble, Trove, Birmingham
2010, Paris Correspondence School, Paris
2010, Worcester Open, Worcester City Art Gallery
2010, The Vaults Bazaar, The Vaults, New Hall Hill, Birmingham 2009, Grand Union Artists’ Book Fair, The Event, Birmingham 2009, Menagerie of Birds, Pitt Studios, Worcester 2008, Step, Crowd6 Gallery, Birmingham
2007, www.ctrl-copy.com, online exhibition
2007, ArtsFest Gallery, Council House, Birmingham 2007, Identity, The Old Postal Museum, Bath
2007, New Art Birmingham, Curzon Street Station, Birmingham 2006, Contained Happening, International Project Space, Birmingham
PERFORMANCES & READINGS
2017, What is Socrates Phone Number? tour. Oriel Davies Gallery, Wales; ArtsDepot, London, Live Art Bistro Leeds; Welcome Trust Reading Room, London
2016, Homegrown, Live Art Bistro, Leeds
2016, Homegrown, Steakhouse Live, London
2016, Homegrown, G.A.L and Little Wolf Parade, Nottingham
2015, Backbone at Homes for Waifs and Strays
2010, Echo & Narcissus, Trove, Birmingham 2009, An Endless Supply, The Victoria, Birmingham
2009, Portrait of Birmingham, The Victoria, Birmingham
2008, Hear Here, Crowd6 Gallery, Birmingham
PUBLICATIONS
2010, Griffiths, C. (2010) Sledging. In: Dent, R., Flynn, K., Whittle, E. (Eds) (2010) The Spiral Path, London, Imprimata Publishers Ltd.
2009, Griffiths, C. (2009) Three Songs. In: Le Mesurier, N., Mills, G., Noble, R. (Eds) (2009) Book of Numbers: An Anthology, London, Imprimata Publishers Ltd.
2009, Griffiths, C. (2009) Do Androids Dream of Electric Whores. In: King, J., Quinn, J. (Eds) (2009) The Delinquent Anthology Issue 7, Surrey.
2008, Griffiths, C. (2008) I don’t remember taking my shoes off. In: King, J., Quinn, J. (Eds) (2008) The Delinquent Anthology Issue 6, Surrey.
2006, Griffiths, C, (2006) Contributor. In:Butler, J., Wage, G., (Eds) (2006) Generator 1 & 2 New International Curatorial Research, West Midlands, Article Press.
2006, MPhil Thesis: Outside the Frame: Understanding Identity and Structures of Representation. The Film Work of Isaac Julien and Steve McQueen. Birmingham University.