Sean Roy Parker
Sean Roy Parker is a visual artist, writer, gardener and fermentation enthusiast based at The Field, an experimental rural arts residency and co-living project near Ilkeston, Derbyshire. He practises slow, low-tech crafts and food preservation with consumer waste and natural abundances, and shares extensively through labour exchange, favours and artswaps. In his ongoing project Fermental Health he writes about and leads workshops on the lifecycle of materials, complexities of interspecies responsibility, and collaborative problem-solving through the lens of food justice. Roy is impatiently anticipating the post-capitalist transition.
His writing has been published in WeedsFeed by Sandra Kosorotova for Publics, Helsinki (Finland), Tender Order by Jade Monserrat for TOMA, Southend (UK), and Worry, Collect, Fold (translated by Max Weinland) for Kunstverein Luneburg (Germany). He has delivered public research projects on fermenting with microbes for Liverpool Biennial (UK), anarchist solidarity with peasant farmers in Valencia at Pols (Spain), and was most recently artist-gardener at Kreenholm Plants in Narva (Estonia). Roy was a Wysing Arts Centre Resident 2023-24, and is working towards his first poetry collection, In Digestion, due for publication 2024 with Monitor Books (London).
(Self-)Education
Permaculture Teacher Training, Permaculture Association Britain, online April 2024
Art & Social Permaculture Course, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, online June 2021
Organics Horticulture Diploma, Glengall Wharf Garden, Peckham, London 2020
Fermentation Masterclass Scholarship, w Sandor Katz, Tennessee, USA, Nov 2019
School of the Damned Free & Alternative Fine Art MA, various UK cities, 2017 – 2018
Apprentice Ceramics Technician atKiln Rooms, Peckham London, 2015 – 2016
BA(Hons) Graphic & Media Design at London College of Communication, 2008 – 2011
Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at Ravensbourne College of Art & Design, Kent 2007-08
Recent Solo Projects
Man of Kent solo exhibition at Piccalilli Gallery, south London, March - April 2024
Ink drawings of hometown pubs and tabletop curios, accompanied by live vinegar ferments.
With Us All public commission for Metroland Cultures, London , May - November 2023
Glass house made from recycled materials for St Raph’s Community Garden, Brent
The Beans at Two Queens, Leicester, in collaboration with Stanford Hall CSA, April - Sept 2023
ACE-funded exhibition and program about food security, peasant technology and permaculture
Mulch, Phytology at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, London September 2022
Soil remediation project using psychogeographical scavenging, curated by Laura Yuile
An End is the Beginning for Kreenholm Plants at Narva Art Residency, Estonia Jun - Aug 2022
Two month project growing organic food with permaculture and teaching myself carpentry
Hospitality, food politics research & solo exhibition at Pols, Valencia, Spain Aug - Oct 2021
6 week commission on peasant farmer solidarity and city anarchist food justice work
A Processing Medium: Humans Imitating Bacteria, Liverpool Biennial, July 2021
A week-long project leading fermentation educational workshops and interspecies dialogue
Associate Artist at Haberdasher Aske’s Academy Borough, w Freelands Foundation, 2020 Implementing an Eco-Responsive curriculum in collaboration with Year 8 Students and teachers
Brixton Pound Cafe, waste food project, Loughborough Junction, London 2018 – 2020
Pay-what-you-can café and community space, using surplus food saved from landfill
Recent Group Exhibitions
Konserv, curated by Joe Rowley at Gathenhielmska Huset, Gothenburg, June 2022
6.7 Million Tonnes, We’ve Bin Through a lot, curated by Uni of Essex MA students, April 2022
Playground with DARP at Artcore, Derby UK, December 2021
Precarious Straits curated by Lolly Adams for TOMA, Southend UK, May 2021
Recent Workshops
Transforming Abundance at Smallfood Bakery in Primary, Nottingham Nov 2o22
Four-part practical fermentation masterclass for local gardeners, urban growers and cooks
Low and Slow - Brownsite walk / Sauerkraut demo at TOMA, Southend, June 2021
Led a critical walking tour about municipal wasteland and land ownership in urban areas.
Lactofermentation as Lifeforce at Muddy Yard (London), Human Library (Liverpool), Humber Street Gallery (Hull), Rupert (Vilnius, Lithuania), Pols (Valencia, Spain), NART (Narva, Estonia), Allotment Club (Cornwall), Bloc Projects (Sheffield), TOMA (Southend), 2020-forever
Practical sauerkraut demonstration with critical discussion and collective recipe writing
aster, bedstraw, colt’s-foot at Cell Projects with Headway East London, June 2020
Wild flower identification walk combining deep observation and silent meditation
Eco-Dyeing Fabrics workshop at Conditions Studio Programme, Croydon, Feb 2020
Facilitated a scavenger walk to collect natural materials, then prepared old t-shirts for steaming.
