Simon Warner
I am interested in landscape history, environmental change and early photography. I have produced a number of photographic exhibitions and films looking at rivers and coastlines, and I worked with the late Professor Jay Appleton on a show exploring his Prospect-Refuge theory of landscape aesthetics.
A NESTA Fellowship enabled me to develop a parallel strand of work in performative lecturing, and I have delivered talks, walks and events on landscape history, early photography and 19th century visual culture.
I run educational workshops on basic photography, video-making and silhouette drawing. My silhouette portrait workshop has run at the Latitude Festival, Tate Modern, V&A, Harewood House and Burlington Arcade (for London Fashion Week). I have co-curated exhibitions at South Square Gallery and the Brontë Parsonage Museum, as well as a Symposium on landscape and literature in Haworth.
I am a co-founder of Whitestone Arts, a research base and producing company based in the Pennine countryside.
Solo exhibitions and major projects
2016 - North & South Harewood House (part of 'Great Capabilities' season)
2016 - All in View, Very Neat Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate (part of 'Noble Prospects')
2014-15 - Image, Instinct and Imagination - Landscape as Sign Language Royal Geographical Society, London; Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax; Edinburgh College of Art; Bath Central Library
2012 - Ways to the stone house Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth
2010 - Seven Streams 'The Arts of Place', Bradford
2009 - Walking Out Huddersfield Art Gallery
2006 - A Guide to Yorkshire Rivers Impressions Gallery, Bradford
2005 - Leaving Home Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth
2004 - High Tide The Deep, Hull; Beverley Art Gallery, East Yorkshire (and tour)
2003 - Follow a Shadow Impressions Gallery, York
1998 - Airedale - A Changing Landscape Cliffe Castle Museum & Art Gallery , Keighley (and tour)
Group exhibitions
2016 - Lenses on a Landscape Genius The Building Centre, London
2015 - Watershed – Art, play and the politics of water Hall Place Museum, Bexley (curated by Artwise)
2014 - Art in Yorkshire - From Turner to Hockney Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate
2014 - The Walking Encyclopedia Airspace Gallery, Stoke on Trent
2013 - Inspired by Landscape Bradford Gallery 1
2013 - Wildness between Lines Leeds College of Art
2012 - Confluence Appledore Arts Festival, Devon
2010 - 21 Harewood House, Leeds
2009 - A Room of Words South Square Gallery, Thornton
2009 - Town & Country Project Space Leeds
2008 - Flesh Yorkshire Craft Centre, Bradford
2008 - The Bradford Grid Yorkshire Craft Centre, Bradford
2008 - Through the Lens Keighley Arts Factory, Keighley
2007 - RGB South Square Gallery, Thornton
2006 - Alchemy Harewood House, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London; Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal; Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham (Arts Council England tour)
2006 - The Bradford Grid South Square Gallery, Thornton
2003 - One Landscape, Many Views Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford
Film screenings
2014 - Bradford Shorts, Bradford Festival 2014
2013 - Crimson Coast Dance Society, Nanaimo, Vancouver
A Guide to Yorkshire Rivers as video design for dance work What the Water Whispers
2012 - Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires
River Gauge shown as part of 'Transient Control' curated by Sheffield Fringe
2012 - Sheffield Fringe
River Gauge shown in the strand 'Chemistry of Incidence'
2011 - Holmfirth Arts Festival, Owd Towser Artists' film programme, Holmfirth
2008 - Saltaire Arts Festival, Art Parade, Saltaire
2007 - In Flux, Bradford Big Screen (curated by Fabric)
2007 - Haworth Arts Festival, St Michael's Church, Haworth
2006 - 37 Seconds (screening programme), Big Screen, Liverpool
2006 - Evolution (film festival), Lumen / City Art Gallery, Leeds
2006 - Saison Vidéo (festival), Espace Croisé art centre, Roubaix, France
2005 - Testbed 3 (Film Night), Leeds Met Gallery, Leeds
2003 - Shot by the Sea, Digital Arts Festival, Hastings
Live/Performance
2016 - Infinite Landscapes Harewood House - walk as Victorian photographer Roger Fenton (with photo-historian Brian Liddy)
2016 - Walking with Mr Brown Harewood House - walks as Lancelot 'Capability' Brown
2015 - 50 Steps – Walking and Dancing the Pennine Way - landscape video captured on a group walk with 3 dancers and a musician, live-edited on VJ programme to accompany same-day performances at 6 venues up and down the Pennine Way including Square Chapel Centre for the Arts, Halifax (funded by Arts Council England)
2012/13 - The History & Antiquities of Harewood in Yorkshire Harewood House - historical walks
2010 - Isolating V5 - Towards a Human Zoetrope Sheffield Institute of Arts (Hybrid); University of Westminster/Magic Lantern Society, London - talk and demonstration
2010 - JC Lavater's Silhouette Drawing Academy V&A, London (Friday Late: Renaissance Masked Ball) - workshop and demonstration
2010 - Seven Streams The Arts of Place, Bradford City Hall - talk with actor and musician
2009 - A Theory of Colours Light Night, Leeds - talk as JW Goethe
2009 - Lavater – The Shadow of History Milton Theatre, Huddersfield; University of Westminster/Magic Lantern Society, London - solo performance
2009 - Panorama of Rome 'Hatch', Bradford Playhouse - talk with audience participation
2009 - The Diorama: weaving time and space, at conference 'Instruction, Amusement & Spectacle', University of Exeter; University of Westminster/Magic Lantern Society, London; Leeds Art Gallery/Light Night - talk as LJM Daguerre
2009 - Transported Project Space Leeds/Harewood House - Mystery Tour on No.36 bus with actors, professional guide and camera obscura
2008 - An Adventure in Space and Time Impressions Gallery, Bradford - talk with dancer
2008 - Lavater – The Shadow of History Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (Humber Mouth Festival)
2008 - Performing Magic in the Dark: Photographers in Fiction since 1850 Project Space Leeds - talk with actor
2007 - Farbenlehre South Square Gallery, Thornton - talk as JW Goethe
2007 - Lavater - The Shadow of History Holy Trinity Church, Leeds (part of Light Night)
2004 - Phantasmagoria! York St Mary's - magic lantern shows
2000 - 'I have forced the sun to paint pictures for me' University of Sheffield - theatre event with writer, dancer, live photo-chemical demonstration and students
Curated projects
2015 - High Line South Square Gallery, Thornton, Bradford – co-curator with Yvonne Carmichael/Nancy Stedman of group show to mark 50 years of the Pennine Way
2012 - Unbounded Moor Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth - curator of symposium on landscape and literature, with poet Simon Armitage, artists Carry Akroyd and Rebecca Chesney, academics Simon Dentith, Stephen Carver and David Atkinson, geologist William Varley, historian Steven Wood and performance company Whitestone Arts
2012 - Ways to the stone house Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth - curated display of photographs and artworks of Top Withins farmhouse, including Bill Brandt, Fay Godwin and Sylvia Plath
Artist talks and conference papers
2016 - Landscape as sign language at conference Language, Landscape and the Sublime, Dartington Hall, Devon (art.earth)
2013 - Ways to the stone house – Haworth Moor and Brontë mythology at conference Visualizing the Rural, University of Cumbria
2013 - A Grand Weekend, Leeds Corn Exchange
2011 - Landscapes on a Plate, Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds
2011 - Owd Towser Artists' Film Programme, Holmfirth Arts Festival, Holmfirth
2007 - Water works, Lovebytes Festival, Sheffield
2006 - A Guide to Yorkshire Rivers, Impressions Gallery, Bradford
2003 - Follow a Shadow, Impressions Gallery, York
Workshops
2015 - The Time Traveller's Ironbridge Quest – silhouette portraiture at Ironbridge Gorge Museums (with The House of Fairy Tales)
2015 - Shadow Screen drop-in workshop, Light Up Lancaster
2014 - Winterville, Victoria Park, Hackney – silhouette portraiture (with The House of Fairy Tales)
2014 - Shadow Screen drop-in workshop, Leeds Corn Exchange (Light Night)
2013 - A Grand Weekend, Leeds Corn Exchange (silhouette and lantern-slide painting workshops)
2010 - JC Lavater's Silhouette Drawing Academy V&A (Friday Late: 'Shadow Catchers'), London
2010 - Magic Lantern family workshop, Florence Nightingale Museum, London creating lantern slides with glass paints and viewing them through a Victorian projector
2009 - JC Lavater's Silhouette Drawing Academy, Tate Modern Long Weekend, London
2008 - JC Lavater's Silhouette Drawing Academy, Latitude Festival, Suffolk (with Last Tuesday Society)
2008 - Linfoot Harewood Summer School, Harewood House, Leeds
2008 - Pontefract Liquorice Festival, Pontefract (Faceless Company)
2008 - Silhouette portraiture, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool
2006 - Linfoot Harewood Summer School, Harewood House, Leeds
2006 - Photography without cameras, National Media Museum, Bradford
2004 - Art Illuminating York St Mary's, St Mary's Church, York - photo-silhouette portraits
Residencies
2011-12 Watershed Landscape Project, Pennine Prospects
2010 Magic in the Dark, Florence Nightingale Museum, London - Victorian photography project with 2 schools in Hampshire and Derbyshire, documenting the sites of Florence Nightingale’s family homes
2009 - Transported (Artist in Residence on 36 Bus), PSL / Harewood House, Leeds
2007 - The Collecting Place Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth
2004 - Shadow/Self South Square Centre, Thornton
2003 - Intrigue Castle Museum / Impressions Gallery, York
Competitions and awards
2011 - Northern Art Prize, nomination (longlist)
2006-8 - NESTA Research Fellowship
Educational - primary
2014 - Film Literacy Programme, Bradford City of Film
2013 - Stone Heritage Project, South Square Centre, Thornton, Bradford
2011 - Confluence, Great Torrington Junior School / Appledore Community Primary School, Devon
2007 - Each Child has their own Story, Creative Partnerships, East Shipley cluster, Bradford
2003 - Pinhole Heritage, National Trust (East Riddlesden Hall) / Brontë Parsonage Museum, Keighley/Haworth
2002 - SPARK, West Yorkshire Playhouse / Primary Schools, Leeds
Educational - secondary
2012 - In Boswell's Footsteps, Hall Place Museum/Townley Grammar School (Bexley Heritage Trust)
2009 - Image Lab (Creative Partnerships), Shelley College, Kirklees
2009 - Reducing our carbon footprint (Creative Partnerships), Colne Primet High School, Colne
2007 - HOW Design ENgages, Beam / Howden School, East Yorkshire
2005 - Art Exchanges, Salt Grammar School, Saltaire
Educational - tertiary
2014 - University of Leeds, Dept of Design, Visiting Artist (workshop + performed talk)
2009 - University of Salford, Dance & Photography workshops