Tumim Prendergast
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"Tumim & Prendergast explore the concepts of our temporal existence and cast-off items we often ignore. Accident and chance also play a part alongside their characteristic humour (often dark). They offer us clues - to research further and of lives lived." (Art historian Lorna Johnston 2011) We enjoy collaborating with groups of all ages, individual arts practitoners and those from other disciplines, including writers, composers, poets and scientists.
Each piece of work or installation project should beguile the eye of the viewer, the skills employed being integral to the concept behind each artwork. Many of our ideas develop "on the hoof", through the making process. By drawing, painting or embroidering replicas of "throw-away" items as tenderly and lovingly as we can, we are paying tribute to those who have lost or discarded them – for whatever reason. Each item we depict takes on a symbolic status that is part of a bigger picture. The ephemera that floats between all our lives, including images of fleeting moments, is sometimes more emotionally charged and tells more of a story than the objects or formal portraits and momentos we expect to be represented by.
The direction of our practice is increasingly political. We are interested in what it means to be silenced and have been researching the concept of ‘Gaslighting’ particularly from our personal experience of Health and Social Care provision.
Tumim & Prendergast 2019
Artist Biography
Matilda Tumim & Chris Prendergast are based in North East Fife. They studied at Falmouth and the Royal College of Art, prior to moving to Orkney in 1989, relocating to Fife in 2015.
Tumim and Prendergast work with a variety of media, including stitch, paint, collage and ink and have been commissioned to make permanent installations for schools, hospitals and voluntary organisations. They exhibit regularly and their work is held in public and private collections around the world. Their work has been influenced by Surrealism, a European cultural movement developed in the aftermath of World War One. For many their projects, the artist duo take their starting point from playing a game created by André Breton called The Exquisite Corpse.
New projects/ awards
2023 - Creative Scotland Open Funding awarded for the research and develop an artist’s book The Child Who Heard Too Much.
Exhibitions:
2021 Surreal Estate WASPS Project Gallery, Meadow Mill, Dundee
2021 Screen Test. Online group exhibition for WASPS artists
2019 Little Originals. Group exhibition at Dock Street Studios, Dundee
2019 WASPS Open Studios at Meadow Mill Dundee
2017 THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE, Suttie Arts Space, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary
2016 BOTTLED UP. The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness
2012 73 Leaves. Embroidery installation, National Council for Voluntary Organisations, Kings Cross, London
2012 Bread & Roses. Motorcade Flash Parade, Bristol
2012 Embroidered Narratives. Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
2011 73 Leaves. The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2011 Retrieve. Limousine Bull, Aberdeen
2009 Small Volumes. Timespan, Helmsdale
2009 TRAVELLING LIGHT. WW and Pharos Galleries, London and Venice Biennale
2009 Impossible Exchange. Frieze Art Fair, London
2008 Last Post. Corsespace, Aberdeenshire
2008 Anecdotal Evidence. Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital (RACH)
2007 A Year of Consequence. Orkney Museum, Kirkwall, Orkney
2007 Consequences. Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney
2006 Coupling. Peedie Gallery, Arts Development Office, Orkney Island Council
2005 Wedded. Stromness Public Library, Stromness, Orkney
2004 Foul Flora Weird Waves. Loft Gallery, St Margaret's Hope, Orkney
Residencies & Public Commissions
2012 Balfour Hospital - Peedie Sea Centre - Art Commission Orkney & Grampian Hospitals Arts Trust
2010 Pickaquoy Centre Kirkwall Orkney, eight large paintings installed on permanent loan
2008 Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (RACH). Artworks for the second floor entrance Hall
2008 Favourite things. Glaitness Primary School, Orkney. GHAT
2008 Wallflowers nursery courtyard , St. Margaret's Hope Primary School, Orkney. Orkney Islands Council
2006 pARTners Artists in Residence - Scottish Arts Council, Papdale Primary School, Kirkwall, Orkney
Private & Third Sector Commissions
2012 73 LEAVES Embroidery Installation National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) Islington, London
2007 The Gallant Weaver - Cover artwork and design for choral settings of words by Robert Burns
2005 Constellation- Drawing Commission for Tullimentan showcase for the Arts in Orkney - The Pier Arts Centre
Talks & Presentations
2021 Artists Talk for the preview of Screen test online exhibition with Wasps Glasgow 2020 Zoom seminar discussing Surreal Estate project - architecture students at Westminster University
2020 Exhibition talk for sponsored solo exhibition Surreal Estate
2010 Threads and Leaves Talk about our collaborative art practice, Heriot Watt School of Textiles, Galashiels
2008 Presentation - The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney
2007 Consequences - a musical response, St. Magnus Festival, Kirkwall, Orkney
2006 Professional Practice and Crossover - Highlands & Islands Visual Arts, Hi-Arts, The Macphail Centre Ullapool
Publications
2011 Book Cover for Hoopla The Art of Unexpected Embroidery by Leanne Prain Arsenal Pulp Press ISBN-13 2011 The Poetic Stitch – Hoopla – Chapter about Tumim and Prendergast’s embroidery
2011 Participant in Words are all we have by Rachel Marsden, reflecting on life as a curator
2009 Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital - Artworks 2 - publication celebrating the hospital's art programme