Room 103 Artist of the Day: Dave Stephens

Dave Stephens is a sculptor, performance artist and film maker. He has exhibited in many galleries including the Laing Gallery, Newcastle and the Economist Building in London. In his career as a performance artist he has performed in over 100 venues in the US, Canada, Europe as well as the UK.

His practise often moves between disciplines and some of his recent work combines elements of all of them. It is a way of giving a piece a past and future as well as the present. As an educationalist Stephens has been a visiting lecturer in many art institutions including most recently at the University of Brighton. He is also Head of Design at Varndean College in Brighton.

Dave is represented by three videos in Room 103: ‘Veil’, ‘Stalagmite/Stalactite’ and ‘Come Hell and Homework’.

Room 103 Artist of the Day: Susannah Oliver

Sugar is Bitterness. Ignorance is Sweet.

 ‘A spoonful of ignorance’ rails against a wilful misrepresentation of our Imperial past. Coal wasn’t the only substance that drove Britain’s industrial revolution. Sugar provided the fuel for economic expansion -and it’s manufacture necessitated  the crime against humanity which was the slave trade. Here, the tripod and three chains made of bent spoons echo the triangular trade route across the Atlantic, and the pot of gold at its apex is a sugar bowl. Orwell would have known very well the history of the sugar dissolving in his tea..

“A Spoonful of Ignorance” Susannah Oliver: tripod, sugar bowl, spoons.

Susannah Oliver’s website

Opening Soon; the Doors to Room 103