Erin Dickson. Juried Artist
SAE
SAE
Artist Statement
Harton Moor is an animated guided tour of a 1970s council estate in South Shields, presented as an idealised architectural model set against the personal narrative of a child resident, Jessica. The 1:1 representation of the streets and houses of Harton Moor is rendered in uncanny detail within a colourless, translucent world without the marks of human interaction. A pristine virtual flyover of the site is interrupted by the messy realities described by Jessica, revealing the complex relationships on her street.
This reverse-engineered portrait is simultaneously specific and universal. Whereas the architectural view is a macro, pristine, sterile, idealised, god’s view, the child’s is micro, messy, complex, chaotic, disjointed and human. Both depict a singular place and time and yet could describe any estate in Britain. Offering elements of truth and fiction, Harton Moor exposes the friction between the perspectives of the imagined architect and actual resident, where reality sits somewhere in between.
Commissioned as part of FACT Together 2021, presented in collaboration with Hervisions, with support from The Granada Foundation and The Nora Smith Charitable Settlement.
About the artists
Exploring ideas of home through language, culture, and vernacular architecture, Erin Dickson’s expansive practice engages tongue-in-cheek themes of ‘Britishness’, relating particularly to her birthplace in North East England. Working in the space between craft and digital manufacture, she works both physically and virtually, from processing data to create 3D models to developing systems of correspondence. Through humour, Dickson’s sculpture, video and installations soften deliberately provocative subject matter including British class systems, AI bias, intimacy, community, and isolation.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, most notably at Glasstress, a collateral event of the Venice Biennale, as well as at the Royal Academy of Arts, UK, BWA Wroclaw, Poland, and FACT Liverpool, UK. She has received international grants and awards including an Honorary Diploma from the Jutta Cuny Foundation, Germany, The Kyohei Fujita Memorial Prize from Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark, and a National Lottery Project Grant from Arts Council England.
Credits: Dr Erin Dickson