I work primarily with the body, exploring the psychological and biological, gently engaging with ideas of power, control and the constructed self, image and identity. Often existing in the gaps where understanding fails, the work explores the ambiguous and the unknown, liminal spaces at the intersection of the real and the imaginary, the familiar and the strange. The body becomes a doorway to the unseen. The viewer is encouraged to step closer and look again.
Biography
Paul Grimmer was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1975 and studied Fine Art at Northumbria University. Following graduation in 2005 he has worked as an artist as well as coordinating events with live art organisation Platform North East and collaboratively setting up Piggyback Arts. He often works in collaboration and has spent time engaging with research in a number of scientific institutions in the UK including: The Medical Research Council, Virology Unit (Glasgow), Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology (Edinburgh) and Centre for Life (Newcastle upon Tyne). His moving image, installation and performance work explores the biological and psychological, focusing on gaps in understanding, tensions between opposing forces and the fluid nature of identity.
Recent exhibitions and performances include: ‘Looking from a distance’, solo exhibition (Berwick Gymnasium Gallery as part of the Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2011); ‘Changeling’, solo exhibition (Globe Gallery, North Shields); ‘Response’ (Felixstowe); ‘Wunderbar Festival’ (Newcastle upon Tyne); ‘Performans Zamini’ (Istanbul); ‘Triparks’, UK touring group exhibition (Princetown, Taunton, Newcastle) and screenings in the UK (Birmingham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Winchester), USA (Denver, Grand Rapids) and Europe (Espinho, Jena) of ‘Continuum’, a 360° video work made specifically for viewing in Planetariums. Grimmer also has work held in the permanent collection at Durham University.
Grimmer currently lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne.
image: 'Mutations', image credit: Daniel Barella
