Meigh-Andrews, Chris

Meigh-Andrews first experimented with video in Montreal in 1973 and began exhibiting his work internationally in the late 1970’s. His early single screen video works have featured in a number of key exhibitions: “Short Histories of Video Art, (Part 2)”, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, 2004; “Electric Eyes: British Artists’ Video 1985-88”, Tate Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London; Museo de Arte Moderno, Medellin, Columbia, Akademie der Bildenden Kunst, Vienna 1988; “Genlock”, Interim Arts, London, (& Touring) 1988; “Video from the 70’s and 80’s”, Doggerfisher, Edinburgh, 2008; “Analogue: Pioneering British, Canadian and Polish Artists’ Video”,(1968-88), Tate Britain, Anthology Film Archives, New York, Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, (MOCCA),Toronto, Arsenal Institute fur Film und Videokunst, Berlin, and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, 2007-08 and “The Self & Surroundings”, Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre, 2012. His early video work also features in two DVD collections: “Rewind and Play: An Anthology of Early British Video Art”, Lux/Rewind, (2009) and “New Contemporaries Moving Image: 1968-2010”, Bloomberg/New Contemporaries, (2014).

Installation commissions include the Harris Museum, Preston (Eau d’Artifice, 1990); the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool, (Streamline, 1991); Camerawork, London (Cross Currents, 1993); Bath International Music Festival (Merging/Emerging, 1999); Victoria & Albert Museum, London, (A Photographic truth, 2001) and For William Henry Fox Talbot: the Pencil of Nature (2004); Huis Marseille Foundation of Photography (Temporal View in Amsterdam, 2003); the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Returning, 2002) and Cavalier St James Centre for Creativity, Valletta (Resurrection, 2005).

Meigh-Andrews’ site-specific installations often incorporate renewable energy systems, establishing direct relationships with the natural and constructed environment. Interwoven Motion, a prototype self-powered outdoor video installation for Grizedale Forest was developed with a research award from the National Endowment of Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and Arts Council England in 2004. His installation, The Monument Project (Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice), commissioned by architects Julian Harrap, produced a continuous stream of panoramic images from the top of the Monument in the City of London 24/7 for three years (2009-2011). Aeolian Processes (Box Revealing the Sound of its Own Making), was produced for “La Lune: Energy Producing Art”, New South Wales, Australia (2014); In Darwin’s Garden, an augmented reality installation, produced in association with the National Trust was featured in the Leonardo Electronic Almanac, and Kasa Gallery, Sabinsi University, Istanbul, (2012) and Oriel Sycarth, Wrexham (2017). In 2017 his two-channel outdoor installation For Issac, Alan & Steve was long-listed for the Aesthetica Art Prize.

Examples of his single screen video, installation and photographic work are held in a number of national and international collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Stadsarchief, Amsterdam, Muzeum Historii Fotografii, Krakow; The Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston; The Scottish Screen Archive at the National Library of Scotland; The British Artists’ Film & Video Collection and the Lux Collection, as well as in a number of private collections. Documentation of his early video and installation work and a substantial collection of his photographs, papers, notes and writings have been acquired by the archive at Tate Britain.

Meigh-Andrews studied at the London College of Printing (Higher Dip. in Photography Film & TV), Goldsmiths (MA, Fine art) and the Royal College of Art (PhD). He was Arts Council International Artist Fellow, Galeria Sztuki WspÛlczesnej, Krakow, Poland, (2003-2004); Video Artist in Residence, Prema Arts Centre, Gloucester (1995); Video Artist in Residence, Cleveland Arts (1995); Artist in Residence, Saw Contemporary Art Centre, Ottawa, Canada (1994); Resident Artist in Digital Imaging, School of Visual Arts, Music & Publishing, Oxford Brookes University, (1994), Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University (2017-18) and Gozo Contemporary , Malta (2022).

Curatorial projects include Yes, Snow Show, (British Film Institute, 2009), Analogue: Artists’ Video from the UK, Canada and Poland: 1968-88, (Tate Britain and Tate Modern, London, touring to venues in Liverpool, Norwich, Warsaw, New York, Toronto, Ottawa, Valletta and Berlin: 2006-2009) and The Digital Aesthetic, a series of exhibitions and symposia organised in collaboration with the Harris Museum, Preston (2001, 2007 & 2012), Analogue & Digital, Fieldgate Gallery, London 2007 and Meta Landscapes: Representations & Perceptions, Valletta Contemporary, 2022.

During the 1980’s Meigh-Andrews taught at a number of art schools and institutions including The London College of Printing, The London International Film School, Maidstone School of Art and Leicester Polytechnic. However, his main teaching role was at the University of Central Lancashire (1984- 2012). Whilst working at Uclan he initiated and was head of Time-Based Media (1986-2000), co-founded the MA Fine Art course and established the Electronic & Digital Art Unit (EDAU), a centre for post-graduate research. He was made Reader in 2000, Professor in 2007 and Professor Emeritus on his retirement from teaching in 2012.

Meigh-Andrews has written extensively on the history and context of artists’ video. His book, A History of Video Art: The Development of Form and Function, Berg, (Oxford and New York, 2006) and in Japanese by Sangensha, (Tokyo, 2013), provides an overview of the development of artists’ video since its inception. An enlarged and expanded edition of the book was published by Bloomsbury, (London and New York, 2013) and in Mandarin by China Pictorial Publishing House, (Beijing, 2018). Contributions to other books include “Digital Moving Image Installations and Renewable Energy: 1994-2018”, Technology, Design and the Arts–Challenges and Opportunities, Springer Books, Cham, Switzerland, 2020; “The Emergence of Early Artists’ Video in Europe and the USA and its Relationship to Broadcast TV”, in Materializing Memories: Dispositifs, Generations, Amateurs, Bloomsbury, (London and New York, 2018); “Location & Dislocation, Site & Architecture: Video Installation by Palestinian Artists”, in Palestinian Video Art: Constellation of the Moving Image, Bashir Makhoul, ed, Palestinian Art Court-al Hoash, (Jerusalem, 2013.) “Optiks: Peter Campus”, in The BFI Gallery Book, British Film Institute, (London, 2011) and “Video Installation in Europe and the USA: The Expansion and Exploration of Electronic and Televisual Space: 1968-1988”, inExpanded Cinema: Film Art Performance, Tate Publications, (London, 2011.);“Interwoven Motion: Steps Towards a Semi-Permanent Outdoor Self-Powered Video Installation”, in The Itemisation of Creative Knowledge, FACT/ Liverpool University Press, (Liverpool, 2006); “The Vasulka Tapes” in Vasulka Lab 1969-2005-Live Archive, Vivid, Birmingham, 2006; “Chris Meigh-Andrews: Early Video Tapes: 1978-87” in Experimental Film and Video, Jackie Hatfield, ed.,John Libbey Publishing,(Hertfordshire, 2006). He is currently Editor-in-Chief, (UK and Europe) of the forthcoming three-volume Encyclopedia of New Media Art for Bloomsbury Academic.

updated June 2022

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