tom hackett
information
Tom Hackett was born in Cambridge, England in 1961. He studied Fine Art at Middlesex & Nottingham Trent Universities. His artworks, installations and live actions have been exhibited extensively throughout the UK. He has also shown internationally, taking part in group shows and screenings in Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Albania ,Croatia, Poland, Romania, Ireland, USA and Canada. His work has been covered and reviewed in publications including The Guardian, The Telegraph, Art Review, AN Magazine, Metro Magazine, The Financial Times, Hybrid Magazine, The Independent, Performance Magazine and Sculpture & Installations. His work has been regularly funded by Arts Council England. As well as making art he also lectures and publishes critical reviews on the subject.
'Hackett’s sculptural intrigues are as formally captivating as they are thematically confounding . His installations make perfectly good sense to one’s senses as much as they tend to entice one’s mind into distinctly lateral modes of thoughtful reverie. Hackett’s creative procedures are always rigorously predefined and systematically executed.' Robert Clark the guardian
Work Synopsis
My work is about several inter-relating strands. None stand alone. Central to much of what I have done is the desire to make connections and collaborations with people, places and situations. I often try to unpick the ‘sense making’ paradox, which can both limit and drives humanity forward. I am interested in the place of written and spoken language within this quagmire. I regularly use interruption as a tool to question, dissect and reveal the everyday and ordinary, which frequently gets lost in the haze. Humour and absurdity play a part in this, with a regular use of dislocated objects, forms and performative actions. For me, art is an affirmative interjection which can bring something of value to the table.It sits somewhere in between an offering, a question and a possibility. It works best for me when its blends the palpable with the intangible and travels beyond the simple distillation of a feeling, an action or a set of ideas. For me that’s where the alchemy lives and it is by this force any artwork ultimately stands or falls.
selected installations, exhibitions and screenings (solo & UK unless indicated)
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Atelier 35 Bucharest Romania (group)
Angel Row Gallery Nottingham
Art Moustiers France (group)
Arts University Bournemouth
Apsidal Gallery Rufford Ollerton
A.L.L. Cambridge (group)
Battersea Arts Centre London
Belvedere 21, (VCAS) Vienna, Austria (reel)
Bonington Gallery Nottingham
Brewhouse Arts Burton on Trent
CHAPTER Cardiff
Centre for sculpture Oronsko Poland (group)
Darlington Arts Gallery (2 person)
Drift station Nebraska USA (group)
Degrees of Freedom London (group)
Departure Lounge Luton
Edinburgh College of Art
Espacio Gallery London (group)
Firstsite Colchester
Fermynwoods Water Tower (group)
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Swansea
Holden Gallery Manchester
Indialogue Derby (intervention)
Karlsruhe Hochschule Germany (group)
Kreativni Krk Croatia (group)
Lubomirov/Angus-Hughes London (group)
Moving Art Map Braga Portugal (group)
Mappin Art Gallery Sheffield
MAC Birmingham
Museum of Installation London (group)
Millais Gallery Southampton (group)
Nottingham Castle Art Gallery
NEEC, VCAS, Piramida, Tirana, Albania (reel)
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery
Oriel Mostyn Llandudno (group)
Oriel Davies Newtown (group)
Pitzhanger Manor Gallery London
Platform Art Athina Greece (group)
Patchogue Arts Long Island USA (group)
Penshaw Monument Sunderland
Quenington Sculpture Trust (group)
RAG Richmond Canada (group)
Rugby Art Gallery
Sculptors society Dublin Ireland (group)
Scarborough Art Gallery
South Hill Park Bracknell (group)
Space 36 London (group)
Sharpe's Pottery Museum
Southwark Park Galleries London (group)
Tad Gallery Texas USA (group)
Tate exchange Liverpool (group)
The Gallery Stratford Upon Avon
Twenty Twenty One Visual Arts Centre
The Collection Lincoln
UH Galleries Hatfield
University of Brighton (group)
VVM5 Venice Italy (group)
Visionfest ’96 Merseyside
Worcester City Art Gallery
Wrexham Arts Centre
Yard Gallery Nottingham
selected publications
conversation piece - artist's publication - tom hackett art dialogues 2017
shaggy dog stories, conversation with a silicone dog - artist's publication - tom hackett art dialogues 2014 - arts council funded
once is an accident, twice is a revolution - artist's publication - tom hackett art dialogues 2013 - arts council funded
the silicone boys - text dominic mason and tom hackett - photography conrad tracy 20-21 visual arts centre, 2009
risk @ssessment - text tom hackett, photography conrad tracy, published by MAC, birmingham & firstsite 2005
the textual triptych - text steven adams, edited by mathew shaul, published UH press 2003
the physical letters - text deborah dean and robert clark, published angel row gallery 2000
afon - text martin barlow, published oriel mostyn 2000
visionfax - edited by john brady, visionfest 1996
‘In making such a prescient interjection into these debates, Hackett strikes a raw nerve for all those involved in art and how to write about it. In some ways the traditional work of the critic, art historian and perhaps librarian does not sit comfortably with Hackett’s agenda. That agenda is set out with such lucidity that it is impossible not to make some form of interjection albeit an inadequate one when set beside the dexterity with which Hackett treats and mistreats his subject.’
Steven Adams
University of Hertfordshire
These sculptures tempt us to rediscover an age of innocence , although, however seductively they draw us in, all we get in return are blank stares, we are unable to connect. The Silicone Boys are an ode to the passing of time and the loss of childhood in all of us.
Dominic Mason
Curator
It’s all carried out with a deadpan gravity that confirms Hackett as a worthy daydreamer of poignant absurdities.
‘There's always been an air of deceptive simplicity to his work, the grand existential themes embodied in forms of disarming playfulness. Here, silicone busts of children are scattered about the gallery floor. Gaily coloured and translucent they appear to be portraits of some lost, or never existent states of idealised innocence.’
'Hackett, who has long been up to imaginative mischief making, touches upon the simple fact of lost footwear poignantly memorialising the human presence that has vacated it. Yet a further level of playful intrigue is added by a series of works titled Flip Charts From The Therapy Room that appear like mocking versions of the mind maps often used at institutional staff development events. The various elements at times add up to a questioning reflection on the creative process itself.'
'The Silicone Boys by lead artist Tom Hackett is one of the highlights of the exhibition. The multiple heads, scattered across the floor of the Bracknell Gallery draw the viewer in aesthetically, with the use of bright and vibrant colours and a very tactile material; silicone rubber which is my opinion, gives the nostalgic impression of giant jelly babies. However, on closer inspection the following can be observed; the heads are bodiless, floating in the middle of the gallery facing out (although one faces in the opposite direction, going against the grain) They are expressionless, void of emotion and mass produced which gives them a robotic quality. The contrast between these observations echoes the transition from a colourful childhood to awkward, static adulthood.'
Emma Albury
Media coverage:
Sculpture & Installation 2000, Art Review 1998, AN Magazine 1998, The List, Magazine 1998, BBC Scotland, BBC Radio London-Robert Elms show, Metro Magazine 2003. The Independent 1997, Live Art Magazine 1997, The Guardian 2014, 2013, 2009, 2005, 2004, 2003,2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, Central TV 1999 Birmingham Post 2003,1997, BBC news 24, Chemistry in Britain 1997, Western Mail 1996, Radio Wales 1993, Southern Cross Magazine 1994, Channel 1 TV 1994, South London Press 1994, Hybrid Magazine 1993, Artscene magazine 1987, Artist Newsletter 1988, 1977, BBC Wales 1993, Tyne Tees/Border ELEMENTS 1990, Yorkshire TV 1990, 1992, BBC North 1990, BBC East 1991, Red Dragon Radio 1989, Radio York 1990, Radio Scotland 1992, Radio Trent 1990, Sheffield Telegraph 1992, Wandsworth Guardian 1994, Yorkshire Post 1992, Nottingham Post 2000, 1997, 1993, 1992, 1991, Wales on Sunday 1989, Daily Post 1993, BBC Hereford 1997, BBC Radio London 2003.
