Blog: "WHEN THE PENNY DROPS"

The Bridge (you are defined by what you walk between)
“You are Defined by What You Walk Between” was produced in association with Latteral Lab as part of the group show “Ways of Thinking” which took place in various galleries across, Japan and Scotland and represents the first phase of an international project The Bridge: Cultivating the Arts of…

The Bridge (Show Proposal)
‘Correlate’ the show I’m proposing has a working title of ‘Correlate’ (ˈkɒrələt’) and would follow-on from two previous exhibitions in Edinburgh- namely ‘Fragment’ (fraɡˈmɛnt) at Summerhall and ‘Aggregate’ at the Tent Gallery. It will consist of visually resonant prints and sculpture that incorporate found objects and physical processes in a…

‘Conatus’ as a Creative Force
It seems to me that the aesthetics of coherence and self-organisation of dissipative structures such as crystal formations, vortices etc are beautiful on the surface but might also carry within them a kind of poetic translation potential for understanding some deeper aspects of what it is to be alive in…

RSA 2023 Submissions: Dark Ecologies
Dyptych: Dark Ecologies, Entangled Agencies Dark Ecologies is a series of series of intaglio and collograph prints of elemental beauty that are in a sense meta-landscapes . By engaging various physical and chemical processes which shape the land and all life on earth, the artist is revealing something of the…

Japalacian Mountain Musings, Odate - Akita, Japan
its a strange scene .. dilapidation and urban blight reminiscent of the rust belt or ex- coal-mining towns in the Appalachians spooky - a perfect place to dwell in the gap between growth and decline… the creative forces of life’s perennial becoming and the dissipative forces of entropy and decay..…

Field Works: (solo show) Tent Gallery, Edinburgh
FIELDWORKS is a selection of intaglio prints and sculptures based on a close reading of the current theories of loop quantum gravity and an on-going exploration at the intersection of phenomenological philosophy, dark ecology, and quantum mechanics. Produced by applying pigment to paper at high pressure with chemically etched metal…

RSA 2022 SUMMER SHOW SUBMISSIONS
1 + 1 = 3 : Conatus and the Holobiont Complex (OR) A Ge-Ode to lynn Margulis : Involutionary Momentum and the Art of Collaborative Survival Sculpture stone and salvaged steel Weight: 11kgs Completed: 1/1/2022 £1618 ‘Sensorium’ Etched Zinc plate and mild steel A Warm Little Pond (OR) The Bridge:…

Cloud Chamber
In time of the Anthropocene, amid climate breakdown and mass extinction I feel that making art – perhaps creativity of any kind – is a hopeful act. By combining aspects of contemporary physical theory with an interest in how language and stories constitute our sense of place, I hope to…

“ORIGINS” - video work by Russell A. Beard - part of To the Shore (group show) at Tent Gallery, Edinburgh
Played along with an excerpt from Dolmen Music by Merredith Monk, “ORIGINS” (2016) is 4 minutes 44 seconds and consists simply of a mirrored moving image of the cascading interference patterns created in water, sand and sunlight at the shoreline where a river meets the sea Alternatively it could be…

Aggregate (Re:formations)
Solo Show at TENT Gallery - closing night this Friday

• Residency: Zerodaté & Robert Callender International Residency for Young Artists, Akita, Japan 2019

• Towards the Essence of Matter: (solo show) Tent Gallery, Edinburgh 2018
TIME PIECES: QUANTUM-FIELD PHONOGRAM PLATES (STRANGE QUARK, HIGGS BOSON, AND W BOSON)  (2018)  Copper Sulphate etched Zinc plates , (3X) 60cm dia TIME PIECES: QUANTUM-FIELD PHONOGRAM PLATES (STRANGE QUARK, HIGGS BOSON, AND W BOSON)  (2018)  Copper Sulphate etched Zinc plates , (3X) 60cm dia SPIN: WAVE-PARTICLE PICTOGRAPH GENERATOR  (2018) Various…

Vital Materials: WASPS Sleeper Gallery Edinburgh 2016
VITAL MATERIALS is a series of sculptures included in the group show ‘No Better than its Woods’ at Wasps Sleeper Gallery In Edinburgh that was based on a period of research in and around the Black-Woods of Rannoch – one of the last remaining patches of ancient Caledonian woodland in…

“CONATUS”, “CONSILIENCE” and “AFTER THE STORM”: Edinburgh Center for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) 2017
The recurring theme of identifying new frameworks of thinking about our selves and our relationships to each other and the planet was evident in another show at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI). Using salvaged steel and found objects “CONATUS”, “CONSILIENCE” and “AFTER THE STORM” – (All 2016) are…

Siolta Tene: Seeds of Fire and the Mythopoiesis of a mountain: (Solo Show) Tent Gallery, Edinburgh 2017
Inspired by a close reading of Soil and Soul, (McIntosh 2004) 2017 saw the successful amalgamation of Russell’s environmental journalism and desire to make ecological art The book uses a case study of a proposal to establish a massive super-quarry in the pristine landscapes of southern Harris in the Scottish…

• Animot: “Torn” (group show) Tent Gallery, Edinburgh 2016
This strange little piece is my response to a project looking at use of animal body in contemporary art that a visiting PHD researcher brought to the class for discussion. He seemed to be one of those people who just wanted to be angry at something and i found it…

Kainos, FE203: Explorations in Entropy, (Solo Show) Tent Gallery, Edinburgh 2016
“KAINOS FE2O3: Explorations in Entropy” Beards first solo show, contains some truthful insight into the way of the world that doesn’t simply represent ‘reality’ as an objective construct but is somehow ontologically coherent with the aliveness of being in the world - as a shared ephemeral experience which is in…

WHEN THE PENNY DROPS ?
I hope that WTPD will serve as a forum for discussion as well as a kind of vector for transmitting some of the insights and experiences i have had while making earthrise and from the last six or seven years of making ecologically-engaged art Some time ago after years…

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