STATEMENT
When I was at college, there was a divide between 2D and 3D and painters and sculptors. The sculptures I made involved casting, welding and fabrication but also incorporated photography and printing. At the core of my practice is a dialogue between objects and images and how they stimulate perception and meaning. This is the prism I use to research various subjects such as medical and microscopic images, maps, quantum physics, environmental pollution, geology and astronomy. The art I make often reveals something that is overlooked, hidden or obscure.
Over the past twenty years, I have developed experimental ways of using photographic paper to make images that draw upon sculptural and print-making sensibilities. I started making large scale black and white photograms of trees, wedding dresses and all sorts of objects. The images are 1:1 scale, look like x-rays that reveal the density, translucency and opacity of the object. I moved onto colour photographic paper and made a body of work inspired by research at a UCL lab where they extrapolate images from tissue samples. I used an enlarger like a microscope, preparing slides to be enlarged. The objects to make the images are things you would find in a kitchen cupboard or bathroom cabinet. Other work involves enlarging negatives onto objects, so that object and image are combined. For a residency, I made pin-hole cameras that took 17 hour exposures. I have also made pin-prick stencils of maps to make light drawings.
BIOGRAPHY
Paul Tecklenberg studied sculpture at Nottingham Trent University and a masters at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL. He was taught by Tim Head, John Hilliard and Bruce McLean. Shortly after graduating, he co-curated ‘DIY 19 Variations on the Theme of Wallpaper’ with Melissa Alley. The exhibition was reviewed in Time Out, Metro, Vogue Italia and was listed by Time Out as one of the top ten exhibitions in London during 2000. He has consistently had solo shows in the UK including Bodies and Anti-bodies in Nottingham which made the Guardian’s critics choice top five exhibitions in the UK list. In 2008 he was elected a life member of the London Group that was established in 1913. He has participated in more than 43 exhibitions with the group in the UK, Holland, Italy and the USA, four of which, he curated. Paul has exhibited with Central Booking NYC and was in ‘Now You See It… Color & The Mind’s Eye’, ‘Earth Works’, ‘Attract/Repel’, ‘Chemical reaction’, ‘Anatomical/Microbial/Microcosms’ and Art & Science.
He is the first artist in residence at the Swedenborg Society and he made work in response to the writings and building dedicated to Emmanuel Swedenborg, a scientist and mystic.
Paul has exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2017 and 2019 in shows with the full backing on the British Council. Last year, his work ‘Magnetic North’ was selected by Richard Deacon RA for the Royal Academy Summer show and this year Eve Rothschild RA selected ‘Jacob’s Ladder’. Also, this year, he has been elected a life member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. Paul has shown with commercial galleries including England & Co, Flowers and Patrick Heide Gallery and he has work in private collections in the U.K., Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, Germany, U.S.A, Brazil, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa and Japan.
