Christine Borland

Christine Borland is an artist whose work is associated with the systems and processes that provide the basis of our society. Through work with police and judicial processes, forensic science and medicine, she explores the relationship between art and science. Borland's work is at once repulsive and seductive. She builds up layers of psychological complexity, juxtaposing the incongruous elements which pervade human sensibility, offending our notions of correctness and questioning the validity of our ideals. She plays with concepts of life and death, masculine and feminine, absence and presence, innocence and guilt. Through her investigative processes she reveals the brutal realities of contemporary society and validates her discourse with historical 'evidence', providing a disturbing commentary on humanity.

For social systems Borland’s project takes the form of a group of new works created for display at Newlyn Art Gallery. These works evolved from research undertaken during a series of short-term residencies at the Knowledge Spa at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, the public education face of the Peninsula Medical School, a pioneering institution in the field of Medical Humanities. Using a range of media – video projection, sculpture, and sound – she explores the subject of ‘practice’.

With thanks to: Dr Alan Bleakley, Peninsula Medical School, Dr Virginia Button, Limbs & Things, Alistair Crombie
Supported by: Henry Moore Foundation and Arts Council England South West

Selected biography 

Born 1965, Darvel, Ayrshire, Scotland

Lives and works Kilcreggan, Argyll, Scotland

Galleries                

Lisson Gallery, London www.lissongallery.com
Sean Kelly Gallery, New York www.skny.com
Galeria Toni Tapies, Barcelona www.tonitapies.com
Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne www.annaschwartzgallery.com

Selected Exhibitions

2006 Preserves, solo exhibition, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; The Collection,  Lincoln

2004 Conservatory, solo exhibition, Centre for Contemporary Art of South Australia,  Adelaide; Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

2002 Christine Borland Survey, Presentation of projects, Kunstverein Munich, Munich

2001 Christine Borland, solo exhibition, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto;  Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston

1999 Progressive Disorder, solo exhibition, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee