ATLAS Arts is delighted to present a talk by Chris Dooks, multimedia artist and sound composer, who will discuss his current practice in the fifth of a series of seven artist’s talks taking place from May to November. This event will take place on Saturday 1 September from 2.00 – 3.00pm at Tigh Na Sgire, Park Lane, Portree.

Chris Dooks is a Scotland-based audiovisual artist. He is also a composer of electronic music and sound art. His recent work includes Moons or These Knots are Not Knots, an installation commissioned by Ayr Renaissance, for Ayr Open Doors Weekend 2011. Visitors to an isolated room in the former poor house, Holmston House, were presented with a Victorian chest of drawers on top of which the word “MOONS” was balanced. Chris has created an audio track to accompany the work and states “It is especially suitable for the chronically ill and incarcerated and was written for them…”

Dooks’s other work includes the Studio1824.com Exhibition at Timespan, in Sutherland, Scotland. In 2008, Timespan selected Dooks for an artist’s residency focusing on the Helmsdale Icehouse. Dooks’s project comprised several pieces of work including a live sound performance, an exhibition and a net label to promote recordings made in or around the Helmsdale Icehouse.

Dooks worked in television as a director of arts programmes until 1998, when he fell ill. On his web site, he describes the “intense learning curve” of coping with chronic ill health and his return to his training as a photographer: “Over the following decade, I developed a successful art practice sympathetic to my new life which has been the foundation for academic enquiry since 2010. My forthcoming PhD deals with creative strategies regarding the illness Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or M.E, asking how such an art practice may serve to offset or augment the relationship between the cultural practitioner and the illness.”

Emma Nicolson, ATLAS, director commented: “This is an artist who has faced considerable challenge after embarking on an exciting career in the media producing programmes for such as ‘the South Bank Show’. Illnesses of this kind can undermine our belief in our ability to succeed in having a worthwhile life and achieve our ambitions. Chris is a truly imaginative artist whose work crosses many areas of interest; film, music, mapping, and photography and who more than a decade on Chris Dooks reminds us what can be achieved.”

Booking: Advisable but not necessary please book through admin@atlasarts.org uk or call 07787 551847
Price: Free
Artist’s website: http://www.dooks.org

ATLAS is funded by Creative Scotland, with support from HI-Arts & Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Web: http://atlasarts.org.uk

Source: ATLAS