Kieran Brown
Above it All and Below the Rest

Kieran Brown is an artist who creates absurd fictional characters and worlds to explore societal conditions and human behaviour. He has made installations using trees, water and pumpkins in which video sequences of his own performances are incorporated. Kieran Brown lives and works in Bristol and has regularly exhibited at Spike Island and was included in New Contemporaries in 2002.

Kieran Brown has been invited to by Picture This to be artist in residence at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children funded by the United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust, the Wallace and Gromit Grand Appeal, the Arts Council of England Regional Arts Lottery Programme and South West Screen.

This two-screen video installation consists of a series of scenes and motifs shot at the Hospital and at a local swimming pool. The work playfully comments on the hospital environment and its desire to rid the body of unwanted elements and continues the artist's exploration of the representation of health and sickness within art history and mythology as seen in paintings by Bosch and Dali. The imagery is gently paced and humorous and is accompanied by a soft underwater soundtrack - a character lies still under water spilling white liquid, fingertips dispense droopy substances, pieces of aluminium tubes fall to the bottom of the pool floor and yellow sponges are slowly released to float around in the clear blue water.

Exhibition

3 June - 8 July 2004

Bristol Royal Hospital for Children