Ben Judd (artist)
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Ben Judd | |
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| Born | Ben Judd 1970 (age 55–56) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | University of Humberside (BA) Goldsmiths, University of London (MA) |
| Known for | Performance art, video art, installation art |
| Movement | Contemporary art |
Ben Judd (born 1970) is a British contemporary artist working primarily in performance, video, and installation.[1][2]
Early life and education
Ben Judd was born in London, England. He completed a BA in Fine Art at the University of Humberside in 1994 and an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London in 1997.
Career
Judd’s work examines collectivity and participation, enabling different forms of communities to be explored in relation to site and context. He often works with collaborators as a method to develop self-reflexive folk histories and construct temporary communities. His work explores both a physical and an imaginary set of experiences, often working closely with real-life subjects (community groups, shamans, performers) to collectively imagine alternative ways of being and living together.
Early work included specific groups who have their own ritualistic patterns of behaviour, for example trainspotters and amateur photographers, often mirroring their actions through the anthropological position of observer–participant.
His video I Remember (Cindy Sherman) (2000) was discussed in the Los Angeles Times, by David Pagel.[1] The same work was also discussed in The New York Times during the International Center of Photography Triennial exhibition Strangers.[2] The work was additionally discussed in Flash Art Italia (Ellis, Flash Art, June 2000).
His early trilogy I Miss (2002), I Love (2003), and I Can and Cannot Live Without (2004) investigated obsession, longing, and surveillance within everyday social settings. I Miss was reviewed in The Guardian in 2002, which described the work as combining humour with unease in its portrayal of romantic fixation.[3] I Love was discussed in Time Out London and a-n Magazine in 2004.[4][5]
Judd’s work was also included in the London exhibition These Epic Islands (Vilma Gold, 2000), reviewed by Sally O’Reilly, who examined its confessional and voyeuristic nature.[6]
In 2003 his video The Future Never Looks How You Expected It to Look was exhibited internationally, including in Japan, and received extensive coverage in Artit and The Daily Yomiuri.[7][8]
In 2007 Judd undertook a residency at Lugar a Dudas in Cali, Colombia. This resulted in I Will Heal You, a project that combined participation in spiritualist rituals with a critical examination of belief. The project was documented in Charles Danby’s extended article in the periodical Miser and Now.[9]
In 2008 Judd curated The Brotherhood of Subterranea at Kunstbunker, Nuremberg. The exhibition was discussed in both the Nürnberger Zeitung and Abendzeitung.[10][11] These articles focused on themes of secrecy, collective belief, ritual behaviour, and the construction of pseudo-religious communities.
In 2010 Judd participated in the exhibition Swedenborg House: Fourteen Interventions in London. Peter Suchin reviewed this in Art Monthly, discussing Judd’s performance contribution Concerning the Difference Between the Delights of Pleasure and True Happiness (2010).[12]
During a residency at the Banff Centre (Canada), Judd expanded his inquiries into ritual and constructed belief, collaborating with shamans and mediums in works that questioned the limits of performative faith.[13]
Art historian Pandora Syperek has described Judd’s work as engaging with “metamorphoses and transgressions” through ritualised transformation and symbolic exchange.[14]
In 2018 he developed a large-scale site-specific project Nothing Human is Strange to Me at De Montfort University, Leicester, drawing on the city’s layered histories and exploring fictive and archival narratives, as described in a BBC Radio Leicester interview.[15]
From 2020 onward, Judd’s work has increasingly explored participatory structures and temporary communities, aligning with a broader shift towards socially embedded performance practice.[14]
Recent work
Judd continues to develop large-scale participatory works that form temporary communities through shared ritual, performance, and collective action. His recent projects include:
The large-scale collaborative work The Origin (2021), developed during his Stanley Picker Fellowship at Kingston University, London. The project culminated with an installation at Stanley Picker Gallery, a boat on the River Thames and a series of performances, workshops and events. The fellowship reflected on Britain’s island status, both literal and metaphorical, and how islands shape the communities that live there.[16]
His solo exhibition and performance The Absolute (2021) took place at Leicester Gallery, De Montfort University. Drawing on Leicester’s rich history, including the 20th century immigration of dispossessed groups, the exhibition explored a fictional lost community, the Welfarers, that once occupied the area now inhabited by De Montfort University.
The Push & the Pull (2022) was a site-specific work commissioned by Whitstable Biennale, created in partnership with local community groups. Over five days an historic Thames sailing barge travelled between Whitstable and the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, acting as a creative space and site for experimentation and in the process exploring ideas around community and islands, both real and imaginary.
Thought Forms (2025) was a site-specific participatory project at Fort Darnet, on a small island on the River Medway in Kent. The work, commissioned by Estuary Festival.[17] examined how a group might define themselves in relation to others, explored within the bounded space of a boat and an island. Thought Forms considered ideas around borders, belonging and sovereignty, reflecting on wider global contexts such as the rise of nationalism.
A 2025 article by Jeffrey Kastner situates Judd among contemporary artists exploring “partial vision”—states of uncertainty, belief, and unstable knowledge—positioning his work within broader debates around attention, ritual and collective imagination.[16]
Curatorial work
Judd has curated and co-curated numerous international exhibitions including:
- Stories in the Dark: Contemporary Responses to the Magic Lantern (The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury, 2016). Stories in the Dark was documented by WOW Magazine, which discussed his use of magic-lantern technology and exploration of participatory spectatorship.[18][19]
- Ensemble (Backlit, Nottingham, 2013)
- The Edge of Reason (KinoKino, Norway, 2011)
- From Ritual to Theatre (Ancient and Modern, London, 2010)
- The Brotherhood of Subterranea (Kunstbunker, Nuremberg, 2008)
- Persona Non Grata (One in the Other, London, 2007)
Reception
Judd’s work has received sustained critical attention internationally, including in the UK, United States, Germany, and Japan. His work has been the subject of articles and discussion in The Guardian, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Flash Art Italia, Time Out, Art Monthly, Nürnberger Zeitung, and Abendzeitung, situating his practice within debates about voyeurism, belief, ritual, and collective experience.
Exhibitions
Judd has exhibited in numerous international exhibitions since 1998, including Institute of Contemporary Art, London; International Center of Photography, New York; The Photographers' Gallery, London; Sprengel Museum, Hannover; Barbican Art Gallery, London; Rotterdam International Film Festival; David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Zendai MoMA, Shanghai; Tokyo Opera City Gallery; Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool; Kunstbunker, Nuremberg.
Awards
In 2019 Judd was awarded the Stanley Picker Fellowship, Kingston University London. His work has been directly supported by Arts Council England, Outset, Art Fund, Y-Heritage, Henry Moore Foundation.
Teaching
Judd holds the academic post of Tutor (Research) at Royal College of Art, London, where he teaches MA Sculpture and MFA Arts & Humanities. He is also Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University. He has taught at numerous Higher Education institutions, both BA and MA, including Leeds Beckett University; De Montfort University, Leicester; Central Saint Martins, London; Sheffield Hallam University; Goldsmiths, University of London; Swansea Metropolitan University; University of Westminster; School of Oriental and African Studies, London; University of Humberside; University of the Creative Arts, Canterbury; Loughborough University.
Further reading
- Geeta Pendse, Nothing Human is Strange to Me, The A Word, BBC Radio Leicester, 2018
- Anon, Stories in the Dark, WOW magazine, April 2016
- Fatoş Üstek, Ben Judd, fig-2, London, 2015
- Pandora Syperek, Metamorphoses and Transgressions, Communion, 2014
- Emma Cocker, Beyond Belief, Communion, 2014
- Ben Judd and Sidsel Christensen, The Edge of Reason, 2011
- Dan Smith, New Maps of Heaven, Art Monthly, July/August 2011
- Charles Danby, I Will Heal You, Miser and Now, Summer 2007
- David Levi Strauss, Strangers: International Center of Photography, New York, Art Forum, November 2003
- Olivier Gunning, High Anxiety, ID, July 1998
- John Slyce, Ben Judd, Flash Art, May / June 1998
- Peter Owen, Is That a Fact?, Creative Camera, March / April 1996
- David Brittain, New Typologies, Creative Camera, May/June 1996
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 David Pagel, Los Angeles Times, 13 July 2000.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Barbara Pollack, The New York Times, 7 September 2003.
- ↑ Jessica Lack, Die First, The Guardian, 17 August 2002.
- ↑ Helen Sumpter, Die First, Time Out, June 2004.
- ↑ Simon Pittuck and Andrew Clarkin, a-n Magazine, July 2004.
- ↑ Sally O’Reilly, These Epic Islands, London Art, 2000.
- ↑ Usuki Naoko, Artit, Summer/Fall 2004.
- ↑ The Daily Yomiuri, 29 July 2004.
- ↑ Charles Danby, I Will Heal You, Miser and Now, 2007.
- ↑ Stephanie Siebert, Nürnberger Zeitung, 17 April 2008.
- ↑ Georg Kasch, Abendzeitung, 18 April 2008.
- ↑ Peter Suchin, Art Monthly, April 2010.
- ↑ Emma Cocker, Being in Two Minds, 2009.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Pandora Syperek, Metamorphoses and Transgressions, in The Edge of Reason, 2011.
- ↑ BBC Radio Leicester, Nothing Human is Strange to Me, 2018.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Jeffrey Kastner, Ben Judd in A Voice, in Partial Vision, 2025.
- ↑ "ITV News". ITVx. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Stories in the Dark, WOW Magazine, 2016.
- ↑ Ben Judd, Whitstable Biennale Journal, 2021.
External links
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