Toby Christian
Toby Christian’s expansive practice centres around his written responses to objects, which range from rare museological artefacts to more familiar domestic items. Appropriating the descriptive style of the film treatment, written in the present tense, his texts describe the minutiae of objects, surfaces and interiors. But Christian's 2017 at Swimming Pool Gallery was inspired by someone a little different: his mom. In describing the crumpled knots of newspaper fastened onto the gallery walls, he wrote, "I have a strong memory of my mum teaching me how to make a good fire. We would sit together tying knots of newspaper, and see who could make them the quickest. I remember noticing that my hands were much smaller than hers. We couldn’t use newspapers that were from that day, or the day before that, or the day before that, but it was ok to burn any newspapers older than that, as their news wasn’t news any longer.”
Toby Christian lives and works in Glasgow. Recent solo exhibitions and performances include Railing, at Raising Dust, Whitechapel Gallery (2017), Pedestrian Confetti, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Leeds (2015) and A Bunch of Keys, Nam Project, Milan …
Toby Christian’s expansive practice centres around his written responses to objects, which range from rare museological artefacts to more familiar domestic items. Appropriating the descriptive style of the film treatment, written in the present tense, his texts describe the minutiae of objects, surfaces and interiors. But Christian's 2017 at Swimming Pool Gallery was inspired by someone a little different: his mom. In describing the crumpled knots of newspaper fastened onto the gallery walls, he wrote, "I have a strong memory of my mum teaching me how to make a good fire. We would sit together tying knots of newspaper, and see who could make them the quickest. I remember noticing that my hands were much smaller than hers. We couldn’t use newspapers that were from that day, or the day before that, or the day before that, but it was ok to burn any newspapers older than that, as their news wasn’t news any longer.”
Toby Christian lives and works in Glasgow. Recent solo exhibitions and performances include Railing, at Raising Dust, Whitechapel Gallery (2017), Pedestrian Confetti, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Leeds (2015) and A Bunch of Keys, Nam Project, Milan (2015). Recent group exhibitions include We Were Having An Argument About Kenneth Koch’s ‘One Train May Hide Another’, Kingsgate Workshops, London, curated by Nadia Hebson, Paul Becker and George Vasey (2017), Quiz 2, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, curated by Alexis Vaillant and Robert Stadler (2016), Renderuin, with Duncan Marquiss, Glasgow International (2016) and Mais é Menos, Baró Galeria, São Paulo (2016). His books, Collar (2017) and Measures (2013) are published by Koenig Books, London.
