Nick Ferguson |

Nick Ferguson is a London based artist and academic. His research combines studio practice, urban theory and outreach activities in order to understand the relationship between art, space and power. Recent and ongoing projects focus on London Heathrow, its neighbourhoods and airspace. He will be curating an exhibition and trans-disciplinary programme of events, Air Matters, Learning from Heathrow, at Watermans Art Centre in 2019. The project has been developed in partnership with Watermans Art Centre, Kingston University and Richmond University and is supported by Arts Council England.

His doctoral thesis, Indifference. Art, Liberalism and the Politics of Place, (2015) examines the legacy of classical liberal thought in contemporary art commissioning. Through a series of cross readings between political philosophy, aesthetic theory and political geography, it traces a relationship between location-driven art and liberalism’s conceptualisation of the way territory might function in a market society. Concurrently, the thesis maps a counter aesthetics of indifference, at large in art and literature since the mid nineteenth century, whereby indifference is mobilised by the critical modern subject in the attempt to disrupt both public and private power.

Research interests include:

Art and space

Art and cultural policy, including the role of art and art institutions in regional, national and international relations

Political theology

Cities, especially London and its peripheries

Art practice, especially in relation to air, airspace and atmospheres.