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Ed Atkins
Ed Atkins
from Wikipedia

Ed Atkins (born 1982) is a British contemporary artist best known for his video art and poetry. He is currently based in Cophenhagen. Atkins lectures at University of Fine Arts Hamburg, in past at Goldsmiths College in London[1] and has been referred to as "one of the great artists of our time" by the Swiss curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist.[2]

Key Information

Early life and education

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Atkins was raised in Stonesfield, a small village outside Oxford. His mother was an art teacher at a public school and his father was a graphic artist.[2] He earned his bachelor's degree from Central Saint Martins and later graduated from The Slade School of University College London with a master's degree in Fine Art in 2009.[1][3]

Work

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Towards the end of his studies, Atkins began working for artist Christian Marclay, joining a team of finders dedicated to sourcing film clips for Marclay’s The Clock (2010).[4]

Through a practice that involves layering apostrophic text[5] with high definition video, Ed Atkins makes work in which "The suck and the bloom of death and decay are channeled through technological tools at the height of contemporary image management".[5] Atkins' video oeuvre is composed largely of stock footage[6] and CGI avatars that are animated using motion capture[7] and dramatic, commercial sound.[8] Many of these videos feature a computer generated avatar as an isolated protagonist, whose poetic soliloquies intimately address the viewer. This protagonist, often surrounded by generic stock images[9] and cinematic special effects, has been noted as capable of procuring the uncanny valley effect.[10] In Us Dead Talk Love (2012), a 37-minute two-channel video work, the avatar speaks on finding an eyelash under their foreskin, a confession that sparks "a meditation on authenticity, self-representation, and the possibility for love".[11]

Atkins consciously produces the majority of his work on a computer.[6] From this laptop-based process and the works' foregrounding of video technology, he is known for his probing of the material structure of digital video. Often citing structural film artists such as Hollis Frampton as an influence, it is apparent that Atkins is interested in the technological possibilities of new media.[1] A prolific writer, Atkins' video works are often derived from writing.[12]

Atkins has had solo exhibitions at the Tate Britain, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Chisenhale Gallery, MoMA PS1, the Serpentine Gallery, Palais de Tokyo, and Kunsthalle Zürich. At the Serpentine Memory Marathon in 2012 he premiered DEPRESSION, a performance work that uses projection, digitally altered voice, and chroma key mask to simulate the cinematic techniques of his videos.[13] In conjunction with the Serpentine Extinction Marathon of 2014, Atkins produced www.80072745, a domain that invites users to sign up for a one-sided decade long email correspondence.[14] In 2019, Atkins participated in Performa 19 creating his performance A Catch Upon the Mirror.

Personal life

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Since 2020, Atkins has been living in Copenhagen with his partner, Sally-Ginger, and their two young children.[15]

Further reading

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References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia
Ed Atkins (born 1982) is a British contemporary based in , best known for his innovative digital video works that blend with explorations of mortality, grief, embodiment, and the blurred boundaries between digital simulations and lived experience. Atkins grew up near , , in a family of s—his mother taught art, and his father, Philip, was a graphic who died of cancer in 2009, an event that profoundly shaped his thematic concerns with loss and emotional sensation. He earned a master's degree from the at in 2009, the same year as his father's passing, which coincided with his degree show. His practice spans high-definition videos, animations, poetry, drawings, sound installations, and more recently, personal artifacts like embroideries and handwritten notes, often repurposing consumer technologies such as motion-capture software to create hyper-realistic avatars and environments that probe , intimacy, and the qualities of digital representation. Key works include early videos like Us Dead Talk Love (2012), a two-channel installation featuring CGI cadavers in philosophical dialogue, and Warm, Warm, Warm Spring Mouths (2013), which uses motion-capture to depict a male figure reciting amid evolving digital landscapes. Later pieces, such as Ribbons (2014), A Tumour (2011), and The Worm (2021), delve deeper into melancholy and familial grief, while his 2023 work Pianowork 2 continues to unsettle through avatar-based narratives. Atkins' career gained prominence with awards including a shortlisting for the Jarman Award in 2011 and winning the inaugural commission in 2012. His exhibitions have been held worldwide, with solo shows at institutions such as Chisenhale Gallery, (2014), the , New York (2021), and Kunsthaus Bregenz, (2019), culminating in a major career-spanning survey at from April to August 2025, which premiered his first feature-length film, Nurses Come and Go, but None for Me, alongside a new memoir titled Flower. Now 43 and living with his partner and two children, Atkins continues to lecture, including at the University of Fine Arts , expanding his discourse on low realisms and the affective power of .

Early life and education

Family background

Ed Atkins was born in 1982 in , , and raised in the nearby village of Stonesfield. Atkins' family played a pivotal role in nurturing his artistic inclinations from a young age. His mother worked as a secondary-school , while his father was a at an house, creating a household immersed in and creative processes. Both parents were supportive of the arts, fostering an atmosphere where drawing and painting were everyday activities, which directly influenced Atkins' early exposure to artistic expression.

Academic training

Ed Atkins earned a (Hons) in from College of Art and Design, , where he studied from 2002 to 2005 and specialized in and time-based practices. This foundational training introduced him to experimental approaches in , emphasizing digital and temporal elements that would inform his later work. He continued his education with a Master of Arts in Fine Art Media at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, from 2007 to 2009. His father's death from cancer in 2009 coincided with Atkins' degree show that year. During his time at the Slade, Atkins deepened his engagement with media-based art, including video and digital forms, while beginning to incorporate writing into his practice as a means to explore literary dimensions of visual media. This period marked a pivotal academic exposure to fine arts, honing his skills in multimedia experimentation under the institution's rigorous fine art curriculum.

Artistic career

Beginnings and influences

Following his graduation from the in 2009, Ed Atkins transitioned into professional practice by immersing himself in the art scene, leveraging his media-focused training to explore and editing techniques. This period marked a shift from academic experimentation to collaborative opportunities that honed his skills in moving-image production. Shortly after completing his MA, Atkins served as a on Christian Marclay's seminal 24-hour The Clock (2010), where he contributed to sourcing and compiling thousands of film and television clips depicting timepieces over a three-year production process co-led by in and Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. This role provided Atkins with an early breakthrough, exposing him to rigorous montage practices and the logistical demands of large-scale , while connecting him to influential figures in the international contemporary scene. Atkins' entry into the profession was further shaped by initial teaching and performative engagements, including his appointment as a lecturer at , where he began integrating his emerging ideas on digital materiality into pedagogical discussions around 2010. He also participated in collaborative projects, such as a 2011 public screening event in with artists James Richards and Haroon Mirza, which solidified key networks in the burgeoning art community. These early steps, spanning 2009 to 2012, positioned Atkins within a vibrant ecosystem of young artists experimenting with technology and appropriation in London and beyond, fostering his move toward independent video production. Central to Atkins' formative influences were the structural filmmakers of the and , particularly Hollis Frampton, whose innovative approaches to montage, , and the material properties of film informed Atkins' interest in the mechanics of . Atkins has described retracing these roots through later descendants in artist moving image and Scratch Video practices, emphasizing Frampton's vertical montage experiments as a model for his own strategies. This lineage resonated amid the early 2010s art scene, where aesthetics—characterized by digital alienation, appropriation, and hyper-mediated identity—provided a fertile ground for Atkins to reinterpret structural film's focus on form and process through high-definition CGI and .

Video and digital works

Ed Atkins' video and digital works are characterized by the integration of , avatars, and technologies to explore the boundaries between the physical and the virtual. These techniques allow him to create hyper-realistic simulations that blend live-action footage with , often resulting in fragmented, looping narratives that disrupt conventional storytelling. Atkins employs to map his own facial gestures and speech onto digital avatars, producing figures that mimic human behavior while revealing the artifice of simulation. A seminal example is Us Dead Talk Love (2012), a 37-minute two-channel video installation featuring a dialogue between two CGI-rendered cadavers suspended in a void-like space. The avatars, animated with meticulous detail in bodily decay and fluid emissions, converse in a mix of lyrical and sarcastic tones, probing themes of and through their post-mortem reflections. This work exemplifies Atkins' use of and looped projection to immerse viewers in a digital , where simulated mortality underscores the fragility of representation. In DEPRESSION (2012), Atkins extended these digital techniques into , narrating a poem about the brain's inner workings through a digitally altered voice projected as a CGI avatar of his own head. Performed live, the piece juxtaposes the artist's physical presence on with the avatar's ethereal, glitchy form, evoking a sense of disembodiment and psychological fragmentation. This hybrid approach highlights Atkins' interest in human simulation as a means to confront emotional . Atkins further innovated with interactive digital formats in www.80072745 (2014), an online project commissioned by Galleries that initiated a series of personalized exchanges with participants over a decade. Users accessed the work via a dedicated , receiving automated yet intimate messages from Atkins' digital , blurring the lines between artist-audience interaction and simulated correspondence. This -based intervention emphasized the persistence of digital communication in simulating human connection. By 2019, Atkins' practice culminated in performances like A Catch Upon the Mirror, a Performa Biennial commission where he recited incantatory poems onstage, with each iteration adopting a unique title to reflect shifting digital projections and live elements. The work incorporated CGI overlays to distort his physical form, reinforcing themes of mortality through alchemical metaphors of reflection and transmutation in virtual space. Post-2019, Atkins has expanded his digital explorations to incorporate personal artifacts such as embroideries and drawings, while continuing avatar-based narratives in works like Pianowork 2 (2023), an animated piano , and his first feature-length Nurses Come and Go, but None for Me (2025). Throughout these pieces, Atkins' thematic focus on the digital uncanny—where simulated humans evoke unease through near-perfect replication—intersects with meditations on mortality and the limits of human simulation. His avatars, often depicted in states of or , critique the disembodying effects of while affirming the irreplaceable messiness of . Atkins' early exposure to subtly informed this style, lending a rhythmic, emphasis to his digital compositions.

Writing and performance

Ed Atkins' writing practice often serves as a textual scaffold for his performative works, intertwining with embodied and digital expressions to explore themes of loss, identity, and linguistic inadequacy. His approach treats not as an isolated form but as a symbiotic element that amplifies the affective resonance of , drawing on raw, incantatory to bridge vulnerability and technological . This integration is evident in his early experiments, where written scripts animate avatars in hybrid live-digital formats, creating a between the scripted word and its virtual embodiment. In pieces such as DEPRESSION (2012), premiered at the Serpentine Gallery's Memory Marathon, Atkins employs spoken text and digitally altered voice to render a performative "human brain brimming with fictions," using projection and masking to layer poetic over themes of and bodily dissolution. The work's textual elements, delivered through Atkins' own manipulated voice, evoke a late-night broadcast style, blending confessional prose with surreal imagery to probe melancholy and failure without resolving into narrative closure. Atkins' early writing experiments frequently tied poetic scripts to avatar-based videos, where dialogues scripted by the lend emotional depth to computer-generated figures, as seen in works like Us Dead Talk Love (2012), in which avatars recite lines that mix tenderness with existential estrangement. These scripts function as performative prompts, transforming written text into spoken soliloquies that highlight the insufficiency of language in digital realms. By 2015, this evolved in Performance Capture at the , where participants read Atkins' opaque, surreal poem—featuring lines like "I’ve seen Analgesic anticoagulant Olbas Shame beneath bedclothes"—via , their performances captured and morphed into a collective CGI avatar reciting the text in fragmented, multi-voiced iterations. This project underscores poetry's role in dissecting mediated identity, with unpublished scripts circulating as ephemeral, site-specific artifacts. Up to 2019, Atkins extended this companionate use of in live formats, notably in A Catch Upon the Mirror (Performa 19), a commissioned where he recites Gilbert Sorrentino’s poem "The Morning Roundup" (1971) in repetitive cycles on stage, altering emphasis to incantatory effect and interspersing it with songs like ’s "Under this Stone Lies Gabriel John" (1686). The piece's textual core—unbroken recitations that shrink into sonic distance—manifests as a ritualistic tool for confronting finitude, supported by an choir that swells the into communal , emphasizing Atkins' view of language as both deficient and alchemical in . Unpublished performative texts from this period, often iterated across stagings with variant titles, remain integral to his hybrid practice, prioritizing linguistic experimentation over fixed publication. In recent years, Atkins has further integrated writing with personal handwritten notes and a , Flower (2025), alongside embroideries that embed textual elements into tangible forms, extending his explorations of intimacy and grief.

Exhibitions and recognition

Solo exhibitions

Ed Atkins' solo exhibitions have prominently featured his video installations, often employing multi-channel high-definition formats to create immersive environments that explore themes of digital representation and human emotion. In 2013, Atkins presented a solo exhibition at in New York, showcasing his early video works that blended filmic techniques with text-based elements to challenge narrative conventions in moving images. The installation emphasized high-definition projections, immersing viewers in fragmented, uncanny digital landscapes derived from . The following year, Atkins had a solo show at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in , where he exploited conventions of and literature through a series of projections and sculptural elements. This exhibition highlighted multi-channel setups that subverted traditional storytelling, creating disorienting spatial experiences for the audience. Also in 2014, Atkins' solo exhibition "Bastards" at the Palais de Tokyo in centered on the three-channel HD Ribbons (2014), alongside other videos, texts, and installations that delved into motifs of mortality and digital avatars. The curatorial context framed these works as a meditation on the "bastard" forms of contemporary media, with immersive projections enveloping the gallery space to evoke a sense of simulated intimacy. In 2019, Atkins presented a solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz in , featuring computer-animated videos, drawings, and installations that examined themes of , embodiment, and emotional simulation through flat-pack patterns and sculptural elements derived from his digital works. In 2021, Atkins had a solo exhibition titled Get Life/Love's Work at the in New York, debuting new works using motion-capture and technologies to explore the intersections of , , and digital capture, including videos, embroideries, and personal artifacts. In late 2023, Atkins collaborated with writer Steven Zultanski for a dual-venue solo exhibition at Gladstone Gallery in New York, spanning the 21st Street and 64th Street locations from November 17, 2023, to January 6, 2024. The show integrated new multi-channel video installations with performative texts, fostering immersive environments that intertwined Atkins' digital animations with Zultanski's poetic interventions, such as responsive readings and sculptural adjuncts. In 2025, hosted a major career-spanning survey exhibition of Atkins' work from April 2 to August 25, premiering his first feature-length film Nurses Come and Go, but None for Me and a new memoir Flower, alongside installations exploring grief, avatars, and digital melancholy.

Awards and honors

Ed Atkins has received several notable awards and honors recognizing his innovative contributions to , particularly in video and . Early in his career, he was awarded the Chelsea Arts Club Trust Special Award in 2008, supporting his emerging practice. In 2010, Atkins was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, an annual exhibition showcasing recent graduates from art schools, and received the Boise Travel Award, which funded international research and development. He was shortlisted for the Jarman Award in 2011, a prize celebrating experimental artist-filmmakers. In 2012, Atkins won the inaugural Tomorrow Never Knows Film Prize, awarded by the South London Gallery for outstanding short films, and received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Visual Arts, a prestigious unrestricted grant for mid-career artists. That same year, he was honored with the Jerwood/FVU Awards, a commission supporting innovative moving-image work. Atkins served as Writer in Residence at the during the 2012 London Art Book Fair, where he developed texts and performances engaging with the gallery's collection. In 2016, he received the Trust Special Project Award to further his projects. Atkins has held significant academic positions as honors for his expertise. From 2010 to 2014, he was a Fine Art Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, contributing to the Department of Art's curriculum on contemporary practices. He served as Guest Professor at Städelschule in Frankfurt from 2014 to 2016 and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 2016 to 2018. In 2019, he was awarded a residency through the Berliner Künstlerprogramm of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), supporting international artists in Berlin. His work has garnered broader institutional acclaim through inclusions in major biennials. Atkins participated in the 55th in 2013 ("The Encyclopedic Palace"), the 56th in 2015 ("All the World’s Futures"), and the 58th in 2019 ("May You Live in Interesting Times"). Additionally, in 2019, he received a commission from Performa, New York's biennial of , for his theatrical work A Catch Upon the Mirror. These selections underscore his influence in global discourse up to 2019.

Publications

Poetry and essays

Ed Atkins has contributed several critical essays to prominent art publications, focusing on the intersections of digital media, embodiment, and existential themes. In his 2016 essay "Data Rot," published in Frieze magazine, Atkins examines the resurgence of abjection in contemporary art as a response to digital and physical disintegration, arguing that high-definition technologies exacerbate sensations of bodily vulnerability and decay, evoking the uncanny through hyper-real virtual forms that mimic yet distort human mortality. This piece draws on Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection to critique how digital reproducibility undermines stable identity, aligning with Atkins's broader interest in technology's role in confronting death. Similarly, in a 2015 column for Artforum, Atkins reflects on Ben Marcus's The Age of Wire and String, praising its inventive prose as a model for reimagining language amid technological mediation, and notes its influence on his own explorations of fragmented, uncanny narratives. Atkins's essays often reveal structural influences from literary and philosophical sources. These writings demonstrate his analytical approach to uncanny effects in virtual environments, where structural glitches in representation mirror existential unease. Atkins's poetic writing, featured in his book collections through and beyond, consists of terse, experimental pieces that blend verse with to probe themes of mortality and technological alienation. His style evolved from early, fragmented entries in the —often appearing in artist-led anthologies—to more fluid poetic by the late decade, increasingly intertwining death's inevitability with technology's illusory permanence, as seen in works that prefigure his later collections without relying on visual integration. This progression marks a shift toward intimate, tones that humanize abstract digital horrors, prioritizing emotional resonance over narrative linearity.

Books

Ed Atkins has published three major books with , each blending prose, poetry, and experimental forms to explore themes of embodiment, memory, and the absurdities of contemporary life. These works extend his artistic practice beyond visual media, offering introspective literary outputs that often tie to his exhibitions while standing as distinct publications. His debut collection, A Primer for Cadavers (2016), compiles texts written between 2010 and 2016, presented as a mix of prose-poetry and theatrical scripts. The book delves into motifs of mortality, digital surrogacy, and linguistic fragmentation, reflecting Atkins' interest in how mediates human experience. Critics praised its originality, noting its ability to materialize ideas through text alone, devoid of the visual elements central to his video works. In Old Food (2019), Atkins crafts a wadded with , melancholy, and "bravura stupidity," written alongside his of the same name. The text lurches between , listicles, lyrics, and , scorched by senility, , and various hungers, while contemplating consumption, decay, and post-Brexit cultural malaise. It received acclaim for its innovative structure and thematic depth, positioning Atkins as a key voice in contemporary artist writing. Atkins' most recent book, Flower (2025), is an experimental anti-memoir comprising a single, 96-page paragraph of realistic confessions, likes, dislikes, memories, and observations. Described as a listless blur that treats personal truth as elusive, it offers a on the quotidian details of embodied life—from clammy wraps to unchecked tendencies—turning inward to parade appetites and innermost thoughts. Reviewers highlighted its fast-paced, irreverent tone and surreal mundanity, marking it as a moving yet absurd contribution to introspective literature on artistry and digital-era existence.

Personal life and recent activities

Family and residences

Ed Atkins has been in a long-term with Sally-Ginger Brockbank, with whom he shares a life centered on creative collaboration and domestic routines. Their relationship, which dates back to at least the early , has provided a foundation for Atkins' personal stability amid his professional travels. The couple has two young children—a daughter and a son—with whom they engage in playful, imaginative activities that reflect Atkins' artistic sensibilities, such as drawing Post-it note illustrations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, Atkins, Sally-Ginger, and their children have resided in Copenhagen, Denmark, after relocating from Berlin, where the family had been based previously. The move to Copenhagen, facilitated by secure housing, has contributed to greater personal stability for the family, allowing them to establish a consistent home environment despite Atkins' occasional travels for work. This relocation has supported a balanced family life, with the Danish city's supportive infrastructure aiding their daily routines and child-rearing.

Teaching positions

Ed Atkins began his academic career with early lectures and research roles, including an Honorary position in Sculpture at the Slade School of Art from 2009 to 2010 and a visiting lecture at in 2010. From 2012 to 2014, he served as a Lecturer at Goldsmiths College of Art in , where his teaching integrated his practice in video, writing, and performance. Atkins has maintained an ongoing affiliation with the University of Fine Arts (HFBK), starting as a guest professor from 2018 to 2019, with further guest professorship in Wintersemester 2023-2024, and ongoing lectures. Since 2024, he has held a professorship in "Entwurf, Typographie und Buchkunst" at the Kunstakademie , serving in a substitute capacity shared with John Morgan in the Department of Art. Atkins balances his Düsseldorf position with his primary residence in Copenhagen, Denmark, allowing him to sustain international teaching commitments alongside his artistic practice.

Recent projects

In recent years, Ed Atkins has expanded his practice beyond early CGI videos to incorporate live-action film, paintings, embroideries, and drawings, often exploring themes of mortality, personal turmoil, and the interplay between digital and human presence. A pivotal project is the two-hour feature film Nurses Come and Go, but None for Me (2024), co-written with Steven Zultanski and starring and , which premiered as part of Atkins' career-spanning exhibition at from April 2 to August 25, 2025. The film, commissioned by the Hartwig Art Foundation, delves into illness and death through a of fragmented , marking Atkins' debut in live-action cinema while retaining his signature blend of unease and digital undertones. The exhibition also showcased new CGI works, including The Worm (2021), an animated depiction of a phone call between Atkins and his staged on a virtual TV set, and Pianowork 2 (2024), which features hyper-detailed, piano performances evoking emotional disquiet. These pieces integrate with Atkins' 2020s output of embroideries, paintings, and drawings—such as pandemic-era assemblages—that materialize digital glitches and bodily vulnerability in tactile forms, underscoring a shift toward confronting existential fragility amid technological mediation.

References

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