Graduated from Slade School of Fine Art
Selected by Ambrosine Allen
Parideza, 2006
For his final show at the Slade, David Henningham has created a complex installation which sits precariously on the border between fiction and reality. Animal themed curiosities sit in a series of hand crafted display cabinets, books perch open on a shelf and an intricate poster titled Dinocerata (terrible horn mammals) is positioned high on the wall. The books selected for the show feature observations and extracts from various texts, descriptions of voyages and explorations, encounters with various animals and unusual species.
The viewer is confronted with a whole host of possible narratives. This could be a show about the conflicts of science and religion. There are references to the book of Genisis, to Adams naming of the animals and we are reminded of Noahs flood and the building of the Ark. But there are also allusions to Darwin and Zoology; the exhibits are carefully laid out to suggest museum collections and natural history archives. Henningham seems intent on breaking down any one logical interpretation or categorisation. There is nothing to tell us if the material presented is fact or fiction and even as you leave, these connections seem slightly beyond your grasp.
David Henningham also runs the Henningham Family Press (henninghamfamilypress.co.uk), collaborating with his wife and other artists in order to produce a range of books. Since the MA show, Chelsea College of Art and Design has purchased a selection of Henninghams books and he has been asked to produce an exhibition for Westminster Library.
(Ambrosine Allen, 2006)
Qualifications and training
- 2006 MA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art
- 2004 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art
- 2001 Foundation Diploma, Central St. Martins School of Art
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