Artist statement
Sophie Warren is an artist and Jonathan Mosley is an architect. They have a critical spatial practice that employs strategies of play, hybridisation and the construction of imaginary architectures to resist homogeneous perceptions of urban space. Using language, event, still and moving imagery and installation Warren & Mosley construct situations, an informal architecture of possibility, moving between material fact and the fiction of the imagination. The practice infiltrates environments of the multi-use sports hall, the car park, the motorway service station, the construction site and the offices and corridors of the institutions that build our cities.
Their work has been exhibited internationally including Casco, Utrecht (2011) and the Showroom, London (2010) with Rogue Game an ongoing series of hybrid games in collaboration with Can Altay, Berlin 60th and 58th International Film Festivals (2010 and 2008), Sydney International Architecture Film Festival (2010), Crosstalk Video Festival, Budapest (2010), within Coalesce: Happenstance curated by Paul O’Neill at Smart Project Space, Amsterdam (2009), ITU Gallery, Istanbul (2008), Gymruy International Biennale, Armenia (2004), Centre of Contemporary Art, Glasgow (2003), The Armory Show, New York (2002), Frederike Taylor Gallery, New York (2001) and Gasworks, London (2000). Reviewed in the art and architectural press, the work of the collaboration has also been discussed in Jane Rendell (ed.) Critical Architecture (London: Routledge, 2007) and Brandon LaBelle (ed.) Surface Tension Supplement No.1 (Los Angeles and Berlin: Errant Bodies Press, 2006).
Initiating transdisciplinary projects the practice is a site of exchange and ongoing collaboration with artists, writers and architects. A book of their recent project ‘Beyond Utopia’ with contributions by Maria Fusco, Brandon LaBelle, Marie-Anne McQuay, Paul O’Neill, Elizabeth Price, Jane Rendell, Lee Stickells and Robin Wilson will be published in 2011 by Errant Bodies Press, Berlin / Los Angeles.
Solo exhibitions
- 2012 Rogue Game in collaboration with Can Altay, Spike Island, Bristol
- 2011 Rogue Game in collaboration with Can Altay, Casco, Utrecht
- 2005 Model situation (model city), The Architecture Centre, Bristol
- 2005 Model situation (blue sky thinking), Plan 9, Bristol
- 2002 Being There, Station, Bristol
- 2000 M5 Southbound: Welcome Break, Prema, Gloucestershire
Group exhibitions
- 2011 Echoes of Home, curated by Nora Belovai and Helen Spence in association with the Whitechapel Gallery, The Mint Hotel, London
- 2011 The Right to the City curated by Lee Stickells and Zanny Begg, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney
- 2011 Rogue Game proposition in collaboration with Can Altay in 'An Exchange with Sol LeWitt', Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, USA
- 2010 Rogue Game in collaboration with Can Altay, within Can Altay-Church Street Partners' Gazette exhibition, The Showroom, London
- 2010 Expanded Cinema International Architecture Film event, Sydney Architecture Biennale, Sydney
- 2010 Splitscreen curated by Pedro Torres, online exhibition, www.stuffinablank.com/splitscreen.html
- 2010 Crosstalk, Video Art Festival, Budapest
- 2010 Urban Research Film Programme curated by Klaus Eisenlohr for the 60th International Film Festival, Meinblau Gallery, Berlin
- 2009 Coalesce: Happenstance curated by Paul O'Neill, Smart Project Space, Amsterdam
- 2008 Design Cinema Works curated by Burcu Yancatarol, ITU, Istanbul
- 2008 Room Tone curated by Brandon LaBelle, Tuned City, Berlin
- 2008 Directors Lounge Urban Film Programme curated by Klaus Eisenlohr, 59th International Festival, Berlin
- 2006 Wig Wam Bam curated by Marcus Coates & Claire Barclay, Plan 9, Bristol
- 2004 4th Gymruy International Biennale curated by Arpine Tokmajyan, Gymruy Centre of Contemporary Art, Armenia
- 2003 In Site: Art and Architecture conference show, Centre of Contemporary Art, Glasgow
- 2001 The Armory Show, International Art Fair, with Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York
- 2001 Gone Missing, Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York
- 2000 What We Call Progress curated by Anthony Iles and Craig Martin, Gasworks, London
Artist talks
- 2012 Warren & Mosley collaborative practice, Royal College of Art, London
- 2011 Architecture and Philosophy lecture series curated by Helene Frichot, RMIT, Melbourne
- 2009 The Propositional Work of Warren and Mosley, Dartington College of Arts, Devon
- 2008 Alas, Are We Still Bad Players: Play and Agency in Contemporary Culture initiated by Tim Stott, Gradcam, NCAD, Dublin
- 2008 Initiative & Institution Symposium curated by Celine Condorelli & Public Works, London Metropolitan University, London
- 2007 Architecture & Documentary Practice: Writing, Imaging & Performance initiated by Robin Wilson, The Bartlett, UCL, London
Public commissions
- 2006 Platform, Proposition No. 16, Urban Game, The Architecture Centre, Bristol
Projects
- 2007 Rogue Games, (ongoing), a series of events exploring hybrid games in collaboration with Can Altay, various venues, various locations
- 2007 Proposition for the First Build (a vertical common) in collaboration with writer Robin Wilson, a critical planning application, engaging with City of London Planning Authority, CABE, 00 Research & selected theorists, Smithfield, London
Competitions, prizes and awards
- 2012 Rootstein Hopkins funding award, Spike Island, Bristol
- 2010 Research and Production Award, University of the West of England, UK
- 2007 Practice-led Research Grant with Robin Wilson, Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK
- 2006 New Collaborations Bursary with Neville Gabie and Tessa Fitzjohn, NAN, UK
- 2003 Research and Production Award, University of the West of England, UK
- 2000 Annual Award, Arts Council England, UK
Publications
- 2012 Danielle Rose King, review of Rogue Game solo show and symposium, Art Monthly, December
- 2012 Beyond Utopia - project focussed book with contributions from Maria Fusco, Paul O'Neill, Elizabeth Price, Jane Rendell- Errant Bodies Press, Berlin/Los Angeles
- 2009 Vaari Claffey, review of Coalesce Happenstance in Circa, April
- 2009 Tim Stott, review of Coalesce Happenstance in Art Review, April
- 2009 Michael Gibbs, review of Coalesce Happenstance, Art Monthly, Feburary
- 2008 Rogue Game within El Ahali Journal edited by Can Altay, Spike Island / Kunsterhaus Bethanien / Kunsterhaus / Self Publishing Fair, Bristol / Berlin / Stuggart / London
- 2007 Robin Wilson, ‘At the limits of genre: the presence that WAS HERE’ chapter on the work of Warren & Mosley, published in Jane Rendell (ed) Critical Architecture, Routledge
- 2007 ‘A Conversation between Sophie Warren, Jonathan Mosley and Curator Lindsay Hughes’, commissioned by the Arts Council for Publicartonline
- 2006 Jonathan Mosley and Sophie Warren, ‘Proposed Alterations to a City Plan’, Surface Tension Supplement No.1, Errant Bodies Publications, Los Angeles
Personal website
