Edward Bruce’s multidisciplinary artistic practice involves codes and languages clashing or overlaying, opening up new fertile territory. Strange new objects are produced at the interface.
Artist’s Statement
‘I make prints, performances and sound works. I work with codes, acronyms and movement to create artworks that resemble games and boundary objects like fences and barriers. Print allows me to work in series, exploring different mixes of typography, graphics and signs to make group insignia. I am interested in indirect communication, where the message is sent in a multi-layered, complex way by manipulating signage forms that are normally designed to be direct and simple. I am also interested in the protocols and etiquettes we use to convey messages in a civil way and how these may be applied to the communication between opposing sides. I explore the breakdown of the ‘shibboleth’, the group mentality that produces a barrier between the ‘in group’ and the ‘out group’ by situating them in a shared space or ‘playing field’ where they are free to form cross-pollinated meanings.
Many of my subjects are the games, rituals and pastimes I remember from growing up in a suburb of Oxford and I am interested in how they may still retain their relevance in a world of overlapping cultures. In my work I try to discover a shared value for the present day, where the past makes sense of the present and the present makes sense of the past.’
