RA Walden
RA Walden was born in 1987 in London, and currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany and in London, UK. Walden is a transdisciplinary artist whose work centres a queer, disabled perspective on the fragility of the body. Walden’s work is concerned with physicality and its interplay with other social categorisations and power differentials.
At the core of their practice is an interrogation of embodiment under late stage capitalism. Walden’s work questions contemporary western society's relationship with care, tenderness and fragility in relation to our bodies, our communities and our ecosystem. They are interested in the ability (and failure) to navigate physicality, interdependency and vulnerability both communally and individually. How can access remain generative? What are the limits of translation? What can we find in the edges and boundary layers of ability and somatic experience? The vulnerability of the body has served as a focus for Walden’s practice since 2017; recent work seeks to disturb overly simplistic understandings of the disabled body, looking to bring an ethic of care, a connection between the land and the body, and a cripped concept of performance into conversation with their work. Their practice spans installation, printed matter, performance, video and coded arduino control systems, all of which is undertaken with a socially-engaged and research-led working methodology.
Recent solo exhibitions include: The Split Is Vividly Revealed, Nars Foundation, New York, USA (2019); My Body Is The House That I Live In, SOHO20 Gallery, New York, USA (2019); Bodies In Space, Helmut Gallery, Leipzig, Germany (2018); Always Turned On, Southsquare Gallery: Thornton: UK (2017). Recent group exhibitions include: KNOW MY NAME, National Gallery of Australia, Australia (2020); caring structures, Kunstverein Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany (2020); Other Rooms, Rupert Art and Education Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania (2020); PRESENTS: Salon for Aesthetic Experiments, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany (2020); Bodies Beyond straight composition, OGR, Torino, Italy (2020); Lull, Lulla, Lullen, Cue Arts: New York: USA (2020); When the Sick Rule the World, Alte Fabrik, Rapperswil, Switzerland (2020).