Susan Morris
Born in Birmingham, UK, 1962
Lives and works in London, UK
Education
1984BA (Hons) Birmingham College of Art (now UCE), UK
1991MA, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
1998-2000Research bursary (with studio), Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
2007PhD, On the Blank: Photography, Writing, Drawing, UAL, London, UK (Three-year full time, funded studentship)
2010-2011Psychoanalytic training, CFAR, London, UK
Selected Public Commissions
2020-22Commission from St John's College, University of Oxford, for six large Jacquard tapestries generated from ambient sound recordings, for the Library and Study Centre at St John's. Accompanying artist's book, Silence (On Prepared Loom), with essays by Alex Bacon, Rye Dag Holmboe and a reprint of Simon Aeberhard's essay 'Writing the Ephemeral: John Cage's Lecture on Nothing as a Landmark in Media History', Journal of Sonic Studies, 2017. Curated by Modus Operandi. Completed in 2022. Permanent installation
2020'Instagram Takeover', commissioned by KBCB, Switzerland, during the first wave of the global Covid-19 pandemic. One 1-minute video posted every hour, on the hour, documenting a locked-down day at home and a night walk through the empty city. Clocks, bells, public announcements at train stations and news reports from the radio feature heavily, alongside spoken extracts read from a diary.
2015Funding from the Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England, with support from Drawing Room, London, for production of a Jacquard tapestry recording five years of the artist's sleep/wake patterns and an artist's book, SunDial:NightWatch Tapestry Dossier, with essay 'Susan Morris: Marking Time' by Margaret Iversen. Related symposium, Standard Deviation: Time and the Body, at the Drawing Room, with Briony Fer, Margaret Iversen, David Lomas and Michael Newman.
2010Wellcome Trust Arts Award to produce three large Jacquard tapestries generated from data tracking the artist's sleep/wake patterns and ambient light exposure, for permanent installation at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Commissioned by Ruth Charity, ArtLink, University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Related public engagement projects, including two day-long symposiums with exhibition of work in progress in 2011, organised in collaboration with the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, University of Oxford. Work from this project developed into the 'SunDial:NightWatch' series of Jacquard tapestries, 2010-2018.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025Record, Transcribe, Post, Bartha_contemporary, London, UK
2025Four Tapestries, Bartha_contemporary, London, UK
2022Silence (On Prepared Loom), installation of Jacquard tapestries at St John's College, University of Oxford, UK
2021Ongoing Work, Bartha Contemporary, London, UK
2020Instagram Film, hosted online by CentrePasquArt, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
2016Self Moderation, CentrePasquArt, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
2014A Work in Progress, Stags Head Public House, London, UK
2012Susan Morris: Untitled Motion Capture Drawings, Art Exchange, University of Essex, UK
2012Sun Dial:Night Watch, installation of Jacquard tapestries, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
2012Susan Morris: Untitled Motion Capture Drawings, London Gallery West, London, UK
2011Songs and Poems about Calendrical Time, eight month installation of hand-made posters, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
2011Sun Dial:Night Watch, exhibition of Jacquard tapestries, Cheltenham Science Festival, Cheltenham, UK
2011Tracing a Bodily Unconscious, Examination Rooms, University of Oxford, UK
2009Sontag Montag: Drawings, Recordings and Diagrams by Susan Morris, Five Years, London, UK
2008Academics Find Formula for 14 Extra Years of Life, Clockwork Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2007On My Nervous Illness, PhD Viva examination and exhibition, Central Saint Martins College, University of the Arts, London, UK
2006Always on My Mind, Platform Gallery, London, UK
2002Between Two Deaths, Museum Van Nagsael, Rotterdam, Holland
2000The Haunting, Five Years, London, UK
1999Desire, Project 304, Bangkok, Thailand
1997Between Hits, Accident Gallery, London, UK
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026(Forthcoming) The Rule: Forming Lives, Medieval and Modern, Sainsbury's Centre For Visual Arts, UEA, Norwich, UK
2025Concrete Women: New Spaces, Kunstmuseum Ahlen, Germany
2025All the Time in the World, Design Museum Den Bosch, Herzogenbosch, The Netherlands
2025Lighten Up! In the Rhythm of Day and Night, MIT Museum, Cambridge, USA
2024After Nature/ Nach der Natur, SKK Soest, Germany
2024Sequential Gestures: Serial Approaches in Contemporary Art, Bartha_contemporary, London
2024Lighten Up! In the Rhythm of Day and Night, Gewerbemuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
2024After Mallarmé, Large Glass, London
2024Energie / Energy: Works from the Schroth Collection, SKK, Germany
2023Architectures in Air, Brixton Library Gallery, London, UK
2023Next-Previous, The Gerald Moore Gallery, London, UK
2023Lighten Up! On Biology and Time, EPFL Pavilions, Lausanne, Switzerland
2023Expect the Unexpected, Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany
2022The Gorgeous Nothings, Bartha Contemporary, London (curated by Morris)
2021The World is in You, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020The Sleeper, Bartha Contemporary, London, UK
2020Darktaxa, Schierke Seinecke Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
2019Drawing Biennial (fundraising exhibition), Drawing Room, London, UK
2019A Day's Work, SKK, Soest, Germany (curated by Morris)
2019Photon | Icon, Galerie Falko Alexander, Cologne, Germany
2018Reflex II: The Brain Closer Than the Eye, Bartha Contemporary, London, UK
2018For Eternity: Archival Strategies in Art, Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, Germany
2017Real Print, Valentines, Los Angeles, California, USA
2017Drawing Biennial (fundraising exhibition), Drawing Room, London, UK
2017Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
2017En l'occurrence, CEAAC, Strasbourg, France
2017No Secrets!, ERES-Stiftung Munich, Germany
2016No Fun Without EU, one-day protest event, London, UK
2016Thinking in Algorithms, Scheublein + Bak, Zürich, Switzerland
2016...Und Eine Welt Noch, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Germany
2015Compression, Ormston House, Limerick, Ireland
2015Drawing Biennial (fundraising exhibition), Drawing Room, London, UK
2014La Collection Impossible, Fondation Fernet-Branca, Saint-Louis, France
2013Whisper Down the Lane, Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA
2013Lumen, Old Saint. Clements Hospital, London, UK
2013Drawing Biennial (fundraising exhibition), Drawing Room, London, UK
2012Motion Capture: Drawing and the Moving Image in Contemporary Art, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, and RCC, Letterkenny, Ireland
2011Drawing Biennial (fundraising exhibition), Drawing Room, London, UK
2009Timewarp, CRAC, Alsace, France
2009Free Association, Area 53, Vienna, Austria
2009Drawing Biennial (fundraising exhibition), Drawing Room, London, UK
2008False Friends (with Clive Hodgson), Five Years, London, UK
2008Betsey's Salon, presentation of video work to live audience, London, UK
2008Honey Honig, AutoItalia, London, UK
2008Underwood, Ballhaus Ost, Berlin, Germany
2007Video Art Festival, Prague, Czech Republic
2007Our Period (with Mathew Hale), Five Years, London, UK
2006Frenzy, The Metropole Galleries, Folkestone, UK
2006The Society of London Ladies, Paris, France
2006Outdoors, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, UK
2003Addiction, Micawber Street, London, UK (co-curated by Morris and Chris Kul-Want)
2003Sense and Nonsense, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, UK
2003Tender Prey, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2003The Group of Seven, Platform Gallery, London, UK
2002Silence and Darkness, Outline, Amsterdam, Netherlands
20022 Step, CCNOA, Brussels, Belgium
2001Eat. Fuck. Die., Platform Gallery, London, UK
2001Starring, Five Years, London, UK
2001The Difference Between You and Us, Five Years, London, UK
2000Perspective 2000, Ormeau Baths, Belfast, Northern Ireland
2000For Your Eyes Only, private residencies in London and Essex, UK
2000Dark Pop, Five Years, London, UK
2000John, I'm Only Dancing, Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans, UK
1999Ritual, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, UK
1999Interior/Interior, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, UK
1999Resolute, Platform Gallery, London, UK
1998Silent Movies, Five Years, London, UK
1998What Is A Photograph?, Five Years, London, UK (co-curated by Morris and David Bate)
1998United in Death, exhibition on CD and gallery installation, Cambridge Darkroom Gallery, Cambridge, UK (curated by Morris)
1998Playing And Reality, Salon II, London, UK (curated by Morris)
1998Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK
1998The School of Beautiful Art, Tower Hamlets College, London, UK (curated by Morris)
1997On Boredom, exhibition on CD and live screening event, ICA Gallery, London, and Cambridge Darkroom Gallery, Cambridge, UK (curated by Morris)
1997Accident, Accident Gallery, London, UK
Awards & Residencies
2021JOYA Artist's Residency (one month), Sierra Maria-Los Velez, Spain.
2015Wellcome Trust grant to produce artist's book documenting the production of new Jacquard tapestries with concurrent diary notations.
2015Arts Council grant to produce new Jacquard tapestry from data recording the artist's sleep/wake patterns over a continuous period of five years.
2009Arts Council grant to produce automatic drawings using motion capture technology at Culture Lab, Newcastle University, UK.
2006Arts Council grant to produce new text-based work using 'Concordance' software in collaboration with neurologist Dr Peter Garrard, University of London, UK.
2005Funding from the University of the Arts London, plus sponsorship from Cambridge Neurotechnology and Imperial College, London, to produce automatic drawings generated by the body using medical-scientific devices such as an 'Actiwatch' and 'Actiheart'.
2003Travel Grant from British Council to perform reading of 'A beginning…', catalogue essay for exhibition Tender Prey at Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2000Funding from Goldsmiths, University of London, and from the University of the Arts London, for Four Essays on Experience, published by Looseleaf, UK (edited by Morris).
1999Travel Grant from British Council for installation of solo exhibition Desire, Project 304, Bangkok, Thailand.
1998Eastern Arts Award for Development of New Work, and Arts Council of England grant for United in Death, exhibition and CD, Cambridge Darkroom Gallery, UK (curated by Morris).
1997Arts Council grant for On Boredom, exhibition on CD (curated by Morris). This project was also sponsored by Studio Fish, London, and ICA Gallery, London.
Public Collections
ERES-Stiftung, Germany
FRAC ALSACE, France
Pasquart Stiftung Kunsthaus-Sammlung, Switzerland
SAMMLUNG SCHROTH/ SKK, Germany
St John's College, University of Oxford, UK
The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
UBS Art Collection, Switzerland
Public Papers/ Talks
2025'In Conversation' with artist and writer Sharon Kivland for launch of Record, Transcribe, Post:24 Hours in Locked-Down London, May 3rd, 2020, limited edition publication, Bartha Contemporary, London
2024'In conversation: Michael Newman, Toby Christian, Emma McNally and Susan Morris', in the context of After Mallarmé, Large Glass, London.
2024'Susan Morris: Camera Consciousness', paper for Techno/Seen: On the Technological Apparatus and its Images symposium, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium.
2023'SunDial/NightWatch: The Entanglement of the Body in Clock and Calendrical Time' for Encounters between Art and Chronobiology symposium, in relation to the exhibition Lighten Up, EPFL Pavilions, Lausanne, Switzerland.
2023Artist's talk for Expect the Unexpected exhibition, Kunstmuseum Bonn.
2021Talk with chronobiologist Zach Gerhart Hines (University of Copenhagen), in relation to the exhibition The World is in You, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2021Online talk for Drawbridge, Drawing Research Hub at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork, Ireland.
2020Talk with neurologist Prof Peter Garrard (University of London) on computer generated analyses of text and speech, with presentation of new artist's book Concordances I–VI, (2020), Bartha Contemporary, London.
2019Speech at opening of A Day's Work, curated by Morris, at SKK, Soest, Germany. Two public tours in the gallery during the exhibition.
2017'Twenty Years of Boredom', for Twenty Years of Boredom symposium, UCL, London.
2017'Inarticulations', Public Lecture, HdK, Zürich, Switzerland.
2017'Diary as Novel: Writing the Neutral?', for Lifework symposium, UCL, London.
2018Talk with art historian Prof Margaret Iversen on the relation of digital recordings to the indexical mark, for Reflex II, Bartha Contemporary, London.
2016'In Conversation' with writer Dr Sadie Plant, for Public Tour of Self Moderation, solo exhibition of Morris's work at Kunsthaus / Centre d'Art, Pasquart, Biel / Bienne, Switzerland.
2015'Standard Deviation', paper for Standard Deviation: Time and the Body symposium, Drawing Room, London, which was also organised by Morris. Other participants were Briony Fer, Margaret Iversen and Michael Newman.
2013'The Body That Goes Its Own Way: Involuntary Drawing as Displaced Self-Portraiture', paper for Anti-Portraiture symposium, Birkbeck College, University of London. Keynote speaker.
2012'Drawing in the Dark', paper for Involuntary Drawing: Art and Automatism symposium, University of Westminster (to accompany Morris's solo exhibition Untitled Motion Capture Drawings, London Gallery West.).
2012'Motion Capture', paper for Involuntary Drawing: Art and Automatism, symposium to accompany Morris's solo exhibition Untitled Motion Capture Drawings at Art Exchange, University of Essex.
2012'Expanding Drawing', paper for Lines of Thought symposium, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork.
2012'Susan Morris: Motion Capture Drawings', paper for The Art, Theory and Practice of Movement Capture symposium, London Knowledge Lab, University of London.
2011'I Dream of Deluge', presentation of Motion Capture Drawings at Ideas Sharing Forum, Drawing Room, London.
2010'Drawing on the Index', paper for Making in Two Modes conference, University of Cork, Ireland.
2010'Da... Dada... Da, Da, Da', paper presented at Lacan in the UK: Art, Clinic, Feminism, Literature, 25th Anniversary Conference, Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research.
2010'I Keep a Close Watch on this Heart of Mine', lecture for the Department of Art History, UCL, London.
2003-2006Annual public presentation of PhD research, University of the Arts, London.
2002'On The Blank', paper for Psychoanalysis and Art symposium, Tate Modern.
Selected Bibliography
2025'Textile Kunst: Haleh Radjaian, Susan Morris and Alke Reeh' in Konkrete Frauen: Neue Räume, Kunstmuseum Ahlen, Germany. ISBN: 978-3-9822552-7-9
2024'Inarticulations' by Susan Morris, and 'Diaristic Diagrams' by Margaret Iversen, in Lifework, edited by Moran Sheleg, Manchester University Press
2024'Camera-Consciousness: On Susan Morris's Concordances and Silence (On Prepared Loom)' by Margaret Iversen, Burlington Contemporary, Issue #10, June
2024Expect the Unexpected, Susan Morris et al, edited by Michael Reisa & Barbara J. Scheuermann, Kunstmuseum, Bonn. ISBN (978-3-943676-19-8)
2024All The Libraries in London, Susan Morris et al, edited by Ruth Beale & Simon Elvins. ISBN (978-0-9563668-8-7)
2024The Posthumanist (Issue No.2, SS 2023), Susan Morris et al, edited by Anna Nolda Nagele. ISBN (977-2-7533360-0-2)
2024Lighten Up! On Biology and Time, Susan Morris et al, EPFL Pavilions
2022'Inlines' by Rye Dag Holmboe, and 'Resistant Data' by Alex Bacon, in Silence (On Prepared Loom), Artist's Book for St John's College Library, University of Oxford, Bartha Contemporary. ISBN (978-0-9933621-4-9)
2022'Gorgeous Nothings' by Susan Morris and 'Folds' by Rye Dag Holmboe, in The Gorgeous Nothings, edited by Niklas von Bartha, Bartha Contemporary
2022The World is in You, Susan Morris et al, edited by Adam Bencard, Malthe Kouassi Bjerregaard & Jacob Lillemose, Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen
2022'Manifesto (I Promise)' by Susan Morris, in A Manifesto of Sorts, edited by Scott Robertson. Fifth Syllable. ISBN (978-1-8383733-2-0)
2022A margem: ensaio sobre experiência e desejo, Mário Furtado Fontanive, Marcavisual, Brazil. ISBN (978-65-89263-37-1)
2021de Umbris Idearum [of the Shadow Cast by Our Thoughts], Susan Morris (Artist's Book)
2021'Unhappy Readymade' by Susan Morris, in The Kink in the Arc, online collective novel, edited by Paul Becker
2021'Twenty Years of Boredom' by Susan Morris in On Boredom: Essays in Art and Writing, edited by Rye Dag Holmboe & Susan Morris, UCL Press. ISBN (978-1-78735-947-5)
2021'The Diaristic Mode in Contemporary Art after Barthes' by Margaret Iversen, in Art History (Journal of the Association for Art History), Vol. 44, Issue 4, edited by Dorothy Price, John Wiley & Sons
2020Concordances I-VI, Susan Morris, Artist's Book for The Sleeper, exhibition at Bartha Contemporary, London
2020'Towards a History of the Portrait, the Anti-Portrait, and What Comes After' by Michael Newman, in Anti-Portraiture: Challenging the Limits of the Portrait, edited by Fiona Johnstone & Kirstie Imber, Bloomsbury. ISBN (978-1-7845-3412-7)
2020'Marking Time, Moving Images: Drawing and Film' by Ed Krčma, in A Companion to Contemporary Drawing, edited by Kelly Chorpening & Rebecca Fortnum, Wiley Blackwell. ISBN (978-1119194545)
2020'Giornata' by Susan Morris in RIMA Journal, Issue no.0, edited by Nick Koppenhagen
2019'A Day's Work' by Susan Morris, 'Diagramming the Day' by Margaret Iversen and 'A Day Too Late' by Michael Newman, in A Day's Work, edited by Deirdre O'Dwyer & Juliane Rogge. Introduction by Carl-Jürgen Schroth, Stiftung Konzeptuelle Kunst, Soest, Germany. ISBN (978-3-9819110-2-2)
2018Indie Magazine (Issue 61), edited by Harriet Shepherd et al, Plastic Media. ISBN (919-0001-0124-90)
2018'Fortuna: Drawing, Technology, Contingency' by Ed Krčma, in O que nos faz pensar, Vol.26 No.40, February 2018
2017'The Necessary' by Davide Daninos and 'Profane Illumination' by Margaret Iversen, in Intuition, edited by Lucy Derycke & Axel Vervoordt, Axel & May Vervoordt Foundation in association with MER. ISBN (978-9-49232-159-6)
2017'Die Algorithmische Identität' by Frank Pascale, in No Secrets!, edited by Dr Sabine Adler et al, ERES-Stiftung. ISBN (978-3-00-056058-3)
2017'Index, Diagram, Graphic Trace', in Photography, Trace and Trauma, Margaret Iversen. University of Chicago Press. ISBN (978-0-226-37016-3)
2017Work Journal, Susan Morris Motion Capture Drawings (Summer 2017 Issue)
2017Make-Readies, project for X-TRA Contemporary Art Quarterly, Vol.20 no.1, Susan Morris et al, edited by Rakish Light, X-TRA Contemporary Art Quarterly, Los Angeles
2017'Susan Morris - Present / Absence'. Interview with artist, Nick Koppenhagen for Kunstgespräch #9
2016'One-Twenty-Two' by Briony Fer and 'Compelled to Count' by Sadie Plant, in Self Moderation, edited by Felicity Lunn, Verlag für Moderne Kunst. ISBN (978-3-903131-63-7)
2015'Compression' by Ed Krčma, in Compression, Enclave Books. ISBN (978-0993323201)
2015'Marking Time: Susan Morris's Tapestries and Diaries' by Margaret Iversen, in SunDial:NightWatch Tapestry Dossier, Artist's Book by Susan Morris, Drawing Room, London
2015'Artists Pick Artists: Susan Morris'. Interview with Rob Colvin for Hyperallergic Magazine, April 2015
2013Paper Visual Art Journal: Cork (Edition Two), Ed Krčma & Adrian Duncan (interview discussing Motion Capture Drawings, 2012), Paper Visual Art Journal. ISBN (978-0-9573350-1-1)
2012'Drawing in the Dark' by Susan Morris, 'Index, Diagram, Graphic Trace' by Margaret Iversen and 'Lightning and Rain: Phenomenology and Matisse's Hand' by Ed Krčma, in Tate Papers no.18, Autumn 2012, special issue on Involuntary Drawing, edited by Margaret Iversen
2012'Time Held Up' by Ed Krčma and 'Some Notes on Seeing Ghosts' by Matt Packer, in Motion Capture: Drawing and the Moving Image, edited by Fiona Kearney, Glucksman. ISBN (978-1-906642-56-3)
2010'Drawing a Blank' by Susan Morris, in Journal of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, Issue 20
2010Writing Art History, Margaret Iversen & Stephen Melville. University of Chicago Press. (Detail of Motion Capture Drawing featured on cover.) ISBN (978-0-226-38826-7)
2009'Kafka's Ear' by Briony Fer, 'Figuring Futility' by Ed Krčma and 'On Susan Morris, or The Shadow of the Object' by Margaret Iversen, in Sontag Montag, edited by Deirdre O'Dwyer, Five Years. ISBN (1-903724-03-1)
2009Timewarp, Felicity Lunn, CRAC Alsace
2008'Our Periodical (Combination Piece No.2)' by Susan Morris and Mathew Hale, in Five Years Periodical vol.1 no.2, Five Years
2007Museum Van Nagsael: Celebrating 11 Years, Susan Morris et al, edited by Silvia B & Rolf Engelen, Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
2007On My Nervous Illness, Susan Morris Artist's Book & PhD submission, University of the Arts, London
2006Platform 1998-2006 (Gallery retrospective catalogue), by Susan Morris et al, edited Sheila Lawson, Platform Gallery
2006'Frenzy: Spider' by Susan Morris, in Frenzy, exhibition catalogue, Five Years
2003'A Beginning… Or Perhaps it's Already Too Late' by Marc Hulson & Susan Morris, in Tender Prey, exhibition catalogue, edited by Mariette Rensen, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam
2002'On the Blank', by Susan Morris. Guest editor, Filmwaves magazine, Issue 18, Spring 2002
2000'Experience' (Introduction) and 'On Looking, Now' by Susan Morris, in Experience: Four Essays on Experience, Darian Leader, Kate Love, Susan Morris, David Wolchover & Anthony Heaton-Armstrong, edited by Susan Morris, Loose-leaf. ISBN (0-9538076-0-6)
1999Project for Make Magazine, Surveillance Issue no 84, June 1999. Centre-page spread of video stills by Morris
1998'Introduction' by Susan Morris, in United in Death, exhibition catalogue, edited by Susan Morris & Ronnie Simpson, Cambridge Darkroom Gallery
1997'Introduction' by Susan Morris, in On Boredom, exhibition catalogue, edited by Susan Morris & Ronnie Simpson, Cambridge Darkroom Gallery.