Tessa Farmer

Tessa Farmer is the great granddaughter of the influential writer of supernatural horror Arthur Machen. Her work, made from insect carcasses, bones, plant roots and other found natural materials, comprises complex installations and animations depicting Boschian battles between insects and tiny winged skeletal humanoids. Assembled with the detailed eye of a biologist, these sinister fairies are evolving at breakneck speed. Their corrupted skeletal humanity, imposed on insect dimensions, imparts a wilfully vicious direction to their actions. Focused on world domination, the fairies employ increasingly complex weaponry to rule and enslave by using insect stingers, hedgehog spine spears and seized biological pathways from the natural world such as parasitism. In recent installations, swarms of hymenoptera are directed to attack progressively larger prey. Her work mimics the natural world, revealing the sometimes violent unseen worlds that lie beneath our feet.

Exhibited at Griffin Gallery in Perfectionism (Part III.): The Alchemy of Making in October-November 2016.

BORN

1978, UK

EDUCATION

MFA in Fine Art - Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, 2002-2003  

BFA (Hons) in Fine Art (First Class) - Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, 1997-2000  

(Last updated 20.06.2016)