Biography
Shona Illingworth (b. Ørsted, Denmark 1966) lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions have been UNSW Galleries, Sydney; CGP, London; Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre, North Uist (all 2016). Solo exhibitions include the Bahrain National Museum (2020) and The Power Plant, Toronto (2021). Shona was shortlisted for the 2016 Jarman Award and is an Imperial War Museum Associate, Trustee of Project Art Works and sits on the editorial board of Digital War (digital-war.org).
She also participated in group exhibitions at Imperial War Museum, London (2017-18); Sayle Gallery, Isle of Man (2017); Wellcome Collection, London (2016). She is a Danish-Scottish artist who works across a range of media including sound, film, video, photography and drawing. She is known for her immersive video and multi-channel sound installations, and evocative, research-led practice in which she explores the dynamic processes of memory and construction of histories in situations of social tension and trauma. She draws on long-term interdisciplinary dialogues with scientists, to investigate the ongoing impact of amnesia and cultural erasure on the invisible social, cultural and geopolitical architectures that we inhabit, and on our capacity to imagine the future. Shona Illingworth is an artist filmmaker whose major works take the form of immersive gallery based multi-screen video and multi-channel sound installation. Her work combines interdisciplinary research (particularly with emerging neuropsychological models of memory and amnesia, critical approaches to memory studies, media sociology and human rights law) with socially engaged practice. Her work has been exhibited internationally, with shows at the Museum of Modern Art, Bologna; FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Liverpool; UNSW Galleries, Sydney and the Wellcome Collection, London. She has received commissions from Film and Video Umbrella, Hayward Gallery, London, and Channel 4 Television.
