Nick Jordan is an artist whose practice encompasses painting, video, drawing, sculpture, found-objects and publications. Jordan’s work centres upon the relationship between the natural world and our multifaceted cultural histories. Nick Jordan frequently collaborates with fellow artist Jacob Cartwright, and is based in Manchester, UK. We caught up with Nick ahead of his work being installed as part of Art Across The City 2014.
Who are you?
Nick Jordan, Manchester
Hello, how are you?
I am well, thank you.
What do you do?
In art speak I am a multi-disciplinary artist, working with painting, drawings, video, objects and publications.
What have you been doing recently?
I recently completed an artist’s residency in the USA, at Headlands Center for the Arts, near San Francisco. Back here in Europe, I’ve been at various short film festivals with my bird house film Nature House Inc. The film was awarded best film at the Swedenborg Short Film Festival, London, and was selected for festivals including Encounters, Bristol; Impakt, Utrecht; Interfilm Berlin; Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival; Shnit, Bern; and the International Environmental Film Festival, Paris. The film can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/61047047
What are you doing for Art Across The City in Swansea?
I’m installing six bird houses, all uniquely painted.
What are your ideas behind the work?
They are customised spray-painted versions of purple martin houses, which are usually only found in North America. They’ll hopefully form both a practical and aesthetic ‘non-native’ sculptural intervention in the centre of Swansea. With no purple martins present in the UK, the bird houses should attract starlings, which are their European cousins.
What do you think the public will make of it?
Bird houses always bring a smile to my face, so I hope I’m not the only one.
What are you up to next?
Working on some new paintings and drawings, plus I’m finishing a new film made during the USA residency at Headlands, in collaboration with Jacob Cartwright. It’s a 25 minute roam through the cultural and natural landscape of the Marin Headlands, which overlook the Golden Gate Bridge. It includes poetry readings by Gary Snyder and Michael McClure. I’m also about to premiere my new short film The Rising, which focuses on the invasive Giant Hogweed plant. It’s part Sci-fi, part Natural History documentary (Science Faction?!), and features a droning electronic score by the masterful Lord Mongo.
Nature House #462,
watercolour on paper
30 x 42 cm, 2013