Artist & Lecturer
Simon Terrill is an Australian artist based in London. Working with photography, sculpture, installation, drawing and video, he investigates relations between architectural spaces and their received narratives, public and private identities, and the idea of the crowd as a tool to examine architecture, identity, community and a performance of self. His ongoing Crowd Theory project consists of large-scale stage-managed public events resulting in exhibitions at the sites of their creation along with collaborations with museums and public galleries to extend these images and stories outwards.
Following a BA in Sculpture and MA in Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, he lectured in Critical and Theoretical Studies (2005-08) and at the Centre for Ideas (2003-08), both at the VCA. In 2008 Terrill was awarded the Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship that enabled him to spend a year at the Slade School of Art. He has been commissioned by Acme Studios, Samstag Museum of Art, National Trust Ernő Goldfinger Museum (2 Willow Road) amongst others, along with grants from Australia Council (2009, 2002, 1998) and Arts Council England (2010, 2014). Most recent works have been at the National Portrait Gallery London, Crowd Theory: South of the River 2016, Parallel (of Life and) Architecture, The Edge, Bath 2017 and The Brutalist Playground, a collaboration with Assemble, commissioned by the RIBA and touring internationally. He is currently working on a survey show of the Crowd Theory project, beginning at the Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne 2019) before touring, and is currently a Somerset House Studios Resident.