Neal White‘s is an artist from London whose art practice has focused on situated fieldwork, and processes of artistic research - as well as creating collaborative relationships with other artists, academics, architects and activists.
Process and artwork are closely linked in Neal White’s practice, and take many forms, from fabrication and documentation of remote temporary installations in the deserts of Utah, to active interventions within artists archives, and cinematic presentations of remotely sensed ecological data in moving image / light / sound based artworks. His works have been seen in locations ranging from galleries and Internatioal museums, through to urban streets, parks and forests. In many, the art work or ‘event-structure’, are assemblages of forms, objects and media. Creating a dialogue between the personal experience of a place and access to knowledge associated with it, visitors may act as co-experimenters, or are placed in encounters with both sites and artworks themselves. Other events are structured to take audiences on unexpected personal and collective journeys in which they encounter or inhabit a physical space, both real and subject to different imaginaries that are of shared ethical, social and ecological concern.
Neal White has significant experience working in collaboration with others, including world leading collectives and marginal institutions - many of who are also associated with landscape, environment and social practices. He worked over many years with founders of Artist Placement Group, including a joint show with John Latham at Portikus in 2014, and alongside Barbara Steveni as a Director of O+I (2007-9) - he is a co-founder of Incidental Unit (2016) based at Flat Time House. He spent time with Center for Land Use Interpretation, USA (Utah residency 2007-10), that further shaped collaborative projects authored under the title; Office of Experiments (est. 2004 - ongoing).
Other projects are realised in both art and in academic fields, especially those that explore art practice as a method of research. Recent collaborations at University of Westminster where he runs CREAM (since 2007 with Prof May Adadol Ingawanij) include work with Deep Field Project - Diann Bauer, Jol Thoms and curator Steffi Hessler (Kunsthalle, Trondheim, 2022), with the architectural project; Monsoon Assemblages (Central Pavilion, Venice Biennale of Architecture, 2021) and as a member of Ecological Futurisms, where he worked on East India Company Edition (2025) of the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes - a project by Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal (with Serpentine / Framer / Framed).
Following residency/projects in Netherlands between 2022-24, Neal White became a founding member of Soil Assembly, that since its launch at Kochi-Muziris Biennale (Editions in 2023, 2026), has led to many related events in Ecuador, Ukraine, Slovenia, Netherlands, Germany and France. See Events for more.
His work with life-collaborator- artist Tina O’Connell (IE) also includes art projects in Heidenheim (DE - 2010), Askeaton and Galway (TULCA 2013 - Askeaton Contemporary Arts 2017), as well as with zone2source and Nieuw en Meer in the Amsterdam, with projects in Belgium and UK. Between 2001-18, Neal White worked on many early experimental events and exhibitions with the groundbreaking UK agency, The Arts Catalyst. More available - starting here.
Selected projects and exhibitions (*denotes collaborations) include; Soil Assembly* - Spore, Berlin (2027), Kochi Muziris Biennale (India, 2023/2026) and various EU countries (2026), Perfect Nature (GlazenHuis, Amsterdam, 2022), Kunsthalle Trondheim (Norway, 2021), Between the Barometer and the Dragonfly* (Venice Biennale, Central Pavilion 2021), All that is Data Melts into Air* Fargfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden (Collaboration with Tina O’Connell 2017), Various projects with Henry Moore Institute, UK (2005, 2016), 9Events, Royal College of Art, UK (Collaboration with Tina O’Connell 2016), Solo at Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp, Belgium (2015), He exhibited new work with John Latham at Portikus, Stadehlschule, Frankfurt, Germany (2014-15).
Other exhibitions of note include - Sculptors Notes, Archive Gallery at Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2014), Speedie Telstar, TULCA, Galway, Ireland (Collaboration with Tina O’Connell 2013), The Museum of the Void, Chelsea Space, London, UK (2010), Dark Places, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK (2008-9), Space on Earth Station*, Camden Roundhouse, London, UK (2006), The Third Cmpaign (Henry Moore Institute, Leeds UK (2004-5), Cleanrooms, Natural History Museum, London, UK (2003), Ott’s Sneeze - a book with author Larence Norfolk (Bookworks, 2001), Avatar*, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (With Soda 1999) Lux Galllery, London, UK (With Soda 1998), Gasworks, London, UK (With Soda 1998).
Funders include;
Biennale de Venezia (IT), Mondriaan Fund (NL), Arts Council of England, Henry Moore Institute and Henry Moore Foundation, The Wellcome Trust (all UK) and Center for Land Use Interpretation (USA), amongst many others in Europe. Selected works are in the collection of the The Henry Moore Insitute and Leeds Gallery Sculpture Collection.
Links to academic publications, talks etc. are accessible via Neal White’s profile at CREAM.
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Notes on Front Pages
Latest
Still from Nocturnal Assemblage No 3 -
Amsterdam 2024 with Tina O’Connell
See also
Conserving Nocturnal Ecologies.
See more-than-sense.net
Asymmetic Protest
Located on the edge of Southbase- this documented protest using a nomadic structure was situated at a High Explosive Bomb assembly area, used to make one of two Nuclear bombs used by the USA in WW2. Sitting on the edges of the largest US Military Bombing Range. (UTT) - Utah. 2007. The custom made mobile structure (F-Utility Vehicle) and placards with equations used in war games, and military planning that address zero-sum scenarios are elements of a work that address the asymmeties of power. Undertaken whilst in residence; Center for Land Use Interpretation, Wendover, Utah, funded by Henry Moore Foundation.
Space on Earth Station 2004-6
Camden Roundhouse, 2006. A project developed in collaboration with Danish architects N55, this space station was conceived as an exploratory platform to investigate our own planet and our impact on it. Using forms developed by Peter Jon Pearce (Structure in nature is a strategy for design) and with a critical view of the attempts to escape Earth and reach Mars, putting space over and above planetary health, we experimented with micro-economies, ecologies and low impact living. The space ‘on earth’ station included units for humans, birds, bees and plants, and hosted projects by artists across UK / Europe selected from an open call. It was produced in London and Copenhagen, and was open to the public for 6 days in September 2006. Supported by Arts Catalyst, London.
Tiny Love Songs. Nocturnal Soundscape. 2019
A nocturnal soundscape in the forests of the Netherlands, immersed the audience in the mesmerising and unnvering sounds of a million mosquitoes mating. Designed to start a few mins before the end of each hour, the work led to an intense crescendo, plunging the forest back into darkness on the hour. Produced with Office of Experiments. Commissioned by zone2source for Into the Great Wide Open Festival. 2019.
Dislocated Data Palm [Part 1 of 2] (2014)
A 9 metre tall man-made palm tree originally used to disguise mobile phone towers was cut into two parts, with the upper five metre section suspended inside Portikus gallery, floating just above the floor where John Latham’s sculpture ‘God is Great’ (2005) was installed. Ongoing broadcasts and guerilla actions by White were streamed from, in and around a complex of concealed data sites, used for high speed financial trading and US signals intelligence, in the Frankfurt region. As Portikus website states;
Rather than producing objects and proclaiming ways of how they should operate in the world, White’s practice focuses instead on mediating how things, or no-things, exist as events in space.
Nocturnal fieldwork with The School for Multispecies Knowledges - Amsterdam, May 2022
Exploring nocturnal ecologies with members of the School for Multispecies Knowledges. Using a specially adapted XYZ cargo bike made by former partners on Space on Earth Staion - N55 (see below), we toured the nocutrnal landscape of Amstelpark in Amsterdam, after it had closed to the public. UV / Black lights and an array of mobile phones capture other realities through a spectral insight into other life worlds.
In the depths of Star City, Moscow 2005.
In 2005, Neal White was asked to join a trip being led by Arts Catalyst to the training centre for Cosmonauts. “Whilst all of the others on this trip were intent on a zero gravity flight, I was tagging along as I was researching the possibility of remaking a scene cut from Kubricks classic 2001 AD (of an art class). Whilst inside the closed military facility of Star City, I had an unexpected encounter. Whilst others in the group were undergoing training - learning how to put on a parachute in case the parabolic flight they were all going on failed, I was left alone in a corridor. A small round light suddenly illuminated, followed by others. When I approach one of these lights, I discovered it was a porthole window, and far below me in the centre of
the building, in what turned out to be a vast and very deep swimming pool, was a full scale model of the MIR space station. Soon after, at the same levels as I was standing, divers entered the pool wearing neutral bouyancy kit. A vast space was recvelaled for rehearsing a gravity free environment, and a moment more surreal than 2001 AD emerged in front of my eyes.”