Steven Claydon

Art and Artefacts

VAULT stops by the studio of Steven Claydon, the polymathic London artist whose sculptures and assemblages decipher the material history of objects and the complex lives of inanimate things.

By Peter Hill FEB 2018

I meet Steven Claydon at his studio on Dalston Lane, East London. The journey there from Kings Cross is a mix of underground and overground, through Highbury & Islington to Dalston Junction. On the way, I read through my notes. Who is Steven Claydon? Born in London in 1969. Trained at Chelsea College of Arts. A painter turned sculptor – he still lectures in painting at London’s Royal College of Art. He’s had exhibitions at Tate Modern, Art Basel and Portikus in Frankfurt. Intriguingly, he was a member of the electronica band Add N to (X) and made a movie appearance in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as one member of the band

The Weird Sisters. And now, here he is before me, picking up his mail from the reception desk of the hipster enclave that houses his studio amid several floors of start-up creatives.

“The rent’s higher than I would like,” he says, as I follow him out the front door, through the side entrance and down stairs that lead to a warren of studios. “But this prize is going to help, especially with next year’s show in Los Angeles. It’s worth more than double the Turner Prize, and the great thing is they pay you in instalments over three years. It means you can really plan long-term, especially with studio rent.” The prize he is referring to is from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. “It’s very democratic. The five finalists all receive the same amount of money: £60,000 ($100,000).” By now we have reached his studio and ... Subscribe to read this article in full

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