Dan Guthrie is an artist and writer whose practice explores representations and mis-representations of Blackness, questioning not only what is shown, but what remains unseen. His latest project, Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure, was co-commissioned by Spike Island, Bristol and Chisenhale Gallery, London, and toured both venues in 2025, with the accompanying online platform earf.info publishing new writing by Guthrie and invited contributors throughout the year. His moving image work has been screened widely across the UK as well as internationally at film festivals including IFFR, Prismatic Ground and Berlinale.
1: Dan Guthrie, photographed by Nadine Persaud
3: Empty Alcove installation view. Courtesy Chisenhale Gallery, London, photographer Andy Keate.
5: Rotting Figure installation view. Courtesy Chisenhale Gallery, London, photographer Andy Keate.
6: earf.info installation view. Courtesy Spike Island, Bristol, photographer Rob Harris.
#DanGuthrie #Rijksakademie #artist
Excited to be starting at @rijksakademie as one of their new residents for 2026 – 2027, get in touch if you want to organise an in-person or online studio visit to see what I’m working on!
Image description: A set of keys, made up of a silver carabiner, a rectangular key with a chunky dark blue handle and a round red fob labelled Dan, are placed on top of a white envelope. The Rijksakademie’s address in Amsterdam is neatly printed at the bottom of the envelope in purple lettering, and two small shapes – a trapezoid and an arch – have been cut through the envelope, referencing the institution’s logo.
Sharing some photos from when I brought Empty Alcove back home to Stroud earlier in the year.
It felt really important to do this in-between the shows at @spikeisland and @chisenhalegallery to help reignite conversations about the Blackboy Clock, and it’s great to see that @mutiny_stroud have taken up the baton and were protesting about it on the streets of Stroud this Black History Month.
Belated thanks to @sva__ for letting me take over @svajohnstgallery for two weeks, @barniepage for generously helping me out with the install, @laylagatens for being in conversation with me about my research and the work at the Goods Shed – archived on @earf.info – and for everybody who came along to have a chat with me back in May.
Photos by @emlynbainbridge
glider.mov made its BIG screen debut this week as part of the @circa.art Prize 2025!
It’s an epilogue of sorts to my film Coaley Peak (A Fragment) from 2021, and if you ever wondered what happened to the unused footage from that project, this is my attempt to reuse some of it.
Thanks to everybody who braved the rain and the tube strikes to come to Piccadilly Circus and watch it with me on Wednesday night, I really appreciate it.
To have shown this work on one of the largest screens in the country at a time when rightwing nationalism is surging around England feels important, but I wish this wasn’t the backdrop of the current moment. That’s why I’m going to be marching tomorrow as part of the counterprotest against the far-right tomorrow (Sat 13th Sept) in London – please join me if you can to show that they’re not welcome in London, or anywhere else across the country.
If you missed it, you can watch my film back on the CIRCA website, and if you’re a fan of my work, then please vote for me to win the audience award while you’re there! Voting closes on the 30th of September and the link is in my bio.
PS. swipe to the end for a MailOnline comment that I just had to dig up for this occasion. 🤭
#CIRCAPRIZE2025 🏹 @danglefree
“I am artist who often works with words and the moving image to explore representations and mis-representations of Black Britishness. My work has explored subjects such as family photographs, parish records and racist statues, questioning not only what is shown, but what remains unseen or unsayable on screen.”
After receiving 1,000 submissions, the thirty shortlisted finalists were selected by CIRCA in collaboration with the 2025 Curators’ Circle including @amalandaplan@drabl and @samanthaozer
👩🏽⚖️ A prestigious jury made up of previous CIRCA artists and long-time collaborators including Björk, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Edward Enninful, Michèle Lamy, Ebony L. Haynes, Alvaro Barrington, Nicoletta Fiorucci, Josef O’Connor, Norman Rosenthal and Catherine Wood will select one artist to receive £30,000 and realise a major new public commission premiering in 2027.
🗳️ An online public vote, powered by @piccadillylights , will grant an additional £10,000 to the artist with the most votes.
📆 Save the date. The winners will be announced during a LIVE! 30-minute Award Ceremony in Piccadilly Circus on Monday, 13 October at 8pm BST. Don’t miss it!
Link in bio to vote.
Bookending the closure of ‘Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure’ at Chisenhale Gallery, earf.info publishes the final installment of Dan Guthrie’s Tour Diary series, reflecting on the culmination of the presentation of his new commission.
‘You know that, realistically, the alcove won’t be empty anytime soon. Even if the people responsible saw the error of their ways, and actually tried to do the right thing instead of remaining silent, they’d have to contend with the machinations of a right wing bureaucracy that’s in favour of keeping objects of ‘contested heritage’ in situ. Meanwhile, the figure – still standing there, club in hand, ready to strike – slowly rots away.’
Visit earf.info to read now.
Thank you to @tendaijohnmutambu28@lowlamichelle@tatendashamiso and @vanessa_onwuemezi for contributing your texts to earf.info’s Journal, and to all that have engaged with the platform during the run of the shows at @spikeisland and @chisenhalegallery . The Timeline section of the website will continue to be updated with any new developments about the Blackboy Clock going forward.
‘Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure’ is a new commission by Dan Guthrie that imagines the future of the Blackboy Clock, an object of contested heritage publicly displayed in Guthrie’s hometown of Stroud, Gloucestershire. It puts forward the ‘radical un-conservation’ of the clock; a theoretical term proposed by Guthrie to describe the act of acquiring an object with the intention of destroying it. The commission was exhibited at Spike Island, Bristol from 8 February – 11 May 2025 and at Chisenhale Gallery, London from 6 June – 24 August 2025.
earf.info is a newly developed resource featuring an interactive timeline that traces the history of the Blackboy Clock alongside the history of Stroud’s Anti-Slavery Arch, Guthrie’s family history and wider contested heritage debates in the UK. This new online resource is made possible with the generous support of Frank Bowling and Rachel Scott.
@danglefree@chisenhalegallery@spikeisland
I made a new film called glider.mov and it’s screening at @piccadillylights on the 10th of September at 8.25pm as part of the @circa.art Prize 2025. It’s an epilogue of sorts to my work Coaley Peak (A Fragment) and I made it while I was back in Stroud earlier this year. If you like it then you can vote for me on the CIRCA website and I could be in with a chance of winning a £10,000 prize. Voting closes on the 30th of September and the link is in my bio. 🛫
#CIRCAPRIZE2025
Last week of Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure at @chisenhalegallery !
The show’s open Wed-Sun this week from 12 - 6, and then it’s over. The screens will get switched off for the last time on Sunday evening but earf.info will continue as a resource that’ll be updated with any new developments about the Blackboy Clock.
Thank you all those who have been involved with the show while it’s been on in London: to @olamiju for the insightful conversation we had at the gallery back in June; to @tatiaumiel for your spellbinding performance responding to my work the other week; and to @tatendashamiso and @vanessa_onwuemezi for the brilliant texts you’ve written for @earf.info .
Massive thanks again to all of my creative collaborators who helped me to realise this project and to the whole team at Chisenhale for all the support you’ve given me whilst developing and exhibiting this commission. Extra special shoutout to @oliviaaherne for going above and beyond throughout the production process, I really appreciate everything you’ve done to help make this all happen!
And of course, thank you to everybody who has dropped by the show while it’s been open and for taking the time to engage with my work. This is the culmination of five years of research/campaigning and two years of making. I feel very grateful to have had this platform to say what I want to say.
DG ❤️🔥
Midway through the run of ‘Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure’ at Chisenhale Gallery, earf.info publishes the latest installment of Dan Guthrie’s ongoing Tour Diary series, reflecting on the process of exhibiting this new body of work.
‘Are you starting conversations that’ll bring the clock down, or are you just stirring up murmurs that won’t leave the white walls of the gallery? You know it’s not your job to physically take the object off of public display, but you feel responsible for trying to make those that are responsible do the right thing instead of just sitting in silence. Does your art, or anybody’s, actually have the capacity to create real world change?’
Visit earf.info to find out more.
‘Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure’ is a new commission by Dan Guthrie that imagines the future of the Blackboy Clock, an object of contested heritage publicly displayed in Guthrie’s hometown of Stroud, Gloucestershire. It puts forward the ‘radical un-conservation’ of the clock; a theoretical term proposed by Guthrie to describe the act of acquiring an object with the intention of destroying it. The commission was exhibited at Spike Island, Bristol from 8 February – 11 May 2025 and is currently on display at Chisenhale Gallery, London until 24 August 2025.
earf.info is a newly developed resource featuring an interactive timeline that traces the history of the Blackboy Clock alongside the history of Stroud’s Anti-Slavery Arch, Guthrie’s family history and wider contested heritage debates in the UK. This new online resource is made possible with the generous support of Frank Bowling and Rachel Scott.
@danglefree@chisenhalegallery
Sharing some install shots of Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure at @chisenhalegallery
Thanks to everybody’s who’s visited the show so far, whether you’ve come through for one of the events we’ve done so far or just dropped by one day. The show’s on until the 17th of August, so you’ve still got plenty of time to check it out. @tatiaumiel will be presenting an evening of sound in response to my work on the 7th of August at Chisenhale that I hope to see some of you at, but let me know if you’re planning a visit before then as I’d love to give you a tour and chat about the project.
I’m posting this on the fourth anniversary of the Stroud District Council consultation going live, which started off the present day conversations about the Blackboy Clock. So much has happened since then — see the full timeline over at @earf.info — whilst the clock still remains in place. It’s not my job to physically take the object off public display, and the inaction of those holding that power speaks volumes, but I hope this show helps us to imagine a world where its permanent removal could be a past, not future, event.
📸 Photography by Andy Keate
Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure is now open at @chisenhalegallery and runs until the 17th of August!
Massive thanks to everyone at Chisenhale for all the support you’ve given me to develop this project over the last two years and to everyone who came out last night for the opening. Let me know if you’re dropping by over the summer and I’ll show you around ❤️🔥
@earf.info
A week before the opening of Dan Guthrie’s exhibition ‘Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure’ at Chisenhale Gallery, earf.info – the digital component of Guthrie’s commission – publishes two new resources.
‘Tour Diary III - Act Two’ is the third instalment of a five-part series by Guthrie, giving an insight into the making of his new commission. This instalment reflects upon the exhibition’s duration at Spike Island, Bristol and the presentation of ‘Empty Alcove’ at SVA, Stroud.
Also published is a recording of a conversation between Dan Guthrie and Layla Gatens which took place earlier this month at The Goods Shed, Stroud. The two spoke about the project and its origins in the town, and the conversation was followed by questions from attendees.
The opening of ‘Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure’ is at Chisenhale Gallery on Thursday 5 June from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Booking is not necessary, all are welcome. The show is open to the public until 17 August 2025.
@danglefree@chisenhalegallery@spikeisland
