Stuart Layton's work explores the passing down of history, folklore & childhood recollections. He questions the extent to which history is fabricated to suit the political agenda of the day.
Layton’s hyperreal video-works border on conspiracy theory as he questions the notion that everything we are led to believe is true.
Layton holds a BA in Fine Art Practice from the University of Worcester and is currently studying for an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art.
© Stuart Layton, excerpt from The Devil’s Haircut, 2013. Digital video Projection transferred to DVD, 6:38.
Bio
Stuart Layton works across video, installation, sound and writing to explore time, memory and class. He examines the various methods employed in order to convey history, folklore & childhood retention.
Often working within small, regional communities that co-exist within post-industrial towns, Layton’s investigations into the fallibility of memory invariably lead to investigation into the validity of history itself.
It is often assumed that history is a straight-forward representation of past events, but Layton’s work makes cause for the invocation of historian E H Carr’s maxim that: ‘There is no such thing as history, only historians.’
In a similar vein, Leopold von Ranke taught that to articulate the past historically does not mean to recognise it ‘the way it was’. In short, history, like memory is constructed and reconstructed in relation to the perspectives and prejudices of the individual.
The common theme in all of Layton’s work is his critical examination of memory and editorial
choice in the formation of political and personal histories and personally political histories. He
often considers the ‘just-past’ too, in order to scrutinise the much-contested site of ‘contemporary history’.
Layton is an emerging artist whose work has been exhibited across the UK and Internationally.
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