I have revisited this exercise for a second time, right at the end of the unit, post the outward-facing collection of work I assembled for Project 8, and the final Critical Review. It was only at this point that I have been able to look back across my practice in this unit and been able to formulate an understanding of how I want to frame my work, both for myself and for the viewer. The narrative threads started weaving together during Project 8 with the curation proposal, but became firmly bound as I worked through the different iterations of the critical review. It was only at that juncture, initiated by critical feedback from my tutor, that the two key activities underpinning my process, the research and the creative expression, became evident. And it is through the merging of those that I am conducting the enquiry into my experience of how I interface with the world. Deeper investigation for the final critical review, identified the methodological similarities between my – and most contemporary artists – practice and autoethnographic research, and it is from that perspective that I have rewritten my artist statement.
Nikolas Head, 2025
What affords us our identity? What determines how we present ourselves and
influences how we interface with the world? These – and many other implied questions – are examined in the work of the British multidisciplinary contemporary artist, Nikolas Head. Through a systematic reflexive exploration into his own life, Nikolas examines the dimensions that shape identity, the Memories, Feelings, Beliefs and Presence, that coagulate, shift and bend over time to create our individuality, and that influence our relationship with the different layers of the world around us.
Nikolas’ practice merges research and creative expression as a method of enquiry into lived cultural experience. It leads him across a diversity of ideas, mediums and processes, exploring their interplay as he seeks the most appropriate memorialisation for themes and individual subjects. His work serves to invite viewers to contemplate with curiosity and empathy, the complexities of their identities, the influences those have on their relationship with the world around, and how, in turn, the manifold dimensions of those identities can and do impact the lives of others.