dormer-durling

Biography

I am an artist, photographer, educator and producer. 

As an educator, I favour a non-hierarchical, collaborative form of learning. My approach encourages curiosity and exploration, aiming for a dialogue that benefits both facilitator and student. By rejecting the traditional ‘banking’ system of knowledge transference, and instead aspiring to activate the production of new knowledge in social contexts, my teaching practice questions both the usefulness of - and uses for - that knowledge. In this way, I aim to use education as a socially transformative tool.

My research interests as an artist reflect this, in unpicking the way that we derive knowledge from our cultural institutions. Working primarily between museum spaces and field studies, I look to create dialogues between objects, artefacts and the landscape, offering alternative narratives that challenge our established historical accounts.


CV

Education

2018 // MA Graphic Arts, University of The West of England (distinction)

2013 // Certificate of Education, Bath Spa University

2009 // Professional Photography, Plymouth University (1st)

Work & Commissions

2024 -  //  The Prison Mobile Library, a creative collaboration with IC Visual Lab & The Prison Education Service

2022 - 2024 // HE Curriculum Coordinator, Art & Design, UCW / Bath Spa University

2022 - 2024 // Course Leader, BA (Hons) Art & Design, UCW / Bath Spa University

2021 // Founder of foto/walks in partnership with Bridging the Gap Together & NHS Social Prescribing 

2016 – 2022 // Lecturer of Photography, UCW / Bath Spa University 

2011 – 2016  // Lecturer of Photography, Weston College

2010 – 2011  // Associate Lecturer, City of Bristol College / Plymouth University

2009 – 2010 // Founder/Curator, Photo Gallery, Bristol

Exhibitions & Publications

2023 // ‘The Performing Photobook’, Format Festival, Derby

2022 // ‘Dragons & Snakestones’ Exhibition, Weston Museum

2021  // ‘Dragons & Snakestones’ Photobook

2018 // ‘Conform’, Arnolfini, Bristol

2018 // ‘Dragons & Snakestones’, Lyme Regis Museum

2018 // ‘The Graphic Arts of Photography, Centrespace

2014 // ‘Photography’, Loves

2012 // Essay in Jan Tove’s photobook ‘Silent Landscape’ (published by Nya Vyer)

2011 // ‘Second Look’, Centrespace

2010 // ‘In Absence’, The Lloyd Gill Gallery

2010 // ‘Three’, Bristol Festival of Photography