Artist

Simon Robertshaw

Simon Robertshaw is a British video and installation artist whose work has centred on issues of mental health. His research into these issues allows entry into a broader context, that of surveillance and its relationship to power. In Robertshaw's words:

"Much of my research has been conducted through the writings of Foucault. It was his writing that led me to the work of Jeremy Bentham who developed the "panopticon" in 1795. He put forward an architectural mechanism, a circular building with cells at the periphery and at the centre a viewing tower... It is the analysis of the relationship between the individual and the complex historical power structures which discipline the body and the techniques of discipline that "makes" individuals as both objects and instruments of surveillance. It is these issues that interest me the most."

Robertshaw's recent accomplishments include his role as video animator with Video Positive, the British Video art showcase, where he assisted community groups in the Merceyside area to produce a series of installation works.

Artist Code: 094

Videography

Half Light (the faking of the past)

2018, 32:30 minutes, colour, English

Biometrika

1987, 11:00 minutes, colour, English

Critical Writing

Video Art Identity and the Processes of Cultural Mapping
by John Byrne. Variant, 1993, no. 14.