Caryn Simonson
Caryn Simonson is an artist, writer and senior lecturer in textiles, critical theory, at Chelsea College of Art and Design and member of TFRG. Caryn is curious about people, their clothes, bodies, passions, harboring secret lives or holding allegiance to social groups. Her work has centred around the performance of gender, sexuality, the subversion of identity, clothing and the body. Currently she is working with Andrew Sides and Jane Harris on the 2nd Life space for TFRG.
She is also editor of a special issue 'Skin and Cloth' of Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture which seeks to explore relationships between skin and cloth, and includes work on technological advances in textiles. It is due to be published in Oct/Nov 2008.
Caryn has been guest professor in Textiles at Universitaet Gesamthochschule, Kassel, Germany and lived and worked in Berlin as a designer and maker of leather wear and an exhibiting artist (1998-2000). Caryn has also collaborated with net artist Rachel Baker to produce "She hasn't switched it on yet..." - a series of cybersalons and workshops for women, a new technology project supported by the Arts Council and Backspace. Exhibitions have included photography, video, sculpture and installation within the context of contemporary textiles. Recent photography work was exhibited at Textile Transporter, an exhibition she co-curated with Renata Brink at Arttransponder gallery, Berlin 2007. In October 2007 she exhibited work as guest artist at Ever and Again- a TED research project - at the Triangle gallery, Chelsea College of Art and Design.
