Andy Hughes learned to surf whilst an art student in South Wales. His art
focuses on the littoral zone and the politics of plastic waste. His photographs are
preoccupied with the ‘thing-ness’ of plastic, watery worlds and coastal habitats
and include recent ventures into gamification, ruinology and poetry.
His practice draws on philosophy, literature, art and film, including
archival film, as well as interfacing with scientific research. He is interested
in radical conceptions of materialism and the implications this has for politics,
ecology and the everyday way we think of others, the world, and ourselves.
He was one of three artists and international scientists
invited to Alaska to join the world's first ocean art and
science expedition responding to and interpret
the issue of marine/coastal/ocean plastic pollution.
His groundbreaking book Dominant Wave Theory presents the first complete
photographic study of plastic and human waste washed ashore
along the coasts of Europe and the USA. It contains expert commentary
by world leading experts including Dr Richard Thompson OBE, Chris Hines MBE.
Published by Booth-Clibborn Editions [London] and Abrams [New York].
‘Very few directors have tackled the complex relationship between environmental issues and digital games. With Plastic Scoop, Andy Hughes makes that connection painfully manifest. By appropriating both the aesthetics of video games and the language of vintage promotional videos and other archival material, à la Adam Curtis, Hughes reminds us that we have become aliens to our own planet’.
Matteo Barretti / Gamescenes.org