News | Andy Hughes

12 December 24

'If Plastic Could Talk' – Join us at Bayspace for an inspiring session with Andy, who will challenge our view of material culture in the climate crisis. Using engaging visuals and stories, Andy will present two new films that recently premiered at the London Surf Film Festival. He aims to spark a conversation on sustainability, encouraging reflection on our choices and their wider impact. Don’t miss this chance to gain fresh insights and join a vital dialogue on our planet's future!

Booking information

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/film-night-with-andy-hughes-if-plastic-could-talk-tickets-1055121780649

Check here for information about Bayspace St Ives - https://bayspace-stives.com/

16 November 24

The Burton Environmental Commission 2024 will be launched at The Burton on Saturday 16 November, 2-4pm.

Shimmer blends photos, archival film and video game visuals to explore pollution and climate change in our rivers and estuaries. The film showing will be followed by a panel discussion with experts including environmental campaigner and writer Martin Dorey and educationalist and curator Lizzie Perrotte.

Tickets for the event are free but must be booked in advance – book using the event bright or call the gallery on 01237 471455 to reserve your place.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shimmer-environmental-commission-film-launch-and-panel-discussion-tickets-1061958318919?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwY2xjawGQ16xleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHe3Ke6zsfzTIF4rsOdwcOLvBKR8u1FB4ZuJXc9MM-iO6fy8VxWUiEMxHjQ_aem_qaYER-hTrvylQiEzqYzZ1w

8 November 24

Andy Hughes' films 'Being Weird' and 'Being Plastic' will be premiered at the London Surf/Film Festival at Riverside Studios, London. The UK’s largest celebration of contemporary surf culture bringing to these shores the very best surf films from around the globe.

August 2024

Ep. #36 of The Urbanaut Podcast, presented in collaboration with Urbanautica.com. In this thought-provoking episode, we are joined by the renowned British environmental photographer, Andy Hughes. Andy’s compelling body of work challenges the viewer to reconsider the ethical implications of environmental imagery, particularly in the context of plastic pollution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu96i5LNO-M

March 2024

Hughe's film titled 'Inner Migration' had its premier at The Milan Machinima Festival MMXXIV. The festival was thrilled to announce its highly anticipated programs for the 2024 edition, showcasing the best in machinima art from around the world. The festival — which takes place in person at IULM University between March 11 - 15 2024 — featured four unique programs: Auteur Theory, Game Video Essay, Made in Italy, and Slot Machinima.

Read more here: https://milanmachinimafestival.org/blog/2024/3/7/mmf-mmxxiv-andy-hughes-inner-migration

October 2023

Four surfers, (three visual artists and a writer) join together at Porthmeor studios, overlooking the beach to co-curate a reflective and speculative exhibition/event. The project gathers and entangles rich and strange flotsam and jetsam of visual forms, salvaged poetry, and sound. The creative thinking of the project has risen through the sharing of surfing sensoria and ecocriticism (environmental concerns) and flows through the exhibition to conjure future visions of the ocean.

Sea Fever was originally a surf art exhibition event at Tate St Ives for its launch programme in 1993 with the participation of Surfers Against Sewage who were founded that year. Our project reflects back to that time of heightened consciousness and environmental activism but brings a current spirit of the abyssal fantastic to this site on Porthmeor Beach. Read review http://www.solasart.co.uk/writing.html

July 2023

'Portrait of Alison' included in the exhibition 'I Chose This' at https://newlynartgallery.co.uk/activities/i-chose-this/

More than 50 artworks, which have been on loan to nine primary schools across West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly through Think, Talk, Make Art, a major schools and teachers project. The works on display were selected by children at each of the nine participating schools from the Arts Council Collection and Cornwall Council Schools Art Collection to create in-school galleries.

The children involved in choosing the works made their choices collaboratively, through careful consideration and lively discussion. Artwork selected spans the 20th and 21st centuries and encompasses painting, print and sculpture. Artists featured, include Bryan Pearce, Barbara Hepworth, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Jeffrey Steele, Alan Lowndes, Victor Passmore, alongside many others.

June 2023

Andy will be attending the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Awards 2023.

The third instalment of the Plastic Free Awards took place on Friday 16th June at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. We were delighted to host the awards alongside co-founder Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation to celebrate the incredible movement of people and communities fighting for a future without plastic pollution.

The awards ceremony brought together environmental activists and community leaders from around the UK. People from all walks of life, including young campaigners, small businesses, sports clubs and schools, were recognised for their outstanding contributions to the plastic free movement.

https://www.sas.org.uk/updates/plastic-free-awards-celebrating-environmental-champions-from-around-the-uk/

April 2023

Andy will be a guest speaker at Swansea University’s Go Green Week, which welcomes four contemporary creatives, working internationally and each exploring environmental concerns and the ways in which we can tackle environmental issues. From sharing ecological stories to encouraging activism, the arts play a vital role in our collective and individual understanding of our natural world and our role within it.

July 2022

Work in progress from Gapado AiR, hosted by the Jeju provincial government and organized by the Island Art Jeju Association, Art Jeju.

October 2022

[ON AiR] Gapado AiR Lounge
Related Program 2 // Video Screening
Video Screening of artists' films.

Gapado Artist in Residence, hosted an open studio event to show the work of the 6 resident artists in 2022. This exhibition presented the process of recording the tasks laid before them while facing the traces of the scars inflicted on nature and their recovery from the artists’ point of view. It was an opportunity for the public and other visitors to explore and understand the methodology and artwork created by artists based on their 6-month artist residency.

Supported by - Jeju Foundation for Arts and Culture & Jeju Self-Governing Province.

October 2022

Mysterious Clean Island
Gapado AiR Exhibition

This exhibition presents a selection of works in progress from Hughes' artist residency at Gapado AiR. Whilst living on Gapado, he noticed and observed many similarities to his home in Cornwall. The action of wind and waves on the land, oceanic and marine ecologies and increased levels of tourism are very present here and in Cornwall. Effects associated with increased globalisation are also present, with large volumes of plastic waste and debris washed ashore daily.

November 2022

Jeju Biennale commissioned new works for 2022. Four video works and two installed large circular Polycarbonate images are currently being exhibited on the main Island of Jeju and also on Gapado Island [16.11.22 - 12.02.22]

May 2022

Andy Hughes is currently one of five international artists living and working on the tiny island of Gapado, South Korea. During the next 6 months, he will be creating artworks entangled with various notions of the real, the surreal, surfaces, the ocean, circulatory systems, plastic waste and energy.

Hughes was nominated by Clarrie Wallis (Director of Turner Contemporary), other jury members were from MoMA and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea.

April 2022

Andy's work is included in the new book Photography and Environmental Activism, Visualising the Struggle Against Industrial Pollution
by Conohar Scott, published by Routledge.

This publication maps out key moments in the history of environmentalist photography, while also examining contemporary examples of artistic practice.

November 2021

Guest panellist at 'The Ocean and Me'.
Royal College of Art Grand Challenge event 2021.

“The Grand Challenge 2021/22 showcases an amazing range of design solutions, informed by the interdisciplinary thinking of our world-class students who have sensitively and creatively questioned our knowledge about the world’s oceans.”

Professor Paul Anderson
Dean of the School of Design

https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/projects/the-grand-challenge-202122/

October 2021

Sea, Sand and Soil’. Curated by Professor Liz Wells at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China. Andy Hughes and Liz wells were selected for an award as one of the 'best' international exhibits.

China’s most prestigious photography festival, featuring images from more than 50 countries each year in indoor and outdoor venues across the UNESCO-listed ancient city. Andy Hughes, Mandy Barker, Gina Glover were the three artists included in the exhibition.

September 2021

Andy's Machinima film Plastic Scoop will be showing as part of FUTURES2021 (in Plymouth).
Taking place Europe-wide, European Researchers’ Night is dedicated to explaining research through fun and interactive learning.

More than 300 cities across 30 European countries will be taking part in the event on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 September 2021. FUTURES2021 is funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101036029.

June 2021

Andy wins the Surfers Against Sewage Creative Award 2021.

CEO and head judge Hugo Tagholm said: “As the clouds of the pandemic start to lift, it is time to celebrate these environmental heroes, champions and community leaders. They are the ones turning a problem into an opportunity to reshape the world around us for a more sustainable, brighter, greener future. Kudos to everyone playing their part, from the beachfront to the boardroom. Today is your day. This decade is your decade. This is the decade of change.”
www.sas.org.uk/news/campaigns/

March 2022

Andy has been awarded Cultivator Skills Development Grant. Cultivator is a project run by Creative Kernow. Funded by HM Government, Creative Kernow, Cornwall Council, Arts Council England, European Union Structural and Investment Funds

October 2020

PlasticScoop will be shown at the Animator Film Festival in Poland.

It will be part of 'Between a Video Game and Animation'.

Video game technologies are elbowing their way into the world of animated films. What’s the difference between a game and a film? After all, both of them appeal to our audiovisual perception. Sit back and enjoy a collection of animations made using technologies developed with computer games in mind. They can be seen as gameplay videos or conversely, as films that could be a game.

More Information
https://animator-festival.com/en/

March 2020

Andy attends the 30th Anniversary of Surfers Against Sewage and meets HRH Prince of Wales who becomes Patron of Surfers Against Sewage.

Image©Surfers Against Sewage

November 2019

The film PlasticScoop will be showing at the Cornwall Film Festival 17 November and at Porthmeor studios, St Ives 29 November.

October 2019

Andy Hughes presented a Keynote talk at Havas, London in collaboration with the IPA’s EffWeek (15th to 18th October 2019), the annual global initiative championing effective marketing focusing on the role of sustainability in marketing services, and its contribution to campaign effectiveness.

https://www.promomarketing.info/ipm-confirms-final-line-ipa-effweek-sustainability-event/

September 2019

Grand Theft Auto V is the third best-selling video game of all time with an estimated 110million sales across all platforms.

But could its iconic global status be concealing a series of environmental messages, charting the advance of global warming and the accumulation of plastic waste on land and in our oceans?

That is among the theories behind Plastic Scoop, an innovative new film created by artist Andy Hughes and Dr Mandy Bloomfield, Lecturer in English at the University of Plymouth.Plymouth University releases PR film to promote PlasticScoop film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H553cQKoc6E

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/news/is-gta5-mirroring-the-advance-of-climate-change-and-plastic-pollution

July 2019

Andy receives a Plymouth University Sustainable Earth Institute's Creative Associates Award 2019. These projects awards aim to explore novel and innovative ways of communicating research and develop a portfolio of case studies of the different creative approaches possible.

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/institutes/sustainable-earth/creative-associates

June 2019

Andy was one of five judges at the Dopper Changemaker Challenge.
The Dopper Changemaker Challenge started in the Netherlands in 2017, but in 2019 the challenge went going global.

Amsterdam (for Dutch and Belgian students), Berlin, London and Kathmandu. Innovative projects can change the world, crystal clear water, in every ocean, from every tap. That’s Dopper’s goal.

https://kingscross.impacthub.net/dopper-changemaker-challenge/

October 2018

Andy Hughes becomes represented for speaking engagements through Champions Speakers.

https://champions-speakers.co.uk/speaker-agent/andrew-hughes

Champions Speakers represent the world’s most influential motivational speakers, sector-specific specialists, event hosts and corporate entertainment. A family-run business serving over 4000 events in 43 countries worldwide, we place top-class talent at your fingertips. A founding member of the European Association of Speakers Bureaux (EASB), we were handpicked by Sir Richard Branson as 57th in The Sunday Times’ Fast Track 100 and featured in the London Stock Exchange’s 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain.