Graham Fagen: Where the Heart Is, 1999-01
We have chosen Graham Fagen's 'Where the Heart Is' Royston rose project as it offers an example of what a conceptual public artwork can be. Although the rose was made, manufactured and offered to local Royston residents to plant, very few specimens have survived. However this does not distract from the original intention of the work- offering ownership and fostering a sense of community spirit. These ideas have successfully lived on, long after the rose itself has died.
Graham Fagen
Graham Fagen was born in 1966 in Glasgow, and continues to live and work in Scotland. He received a Interdisciplinary MA in Art & Architecture, Kent Institute of Art & Design, Canterbury (1989-90) and a BA (Hons) Degree, Fine Art, Sculpture, Glasgow School of Art (1984-88). He has recently been included in 'Unsettled Objects', Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2010) and commissioned for a foreground public work at St Agnes Park, St Paul’s, Bristol (Bristol City Council, March 2010). His first group exhibition was 'Wonderful Life' at the Lisson Gallery London in 1993, with his first solo exhibition taking place at the prestigious Matt’s Gallery, London in 1998. He was later commissioned by the Imperial War Museum London to act as the official war artist in Kosovo in 1999‑2000 and exhibited in the Venice Biennial in 2001 and 2003, in addition to the Busan Biennial, South Korea and the Art and Industry Biennial, New Zealand in 2004. Other solo exhibitions include 'Somebody else', The Changing Room, Stirling 2009 and 'Graham Fagen at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office', Whitehall, London (curated by Kay Pallister) 2002. His many publications include 'Killing Time', Graham Fagen and Graham Eatough, Dundee Contemporary Arts 2007 and 'Botanica', Grizedale Arts 2002. Fagen also teaches in the Fine Art Department of Duncan and Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee.