Hayden Fowler - Artist Biography.

Born 1973 Te Awamutu, New Zealand. Lives and works Sydney, Australia and Berlin, Germany.

Hayden Fowler has a Master of Fine Arts from UNSW Australia and an earlier degree in Ecology. He employs the dynamics of a hybrid practice, incorporating emerging theory from both the sciences and humanities to develop projects that engage audiences conceptually, aesthetically and immersively. His practice is motivated by the planetary human-nature crisis, exploring the effects of alienation from the natural world on the human psyche and the potentials of non-anthropocentric thought in the generation of transformed futures.

Fowler's work and thinking is located within colonial/ post-colonial contexts: countering dominant Western discourse through identification of it's role in human and ecological catastrophe; critiquing the continuation of these ideologies; and dismantling historic power structures through construction of alternate realities. This includes eco-feminist, queer-ecological and indigenous approaches; acknowledgement of the psychological, spiritual and cultural significance of the human-nature relationship; and assertion of animist, indigenous and mythological world views.

His methodology involves long periods of research and the development of conceptually layered works - depicting scenes ranging from pristine futuristic interiors, to apocalyptic/ post-human landscapes and speculative regenerative ecologies. Within these spaces, choreographies between plants, animals and technology unfold, weaving mysticism, architecture, technology and life forms into strange new systems. Generating hyperreal video, photography, Virtual Reality, installation and performance outcomes.

Fowler exhibits nationally and internationally and his work is held in a number of public and private collections. He is a previous recipient of the Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, undertaking his year of study abroad at the Universität der Künste Berlin, Germany. In 2019, he also undertook a 12-month residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.