Projects

Al Hopwood is an award winning artist, writer and curator. Over a twenty year career he's made moving image, photography, performance, text and installation projects with major international galleries. He's collaborated extensively with scientists, actors, filmmakers, writers, magicians, musicians, comedians, designers, psychologists and academics. Follow the links below to find out more about his work.

WITH TV

In late 2021 Al launched a new project called WITH TV where you can commission him to create a film that fictionalises an experience from your past. The Storyboard service is currently available with The Short and The Feature launching later this year. Visit the WITH TV website for more

WITH (withyou.co.uk)

Al has worked under the guise of the fictional self-help company 'WITH' for 18 years, creating playful conceptual artworks through a series of Solutions. Whether creating evidence of a happier (or more traumatic) past, playing out a worst case scenario or exercising on your behalf, WITH claim to offer their clients "time-saving solutions for personal growth and individual development". Project partners have included Tate Britain, ICA London, Hayward Gallery, Mona Tasmania and Chapter Cardiff. Visit the WITH website to make your way through the solutions and to see documentation of past WITH exhibitions and performances.

False Memory Archive

Al created the False Memory Archive during a residency at the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths in 2011. It has since grown into an international touring exhibition, a scientific paper, a book, a music project and conference series. Works include a series of collaborations with cognitive psychologists and a collection of 'non-believed' memories submitted by the public. Visit the False Memory Archive website

Smoke and Mirrors: The Psychology of Magic

Al was awarded a Wellcome Engagement Fellowship in 2014 and the result was Smoke and Mirrors - a major exhibition project he initiated and co-curated (with Honor Beddard) at Wellcome Collection in 2019. The exhibition explored the psychology of magic through a collection of artefacts gathered from the history of magic, spiritualism and psychology. More

The Museum of Revelatory Fakes (MoRF)

Al is currently developing a new exhibition project with sociologist Patricia Kingori (Professor of Global Health at Oxford University) that explores the use-value and future of fakery in our so-called misinformation age. More

Temporary Chroma Key Memorials

Al was commissioned by Wellcome Collection in 2021 to create a new series of photographs and a script for a fictional podcast. See the project at the Wellcome Collection website.

Healthy Scepticism Project

Between 2020-21 Al was a remote artist in residence on the Healthy Scepticism Project run by the historian Dr. Caitjan Gainty at Kings College London. The work was a creative response to the various challenges of the pandemic. You can see his response to the project here.

The Ethics of Deception

Al wrote a six part essay series for Wellcome Stories in 2019 about the various uses of deception in art, science and popular culture and asked whether such activity can still be justified in light of our so-called misinformation age. The series can be read here

REDESIGN YOUR LIFE

Al developed (with Sean Parfitt) a six-part TV series pitch with Granada Productions in 2005 for a dark comedy drama called Redesign Your Life. Between 2013-2017 he wrote 2 feature length films called Redesign Your Life and in 2016 he proposed an exhibition called Redesign Your Life. None of them have been made (yet). The most recent Redesign Your Life script can be found here and in 2022 he'll be working with a director on the latest rewrite.

Failed proposal 001: Unnamed

Some projects fail to see the light of day or just get a tiny audience. Maybe that's a good thing. Judge for yourself in this occasional online feature written by Al - launching with a series of unseen portraits he created during his Wellcome Engagement Fellowship. More