Charles Sandison b. 1969

Born in Haltwhistle, Scotland, UK | Lives and works in Tampere, Finland

The Scottish-born Charles Sandison’s computer-generated software installations project text onto building facades or interiors. Symbols, words, and figures entwine and interact, coalescing into various formations and creating concrete images. The individual words or numbers are programmed to react to each other and engage the viewer in a dialogue with the piece. Words either form figures or move in constellations. Sandison’s work presents not only random words; the visual depiction also carries societal meanings and stories. Sandison belongs to the generation of artists such as Roni Horn, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Olafur Eliasson, who have drawn on the experience of Post-Minimalist Sculpture and Conceptual art to create a critical but as well subtle visual language.

 Sandison graduated with an MA from Glasgow Art School in 1993 and his installations can be seen in public places all over the world. He was awarded the Ars Fennica award in 2010 for the installation Language as a mirror of the world. Sandison’s work can be found in both domestic and international museum collections, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, the Bonn Art Museum, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Musée d’Art Moderne in Luxembourg, as well as the Denver Art Museum in Colorado. 

Galerie Forsblom has been representing Charles Sandison since 2011.