Graham Gussin

Graham Gussin is a Part-Time Lecturer in Postgraduate Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, where he has maintained a 0.4 full-time equivalent position since 2011, initially as a Teaching Fellow in Post Graduate Fine Art Media before moving to his current role. His academic career spans over two decades, with previous teaching positions at Chelsea School of Art, Goldsmiths College, Central Saint Martins, and Kent University.

Gussin's research practice centers on exploring relationships between time and space using both material and immaterial approaches. He creates work that uses location, site, and atmosphere with reference to cinematic spaces and narratives to cause friction between ideas of the real and the imagined. Central to his practice is the concept of 'Terrain Vague' - an umbrella term involving place and agency, which he explores through the relationship between geographic and psychological 'states' and how they affect thinking around contemporary issues. His methodology employs diverse media including sculpture, text, photography, moving images, video, installation, and sound to investigate perception of time, space, and scale, frequently appropriating and manipulating images from art history, popular culture, and cinema. The deconstruction of cinematic materials reveals his special interest in film language's structural elements rather than its narrative articulations.

His recent artistic output demonstrates consistent exploration of cinematic language, spatial perception, and the relationship between visible and invisible elements. His works often deconstruct cinematic materials to reveal structural elements rather than narrative articulations, creating ambiguity that engenders a deconstruction of the notion of the sublime. Over the past decade, he has developed projects examining utopian and dystopian spaces, the urban and rural, and the 'productive zone' that exists geographically and psychologically, with notable works including 'The Divergent Gaze' (2019), 'The Mary Jane Paintings' (2018), and 'Studio Monte Palace' (2018).

Gussin has introduced and directed cross-area symposia at the Slade School around various themes, including the subject of love in contemporary practice and a yearly project with Siobhan Davies Dance Studios. His teaching methodology incorporates his artistic research directly into pedagogical approaches, creating meaningful connections between his studio practice and academic instruction. He has developed specific courses such as 'Text, Performance and Digital Media' for BA students at Central Saint Martins.