Welsby began making landscape films and installations in the early 70s, and although he has worked across a range of media he has always concentrated on one particular theme: how do we see ourselves in relation to the natural world and how should we position our selves and our technologies within it? His art practice was heavily influenced by Structural Materialist film theory at the London Film Makers Co-operative and by cybernetic and systems theory at the Slade School of Fine Art, where as a student and later as a faculty member, he came into contact with some of the pioneers of interactive technology and computer-driven art forms.
Peter Wollen has argued that, “Welsby’s work makes it possible to envisage a relationship between science and art, in which observation is separated from surveillance and technology from domination.” According to writer, Fred Camper, Welsby’s work, “…rejects the long tradition of landscape painting (and much subsequent landscape filmmaking) in which images serve as metaphors for the artist’s emotions.” Instead of observing nature as a Romantic “other”, Welsby uses the mechanics of the moving image to interact with his environment. The resulting films, expanded cinema works and installations explore notions of interconnectedness and agency within our ever-changing environment.
Since 1972 Welsby’s films have screened consistently in Cinematheques and art galleries around the world. A pioneer of moving images in the gallery, his expanded cinema works and installations from the ‘70s and ‘80s are now gaining renewed attention by public and private galleries in Europe, North America and Asia. “Twenty-five years ago, when he made his first projections for large spaces, film and art rarely met in the gallery; now it is common and installation art is a distinct practice.” – A.L. Rees, Author of A History of Experimental Film and Video.
Between1993 and 2014, Welsby made a number of weather driven digital media installations. These were featured in his 2005 solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Winnipeg Canada, and his 2007 solo exhibition at the Letharby Gallery, London UK. His recent video and new media collaborations with software programmer Brady Marks have been widely exhibited for example: Toronto, at the 2006 Images Festival, the 2006 Gwangju Biennale South Korea, the Singapore Biennale and currently online and at MIRE gallery, in the city of Nantes, France.
During 2015-16 Welsby completed three new single channel video works. The first, is called “Momentum” and was shot in a derelict hotel in Mexico. It is 36minutes long. The second, shot near his home on Gabriola Island, Canada is 17minutes long and is called Entrance Island. The third is called Desert Spring and celebrates the fragile beuty of the Sonora Desert in Mexico.
Welsby has written a number of scholarly essays over the years and has recently published two new pieces. The first was based on his presentation at the Tate Modern’s symposium on Expanded Cinema (April 2009) It can be found in Expanded Cinema Art, Performance Film Tate Gallery publishing 2011. Chapter #3 p 276 Cybernetics, Expanded Cinema and New Media: from representation to performative practice. The second essay is an extensive artist’s statement and is published in Leonardo Journal of the Arts and Sciences.Volume 44 #2 2011 Technology Nature, Software and Networks: Materializing the Post Romantic Landscape. Published by MIT Press. A recent interview with Katherine Elwes was published by Moving Image and Art Journal and Review. MIRAGE Vol 2 #2 2013. All three of these are included in the writings section of this web site. Welsby is a graduate of the Experimental Media Department at the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London UK. He holds the position of Professor Emeritus, (Fine Arts Film and Electronic Imaging) Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Arts Science and Communication. He is a member of the Institute for Computing, Information, and Cognitive Systems at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and lives on a small island off the Pacific coast of Western Canada.
Reviews and Commentary
“Welsby’s extraordinary originality lies in the way that he harnesses these natural effects to those of the cinema, allowing one to enhance the other.” Laura Mulvey, Essay for BFI British Artist’s film DVD 2006
“Welsby’s vision is unique in the context of the English Avant-Garde.” (The British Film Institute)
“Welsby’s work makes it possible to envisage a different kind of relationship between science and art, in which observation is separated from surveillance, and technology from domination.”
Peter Wollen, in Millennium Film Journal, New York.
“The primary achievement of the avant-garde cinema in this area has been to force a contemplation of the natural world in different mediations by the cinematic apparatus. The landscapes of the narrative cinema, as Eisenstein and Bazin suggest, are latent expressionistic theatres, confronting or echoing the minds of the human figures within them. The aleatoric magic Tarkovsky describes in Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960) ultimately confirms this version of the pathetic fallacy. But there is a fundamental change of aesthetic orientation when there is no actress in the scene, no body on which the snowflakes can land. Snow, Brakhage, Welsby and other landscape film-makers have used cinema to look at the natural beauty of the world, and watching their films we share their surprise and excitement at the disjunctions and the meshings of the rhythms of the world and the temporality of the medium.”
P. Adams Sitney, “Landscape in the cinema: the rhythms of the world and the camera, “ Chapter 5 in Landscape, Natural Beauty, and the Arts, edited by Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskel. (Cambridge University Press, 1993).
“The significance of the landscape film arises from the fact that they assert the illusionism of cinema through the sensuality of landscape imagery, and simultaneously assert the material nature of the representational process which sustains the illusionism. It is the interdependence of those assertions which makes the films remarkable – the ‘shape’ and ‘content’ interact as a systematic whole.”
Deke Dusinberre, in “St. George in the Forest: The English Avant-Garde,” in Afterimage, Summer 1976.
“In Chris Welsby’s work the camera is always an obvious presence, either directly visible or lurking off-screen. These days obvious allusions to production are too often shorthand for empty irony, signaling nothing but a twitch of postmodern conceit. But like Jacobs, Welsby – whose films were shown last month at Millennium – illustrates how self-reflexivity can still create a moral, aesthetic. And/or political imperative.”
Manohla Dargis Village Voice, April 25th 1989, NYC.
“Ethics and aesthetics come together here… offering is a tour de force unlike anything cinema had yet seen…”
Fred Camper on Seven Days: Film Critic; Chicago Reader
“With Shore Line, [Welsby] took the radical step of making a work designed for showing continuously in a gallery…” David Curtis Curator Film Historian
“The potential of the installation as a sanctuary of peace binds the landscape to the mind via technology…” Chrissie Iles Curator Whitney Museum of Modern Art
“The visible is no longer a guarantee of absolute knowledge.” Manohla Dargis writing about Sky Light in the Village Voice, April, 1989
“Just as the lens provided ways of seeing the world that could not previously be comprehended, so too does the computer… networking and data acquisition of digital processes create a different context of synchronicity and a-synchronicity.” Peter Ride on the Toronto Exhibition of Trees in Winter, 2006
Annotated Curriculum Vitae
Born 1948—Exeter, England
Education
| 1973-75 | Higher Diploma—Slade School of Fine Art, London |
| 1970-73 | B.A. (1st Class Honors) Fine Art—Chelsea School of Art, London |
| 1969-70 | Foundation Studies—Central School of Art, London |
Teaching
| 2012- | Professor Emeritus, SCA., Faculty of Fine Art Science and Communication, Simon Fraser University |
| 1989–2012 | Professor of Fine Art, School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada |
| 1976–89 | Lecturer and Co-Founder, the Fine Arts Media Programme Graduate Studies at the Slade School of Art, London, UK |
| 1975–89 | Visiting Lecturer Positions at art schools and universities throughout Europe and North America |
Installations/New Media
| 2021 | To a God Unknown | Single Channel Video Installation after the Steinbeck novel |
| 2014 | Fading Light | Single channel Video Installation Inter-Urban Gallery Vancouver, Canada |
| 2013 | Time After Nantes | A new version Commissioned by MIRE and The City of Nantes, France. |
| 2010 | Time After | A web cam + new media installation Vancouver |
| 2009 | Ovoids-Moving Images | A 4 screen DVD Installation (with first Nations Artist Alan Steves) |
| 2009 | Heaven’s Breath | A weather driven New Media Installation (with Brady Marks and Oddissi Dancer Scheherazaad Cooper) |
| 2008 | Taking Time | A digital seascape Public artwork and online installation |
| 2006 | Tree Studies | Three screen installation driven by global weather systems |
| 2006 | Trees in Winter | A Weather-Driven New Media Installation |
| 2006 | Windmill | Installation Version |
| 2004 | Waterfall | Single Projector DVD Installation |
| 2004 | Changing Light | Interactive DVD Installation |
| 2003 | At Sea | Four Screen DVD Installation |
| 2002 | Tide Line (Contained) | Version#2 (in a shipping container) |
| 2001 | Drift | Installation Version |
| 2000 | Tide Line | Twelve Monitor Video Installation |
| 1998 | Lost Lake | Video Wall Installation |
| 1990 | Rainfall | Single Screen Film Installation |
| 1986 | Sky Light | Six Screen Film Installation/ Expanded Cinema 3 |
| 1983 | Rainfall | Film Installation |
| 1980 | Estuary | Installation, Film+Photograhs, Charts and Drawings |
| 1979 | Shore Line II | Six Screen Film Installation/ Expanded Cinema |
| 1978 | Wind Vane III | 20 min. Three Screen, Expanded Cinema |
| 1977 | Shore Line | Six Screen Film Installation/ Expanded Cinema |
| 1972 | River Yar | 35 min.Twin Screen, Expanded Cinema (with William Raban) |
| 1972 | Wind Vane | 8 min. Twin Screen, Expanded Cinema |
Films/Videos (read single screen film or video unless otherwise noted)
| 2023 | A Sinking Feeling | 7 mins Camera by Margit Hesthammar |
| 2021 | Hotel | 18min |
| 2019 | White Out | 12min |
| Oxygen | 14min Sound by Angelica Costello | |
| Taking Time #2 | 23min Shot in Mexico | |
| 2017 | Crocodile Dreams | 14min “ |
| Tree again | 12min “ | |
| 2016 | Desert Spring | 16min “ |
| Entrance Island | 23min | |
| 2015 | Mercury | 14min |
| Momentum | 38min single channel video shot in Mexico | |
| 2014 | Love at First Sight | 3 mins |
| Fading Light | 60 min Single channel Video | |
| 2012 | Leaving Vancouver | 10 minute Single channel Video |
| 2011 | Tofino | 60 min Single Channel. |
| 1994 | Drift | 17 min. |
| 1992 | Sea Pictures | 36 min. |
| 1988 | Sky Light | 26 min. |
| 1987 | Far Horizons (cinematography) Commissioned for a video wall by Laura Mulvey | |
| 1980 | Estuary | 55 min. |
| 1979 | Sea/Shore | 6 min. |
| 1978 | Cloud Fragments | 12 min. |
| 1976 | Stream Line | 8 min. |
| 1975 | Wind Vane II | 26 min. |
| 1975 | Colour Separation | 2 min., 30 secs. |
| 1974 | Windmill III | 10 min. |
| 1974 | Seven Days | 20 min. |
| 1974 | Anemometer | 10 min. |
| 1974 | Tree | 5 min. |
| 1973 | Fforest Bay II | 5 min. |
| 1973 | Running Film | 4 min. |
| 1973 | Windmill | 8 min. |
| 1972-3 | Park Film | 7 min. |
| 1972-3 | Winter and Summer | 5 min. |
Installation Exhibitions
| 2023 | Re Voir Gallery Paris, France. |
| 2017 | Christinehamns Konstmuseum Sweden At Sea 4 channel video Installation |
| 2014 | Inter Urban Gallery Vancouver, Canada |
| Light Cone “Expanded” Paris France 2013 | |
| Time After Nantes. Version includes a continuous photograph that will take two years to form a complete image. | |
| 2013 | Camden Arts Centre, London UK. Wind Vane, Tree and Anemometer. New installation versions |
| 2010 | Stream Line gallery installation version. St Sebastian, France |
| Inter Urban Gallery Vancouver Time After- 5 monitor installation—Web cam and digital media | |
| 2009 | Touchstones Museum of Art and History Nelson BC Waterfall DVD Installation Centro De Arte y Naturaleza Los Tiempos De Un Lugar Huesca, Spain. (Seven Days. Installation Version) |
| Surrey Art Gallery (Heaven’s Breath) | |
| Interurban Gallery Vancouver (Ovoids—Moving Images Between Nature and Art) | |
| 2008 | Festival of Nature and Performance Gabriola Island (Taking Time) |
| 2007 | Lethaby Gallery, London UK ( Solo Exhibition: At Sea, Lost Lake) |
| 2006 | Gwangju Biennale South Korea (Tree Studies) |
| 2006 | Harborfront Gallery, Toronto. Timeless – Time, Landscape and New |
| 2006 | Media (Trees in Winter) |
| 2006 | Galerie de Luquam, Montreal. Weathervane. ( Windmill installation) |
| 2005 | Plug In ICA, Winnipeg (solo show: Waterfall, At Sea, Changing Light) |
| 2004 | Artspace Gallery, Sydney, Australia (Changing Light) |
| 2004 | Artspace Gallery, Sydney, Australia (Waterfall) |
| 2004 | Evolutions—International Media Arts Festival, Leeds, UK (At Sea) |
| 2003 | Science Fictions, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore (At Sea) |
| 2002 | Far Horizons Public Art Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada (Tide Line Contained) Sea Seen Six Screen, Gallery 291, London, England (Shore Line II) |
| 2001 | At Sea Exhibition, Tate Gallery Liverpool, (Drift Installation and Tide Line) |
| 2000 | Far Horizons, Tate Gallery St Ives, (Tide Line) |
| 1999 | Western Front Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (Lost Lake) |
| 1990 | Signs of the Times, Exhibition of British Media Installations, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford Centre of Contemporary Art (Rainfall Installation) |
| 1992 | Signs of the Times, Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester, UK (Rainfall) |
| 1993 | Signs of the Times Touring Exhibition, Centre d’Art et de Culture, La Ferme du Buisson, Paris, Manifeste-30 Ans de Creation Cinématographique en Perspective, Musée d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (Rainfall Installation) |
| 1986 | Charting Time, Serpentine Gallery, London (Sky Light Installation) 6 |
| 1983 | Slowdancer Film and Video Co-operative Liverpool (Rainfall Installation) |
| 1981 | Installation, Performance, Video, Film, Tate Gallery, London, England (Shore Line II) |
| 1979 | B2 Gallery, London England (Shore Line II) |
| 1975 | ACME Gallery, London England (Shore Line) |
Individual Film Screenings [In-Person Presentations of Premières & Retrospectives]
| 2022 | To a God Unknown (After Steinbeck.) Video Installation. |
| Re-Voire Gallery Paris | |
| Premier Oxygen Light Cone. Paris, France | |
| Premier Oxygen and White Out. Close up Cinema London UK | |
| 2022 | 50 year Anniversary of first NFT Screening of River Yar National Film Theatre London |
| 2021 | Lanzarote International Film Festival . Spain |
| 2016 | Mercury. Premier Tate Britain |
| 2014 | It’s All About the River Plymouth UK |
| 2013 | Cinamatheque Quebecoise Solo Retrospective. Montreal Concordia University, Montreal: “Beyond the Sublime” Talk and presentation. |
| Hexagram, Concordia University, Montreal “New Ontologies” conference. Talk and presentation. |
|
| Camden Arts Centre, London UK Film In Space “painting with Time” Illustrated talk. | |
| 2010 | Etats Generaux Du Film Documentaire , Lussas, France. Solo retrospective screening with talk |
| 2009 | Scratch Projections Paris Illustrated Talk and film presentation “Beyond the Sublime” |
| DIM Projections Vancouver Cinematheque Illustrated Talk and film presentation | |
| Vancouver Cinematheque Retrospective | |
| MIRE Nantes France Illustrated Talk and film presentation | |
| 2008 | Millennium Solo retrospective |
| 2007 | National Film Theatre, London UK (Retrospective: screening voted #5 top ten films of 2007 in the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound Magazine, December issue.) |
| 2006 | Rhode Island Museum of Art. Lecture and retrospective screening |
| 2004 | Evolutions—International Media Arts Festival, Leeds, UK (Retrospective) |
| Institute Of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia (Retrospective) | |
| Artspace Gallery, Sydney, Australia | |
| 2001 | Film Forum, Hammer Museum, Los Angelese,USA (Retrospective) |
| Doc Films, University of Chicago (Retrospective) | |
| 1999 | Western Front Gallery, Vancouver (Lost Lake Video Wall Installation) |
| 1996 | Museum of Modern Art, New York (Drift & Retrospective) |
| 1995 | Film Theatre, London (Drift & Retrospective) |
| Austrian Filmmaker’s Co-op, Vienna | |
| Light Cone Cinéma, Paris | |
| Cinemathèque Royale, Filmmuseum, Brussels (Drift, Retrospective) | |
| Association Mire, Nantes (Drift & Retrospective) | |
| 1993 | Musée d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris |
| Pacific Cinemathèque, Vancouver | |
| Cinemathèque, San Francisco | |
| Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley | |
| Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (Sea Pictures & Retrospective) | |
| 1992 | Robert Flaherty International Film Seminar, Aurora, New York (Sea Pictures) |
| 1990 | Pacific Cinemathèque, Vancouver B.C. Directors, Harbour Centre, Vancouver (Sky Light, Retrospective) |
| 1989 | Chicago Filmmakers ; The Art Institute, Chicago; Millennium, New York; Innis Film Society, Toronto; Emily Carr College of Art & Design, Vancouver; Pacific Cinemathèque, Vancouver; Film Forum, Los Angeles; The Art Institute, San Francisco; Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley; Cinemathèque, San Francisco; Utica College, Syracuse; Pittsburgh Filmmakers; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (Sky Light & Retrospective) |
| 1988 | National Film Theatre, London; London Film Festival (Sky Light) |
| 1985 | Darkroom Gallery, Cambridge (Sky Light Six Projector Installation Version) |
| 1984 | Darkroom Gallery, Cambridge |
| 1983 | Bridewell Studios, Liverpool B2 Gallery, London (Shore Line Two Six Projector Installation) Spacex Gallery, Exeter John Hansard Gallery, Southampton |
| 1981 | Tate Gallery, London (Shore Line Two Six Projector Installation) ACME Gallery, London (Estuary Film and Photography Installation) Millennium, New York;Filmmaker’s Co-op, Chicago; Canyon Cinema, San Francisco; Pittsburgh Filmmakers; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley; Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Encounter Cinema, Los Angeles; Pacific Cinemathèque, Vancouver |
| 1980 | Kommunales Kino, Frankfurt; Das Kino, Karlsruhe; Kommunales Kino Stuttgart; Kommunales Kino, Kiel; Arsenal, Berlin; National Museum of Art, Budapest |
| De Appel Gallery, Amsterdam (Estuary Film and Photography Installation) Museum of Modern Art, Oxford | |
| 1979 | Film Centrum, Den Haag, Melkweg, Amsterdam |
| 1978 | L’Espace Lyonnais D’Art Contemporain, Lyons; Avignon Film Festival |
| 1977 | Gallery Cavalino, Venice, Italy Spectro Arts Centre, Newcastle ACME Gallery, London, (Shore Line, Six Projector Installation.) Omnium Film Co-op, Paris British Council, Paris Stedlijk, Amsterdam |
| 1976 | Anthology Film Archives, Millennium, New York; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Film Group at N.A.M.E., Chicago; Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley; Canyon Cinema, San Francisco; Theatre Vanguard, Los Angeles; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London |
| 1975 | Tate Gallery, London |
| Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham | |
| 1974 | London Filmmaker’s Co-op |
| 1973 | London Filmmaker’s Co-op |
Group Screenings and Expanded Cinema and exhibitions
| 2022 | Festival Punto De Vista Pamplona Spain |
| Scratch Projection Paris France | |
| Association Solaris-Videodrome Marseille, France | |
| EM Arts Assozione Cultural Naples Italy | |
| MIRE Nantes France | |
| Dobra Internat/ Experimental Film Festival Rio De Janeiro Brazil | |
| Visions /La Lumier Collective, Quebec Canada | |
| Muse D’Art Moderne Le Harve France | |
| 2021 | Peripheral Film Festival A Coruna Spain |
| De Imagerie VZW Antwerp, Belgium | |
| Gestora De Nuevos Proyectos S.L Spain | |
| Cinema DU TNB Rennes, France | |
| 2020 | Etats Généraux Du Film Documentaire Lussas France L’Abominable Bagnolet, France |
| 2019 | Cinema Off/Off Rotterdam Netherlands |
| Busan International Short Film Festival. South Korea | |
| Korea Foundation -Seoul Eco Film Festival Seoul South Korea | |
| Dits: Forening For Visuel Konst Re Vassa Finland | |
| 2017 | Musee de Art Moderne Malraux Le Have, France |
| Dits: Forening For Visuel Konst Re Vassa Finland | |
| Centre De Cultura Contemporania De Barcelona , Spain | |
| Collectif Jeune Cinema, Paris France | |
| 2016 | Visual Poetry Stockholm Sweden |
| 2015 | Association Muzziques/ Instant Chavirez, Montreuil, France |
| Film Gotland Farosund Sweden | |
| Centre De Cultura Contemporania De Barcelona , Spain | |
| Le Bal Paris, France | |
| 2014 | Experimental Film and Video Festival Seoul South Korea |
| 2012 | Light Cone 30 years at Centre Pompidou, Paris France |
| Toronto International Film Festival | |
| Arts Associazone Cultural Naples Italy | |
| 2010 | Etats Généraux Du Film Documentaire Lussas France |
| Les Rendez-Vous Contemporains De Saint Marie France | |
| 2009 | Transmediale-Berlin |
| Hebbel am Ufer-Berlin | |
| Pacific Cinematheque-Vancouver | |
| Impakt-Utrecht | |
| Edith-Russ-Haus in Oldenburg Diversions Festival | |
| Reading Experimental Film Festival-Reading, UK | |
| Inch Cinema-Birmingham UK | |
| Arteleku-Diputacion Foral De Gipuzkoa | |
| Courtisane VZW (Film Festival) – Gent | |
| 2008 | NGBK e.V (Centre for Contemporary Art) Berlin. A Rebours: Nature On Film: “Tree” and “Sky Light” |
| 2007 | Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart Landscape Distance Removal Wind Vane shown in a new installation version. |
| Musee D’Art Moderne; Grand-Duc Jean Luxenbourg. River Yar and Wind Vane “Shoot Shoot Shoot” Touring exhibition of British experimental film | |
| Finnish Film Archive Helsinki River Yar and Wind Vane “Shoot Shoot Shoot” Touring exhibition of British experimental film. | |
| The Royal Academy, London UK. “Instructions for Films” : “World Seascape” project description and artwork exhibited in visual art exhibition of proposals for films/videos that will never be made. Also exists as a limited edition publication. | |
| Images croisées Montpellier, France Windmill | |
| Elements Festival of Nature and Performance Gabriola Island Public Art | |
| Installation “Taking Time” New Media site specific installation with web-based component | |
| International documentary film festival, Jihava, Czech Republic. Forest Bay | |
| Festival Du Film Court de Villeubanne, France Stream Line | |
| Light Cone Scratch Cinema, Paris, France Drift | |
| Das Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. Berlin Wind Vane | |
| 2006 | Expanded Cinema -Wuttembergishcher Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany ( River Yar and Wind Vane) |
| British Artists’ Film. Poland Film Tour: Oznan, Warsaw and Kracow (Windmill) | |
| 2004 | Expanded Cinema-Film als Spektakel, PheonixHalle, Dortmund, Germany |
| 2004 | Shoot Shoot Shoot, British Avant-Garde Film 1966-76 World Tour: Image Forum, Hillside Plaza, Tokyo, Japan German Cultural Institute, Kyoto, Japan Yokohama Museum of Art,Yokohama, Japan Image Forum, Seoul Experimental Film Festival, Seoul, Korea World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam Oikodrome Vienna Institute Of Urban Sustainability: first European Networks conference on sustainable practice Orgone Cinema, Pittsburgh, USA Aurora Picture Show Houston, Texas, USA Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Pittsburgh, USA Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA Documentary Film Group, Chicago, USA Block Museum of Art, Evanston, USA San Francisco Cinematheque, San Francisco, USA Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, USA |
| 2003 | Visionary Landscapes: folk, film, landscape, Cecil |
| Sharp House, London UK | |
| A Century of Artist’s Film in Britain, Tate Britain, London, UK | |
| Renier Claire Paris France (Colour Separation) | |
| Cinema De Balie Amsterdam Seven Days | |
| Shoot Shoot Shoot, British Avant-Garde Film 1966-76 World Tour: Scratch Projections, Paris France Brisbane International Film Festival, Brisbane Australia Melbourne Film Festival, Melbourne Australia Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek, Berlin, Germany Deutsches Filmuseum, Francfurt Germany Kino 46, Bremen Germany Kinemathek Karlsruhe e.v., Karlsruhe, Germany Komunalis Kino Metropolis, Hamburg, Germany Kunsthales Basel, Basel Germany Atrium, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain Fundacio Anthoni Tapiez, Barcelona,Spain Anthology Film Archives, Nyc, USA |
|
| 2002 | Sea Seen Six Screen, Gallery 291 (Shoreline II) |
| Shoot Shoot Shoot, The First Decade of the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative & British Avant-Garde Film 1966-76 Tate Modern (River Yar, Wind Vane, Fforest Bay II and Windmill II) |
|
| Cinema in Nature, Via Calabritto, Naples, Italy | |
| Sciences en Fete, Toulouse France (Wind Vane, Windmill) | |
| Videoex, Zurich Switzerland (Windmill) | |
| Centre De Cultura Contemporania, Barcelona Spain (Colour Separation) |
|
| La Menagerie De Verre, Paris France (Drift) | |
| Bandits-Mages, Bourges, France (Drift) | |
| On General Release: Artists film in Britain 1968-72 Norwich Gallery, UK (Park Film) | |
| Institute of Visual Culture, Cambridge, UK (Park Film) | |
| 2001 | Museo Do Chiado, Live in the Head touring exhibition, Lisbon, Portugal |
| At Sea, Tate Gallery Liverpool, (Drift and Tide Line Installations) | |
| Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA, (Streamline) | |
| Orgone Cinema, Pittsburgh PA, USA, (Seven Days) | |
| Scratch Projections, Paris France (Drift) | |
| Mire Nantes, France (Colour Separation) | |
| L’Abominable, Asnieres Sur Seine, France (Colour Separation) | |
| 2000 | Society Co-operative, Arl a Lato Bologna, Italy |
| Association Mire, Nantes France | |
| Festival of New Media, Rhizome,Besancon France | |
| European Media Art Festival, Osnabruck Germany | |
| Grains De Lumiere, Marseielle Farnce | |
| Landscape: The Pastoral to the Urban , Bard College, Annadale New York US |
|
| Live in Your Head: Concept and Experiment in Britain 1965-75, White Chapel Gallery, London |
|
| The Other British Cinema, National Film Theatre, London | |
| Electromediascope, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City | |
| European Media Arts Festival Osnabruk Germany (Colour Separation) | |
| 1999 | The Other British Cinema, National Film Theatre, London |
| Electromediascope, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City | |
| Society Co-operative, Arl a Lato Bologna, Italy | |
| Associazione Culturale, Generazione Media Milano Italy | |
| Association Mire, Nantes France | |
| Braquage, Paris France | |
| Universite De Paris I, Pantheon – La Sorbonne, Paris France | |
| Sciences En Fete, Toulouse France | |
| Orgone Cinema, Pittsburgh US | |
| 1998 | Surcales – Projection en Plein Air, Association Mire, Nantes |
| 1997 | Landscape: The Pastoral to the Urban, Centre for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York |
| Festival de Gindou: La Photographie et Le Cinéma, Gindou, France | |
| Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago | |
| Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO | |
| 1996 | Northwest Film & Video Festival, Portland, Oregon—Winner of Kodak Production Award for ‘Drift’ |
| Surface Tension, Foundation for Art &Cinema, San Francisco | |
| Der Blick der Moderne, Stadtkino, Vienna, Austria | |
| Les Projections Revolutionnaires, Galérie Jordan-Devarrieux, Paris | |
| Nature & Cinema, Film Forum, Los Angeles & Cinemathèque, San Francisco |
|
| Une Carte Blanche de Ça Va Pas le Caisson, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers | |
| Paysages Contemporains, Kino Musei, Moscow | |
| 1995 | Poétique de la Couleur, Musée du Louvre, Paris |
| Viper International Film Festival Luzern, Switzerland—Winner of Best Film Award for Drift. | |
| 1994 | English Avant-Garde Classics, National Film Theatre, London |
| Les Absences de la Photographie, Cinéma Libre, Montréal, Québec | |
| 1993 | Signs of the Times, Centre d’Art et de Culture, La Ferme du Buisson, Paris (Rainfall, Film Installation.) |
| Manifeste—30 Ans de Creation Cinématographique en Perspective, Musée d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris | |
| Antwerpen ‘93, Stuc Arts Centre, Antwerp, Belgium | |
| Academy Theatre of Honolulu, Hawaii | |
| 1992 | London International Film Festival, National Film Theatre, London |
| Manifeste—30 ans de Création Cinématographique en Perspective, Musée d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris | |
| 1991 | Zeeland Film Festival, Netherlands |
| 25 Years of British Avant-Garde Filmmaking, Tate Gallery, London | |
| 1990 | Signs of the Times, International Touring Exhibition of British Media Installations, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (Rainfall) |
| Centre of Contemporary Art, Warsaw | |
| Stadtkino, Vienna | |
| 1989 | International Experimental Film Congress, Toronto |
| 1988 | London International Film Festival, National Film Theatre |
| 1986 | Charting Time, Serpentine Gallery, London, (Sky Light, Six Projector Installation) |
| Art in Cinema—The International Avant-Garde Film, National Film Theatre London | |
| Avant-Garde Landscape Film, Cambridge Darkroom Gallery | |
| European Avant-Garde Film, Millennium, New York | |
| 1985 | New Pluralism, Tate Gallery, London |
| 1984 | Artist as Filmmaker, National Film Theatre, London |
| 1983 | Landscape in Film and Video, London Filmmakers Co-op Cubism and the Cinema, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and the Tate Gallery, London |
| 1982 | Art and the Sea, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London |
| 1981 | Art and the Sea—Touring Exhibition: Bristol, Glasgow, Southampton |
| European Avant-Garde Film, American Federation of the Arts (Touring Exhibition, USA) |
|
| 1980 | Festival of Nations, Amsterdam (Shore Line) Six Projector Installation) |
| 1979 | Film as Film, Hayward Gallery, London |
| 1978 | Perspectives on English Avant-Garde Film, Arts Council & British Council International Touring Exhibition |
| 1977 | Perspectives on British Avant-Garde Film, Hayward Gallery, London (Shore Line) |
| 1997 | Film als Film, (Touring Exhibition, Germany) |
| 1976 | Edinburgh Film Festival National Film Theatre, London |
| 1975 | British Avant-Garde Landscape Films, Tate Gallery, London |
| Oberhausen Film Festival , Oberhausen, Germany | |
| 1974 | Musée d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris |
| 1973 | Festival of Independent/Avant-Garde Film, National Film Theatre, London |
| 1972 | National Film Theatre, London |
| 1970 | National Film Theatre, London |
Film Collections
National Film Archive of Great Britain (London)
Tate Gallery (London)
National Film Archive of Australia (Canberra)
Anthology Film Archives (New York)
Light Cone – Films et Vidéos Expérimentales (Paris)
London Filmmakers Co-op
Canadian Film Distribution Centre (Toronto)
Moving Images Distribution (Vancouver)
Musée National D’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris)
Archives du Film Expérimental d’Avignon – Centre de Recherche, de Documentation et de Consultation Publique (Avignon)
Video Collections
Midland Group Gallery (Nottingham)
Arnolfini Gallery (Bristol)
Grey Suit International Video Archive (Cardiff)
National Museum of The Moving Image (London)
Works Released on DVD
Chris Welsby: British Artist’s Films. Includes a twenty-nine minute interview with John Wyver of Illuminations TV (with film clips and documentation of installations). Eight titles, including the twin screen, River Yar, made with William Raban and an essay by Laura Mulvey
BFI Video Publishing
Chris Welsby Selected Films 1973-93 Self-published collection of film works.
Online Published Videos
| 2014- | BFI Video On Demand Tele Cine transfers of most of my films are in progress |
| 2011- | Vimeo documentation of installations and some recent works |
Published Writings
| 2020 | Film Talks: Fifteen Conversations on Experimental Film. Malcolm Le Grice and Chris Welsby p. 163 isbn 978 1 5272 9961 0 |
| 2020 | Prendre Le Temps, Ecology du Cinéma Experimental p. 31. Light Cone publication Paris |
| 2016 | Expanded Cinema: 20th Century Encounters with the Machine. Intellect 2016 Miraj 5:1 pp 88-107 |
| 2011 | Technology: Nature, Software and Networks: Materializing the Post-Romantic Landscape Leonardo Journal of the Arts and Sciences # 4:2 April 2011 pp 101-106 |
| 2006 | A System’s View of Nature Film and Video Anthology Libby Publishing London. Chapter 3, p. 26 |
| 1980 | Landscape in the 20th Century; Chris Welsby Films Photographs and Writings; Expanded Cinema: Notes on Twentieth Century Encounters With Art, Science and Technology Arts Council of Great Britain. Edited by David Curtis |
| 1980 | Clocks and Clouds (after Carl Popper) Chris Welsby Films Photographs and writings. Arts Council of Great Britain. Edited by David Curtis |