Fran Copeman

Screen print, installation and book in her studio

Fran Copeman (b.1985 London, UK) is a documentary artist who lives and works in London. Her expansive practice incorporates installation, drawing, print, sound and more. She explores the social and political intersections within specific communities in Britain in the context of land access, dance, protest and politics. Of particular importance are connecting themes such as expressions of freedom, human behaviour, social control, commons culture, trespass, folk dance and ritualistic gatherings.

Fran was shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2022. Recent exhibitions at Southwark Park Gallery (2023), ArtHouse Jersey (2022), Willis Museum and Sainsbury Gallery (2022) and Trinity Buoy Wharf (2022).

Artist jumping over a fence. Trespassing.

‘They fenced up the wildflower meadows and they ploughed them into monoculture, and that’s exactly what they’ve done to our society - they’ve ploughed us.’ Nick Hayes author of The Book of Trespass.

Dear reader
I was born in London in 1985.
I have always been drawn to the pencil because of the democracy it holds. Anyone can pick up a pencil and make their mark.
Social and political art. Documentary art.
I want my field research and documentation to be from first-hand experience. I’m involved when these events happen and the photos, videos and audio I take are the basis of my drawings, collages, books, sound pieces and installations
My practice is an evolving one. Wide-ranging but closely knit.
My narratives create their own connections. Intersections.
Ritualistic gathering. Groups/mass gatherings. Shared experience.
I see strong visual connections between rave and folk dance, strike action and right to roam. Protest and politics. Family.
Social media. Societal. Social control.
Expressions of freedom.
Place/ human behaviour/ event.
I am interested in what is allowed and what is not. Control and disobedience. Collage, layering, transgressing and blurring boundaries. Non-hierarchal.
Communities in Britain.
Commons culture. Trespassing boundaries.
Fun subversives.
Thank you for your time.
Have a nice day.

Dance, Protest, Politics (31st October) – Imagery from the EU March in 2019 alongside a free party reconfigures pre-existing frameworks around protest.

Medium:

Unique hand-made collage on board using digital prints of drawings

Size:

150cm x 70cm

Explores the intersections within right to roam, free party ravers, strike action and Morris dancing. The front cover references vinyl test pressing and legal legislation that prevents gatherings and access to common land. The book is framed by trespass.