ABOUT
Dave Griffiths (b. 1967, UK) considers how contemporary media act as observatories to explore troubled places and bodies amid technological and ecological change. Currently working across botanical photochemistry, microfilm, moving image, sound, and print, his practice investigates how matter and remembrance persist across deep temporal scales.
Griffiths treats everyday and historical media as testing grounds for playful yet systematic observation, mapping how images, stories and data move through time. He often collaborates with specialist networks and local groups. Through this hybrid material-digital approach, his work speculates on the future transmission, survival, translation, and reception of knowledge in the face of planetary transition and material decay.
He exhibits internationally and has worked as a curator, and film programmer. From 2011–25, he was a senior lecturer and researcher at Manchester School of Art, UK. In 2012–15, he co-organised the moving-image collective Film Material. In 2027 he is launching a gallery space, Sam Lung.
Selected CV
Solo exhibitions
2014
2013
2013
2012
2010
2007
The plain our bed the stars our blanket, [online]
Archipelagoes, Sandao Gallery, Xiamen, China (with Joe Duffy)
Extinction Event, Phoenix Square, Leicester, UK
Babel Fiche, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; Lincoln Castle, Lincoln, UK
Seer’s Catalogue, Bureau, Manchester
British & European Legs, Outpost, Contemporary Art Norwich, UK
Selected group exhibitions & screenings
2025
2022
2016-18
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2003
Soft Proof, Rogue Studios, Manchester
Camp Bread, A Modest Show (British Art Show 9), Manchester
Perpetual Uncertainty – Contemporary Art in the Nuclear Anthropocene. Touring Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden; Z33, Hasselt, Belgium; Bildmuseet, Umea, Sweden
Finding Treblinka: Artists Respond, Muzeum Treblinka, Poland; Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, London, UK
Film Material Toast, Toast, Manchester
Film and Video from Manchester, VideoFAG, Toronto
Video Jam, Manchester Art Gallery
Tip of the Iceberg: Art from Up North, Contemporary Art Society, London
Dead Data: Orreries & Other Objects, Future Everything, Manchester
Misdirect Movies, touring Royal Standard Liverpool; Standpoint, London; Greyfriars, Lincoln; Meter Room, Coventry, UK
First Glance of Video Art, Arete Foundation, Tripoli, Libya
Altered States: Artists Science Fiction, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Still Ticking, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester
The Manchester Contemporary, Bureau, Manchester
Sorry For the Inconvenience, Project Space Leeds, Leeds
Outcasting: A Century of Artists Film, Oriel Mwldan, Cardigan, Wales
Tonight We Go A-Gleaning, London Short Film Festival
Reinterpreting the Gothic, Big Muddy Film Festival, Illinois, USA
Appropriate, Animate Projects [online]
Swedenborg Film Festival, London
Impakt, Utrecht
video_dumbo, Dumbo Arts Center, Brooklyn
Semana del Cine Experimental, Madrid
Idleness & Industry, Bureau/Contemporary Art Society, London
Sugary Photographs with Tricks, Poses & Effects, Antwerp
The Artifiction Phenomenon, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Analogue is the New Digital, Abandon Normal Devices, Manchester
All Change, The Royal Standard, Liverpool
Between Tracks, Salford Restoration Office, Manchester
Video Vortex V, Brussels
Festival Of (In)appropriation, Los Angeles Film Forum, USA
Infernal Machines, g39, Cardiff, UK
Stuttgart Filmwinter, Germany
Pixilerations, Magic Lantern Experimental Cinema, Providence, USA
Fragments, videoclub, Brighton
Deluge Contemporary Art, Victoria Island, Canada
Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
D21 Kunstraum, Leipzig
The Golden Record, touring Collective Gallery, Edinburgh; ICA, London; g39 Cardiff; Lincoln Collection, UK
Backup Festival of New Media in Film, Bauhaus Universitat, Weimar, Germany
Encounters International Short Film Festival, Bristol, UK
Alchemical Valentines, Antimatter Underground Film Festival, Victoria Island, Canada
ExiS Experimental Film & Video Festival, Seoul, Korea
Final Cut, European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck, Germany
Leftfield & Luscious, London Short Film Festival, ICA, London
700IS Experimental Film & Video Festival, Iceland
Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Ou va la cinéma?, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Supervillains, S1 Artspace, Sheffield
L’Alternativa, 13th Independent Film Festival, Barcelona
Impakt Highlights, Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires; LUX, Nijmegen; Beursschouwburg, Brussels.
Independent Exposure, Minna Gallery San Francisco; touring to Phoenix, Houston & Seattle, USA.
Spark Video, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, USA
CODEC/X, Northern Territories Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, Australia
Exploding Cinema: Sound Check, International Film Festival Rotterdam
Pathiharn Electron [Supernatural], Switch Media Art Festival, Chiang Mai, Thailand
A Haunting, Statuary Hall, University of Manchester, UK
Out of Darkness, Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham, UK & touring
Panorama, Impakt Festival, Utrecht, Netherlands
Full-Screen Robovision, RIXC Media Space, Riga, Latvia
Hertzoscópio, Lisbon, Portugal
Out of The Loop, Barbès, Brooklyn, USA
Kinokaze, Cinema REX, Belgrade, Serbia
We Go Round and Round in the Night and Are Consumed by Fire, FLUX, New York
Curating & workshops
2021-24
2021-25
2013
2012-16
2010
2004
2003-05
Swedenborg Film Festival, Swedenborg House, London, UK
Braziers International Film Festival, Braziers Park, Oxfordshire, UK
Archive Action #2, Fine Art Academy, Xiamen University, China
Film Material, Manchester, UK
UnSpooling – Artists & Cinema, Cornerhouse, Manchester
The Moon Will Save Our Ass, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
CODEC/X: New British Video & Sound Art, international touring.
Residencies & awards
2012-25
2015
2013
2010
2010
2005
2003
Unit X, School of Art & Design, Manchester School of Art
Film Material at BEEF (Bristol Experimental and Expanded Film), UK
(Dis)Located, KHiO (Kunstakademiet i Oslo) Norway
Archive Action #1, X-Ray & Observational Astronomy Group, Leicester, UK
Premio Pablo del Amo for Best Editing, Semana del Cine Experimental de Madrid
Best Film, Swedenborg Short Film Festival, London
Silver Award, Impakt, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Best Experimental Film, Exposures, Cornerhouse, Manchester
Publications
Griffiths, D. Illingworth, S. 2018, ‘Deep-Time Moles: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Geological Archiving’ in Toland, A. eds. Field to Palette: Dialogues on Soil and Art in the Anthropocene, Boca Raton: CRC Press
Griffiths, D. 2016, in Sturdy-Colls, C. & Branthwaite, M. eds. Treblinka: Archaeological Investigations and Artistic Responses, Stoke: Centre for Archaeology
Griffiths, D. 2013, ‘Passages (for Harry Crosby)’, in Davenport, P. ed. The Dark Would, Manchester: Apple Pie Editions
Griffiths, D. 2012, ‘The Legend of Pwdre Ser’, in Baron, J. ed. Festival of (In)Appropriation, Los Angeles: Los Angeles Film Forum
Griffiths, D. 2010, ‘Unspooling Cinema 4.0’, in Griffiths, D. & Bracey, A. eds. UnSpooling – Artists & Cinema, Manchester: Cornerhouse
Griffiths, D. 2006, ‘Love is a Burning Thing’, in A. Zapp ed, StoryRooms, Manchester: Zapp Media
Griffiths, D. & Jordan, N. 2005, ‘Roused by My Epilepsy’ in Best of Purescreen, Manchester: Castlefield Gallery
Griffiths, D. 2004, ‘Rogue State’, in Full-Screen Robovision, Glasgow: Machinista
Griffiths, D. & Jordan, N. 2003, in We go round and round in the night and are consumed by fire, New York: Flux
Griffiths, D. & Jordan, N. eds. 2003, CODEC/X: New British Video and Sound Art, Manchester: Pharmakon
Citations & press
Ele Carpenter, ed. 2016, The Nuclear Culture Source Book, London: Blackdog
Emily Gosling, 'Frequency 13: What does 'digital' really mean?' Design Week, October 2013
Christopher Townsend, 'Review: Misdirect Movies', Art Monthly, 369, September 2013
Andrew Bracey, 2013, 'Break on Through to the Other Side', in Bracey, A. & Rimmer, J. eds. Misdirect Movies, Manchester: Cornerhouse
David Briers, ‘Review: Dave Griffiths, Babel Fiche’, Art Monthly, 360, October 2012
Robert Dickinson, ‘Nibbled away by the hungriest of creatures’, Corridor8, #3.4, September 2012
Nancy Roth, ‘Unwritten History’, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, 9 August 2012
Maria Walsh, ‘Believable Fictions’, Art Monthly, 342, December/January 2010-11
Lucy Reynolds, ‘Appropriating Fictions in the Kingdom of Shadows,’ Animate Projects, 2010
Michael Cousin, ‘Infernal Machines’, g39 Cardiff, October 2009
Chris Clarke, ‘Return of The Reel: Dave Griffiths’ Ozymandias’, Cornerhouse, August 2008
Stephanie Douet, ‘Review: British and European Legs’, AN, September 2007
Neil Mulholland, ‘Aperto Manchester’, Flash Art, October 2003
Artist talks & panels
2018
2017
2016
2016
2014
2014
2013
2011
2004
'Microtopia: Sensing and re-narrating Belgian nuclear materiality', Urban Matters & New Materialisms, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Underground/Overground, Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Hasselt, Belgium
‘Deep field microfiche,’ Art and Deep Time Radiation, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden
‘Finding Treblinka: artistic responses to forensic archaeology’, Corpse Identities, Manchester Metropolitan University
'Extinction Event [GRB130313A]’, Cosmographies, Falmouth University, UK
'Babel Fiche: a video museum for future citizens', Archive/Image, Open Society Archivum, Budapest
'Navigating History Through the Media Observatory', Fine Art College, Xiamen University, China
2011 'Babel Fiche: Animating the Archive', Remix Cinema, Oxford Internet Institute
2004 'Aesthetics of Fear', Security Bytes, Lancaster University, UK
Collections & archives
Film & Video Umbrella, UK
British Artists Film & Video Study Collection, UK
Microcinema International, USA
Education
2004
1993
MA Media Art, Manchester School of Art
BA (Hons) Social Science, University of Westminster, London