Biography

Born in Liverpool in 1960, Clinton Chaloner studied Botany and Zoology at Newcastle University before graduating in Fine Art from Bretton Hall College in 1994. Since then his interests and career have spanned the arts and sciences. Funded by the British Academy he went on to complete an MSc in the History and Philosophy of Science at Imperial College. He has lectured for a number of years at Imperial and at University College London while researching a PhD in the history of scientific photography. Subjects he has taught include the History of Technology, Ethics in Science and Technology and the Philosophy of Science.

As well as making numerous presentations of his own research he has written articles for such diverse publications as the British Journal for the History of Science and the Journal of the Landscape and Arts Network. His first commission was to design a major installation for the London Barbican’s hugely successful interactive Shakespeare exhibition ‘How to be Bottom’. Since 2001 he has been engaged on a series of commissions for large-scale environmental and public art. Central to many projects has been the involvement of school and community groups where children and adults can contribute as well as learning woodcarving and other skills. The work itself frequently owes its form to close observation of the natural world – in particular of microscopic forms, unseen processes and life cycles. With his partner Cheryl Hughes he has established a studio in a spectacular mountain location in North Wales where they run creative workshops.

2009

• Primordial Soup. A celebration of Darwin’s life, ideas and of the richness of evolutionary diversity. Shrewsbury
• Moonfruit - Sculpture project at a primary school in Sefton, Liverpool
• Public wood sculpting workshops at Kew Gardens (with Jeff Higley)

2008

• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - sculpture residency for Year of the Tree
• Tree of Life - commemorative sculpture project for Ounsdale School, Wolverhampton

2007

• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - Mediterranean Festival sculpture residency
• Northala Fields - public sculpture commission for 5.5m regeneration and landscaping project in Ealing, N. London

2006

• Log On to the Severn - devised and managed Heritage Lottery Funded project to recreate a working replica of an ancient dugout boat on the River Severn in Shrewsbury.
• Education Action Zone sculpture project at Peckham Academy, London
• Benchart - design and creation of sculpture to mark the site of a former workhouse and hospital. Cross Houses, Shropshire

2005

• Woodhenge - a circle of giant sculptures. Working with youth groups at Hainault Forest Country Park, Redbridge, Essex (Due for completion in 2008).
• Taking Part - Education Action Zone project to create a sculpture trail with eleven Peckham Primary Schools and the Livesey Museum for Children, London.
• All the King’s Men - Heritage Lottery funded commission involving local people in the creation of sculptures to commemorate the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.
• Memory Garden - sculpture commission at Culloden Primary School, Limehouses, E. London

2004

• Breaking New Ground - community arts and educational residency for English Nature at Castle Eden Dene Nature Reserve, Co Durham.
• Re Create - project for Tiptree Heath SSSI, Essex. Wood sculptures and way markers in collaboration with local schools and environmental agencies.
• Secrets of Stonehenge - Pioneer Productions project for National Geographic. Television series Naked Science. Archaeological reconstruction of a replica bronze-age logboat.

2001 – 2003

• Design and construction of interpretative sculptures for a woodland nature trail at Hainault Forest Country Park, Redbridge, Essex. Wood sculptures for Wickford School, Essex.
• Cultural Waves - project to create a 36’ dugout canoe for Lee Valley Park, London.
• Wood sculpture for Waterlow Park, N. London.

1994

• How to be Bottom - a major interactive exhibition bringing Shakespeare to children through art. A collaboration between artists, designers, musicians and computer software developers. London Barbican Centre.

• ‘The Most Wonderful Experiment in the World; A History of the Cloud Chamber’, British Journal for the History of Science, September 1997.
• Regular contributions to the Journal of the Landscape and Arts Network.

• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Livesey Museum for Children

• National Geographic Channel’s ‘Secrets of Stonehenge’ in the series ‘Naked Science’ (dugout also featured in BBC Television’s ‘The Trees that Made Britain’)
• Artist and dugout boat featured in ‘Stone-age Atlantis’, National Geographic Television, 2009