Garry Barker is an artist and a research fellow at Leeds Arts University. He is also a member of 'The Observation of Perception, Considered through Drawing', research group, hosted by the i2ADS research unit of Porto University's Fine Art department. He completed a Diploma in Art and Design: Fine Art: Sculpture at Newport College of Art (1973) and a MA in Art and Design at Leeds Metropolitan University (1990). In 2017 Barker was awarded first prize for his sketchbooks at the Rabley Drawing centre SKETCH competition, where his drawings were commended for their imagination and “artist’s draftmanship in the beautiful lines of pen and wash topographic studies.”

Barker’s research is drawing led, and is focused on the externalisation of feelings and stories about ourselves, that are normally invisible. In order to do this he has been looking at how to visualise various aspects of ‘interoception’; the ability to be aware of internal sensations in the body, including heart rate, respiration, hunger, fullness, temperature and pain, as well as the various sensations associated with our emotions. When exploring perception, interoception is regarded as an additional sixth sense, that is critical to the way we understand how we feel about ourselves.

Barker has a vision to bring together the various strands of his research to demonstrate how our inner and outer worlds are interdependent, a wish that reflects his visual exploration of interoceptual experience in relation to wellbeing, something that he has been exploring for several years in relation to his work involving 'The Observation of Perception, Considered through Drawing', research group.

His current work involves a range of approaches to the externalisation of inner 'feelings', in particular those associated with challenging experiences, such as getting older, feeling pain, having anxiety or the dislocation of the migrant. His approach to finding out about these feelings is to hold both one-to-one conversations and group workshops, whereby visualisations are arrived at through co-design and cooperative working.

In order to effect change his work also involves the making of votives, fetishes and charms, whereby physical objects are used as intermediaries between an individual’s inner narratives or somatic experience and 'higher' powers, other beings, creatures or even environments. These objects may also become integrated into rituals designed to support the effective communication of embodied interoceptual feelings, in a similar way to the performances surrounding the reception of ritual objects or fetishes, within animist traditions.

The creation of visual images in response to conversations with individuals about interiorised 'feelings', (pains, emotions, untold stories, anxieties and other embodied experiences) has resulted in a growing body of work, including ceramics, prints, animations and drawings, that is used to illustrate and communicate the importance of our interior lives as centres for both understanding experience and communicating it.

At the centre of Barker’s research is a belief that the stories people tell about their lives are intertwined with the way they feel about themselves. Therefore the development of visual languages and images to communicate interoceptual experience, becomes a necessity if the visualisations of stories told to him, are to be integrated into a holistic understanding.

A recent workshop (2024) held in Porto, ‘Drawing the somatic body: Visual problem solving and imagineering’ was introduced using the following text, and it is a useful summery of his research.

“Our interoceptual network is linked to an invisible but intuitively well understood neurological map of the body, a map that is the ontological bedrock on which we build images; from diagrams of electrical circuits, to maps of war zones, via how to build it illustrations used to construct the latest purchase from a home furnishing store. However, people often regard photography as the only authentic depicter of reality, which is why when trying to convince people of the power of drawing to depict thought, it is useful to focus on things that we cant photograph. Drawings of invisible but clearly felt interoceptual experiences can not only be used to foster cross disciplinary imagination and invention, the emotional range that drawing also encompasses, allows us entry into a visual engagement with the emotive processes that underlie many of our embodied mind’s conceptual models.

This workshop uses a drawing led methodology that has emerged from previous attempts to visualise interoception; it will ask participants to make their own drawn explorations of somatic feelings; drawings that will then be used as entry points into ways to understand drawing as a cross disciplinary practice. By using gestural mark and image making techniques, diagrams and mapping, this workshop will demonstrate that drawing is one of the most powerful forms of communication and that it can be used to make us more aware of the inner neurological maps of our own bodies. It will highlight how inner body mapping becomes the basis on which we build other drawn visualisations, as well as being the basis on which we build conceptually embodied concepts, such as the visualisation of justice”.

If you are interested in engaging with this research contact garry.barker@leeds-art.ac.uk

Articles

Barker, G. (2023) Breathing: An artist’s reflection on the visualisation of an interoceptive experience. The figurative imagination dissolves into the flux of process. PSIAX, 7. pp. 9-22. ISSN 1647-8045

Barker, G. (2021) Drawing the Embodied Mind: A Project Report on Research Into Interoception. PSIAX #5 ESTUDOS E REFLEXÕES SOBRE DESENHO E IMAGEM, 5. pp. 17-24. ISSN 1647-8045

Barker, G. (2021) Revealing the invisible: The virus is looking at you. Journal of Visual Political Communication, 77 (11). pp. 61-87. ISSN 2633-3732

Barker, G. (2021) Is It To Feel Each Limb Grow Stiffer, Is It To Feel The full Potential Of A Life? TRACEY, 15 (1). pp. 1-17. ISSN 1742-3570

Barker, G. (2020) Drawing age. Drawing: Research, Theory and Practice, 5 (2). pp. 351-361. ISSN 2057-0384

Barker, G. (2019) Ageing in our eyes and in our fingers. TRACEY Drawing and Visualisation Research.

Barker, G. (2018) Drawing and the street texts of Chapeltown. Drawing: Research, Theory and Practice, 3 (1). pp. 75-85. ISSN 2057-0384

Book Sections

Barker, G. (2023) Votives and Charm Bracelets Materialising Health-Related Experiences Through ‘Sacred’ Objects. In: Wearable Objects and Curative Things: Materialist Approaches to the Intersections of Fashion, Art, Health and Medicine. Palgrave Studies in Fashion and the Body . Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 281-298. ISBN 978-3-031-40017-9

Barker, G. and Oben, T. (2023) Tiff Oben and Garry Barker In: At Cross Purposes: 3-way conversations between two artists and a curator. Abertystwyth University Press: Abertystwyth, pp. 66-79 ISBN 978-1-7391167-0-5

Barker, G. (2019) Thomas Houseago: When art and life blurred together, a biographical tribute. In: Thomas Houseago: Almost Human. Muse d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. ISBN 9782759604135

Barker, G. (2017) Drawing as a tool for shaping community experience into collective allegory. In: Collective and collaborative drawing in contemporary practice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 192-215. ISBN 9781527503472

Barker. G. Interview (2013) In Rowles, S. ed., Art Crits: 20 Questions: a Pocket Guide: Featuring Interviews with UK Fine Art Staff on the Topic of the Art Crit. Q-Art. ISBN-10: 0956435521

Books

Barker, G., Belshaw, M., Geldard, J., Miles,  R., and Palin, T. (2012) Readings in a rumour of the end of art. Workshop Press, Leeds. ISBN 9780956949455

Exhibitions

Group Exhibition. At Cross Purposes, Elysium Gallery Swansea, 7 November - 23 December 2023

Group Exhibition. At Cross Purposes, Queen Street Studios Gallery, Belfast, 7 - 28 September 2023

Group Exhibition. Borrow Pit, YSG, Huddersfield Art Gallery, 12 April – 12 June 2023

Group Exhibition. At Cross Purposes, Oriel Môn, Llangefni, Anglesey, 29 April - 11 June 2023

Group Exhibition. At Cross Purposes, Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum and Galleries, 14 February - 21 April 2023

Group Exhibition. RAW EDGE, YSG, Sunny Bank Gallery, Leeds, 9 July – 28 August 2022

Group Exhibition. LINES FICTION, Animation, Galerie im Körnerpark, Neukölln, Berlin, 18 July - 24 August 2022

Group Exhibition. ‘Miracle’ Immanence Gallery, Paris, 23 September - 23 October 2021

Group Exhibition. INVASIVE SPECIES, Shaping the Landscape, YSG, Cannon Hall Park, Wakefield, 1 July - 31 October 2021 (The installation of over 200 ceramic fish was then made permanent)

Group Exhibition. The Imagined City, Corn Exchange, Leeds, 19 October - 15 November 2020

Group Exhibition. INVASIVE SPECIES, YSG, Harlow Carr gardens, Harrogate, 1 September - 3 January 2020 – 2021

Group Exhibition. UNTITLED, 2020 Punta Della Dogana, Venice, Pinault Foundation, 11 July - 4 November 2020

Group exhibition. LATER: Is it to feel each limb grow stiffer? What is it to feel the full potential of life? Inkwell, Leeds, 20 February - 31 March 2020

Group Exhibition. TEMPORAL TERRAINS, Dean Clough Crossley Gallery, Halifax, 7 September - 6 October 2019

Group Exhibition. Leeds Arts University, Library Interventions, 2019

Group Exhibition. OBJECT/IMAGE/IMAGE/OBJECT, YSG, West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Mirfield, 16 September - 26 October 2019

Group Exhibition. (im)Material Disarray, YSG, SnapArts, Wakefield 31 July - 15 September 2019

Group Exhibition. BREAKING GROUND, YSG, Patchings Art Centre, Nottingham 11 May - 29 September 2019

Group exhibition. Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Competition, Chapel Gallery, Lancashire, 4 May - 6 July 2019

Group exhibition. Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Competition, Drawing Projects UK, Wiltshire, 2 March - 26 April 2019

Group exhibition. Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Competition, The Royal Drawing School, Shoreditch, 2 - 22 February 2019

Group exhibition. Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Competition, The Gallery, Arts University Bournemouth, 22 November 2018 - 10 January 2019

Group Exhibition. ‘You and I are discontinuous beings’ The International Project Space, Birmingham City University, May 2 - 14 2018

Group exhibition. Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Competition, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, 29 September - 17 October 2018

Group exhibition. Room 103, Studio 24, Leeds, 16 November - 17 November 2018

Group exhibition. SKETCH 2017, Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster, 20 November - 15 December 2017

Group exhibition. SKETCH 2017, Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth, 9 September - 6 October 2017

Group exhibition. SKETCH 2017, Black Swan Arts, Frome, 22 July - 3 September 2017

Group exhibition. SKETCH 2017, Rabley Contemporary Drawing Centre and Gallery, Mildenhall, Marlborough, 11 May - 17 June 2017

Group exhibition. ‘Fully Awake’ ‘House for an Art Lover’, Glasgow, 2 November - 18 November 2017

Group exhibition. ‘Imagined Realms’, The Royal Cambrian Academy, 22 October - 11 November 2017

Garry Barker, Piscean Promises, Curator’s Choice, Leeds Arts University, Leeds, 1 July - 31 December 2017

Group exhibition. The King and I, &Mode, Leeds, 26 January -18 February 2017

Garry Barker, Tree Listening, York Art Gallery, October 28 November 30th 2016

Solo exhibition. Garry Barker, When the past overhauls the present, you will forget that you can’t remember, Blenheim Walk Gallery, Leeds, 15 April - 1 July 2016

Group exhibition. Tabletop Tableaux, YSG Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax, 7 - 29 May 2016

Garry Barker, New Territories of the Filth Dimension, Assembly House Project Space, 30 May - 5 June 2015

Group exhibition. White, XO Gallery, Leeds, 21 February - 13 March 2014

Group exhibition. ‘Pleasure, devotion, Balance’, East Side Projects, Birmingham, 28 June - 2 August 2014

Group exhibition. Local Imagination, San Francisco Arts Institute, 2013

Group exhibition. Box of Desires, Centre for Recent Drawing, London, 2012

Conferences, Talks & Presentations

Barker, G. (2024) Drawing the somatic body: Visual problem solving and Imagineering, Drawing Across x Along x Between University Borders, University of Porto, 17 October 2024

Barker, G. (2024) Chapeltown Stories: The Individual within the Social

Engaging Communities in City-making, West Yorkshire-based socially engaged arts practice, Leeds Arts University, 21 September 2024

Barker, G. (2024) Drawing age, Reimagine Ageing Showcase, University of Leeds, 11 September 2024

Barker, G. (2024) Permaculture Principles for drawing and Permaculture led diagrammatic analysis of energies, Poster presentation, Drawing Articulations, A Radical Drawing Symposium, Leeds School of Arts, Leeds Beckett University 26 June 2024. 

Barker, G. (2024) Home is a belief, Drawing Conversations 5, What and Where Is Home? 15 March 2024

Garry Barker, Votive conversations, Curator Space, 2023

Barker, G. (2023) The Visualisation of Interoception, I3S Institute for Research and Innovation in Health, Porto, 27 July 2023

Garry Barker, In Conversation, Shine Magazine, March 2022

Graham, E. J. (2020) Making votives: pain and practice, The Votives Project September 15 2020

Barker, G. (2019) What’s drawing got to do with me? Drawing at Art School,

The Drawing Studio, UWE City Campus, Arnolfini, Bristol, 8 November 2019

Barker, G. (2019) NEST, A reading of an animist short story, (im)Material Disarray, YSG, SnapArts, Wakefield, 8 August 2019

Barker, G. (2018) Leeds Creative Timebank: reciprocity for sustainable social design, Expanding Communities of Sustainable Practice Conference, Leeds Arts University, 16 November 2018

Barker, G. (2018) Drawings of Stories Told: conflict and activism. In Art, Materiality and Representation, Royal Society of Anthropology annual conference, Clore Centre, British Museum, 3 - 4 June 2018

Barker, G. (2017) Tall Tales, Crooked Yarns, The Story Behind the Image Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, March 2017

Barker, G. (2017) The Story Behind the Image, York St John University, 13 February 2017

Barker, G. (2016) Designing for sustainable, multi-local communities – visions for a changing world, Group for International Design Education Conference, Leeds College of Art, 20 February 2016

Barker, G. (2015) Drawing as collective narrative, Drawing Conversations Symposium, Coventry University, December 2015