User:Alexrandalllighting/sandbox

Alex Randall was born in 1982 just outside London in the UK. She attended the Chelsea School of Art where she studied sculpture and later the Falmouth College of Art where she completed an MA in Professional Writing. During this time she started develop thoughts through her texts about the memory of everyday things that would ultimately drive her to start making lighting art-works.

After graduation Randall started her career as a lighting artist. Within just a couple of months she was awarded ‘the most promising newcomer’ award by Liberty and began selling a selection of pieces through the store.

Randall is well known for her bespoke large-scale pieces in hotels, bars, restaurants and private residencies all over the world. She usually works with a combination of reclaimed objects and modern technology but in 2008 Randall started working with the controversial medium of taxidermy as a form of lighting art.

Working from her studio in Devon Alex has at her hands a wealth of inspiration in the form of everyday objects and skills that are abundant in the countryside around her. A typical day will see anything from hunting down cows’ ribs at the local abattoir, sourcing animals from culls or hunts, meeting with the local blacksmith – an essential partner in her construction process – or even scouting for atmospheric shoot locations.

Randall has recently teamed up with the US photographer Claire Rosen to begin work on a book to be shot both in the US and UK. Although not yet finished, the photographs have already been short-listed for The Sony Worldwide Photographic Awards. A preview of these images can be seen in a small booklet ‘The Adventures of Randall and Rosen Part 1 – Devon’ in which each piece is accompanied with a short poem by Randall.

Writing is an important medium for Randall as much of her work is conceptually driven. The reasons are bi-fold, her ideas are first developed through writing (she has a huge whiteboard in her studio that she writes thoughts on) but she also sees it as a form of artistic expression in its own right. The creative process for all of her pieces start with a single written concept that is developed over several months before arriving at a final piece.