Fay Nicolson

Fay Nicolson | Kingston University London

I work in the space between performance and painting, exploring the nature of images through a range of media. My studio practice draws from diverse sources, including my own experiments in movement and music, my knowledge of reprographic and digital processes, and my research into modernist and avant-garde interdisciplinary projects. I am interested in embodied knowledge and pedagogical methods that are synaesthetic or cross disciplinary. I have undertaken classes in Dalcroze (a modernist method of music education that uses movement) and improvisation (via Independent Dance). These physical experiences have introduced somatic models of inhabiting and training my body/senses that I bring into a visual arts context and further explore through image making.

In 2025 I synthesised elements of this diverse practical research into a methodology for exploring performance and image within the context of Fine Art. This was shared as a workshop with students at Norwich School of Art. The workshop aimed to introduce ideas of mover and observer, improvisation and choreography, somatic/semantic, and first and third person imagery. This helped students think through issues surrounding collaboration, representation, figuration, and documentation in their own practice.