Stuart Semple

Stuart Semple is a multi-disciplinary British artist, who over the last 25 years has presented several performances and Happenings including his HappyCloud work where artificially generated eco clouds in the shape of smileys are released into the sky. Initially begging released from outside Tate Modern in London, the work has been presented by Hong Kong Arts Center, Denver Art Museum and The Whitworth. Cities including Dublin, Toronto and Moscow have hosted the work. Pre-Pandemic Semple’s ‘Hug Huddle’, took place at London’s tower bridge where strangers embraced one another. His ‘Emotional Baggage Drop’, took residence at Denver’s Union station - where passerby could confide an emotional burden in a stranger, in a structure akin to a catholic confessional. Semple’s ‘Jump’ for Federation Square in Melbourne gave the simple instruction to the public to play on a giant inflatable white platform. Whist ‘Something Else’ took in the entirety of London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery last summer, with a series of participatory happenings woven through a complex set of installations and performances. He is perhaps best known for his online performance project around the Blackest Black and Pinkest Pink paints, where he famously banned fellow artist Anish Kapoor from using them, before disseminating multiples of them to hundreds of thousands of artists on the condition that they confirmed they “were not Anish Kapoor, or associated with him”.