Cally Trench: Biography, exhibitions and projects

Cally Trench is an artist whose work focuses on mapping, different viewpoints and ideas about privacy. Her work includes board games, timelapse films, books, and peephole boxes, as well as paintings and drawings in which she maps places or people. She also curates projects and exhibitions. In addition, she collaborated with performance artist Philip Lee on live performances and films between 2009 and 2018.

Cally Trench completed an MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London in 2007, having gained a Fine Art degree at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (now Bucks New University) in 2004. Her first degree was in Chemistry from Oxford University (where she was part of the first intake of women at Wadham College, one of the first five 'men's' colleges to go mixed). In her fourth year at Oxford, she completed a Part II thesis on the philosophy of the language of science. After Oxford, she went to Hong Kong as an administrative officer for two and a half years.

One of Cally Trench's interests is privacy. With her artist's books, she aims to create a sense of private pleasure. The desire to generate a private response to a work of art extends to the rest of her practice. Her peephole boxes, which only one person can peer into at a time, create a private moment. Her board games are made to be played by four people, who create an intimate circle for the length of the game. Her map-like drawings made at ground level are maps of privacy - the areas that cannot be seen by passers-by.

Cally Trench is concerned with how people respond physically to works of art, for example to her Face Drawings. Viewers tend to move backwards and forwards, towards the drawings to view the detail of individual ink marks and backwards to see the overall face, in a physical engagement that is hard to replicate in a book or on a computer. The ideal viewer for these lifesize drawings of faces and bodies is one who behaves as if they are meeting another person, as if they are the only viewer.

Her interest in art that invites complicity or some kind of direct physical engagement by viewers in a gallery led to a series of four annual open submission exhibitions on the subject of play (At Play, 2009-2012; at South Hill Park, Bracknell 2009-2011, and touring in 2012), which she originated and co-curated with Dr Outi Remes.

Another interest is in uncertainty, in particular whether a work of art can also be something else, or whether it must always be one thing or another; this was the topic of her MA (Fine Art) research paper Uncertainty in Contemporary Landscape at Central Saint Martins in 2007.

In relation to performances, one concern relates to how they are documented; she co-curated with Philip Lee at London Gallery West in 2013 an exhibition, Do you remember it - or weren't you there?, which proposed the possibility of ekphrasis, the dramatic description of a work of art in another art form, as an alternative to documentation.

Cally Trench lives and works in Buckinghamshire, England, where she observes and maps the hilly urban landscape of High Wycombe. She is married with two children. She is currently working on new drawings and films.

2018 Philip Lee / Cally Trench: Artists’ Books, University of Westminster Library, Harrow
2018 Cally Trench / Nick Trench: Siblings Cannot Agree, The Heseltine Gallery, Middleton Cheney
2017 Cally Trench / Philip Lee: Artists’ Books, Ravensbourne, London
2017 Faces by Cally Trench, Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury
2016 Philip Lee / Cally Trench: Artists’ Books, Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol
2011 Cally Trench's Board Games, Link Gallery, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford (curated by Notfamousyet Art Consultancy)
2010 Alex Dewart / Cally Trench: Landscape: Memory and Maps, Blue Fin Building, London
2009 Cally Trench: Nine Black Boxes, Truwash Launderette, Oxford, 20 July 2009 (curated by ArtWash)
2008 Cally Trench: Zoom & Ground Level, Wycombe Museum, High Wycombe
2007 Cally Trench / Nick Trench: HOME, Penny School Gallery, Kingston
2005 Alex Dewart / Cally Trench: Memory, CARA project and exhibition, Woodlane High School, London and BCUC, High Wycombe
2005 Tineke Bruijnzeels / Cally Trench: 2 x 366 Drawings, one-year drawing project and exhibition, BCUC, High Wycombe
2004 Cally Trench: Surface Tension, South Hill Park, Bracknell
2003 Cally Trench, College Gallery, BCUC, High Wycombe
1999 Cally Trench: Air, Sea, Sand and Sky, Wycombe Museum, High Wycombe
1996 Cally Trench: Commissioned paintings, Consumers' Association Research and Testing Centre, Milton Keynes
1990 Paul Amey: new sculptures & reliefs / Cally Trench: new paintings, Isis Boathouse, Oxford
1987 Trompe l'oeil bookcase, Robin Waterfield's Bookshop, Oxford
1987 Martin Jennings: Stone Sculptures / Cally le Poer Trench: Paintings, Shark House, Oxford
1985 Cally le Poer Trench, Somerville College, Oxford

2018 Cally’s Board Game Evening, Wycombe Museum, 25th October 2018
2018 Cally Trench's Original Board Games, The Heseltine Gallery, Middleton Cheney, 22nd September 2018
2018 On Death, Banham Barrel, Banham, Norfolk, 6th May 2018 (curated by Esoterica Arts)
2018 Cally’s Board Game Evening in The Art of Dying, Wycombe Museum, 15th February 2018
2018 Board? Gaming is the answer! in Draw, Thought Foundation, Birtley, 10th February 2018
2017 Cally Trench: Interactive Board Games in Festal Favours (curated by Clare Carswell), Charlbury Festival, 10th June 2017
2017 Cally Trench's Board Games, Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading, 4th February 2017
2016 Board Games with Cally Trench, OVADA Stammtisch, Joe Perks & Co, Oxford
2016 Austerity (curated by Margaret Godel), Fringe Arts Bath
2016 Homunculus, Asylum, London (curated by Rekha Sameer)
2014 In Dialogue, Primary, Nottingham, 4th October 2014 (curated by Heather Connelly, Rhiannon Jones and Rebecca Beinart)
2013 Be Our Guest, Oriel Davies, Newtown, Powys (curated by Alex Boyd Jones)
2012 Floraphilia, Vestry House Museum, Walthamstow, 1st September 2012 (curated by Folie A Trois - Sarah Grainger-Jones and lili Spain)
2012 Board Games Event in At Play 2012, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham, 9th July 2012
2011 The Re...Show at Out of the Dark, High Wycombe, 19th November 2011 (curated by Rekha Sameer)
2011 Cally Trench's Board Games, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, 6th October 2011 (curated by Notfamousyet Art Consultancy)
2011 Cally Trench's Board Games at the Rubik's Cube, Joiners' Arms, Hackney, London, 11th September 2011 (curated by Iceberg Fernandez)
2011 Board Games with Cally Trench, OVADA Stammtisch, Port Mahon, Oxford, 28th July 2011
2011 The Effort Presents a Puzzle, The Windmill, Brixton, 10th July 2011
2011 Cally Trench's Board Games at Quaker Meeting House, High Wycombe, 30th January 2011
2010 Beyond the Dustheaps Christmas Party, Charles Dickens Museum, London, 11th December 2010 (curated by Island Projects)
2010 Games of Money and Death salon, Hanbury Hall, London, 23rd Oct 2010, curated by Island Projects at This Is Not A Gateway (TINAG) Festival
2009 Cally Trench's Board Games as part of The Home Delivery, Oxford, 4th November 2009 (curated by ArtWash)
2009 Hop Skip evening of events, Liquid Studios, Hackney Wick, London, 31st July 2009 (curated by Martina O'Shea)
2004 Passing Time, Sherborne House, Dorset

2018 Siblings Cannot Agree, The Heseltine Gallery, Middleton Cheney
2018 Enshrine, Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, London (curated by Rekha Sameer)
2018 Only The Sunny Hours exhibition and Film Show, Openhand Openspace, Brock Keep, Reading, 23rd June 2018
2017-18 The Art of Dying, Wycombe Museum, High Wycombe
2017 Lost & Found Film Night, Hundred Years Gallery, London, 10th November 2017
2017 Faces by Cally Trench, Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury
2017 Soundstripes, The Making Space, Huddersfield (silent film screening with live scoring), 12th October 2017
2017 Candid Projection Room, Candid Arts Trust, London, 19th September 2017
2017 Draw/Bridge, Zug/Brücke, ARTHOUSE1, London (curated by Alex Dewart)
2017 PASSPort Britannia, Safehouse 1, London (curated by Rekha Sameer), 30th July 2017
2017 Videovada 2017, Festival of the Moving Image, OVADA, Oxford, 15th June 2017
2017 Live Art Cinema: It's Alive!, The Edge, Birmingham (curated by Home for Waifs and Strays and the Magic Cinema), 25th May 2017
2016 Videovada 2016, Festival of the Moving Image, OVADA, Oxford, 24th June 2016
2013 British Ceramics Biennial, Spode Factory, Stoke-on-Trent
2013 Do you remember it - or weren't you there?, London Gallery West, University of Westminster (curated by Cally Trench and Philip Lee)
2012 Hoopla!, Sugarhouse Studios, London
2011 The Re...Show at Out of the Dark, High Wycombe
2011 At Play 3, South Hill Park, Bracknell (curated by Cally Trench and Outi Remes)
2011 Project 101 Video Installation, The LAB Gallery, New York (AMBuno event, curated by Sophie Loss)

2018 AMBruno: Cover at the Small Publishers' Fair, London
2018 Philip Lee / Cally Trench: Artists’ Books, University of Westminster Library, Harrow
2018 BBruno at New York Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1, Long Island
2018 AMBruno: Cover at Miss Read, Berlin
2018 AMBruno at Malmö Artist’s Book Biennial, Malmö, Sweden
2018 AMBruno: Cover at 21st International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, the Tetley, Leeds
2017-18 Cally Trench / Philip Lee: Artists’ Books, Ravensbourne, London
2017 AMBruno: [Sic] at the Small Publishers' Fair, London
2017 AMBruno: [Sic] at New York Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1, Long Island
2017 AMBruno: Show and Tell at Tate Britain (Library and Archive Reading Rooms)
2017 AMBruno: [Sic] at Miss Read, Berlin
2017 AMBruno: [Sic] at Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE), the Arnolfini, Bristol
2017 AMBruno: [Sic] at PAGES Leeds / 20th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, the Tetley, Leeds
2016 Philip Lee / Cally Trench: Artists’ Books, Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol
2016 AMBruno: 53 Books, Chelsea Library, London
2016 Cally Trench / Philip Lee: Books and Prints in Bookface 2016, Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading
2014 AMBruno: Artists' Books Exhibition, Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol
2014 AMBruno at Small Publishers Fair, London
2013-14 The Atlas of places that don't exist (project by Ting-Ting Cheng) in
        Corner, Hotel c'est la vie project space, Whitechapel, London;
        Art Stage, Singapore; and
        You are here Festival, Kingsgate Gallery, London
2013 AMBruno: Lines at the By Leaves We Live Book Fair , Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh
2013 Punctuations, Separations & Artists' Books, Emma Hill Fine Art Eagle Gallery, London (curated by Emma Hill)
2013 AMBruno: Lines at the London Art Book Fair, Whitechapel Art Gallery
2013 AMBruno: Sixteen at Artists Book Fair, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
2013 AMBruno: Sixteen at Bristol Artists Book Event, Arnolfini, Bristol
2013 AMBruno: Sixteen at 16th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, University of Leeds
2013 AMBruno: One Fold Books in Publish and Be Damned 2013, ICA, London
2012 AMBruno: One Fold Book, X Marks the Bökship, London
2012 Bookmarks X, UWE Bristol project to distribute bookmarks (curated by Sarah Bodman)
2012 AMBruno: One Fold Books in At Play 2012, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
2012 AMBruno: One Fold Books in 15th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, University of Leeds
2011 AMBruno: Blue at the London Art Book Fair, Whitechapel Art Gallery
2011 AMBruno at Artsmart, Chelsea Art College
2011 AMBruno at Bristol Artists Book Event, Arnolfini, Bristol
2011 AMBruno at 14th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, University of Leeds
2010 AMBruno at London Art Book Fair, Whitechapel Art Gallery
2009 AMBruno at 13th International Artists' Book Fair, University of Leeds
2009 AMBruno at Reading Book Fair, Reading
2009 AMBruno at New York Book Fair, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York
2009 AMBruno, Bookartbookshop, Hoxton, London
2008 AMBruno at Manchester Artist Book Fair and Liverpool Artist Book Fair

2018 Golden Philip, performance during Enshrine, Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, London (curated by Rekha Sameer)
2017 International Day Readings, performance during Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE), 2nd April 2017 at the Arnolfini, Bristol
2017 International Day Readings, performance during PAGES Leeds / International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, 5th March 2017 at the Tetley, Leeds
2016 Peephole Hut, performance on 17th November 2016 in Visions in the Nunnery, Bow Arts, The Nunnery, London (curated by Cinzia Cremona and Tessa Garland)
2014 Drawing Hands and Feet, performance on 9th May 2015 in 365 Drawings 365 Dessins, Galerie d'Anières, near Geneva, Switzerland (curated by Tineke Bruijnzeels)
2014 Hide and Slip, performance in Control Room, The Control Room, Bristol, 23rd November 2014 (curated by Rekha Sameer)
2014 Slip and Taffeta, performance in Creating a Scene, Oriel Davies, Newtown, 28th June 2014
2014 Sixteen Dada Heads, performance in Book Act (AMBruno event curated by Sophie Loss) 9th March 2014 during the 17th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, the Tetley, Leeds
2014 Slip Stroll, performance in Creating a Scene, National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford, 24th January 2014
2013 Exercise Slip Silent Movie, film in British Ceramics Biennial, Spode Factory, Stoke-on-Trent
2013 Sixteen Dada Heads, performance in Drinks and Dada, Emma Hill Fine Art Eagle Gallery, London, 13th July 2013 (curated by Emma Hill)
2012 Window Slip, performance at the Remarkable Shed Party, Sophie's Shed, London, 15th July 2012 (curated by Cally Trench)
2012 Echo, The Keep, Reading (curated by Arjeea21). Film by Jonathan Roe of a performance by Philip Lee and Cally Trench
2012 Exercise Slip Silent Movie, film in Hoopla!, Sugarhouse Studios, London (A Nunnery Gallery Event curated by Tessa Garland), 13th July 2112
2012 Ceramics on Screen in Tradition and Innovation, CAA, London. Film by Jonathan Roe of a performance by Philip Lee and Cally Trench
2012 Double Helix, performance at the Rubik's Cube, Joiners' Arms, Hackney, London (curated by Iceberg Fernandez) 29th January 2012
2011 Body Body Chair Slip, performance and film in The Re...Show at Out of the Dark, High Wycombe (curated by Rekha Sameer) 12th November 2011
2011 Spode Slip, performance at the Spode factory, Stoke-on-Trent (British Ceramics Biennial) 20th October 2011
2011 Body Body Clay Pane, performance at South Hill Park, Bracknell, 13th October 2011 (curated by Outi Remes)
2011 Tied Slip II, performance in Divide and Rule at the Firestation Centre for Arts & Culture, Windsor (curated by Roves and Roams) 23rd April 2011
2011 Tied Slip I, performance at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, 5th April, 2011, during Parallels and Connections research conference
2011 Blindfold Slip Private, performance at University of Westminster, Harrow Campus, 29th January 2011
2010 Blindfold Slip III, performance in Exquisite Stone Corpse - a concatenation, The Stone Squid Experimental Art Space, Hastings, 23rd October 2010 (curated by Sophie Loss)
2010 Blindfold Slip II, performance in Performance at the Nunnery: Move Me! in Visions in the Nunnery 2010, 16th October 2010 (curated by Cinzia Cremona)
2010 Blindfold Slip I, performance in Benjamin Cohen at The Old Truman Brewery, London (curated by HRL Contemporary) 5th October 2010
2010 Spiral for Bruno, Private performance, London, 22nd August 2010

2016 Portable Zebra Crossing performance in Bedlam Fair, part of Fringe Arts Bath, 5th June 2016
2014 Campaign for Tiger Crossings performance at the 365 Drawings 365 Dessins Open Day, Brock Keep, Reading, 27th September 2014
2012 Zebra Pelican Cross performance at the Remarkable Shed Party, Sophie's Shed, London (curated by Cally Trench) 15th July 2012
2012 Triple Spin performance in Remarkable Place, The Keep, Reading, 25th March 2012 (curated by Cally Trench)
2011 In Praise of Zebra Crossings, performance at Beaconsfield Roundabout, 3rd May 2011

2018 Only The Sunny Hours: Contemporary Photography with a Brownie 127, Openhand Openspace, Brock Keep, Reading
2013 Do you remember it - or weren't you there?, London Gallery West, University of Westminster (curated with Philip Lee)
2012 Remarkable Shed Party, Sophie's Shed, London
2012 At Play 2012, South Hill Park, Bracknell; OVADA, Oxford; and New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham (curated with Dr Outi Remes)
2012 Remarkable Place, Openhand Openspace, Brock Keep, Reading
2011 At Play 3, South Hill Park, Bracknell (curated with Dr Outi Remes)
2010 At Play 2, South Hill Park, Bracknell (curated with Dr Outi Remes)
2009-2012 Remarkable and Curious Conversations
2009 Surface!, The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock
2009 At Play 1, South Hill Park, Bracknell (curated with Dr Outi Remes)
2008 On the Surface, The Parlour, Chalk Farm, London
2007 Cally Trench Nick Trench HOME, Penny School Gallery, Kingston (curated with Nick Trench)
2008 Emotional Maps, Friars Square Shopping Centre, Aylesbury (mapping project with schools)
2007 Sketchbook Circle, Bracknell Gallery, South Hill Park, Bracknell (2-year sketchbook project)
2004 The Small Show at Fine Art Degree Show, BCUC, High Wycombe
2003 Surprise, Surprise!, six primary schools in High Wycombe and Wycombe Museum

Cally Trench's artist's books are in the collections of the Tate, London; the V&A, London; the British Library; Ravensbourne, London; Chelsea College of Arts (UAL); Kunstbibliothek, Berlin; Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore; Bibliotheca Librorum Apud Artificem, Library for the Artist's Book, Sydney; and private collections. Paintings, prints and drawings are in the collection of Oxford City Council; Consumers' Association, Milton Keynes; Robin Waterfield's Bookshop, Oxford; Lucky Onion Hotel, Cheltenham; and private collections.

2018 'AMBruno at Tate Britain Archive: Themed Artists’ Books' by Sophie Loss and Cally Trench (with contributions by Judy Goldhill, Lydia Julien, Philip Lee, Steve Perfect and John McDowall) in The Blue Notebook, Vol. 12, No.2 Spring – Summer 2018, publ. UWE
2018 The Art of Dying - radio interview (with Alex Dewart, Sally Scagell and Cally Trench) on Wycombe Sound's Him n Her with presenter Sarah Stone, 5th March 2018
2015 Maps and Collections - talk by Cally Trench at OVADA, Oxford
2014 Creating a Scene - review by Cally Trench in Blue Pages, Journal of the Society of British Theatre Designers, no.2, p9-11
2014 365 Drawings 365 Dessins Q&A by Cally Trench and Tineke Bruijnzeels
2014 Paul Stevenson - Chairs, flying temples, and why we need to experience the real thing - illustrated talk by Cally Trench at Bucks New University, 1st May 2014
2013 'At Play: Curatorial Notes about Playfulness' by Dr Outi Remes and Cally Trench in Performativity in the Gallery: Staging Interactive Encounters, ed. Remes/MacCulloch/Leino, publ. Peter Lang
2013 Do you remember it, or weren't you there? - catalogue essay by Cally Trench and Philip Lee. Do you remember it, or weren't you there?
2012 'At Play: Curatorial Notes about Playfulness' by Dr Outi Remes and Cally Trench, AAH Conference, Museums and Exhibitions Group, The Open University
2012 At Play 2012 - catalogue by Cally Trench and Dr Outi Remes
2011 A throne is only a bench covered in velvet - review by Cally Trench on a-n. A throne is only a bench covered in velvet
2011 At Play 3 - catalogue by Cally Trench and Dr Outi Remes
2010 At Play 2 - catalogue by Cally Trench and Dr Outi Remes
2009 At Play - catalogue by Cally Trench and Dr Outi Remes
2009 On the Surface - catalogue by Cally Trench
2008 Surface! - catalogue by Cally Trench
2003 Surprise, Surprise! - catalogue and schools booklet by Cally Trench
1992-95 Quiz by Cally Trench and Dr Caroline M. Fraser in Antiquarian Book Monthly
1992 Contemporary Women Artists in the Women Artists Slide Library (entry p.103), publ. Emmett Publishing
1991 Artweek International Artists' Plener - catalogue (edited by Cally Trench)
1991 Oxford Artweek Guide, edited by Cally Trench
1991 'Malgorzata Bialokoz Smith' - catalogue essay by Cally Trench
1990 Cartoons by Cally Trench in Oxford Friends of the Earth Newsletter, June 1990
1990 'Polish Heaven, Polish Hell - Paintings by Stanislaw Koba' - catalogue essay by Cally Trench
1990 Oxford Artweek Guide, edited by Cally Trench
1990 'Expanding Oxford' by Susan Foster and Cally Trench in The Arts Business: Britons Abroad
1989 Consuming Passions - interview on Radio 4 about the Billboards Project
1989-90 Artsage - covers, cartoons and illustrations by Cally Trench for the four issues of magazine for the Oxford Arts and Age programme, organised by Southern Artlink
1988-89 Exhibition reviews by Cally Trench in the Oxford Times
1987 'ABMR & Waterfield's Winter Frivolity: A Competition' by Cally Trench and Caroline M. Fraser in Antiquarian Book Monthly Review, December 1987
1986 'Open exhibitions: positive effects' by Cally Trench in Artists Newsletter, March 1986
1985 'Getting your work photographed' by Cally Trench in Artists Newsletter, December 1985
1985-88 Cartoons by Cally Trench in Antiquarian Book Monthly Review