Biography from 1958 |
2008Travels to Tokyo on a research trip to look at eels and the Tsukiji fish market. Work continues on his second cookbook. |
2007Interviewed on the Philadelphia radio show A Chefs' Table. Gives a lecture at The James Beard Foundation in New York. Contributes to the exhibition Elizabeth David - Her Life, Work and Influence curated by Dr Eddie Cass, Portico Library Gallery. Visits to New York and Sweden to research his next book. Designs the cookbook Urban Feast for Croydon Council. Gives a talk on 12 Kitchens at the Abgergavenny Food Festival. Is a guest on UKTVFood's Market Kitchen. Designs websites for the artist Stephen Farthing, the consultant John Howkins and the antiques shop The Lacquer Chest. |
2006His first cookbook - A Tale of 12 Kitchens is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK and Artisan in USA - to wide acclaim. Appeared on the Richard & Judy Show and on UKTVFood. Spends a month in Australia with his family, writes an article for Food & Wine. Appears in the book - Influences: a Lexicon of Contemporary Graphic Design by Anna Gerber and Amy Lutz. 12 Kitchens is shortlisted for the Andre Simon Award, Glenfiddich Food & Drink Awards and wins the Gourmand Food Cookbook Award. Also, Guardian book of the week, Independent books of the year and New York Times top 100 Christmas books. Takes part in the exhibition Drawing From Turner, at Tate Britain. |
2005Produces large scale exterior, photographic banners for Flavas of Peckham Food Festival. As part of the Peckham regeneration programme he designs shop front fascias for various shops on Peckham Rye – barbers, tailor and an internet café. Is invited by the architects Haworth Tompkins to work on the wayfinding signage for The London Library. After five years work Tilson went on final foraging trips for his forthcoming cookbook A Tale of 12 Kitchens, to Los Angeles, Venice and Scotland. Produces new studio based work bringing together shop-fascia technology and food photography. |
2004Tilson’s design work is featured in All Messed Up – Unpredictable Graphics by Anna Gerber, published by Laurence King and Freewave by David Luscombe and Alison Roscoe, Booth Clibborn Editions. Business Cards: The Art of Saying Hello by Michael S. Dorrian, Liz Farrelly Laurence King. He writes an article for Blueprint looking at digital image permanence and photography collections. Reviews of 3 Found Fonts appear in The Independent, Petits Propos Culinaries, Creative Review, Art Monthly and Umbrella. Collaborative article / photographs with Adam Levy, Taxi, in Contemporary. Produces childrens’ guide for South London Gallery Tom Friedman exhibition. |
2003Atlas publishes a new combined book and CD by Tilson 3 Found Fonts. The South London Gallery, Independence exhibition features a new diorama by Tilson. Contributes to the exhibition Ways of Saying at Loman Street Studio curated by David Blamey and Stephen Kirk. His photographic and design work is featured in Graphic Originals: Designers Who Work Beyond the Brief by Jane Austin and No Brief, both published by Rotovision. His work for Fstop is covered in Undercover Magazine, Metropolis, Graphics International, Pen and Page magazine. Audio works in Hearing Place, The Australian Sound Design Project, University of Melbourne. |
2002Blueprint magazine profile Jakes Progress, by Liz Farelly. He took part is a series of Digital Arts Training seminars run by the Film & Video Umbrella. He joined eleven other international designers to contribute 2 CDS of photographs for Font Shop International’s new stock-photo-library, Fstop. He is featured in Restart: New Systems in Graphic Design edited by Christian Küsters and Emily King, Thames & Hudson. Tilson writes an article on the French artist Christian Boltanski for Creative Review. |
2001Commissioned by The Film & Video Umbrella to produce a web work, Detour, for their online projectSlipsteam. Detour appeared on the Real World website during the autumn of 2000. Contributed to Creative Review DVD. Atlas opens an online mailorder shop for distributed art. Profile in Graphics International. Reload, web design, consultant. Started work on a cookbook project. |
2000TheCooker was featured in the Thames & Hudson World Art Series book New Media in Late 20th Century Art by Micheal Rush. Atlas magazine was exhibited in Art Journeaux in the Kassel Kunst Verein, curated by Jurgen Olbrich. Commissioned by The Film & Video Umbrella to produce a web work for their online project the.year.dot, launched with Black Box, Aspex Portsmouth (Tell Tale Signs). Contributes to two issues of Creative Review magazine - 20th anniversary Issue and a feature on found photograpy. Takes part in the audio event Extrasensory at 291 Gallery, London. Audio work broadcast by WMBC Radio, USA. Took part in Over The Ocean at Roda Sten, Goteborg |
1999TheCooker appeared in Net Condition at ZKM, curated by Benjamin Weil. Exhibited in Not There curated by Robin Moll at the Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco. Took part in thewaitingrooms.co.uk and in Typo, Ikon Gallery Birmingham, a touring show curated by Michael Prior. Contributed to Site of Sound: of architecture & the earErrant Bodies Press, edited by Brandon La Belle and Steve Roden, Los Angeles. Appeared on SKY TV's The Lounge and in the BBC TV documentary Culture Fix-Digital Art. Was a judge in the Creative Review AKQA New Media Talent Awards. Atlas published the video compilation Vulture Reality and the audio cassettes Hungerford Bridge and Hannahsleeps. Tilson, having taught for twelve years at the Royal College of Art, leaves teaching. |
1998Contributes to Artist/Author, Contemporary Artists' Books USA touring exhibition organised by the American Federation of Arts. Eye was a Child, an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in aid of Save The Children. Contributes to London Guide Brondums Forlag in Denmark. Fuse 18, typeface, poster and website, Reasearch publishing. European Echoes, a collaborative event at Roda Sten in Goteborg. Commissioned by The Film & Video Umbrella to produce an audio work for their touring exhibition Black Box. Black Box and The Cooker took part in Pandeamonium, the London Festival of the Moving Image, London Electronic Arts - and in La Biennale de Montreal 1998. Takes part in an audio exhibition Sound at refusalon in San Francisco. |
1997Publishes the audio CD City Picture Fiction no.32. Launch at the New Serpentine Gallery Book Shop. Family travel to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, Joshua Tree, Salton Sea and Ansa Borego National Park. Invited to install audio works in Vario, Goteborg, curated by Andrew Cowie.Particiaptes in Airport held at The Photographers Gallery, London, curated by Jeremy Millar. Retrospective exhibition at Museo Internacional de Electrografia in Cuenca organised by JosÎ Ramon Alcal‡, part funded by The British Council and with support from Epson UK. Colour-Color web artwork commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London |
1996Travels to New York. Fading exhibition at The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University, light fastness tests made over sixteen years. Member of Arts Council Creativity and New Technologies Fund committee. Version 3.0 of TheCooker web site goes on-line. Rebuilds and refits his London studio to embrace the digital. Continues to work with Alan Milosevic, Milo Hedge Software in Oxford. TheCooker is shortlisted for the best designed web site, Yellow Pages Awards. |
1995Birth of daughter, Hannah Lee Tilson. Continues to build a digital studio. Asked by David Carson to contribute to his book The End of Print. Erna Plachte residency is extended. Concentrates a day a week video editing in Oxford at ETRC. Invited by Keith Critchlow to be External Examiner for the Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts course at The Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture. Records in Paris. Eats at the Algerian restaurant 'Chez Omar' in Paris. |
1994Travels to Tokyo and Kyoto. Exhibits Jet Set at the Whitechapel Open in London. Erna Plachte artist-in-residence at The Laboratory at The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University, organised by Paul Bonaventura and Stephen Farthing. Meets Alan Milosevic and Ben Russell from True-D Software, Oxford, to collaborate as part of the residency. Learns how to programme for the Internet. Starts work on TheCooker world wide web site. Designs and builds the first art school web site in Britain at the Ruskin. Creates Soft Studios area for students. Travels to New York and Italy to make recordings. Gives What is Not a City? lecture at the Ruskin, Oxford University. |
1993Buys an Apple Macintosh IIVX. Records first audio works since 1981, including Gate 23 and Foundsounds. Atlas 4 - beyond drawingis published. Travels to Stockholm, Italy and Goteborg to video, record and photograph. Begins work on City Picture Fiction video works. Exhibits Dry Signals painting at the John Moores 18, Liverpool |
1992On February 3rd clears out studio deciding to stop work and develop research projects. With advice from Karl Wallinger buys audio equipment and sets up an audio and video studio. Visits Spain with the Royal College of Art. Buys a portable DAT recorder. Last exhibition at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery, Langu(im)age' with David Blamey, before the gallery is forced to close, a victim of the recession. Invited by Jose Ramon Alcala to teach at the Procesos Graficos de la Imagen Digital summer course at the Museo Internacional de Electrografia in Cuenca , travels to Spain and Italy. Buys a Sony Hi8 palmcorder. Winter spent in northern India, Thar Desert, and Bombay. Starts work on City Picture Fiction project. Eats at the restaurant 'Apoorva' in Bombay. |
1991Travels to New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Arizona, New Mexico, Death Valley and the Sonoran desert. Produces first Faxxerox books using telephone distribution. Presents the Cine-film Outtakes-The Terminator Line in London, Nigel Greenwood Gallery, and at Printed Matter at Dia in New York. The Terminator Line appears in books concerning current trends in typography such as Typography Now by Rick Poynor. Co-directs the World Party promotional video Thankyou World with Karl Wallinger and Sophie Muller. Trips to New York and Italy. |
1990Marries Jennifer 'Jeff' Lee at City Hall in New York. Solo exhibition How Far is an Hour at the Galleria Cavallino, Venice, during the Biennale, curated by Paolo Cardazzo. Solo exhibition The Terminator Line at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery. Appears with Jennifer in Issey Miyake Permanenteportfolio project, photographs by Lord Snowdon. Co-directs with Karl Wallinger the World Party promotional video Message in the Box. Buys video 8 palmcorder in New York. Conducts research into the longevity of Canon colour photocopies at the Canon Lab at the Royal College of Art. |
1989Solo exhibition at Stylt Gallery in G‰teborg, Sweden, Collages 1986-89, curated by Andrew Cowie. Produces first edited super 8 film Jour et Nuit in Paris. Artist-in-residence at Bath Contemporary Art Fair, organised by Sean Kelly. The work produced at the fair How Far is an Hour is also exhibited at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery in London. Visits Sandhausen, Italy and Paris. Atlas nominated for best magazine design award by D&AD. First monograph on Tilson's work published by Kyoto Shoin in their ArTRANDOM series, editor Marco Livingstone, editorial director Kyoichi Tsuzuki. Collects more material from the East Village in New York which becomes The Terminator Line project. Publishes Breakfast Special. |
1988Atlas 3 is published. Collects collage material in the East Village, New York, searched by customs at JFK airport. Is invited to participate in Echtzeit, a collaborative xerox exhibition in the Kassel Kunstverein organised by Jurgen Olbrich. Travels to Russia: Leningrad, Moscow, and New York. |
1987Publishes Atlas 2 which is short-listed for a BBC TV Design Council Award. One World, a clothing project to promote environmental awareness, with Jeff Banks and Warehouse PLC. Produces clothes designs, prints, book, badges, prints and in-store displays for Warehouse shops in London and Liverpool. One World is short listed for the Manchester Prize for Art in Production. Starts teaching in Communication Design at The Royal College of Art under Dan Fern. Establishes a home and studios in Peckham, London with potter Jennifer Lee. Travels to Paris to film super-8 on the streets and again to New York. |
1986First solo exhibition at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery, Excavator - Barcelona - Excavador, curated by Ann Gallagher. The show includes a diorama, three-dimensional colleges and an artists book. Exhibits in British Art & Design, Vienna. Teaches part-time at Farnham College of Art in the painting department under Stephen Farthing. Travels to Barcelona and Vienna. |
1985Establishes a studio in south London. Founds Atlas magazine with Stephen Whitaker. Various trips made to Barcelona to collect material for the project Excavator-Barcelona-Excavador. A petrified handgun bought in the flea market is inspected by customs. Visits Antoni Tapies to collect his contribution of drawings for Atlas 2. Travels to New York and Barcelona with Jennifer Lee. Eats at the Ukranian coffee shop 'Veselkas', on Second Avenue, New York. |
1984Travels around Western Europe by train and visits Morocco. Visits Barcelona for the first time. Meets the potter Jennifer 'Jeff' Lee in London. |
1983Spends the year working on The Highstreet SW11, exhibited at the Royal College of Art Degree Show. Awarded the Unilever prize, Hugh Dunn Award and the RCA major travelling scholarship for The Highstreet. Gives away the contents of his studio. Considers a career in film and television. After graduating moves to Montparnasse in Paris to write fiction. First solo exhibition organised by Marc Dachy at Galerie J et J Donguy in Paris, Xerographies 1977-83. Sets up studio in Rue St. Jacques. Spends most afternoons at the cinema, in book shops and xerox bureaus. Exhibits new xerox works at New Media 2, Malmo Konsthall, Sweden. |
1982Produces first large-scale diorama, Ground Zero Inc. 24 Hour Service, which is exhibited at The Royal College of Art. |
1981Cipher magazine receives Arts Council and Greater London Arts Association grants. Exhibits at The Paris Biennale and various international artists book exhibitions. Becomes an active member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. |
1980Enters the Royal College of Art to study painting under Peter de Francia. Meets Marc Dachy accidentally in La Hune, Paris. Invited to exhibit in Ecritures, Fondation des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris, curated by Marc Dachy. First audio-collage works. Publishes Exposure and 8 Views of Paris. Attends a series of informal meetings organised by Barry Flanagan on Dioramas, including a talk on Space in the Novel by David Plante. Travels to New York for the first time. Eats at the Dominican-Mexican diner West Side on Canal Street, New York. |
1979Graduates from Chelsea School of Art. Founds Cipher magazine with Stephen Whitaker. Founds The Woolley Dale Press to distribute his own book works. Publishes his first xerox book Light and Dark (1979). Visits Paris regularly to distribute Cipher to book shops and to photograph in the streets. |
1976Enters Chelsea School of Art in London and studies painting during the punk years. The London College of Printing installs the first Xerox colour photocopier in Britain. Co-edits the xerox magazine LAZA7. Starts writing fiction. Produces first Xerox and collage works. Participates in The Young Contemporaries at the ICA and the Northern Young Contemporaries. Eats in the South Indian restaurant Sree Krishna, London. Serves as printmaking assistant to Barry Flanagan. They often visit the Print Room in The British Museum to study Goya and Rembrandt. Experiments with measuring ink mixes and with methods of traditional aquatint. Conducts light fastness tests on xerox works. |
1958Born in London. |
