David Birkin is an artist, writer, and Senior Lecturer in Photography at London College of Communication (University of the Arts London) where he co-founded VISIBLE JUSTICE, a transdisciplinary research hub for photographers, filmmakers, artists, activists, journalists, and human rights lawyers working at the intersection of visual culture and social justice. Birkin holds a BA from Oxford University, an MA from the Slade School of Fine Art (University College London), and was a fellow of the Art & Law Program in New York and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. He has been an artist in residence at MacDowell. Yaddo, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Camargo Foundation, Marseille. Birkin is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths (University of London) under the supervision of Kodwo Eshun (The Otolith Group) and Susan Schuppli (Forensic Architecture). For five years, he managed the Brooklyn studio of artist and theorist Martha Rosler.
Combining archival film and photographic practices with large scale performances in public space, much of Birkin's work centres on state violence and the ideological apparatus of imperial power: its iconography, mythology, language, and legal frameworks. Past projects include a collaboration with the courtroom sketch artist at Guantánamo, a simulated software crash on digital billboards in Times Square, CIA legalese in skywriting above Manhattan, and a plane circling the Statue of Liberty’s torch. His exhibition Mouths at the Invisible Event at The Mosaic Rooms was described by Hyperallergic as ‘a methodical examination of the language, aesthetics, and ethos of modern warfare [that] ultimately makes the emotional reality and Kafkaesque lunacy of such a system hit home.’
Birkin has written for Frieze, Cabinet, Creative Time Reports, Ibraaz, The Harvard Advocate, and the American Civil Liberties Union blog on subjects ranging from a legally protected species of iguana to Marilyn Monroe's 1945 photoshoot at an army drone factory. He taught previously at The New School in New York and has given talks and lectures at: the Harvard Radcliffe Institute; Yale Center for British Art; Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton; Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media & Design; Queens College, CUNY; Parsons; Zurich University of the Arts; University of York; University of South Wales; Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics, Law & Armed Conflict; The Photographers’ Gallery; Imperial War Museum; Creative Time Summit, Venice; and MoMA PS1.
He has exhibited at The Mosaic Rooms, London; Mostyn Centre for Contemporary Art, Wales; Benaki Museum, Athens; MUDAM Museum of Modern Art, Luxembourg; Fotomuseum, Antwerp; Société d’Électricité, Brussels; Centre d’Art et Photographie de Lectoure, France; Tallinn Kunstihoone, Estonia; Krakow Photomonth, Poland; FotoFest, Houston; Whitney Museum ISP, New York.