Tony Heaton

Anthony James Heaton OBE (born 11 October 1954) is a British sculptor, disability rights activist and arts administrator, who was appointed an OBE in 2013 for services to the arts and the disability arts movement. In 1986 he enrolled on a visual arts degree at Lancaster University whilst earning a living as a sign-painter.

Artistic career

Heaton's early sculptures often use what Disability Arts in London magazine described as "the everyday impedimenta of disability: collecting cans, NHS wheelchairs, X-rays, Part M of the Building Regulations".

An early piece, "Springback" (1990), is an assemblage including a spinal X-Ray juxtaposed above the shock absorber springs of a scrapped motorcycle, referring to the accident which caused his impairment and the metal strengthening spring placed inside his spine.

'Shaken..not Stirred' (1991) consisted of a seven-feet high pyramid of 1,760 charity collecting cans, its ascending ranks of red plastic referring to the hierarchical nature of the charity system. The whole edifice was brought crashing to the ground when Heaton threw an artificial leg at it, suggesting that the hierarchical system could be destroyed by the collective power of disabled people. As his work has developed, it has embodied ideas about disability and impairment. For instance, "Split" (1995) is a woodcarving made from a piece of ash discarded by a wood turner as useless because it has a shake; a fault running through it. Heaton saw this as "indicative of a society that sees only perfection and disregards all that is damaged or perceived as impaired". During the 2012 Paralympics Heaton was invited to redesign 'Great Britain From a Wheelchair' as lecterns for Lord Coe and Sir Phillip Craven during the opening and closing ceremonies.

In 2012, he was commissioned to produce 'Monument to the Unintended Performer', an installation for the Big 4 sculpture sited outside Channel Four's offices. It brought together three elements in addition to the Big 4: the first based on the classical Greek sculpture Discobolus, the discus thrower, evoking the spirit of the Olympics; the second element, a circle, representing the wheel of the international symbol of access; and lastly, the introduction of gold, silver and bronze considers hierarchy. Heaton stated: "I wanted to use the structure of the Big 4 as one of four elements that would fuse together to form a new cohesive piece - which would provoke thought and celebrate Channel 4's involvement and commitment to the Paralympics. The subtext is the assertion that disabled people are almost always the object of scrutiny and curiosity."

'Gold Lamé', included in the 2014 exhibition Art of The Lived Experiment, is an invalid car painted gold. The title puns on the word "lame". Heaton states that the Invacar has been "transformed from prosthetic to sculpture, transmuted from spazz blue to gold, from Lame to Lamé", mirroring his own life adjustments, where he says, "I transmuted from biker to invalid". Gold Lamé also appeared at the Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, Liverpool as the inaugural winner of the Liverpool Plinth.

Holton Lee

From 1997 to 2007, Heaton was based in Dorset, as Director of the Holton Lee Trust which offers a mix of environmental, artistic and spiritual activities, with short stay residential facilities for Disabled people, in an SSSI comprising 350 acres of woodland, reed bed and heath land landscape adjacent to Poole Harbour.

Heaton developed a ten-year strategic plan for the organisation: a contemporary arts and education programme based on a series of accessible buildings including a gallery and artists' studios, which would enable a new programme of artistic work, a growth in residential capacity and a focus for disability arts. All the buildings would use local materials blending in with Holton Lee's natural surroundings.

The first of these, Faith House gallery, designed by Tony Fretton was hailed by Jonathan Glancey in the Guardian as 'one of the most beautiful new buildings in Britain'.

In 2002, Heaton organised the DA21 Disability Arts Conference at Holton Lee. He also planned the inaugural conference to discuss the establishment of what would become the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive. The idea then envisaged was to create a purpose-built archive as part of the developing Holton Lee campus. This was abandoned after Heaton moved on. NDACA will now take the form of an interactive website and catalogue, after receiving funding of nearly £1 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2015.

Shape

In 2007 Heaton became CEO of Shape Arts, the arts and disability charity founded by dancer Gina Levete. He brought to the organisation a new emphasis on disability arts and professional opportunities for artists.

He instituted the Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary, which provides 3-month bursaries for disabled artists to undertake residencies at leading visual arts institutions. These have included the Victoria and Albert Museum, Camden Arts Centre, Spike Island, The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, the Bluecoat Gallery and New Art Gallery Walsall. The bursary is named after the late sculptor, with whom Heaton had a close friendship. Early winners were Caroline Cardus, Aaron Williamson, Sally Booth and Noëmi Lakmaier.

He also created the Shape Open, an annual open exhibition of artwork by disabled and non-disabled artists created in response to a disability-centred theme. The exhibition's patron is Yinka Shonibare, at whose Guest Projects space in Hackney, London the 2016 exhibition took place.

Heaton has announced that he will stand down as CEO in 2017 and become chair of the organisation.

Order of the British Empire Heaton was appointed an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours, 2013, for services to the arts and the disability arts movement.

Key works

Title Year Material Six Circles 1989 Carved elmwood Springback 1990 X-ray, bulldog clips, steel motor cycle suspension springs, base Personal column 1998 Carved willow Serpent Form 2004 Carrara marble Zenmen 2004 Carrara marble Rearranged Penis 2006 Porcelain and paper clay Loop 2005 Carrara marble Monument to the Unintended Performer 2012 Stainless steel, neon, polyurethane, LED Gold Lamé 2014 Fibreglass, steel, perspex, rubber, gold automotive paint

Exhibitions

1988 Regional Finalist, Unipart Reflections of Technology Award for Original Sculpture: Exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Breton Hall, Yorkshire 1991 Euroday Disability Arts Festival, Installation 'Shaken Not Stirred', featured on BBC TV 1995 'Unleashed - Images and Experience of Disability', Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne 1995 'Exposed...Great Britain from a Wheelchair', solo exhibition, Diorama Gallery, London; featured on 'From the Edge', BBC TV 2010 Flux - The Brewhouse Gallery, Taunton, Somerset 2015 Art of the Lived Experiment - DaDaFEst, Liverpool and UICA Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA 2016 Art, Life, Activism: Contemporary art and the Politics of Disability. - Attenborough Arts Centre Leicester. Co-curator and exhibitor.

Commissions

1997 'Grey Mares' - Public Sculpture commission for Manchester City Council, as a result of a competition organised by Community Arts North West, sited at Beswick 2006 Art Plus Award for Art in Public Places, a £50,000 commission to create: squarinthecircle?, a permanent public sculpture for Portsmouth University School of Architecture 2012 LOCOG - London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games - commission to create sculptural lecterns for Lord Sebastian Coe and Sir Philip Craven based on the sculpture: Great Britain from a Wheelchair 2012 Winner - Channel 4 TV competitive commission to create a sculptural intervention with the Big 4 structure outside the Channel 4 building to celebrate the Paralympics 2014 Commissioned by Channel 4 TV to create the film Breathe Nothing of Slaughter as part of the 14-18 Commemoration of World War One 2014 Commissioned to create the sculpture Gold Lamé for the exhibition Art of the Lived Experiment, Bluecoat Gallery Liverpool

Residencies

1995 'Buried Overground', Collaborative Workshop with ARC Leeds