Contact

John Paul Bichard

E-mail me here: contact@johnpaulbichard.com
if you would like to know more about my work or would like to commission me.

Phone or text me on +46 7049 67879

All images and footage are copyright John Paul Bichard 1993-2012. All rights reserved.

Who is...

John Paul Bichard is an artist who is fascinated by people, places and how stories are made. He investigates the way people construct identity and the means in which these identities and roles are contextualised in contemporary society. He looks at places in which unusual events have occured, real or fictional and brings the two together in fragmented fictions: places that could have existed, stories that might have been told.

In practice this means exploring roles, characters and environments through photography, video, performance and digital/real world games. Works include a series that looks at what happens at the end of the video game, transposed onto real world locations; a photo shoot where people were invited to sit in the artist's bath covered in fake blood; a video documentary that set the artist as documentary cameraman in a fake war scenario run by the Swedish Army on the streets of Stockholm and a 1940s photoshoot that explored his families story of their evacuation in WWII.

Since the early 90s, Bichard has provoked and explored the borders between culture, the self and play both artistically and commercially: he developed one of the first viral marketing campaigns for the game Grand Theft Auto, ran the first performance club in a cartoon chat room, developed new ways of embedding stories into pervasive environments and has been artistic director for several cutting edge pervasive games.

John Paul is currently collaborating with his wife the aclaimed artist and performer Fräulein Frauke. The duo have built a reputation for extraordinary photographic artworks through their brand 'Bichard Studios'. They also run Swedens top burlesque and Cabaret club, the internationally renowned 'Fräulein Frauke Presents' at the exquisite Nalen Ballroom in the heart of Stockholm.
Avedon inspired image by Pia Eklund and Julia Holmgren.

This site uses the Vegas Background Jquery plug-in by Jay Salvat

All images and footage are copyright John Paul Bichard 1993-2012. All rights reserved.

Personalities

A growing body of work that captures the creativity, personality and aesthetics of some of the great artists I have photographed. I look to match the person with an environment that resonates with their aesthetic, collaborating closely with the artist and directing them only when necessary. These are people who perform, create and explore through their personnae, which is what I seek to encapsulate in the still image. I have been fortunate enough to have worked with: Scotty the Blue Bunny, Wallenberg, Marianne Cheesecake, Xarah Van Den Vielenregen, Koko La Douce, Ivoncita, Ruby Luscious, Alexi Carpentieri and of course the fabulous Fräulein Frauke.

All images and footage are copyright John Paul Bichard 1993-2012. All rights reserved.

Exhibitions and Artworks

2012   Evacuation 1940 – photoseries - Fröken Frauke Presents Duty Calls, Nalen, Stockholmn

2011   Circus series - Victorian Kink pop-up gallery - Stockholm

2010   Swedish Burlesque – photo artworks in collaboration with Fräulein Frauke – Berns Hotel , Stockholm and Gloria, Helsinki

2010   DelayMirror Unit - public video art commission for Tom Tits på Stan – Södertalje and Farsta, Sweden

2010   Inside Out - large scale photographic installation - 17m high images on buildings – Telefonplan, Stockholm

2009   SloMo - commissioned permanent slow motion video installation – M7 building, Sickla, Stockholm

2008   Inverse Forensics part 2 - Audience and Avatar Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, USA

2008   Inverse Forensics - Game Art, group show, Mejan Labs, Stockholm and touring to Bildmuseet Umeå and Kulturhuset Piteå

2008   DelayMirror Wall - commissioned permanent live video installation – New Look, Birmingham, UK

2008   Art of Game parts 3-5 - Homo Ludens Ludens Locating Play in Contemporary Culture & Society, Laboral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijon, Spain

2008   Art of Game: Art of War part 1 - Try Again group show, Casa Encendida Madrid and San Sebastian Spain 2008

2004   The White Room - [Evidencia #000] group photography show – Towner Art Gallery Eastbourne - Photoworks - Gordon MacDonald exhibition

2004   Evidencia [#001] - solo show – installation and photoworks – Galeria Quadrum - Lisbon.

2004   Condition Red - online video game for the ICOLS arms fair – ISEA 2004 – Helsinki, Tallinn, Stockholm ferry.

2003   Level Up - digital game exhibition at the International Digital Games Research symposium – Utrecht.

2003   VM.01 - Variablemedia group show – installation – Hoxton Distillery – London.

2003   Evidencia [#000] - solo exhibition at Galeria Quadrum – Lisbon.

2003   Staying in to Play - 90 day online residency at Variablemedia

2002   International Corporation of Lost Structures group show - Museum of Contemporary Art - Sydney

2001   Its Wrong to Wish on Space Hardware - Photoworks - group show - Gardner Arts Centre – Brighton

2001   Onde Fica - online performance space at the Habbo Hotel online chat environment

1998   Artificial Horizons - architecture and digital technologies show ICA London - game installation

1997   ArchitectureFilmTheory... group show - Architecture Foundation - London

1996   Pony - group show - DFWT Gallery, London.

1996   Kiss This - group show - Focal Point gallery - Southend

1996   White Hysteria - group show - Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia

1996   On a Clear Day - installation with associated CD Rom, web work and art comic exhibited at: Cambridge Darkroom - First Site gallery Colchester - Focal Point gallery Southend - John Hansard gallery Southampton - ICA London - Middlesbrough art gallery - Oldham art gallery.

1996   On a Clear Day at Viper digital festival - Luzerne, Switzerland

1995   Beyond Reading - installation - Glynn Vivian art gallery - Swansea

1995   Artists Books from the collection group show - Tate Gallery, London

1994   Cant see from here part 2 - one person show - Gallery 35 - Luton

1994   Cant see from here - group show - 30 Underwood St. - London

1994   Mapping Knowledge - group show - First Site - Colchester

1993   Collected Works - group show - V&A museum - London

1993   Happy Families - one-person show - Central Reference Library - London

1993   Flexible Response - group show - Atlantis Gallery - London

1993   UTY 248 T Van de Siecle - group show – VW camper van at the Lisson Gallery - Lisson Street - London

1993   A Fete Worse Than Death - Factual Nonsense - London – legendary art intervention

1993   Happy Families - installation - Brooke Alexander Editions - New York

Education

1991-92   Central School of Art, London. Postgraduate Printmaking and Photomedia

1988-91   Saint Martins School of Art, London. BA(hons) Fine Art(painting)

Professional Roles

2011   Co-founder Bichard Studios with Fräulein Frauke – artworks, performance, photography, events, costume and hat design

2009-11   Co-founder and creative director of Creative Advisor Group, Stockholm

2010   Creative Director, Traveur pervasive game based around the sport Parkour – Interactive Institute and Street Media 7

2007-09   Creative director and business development consultant – Art Productions, Interactive Institute Stockholm.

2007-08   Creative director, co-designer and writer for Interference and Crash pervasive games, iPerG, EU pervasive game research project, Interactive Institute, Sweden

2006   Artist in residence – Interactive Institute, Stockholm.

2005-07   Creative director, Backseat Playground pervasive game research project, Interactive Institute, Sweden

2004-05   Mobile services consultant, Unwired Stuff, London

2002-04   Founding partner and head of interaction, Urban Tapestries location based research project, Proboscis, London

2000-03   Co-founder and creative director of Liquid Idea, online visualisation and marketing agency, London

1998-00   Co-founder and creative director of Interfield Design – design and new media design agency, London

1994-96   Creative director/producer of the national touring new media show On a Clear Day.

1994-01   Games Editor and critic for Mute art and technology journal, London

1992-97   Established and ran Ultraluxe Publications to publish and distribute artists bookworks and multiples.

Publications and Multiples

2011   Swedish Burlesque Calendar 2011 collaborative photoworks with artist /performer Fräulein Frauke – exhibited in Stockholm and Helsinki and published as a calendar

2008   Cultural Infrastructure Kista – authored a white paper on culture as a means of re-generation in urban environments – Interactive Institute, Kista Science City and Stockholm Stad

2008   Pervasive Play, Immersion and Story: Designing Interference, John Paul Bichard, Annika Waern To appear in Proceedings of the 3rd ACM International Conference on Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Arts. DIMEA

2006   Bichard, J., Brunnberg, L., Combetto, M., Gustafsson, A. and Juhlin, O. (2006). Backseat Playgrounds: Pervasive Storytelling in Vast Location Based Games. To appear in Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Entertainment Computing - ICEC 2006.

2004    Deck playing card multiple – 54 altered packs of playing cards

1996   On a Clear Day - book, combined interactive CD (and games arcade unit) exploring artists identities in a never-ending road movie

1994   Spook - artists book – minimalist poem exploring the boundary between domestic banality and the edges of mortality

1994   Half Moon - artists book - fold-out text piece to accompany the play A Place With The Pigs

1994   Cant see from here - artists book with drawings and texts from: Pauline van Mourik Broekman Liz Peebles and John Paul Bichard

1993   Happy Families - collection of 27 minimalist text pieces exploring the first 19 years of life in a Happy Family held within an engraved oak casket

1992   RIDE - Artists book - text piece and woodblock charting a brief encounter between two car passengers on a dark rainy night

1991   To Whom (It May) - artists book - collection of poems and photos that look at the underbelly of life from the suburbs to the city

1991   X-Ray Song - book sculpture in 2 editions exploring identity and mortality

Collections purchasing artworks

Tate Gallery, London
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa
New York Public Library
Royal College of Art, London
Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London
Chelsea School of Art library, London
Brisbane State Library
Poetry Library, London
Various Corporate and Private Collections

Digital Games - design / writing / creative direction

2011   Secret project - LARP/TV hybrid – curator and arranger – Copenhagen

2010   Traveurse - Parkour based pervasive game – creative director – Game studio , Interactive Institute and Street Media 7

2008   Interference - design, writing and creative direction of the framing pervasive game for iPerG EU game research project – Game studio, Interactive Institute, Stockholm

2007   Crash - design, writing and creative direction of the pervasive game for iPerG EU game research project – Game studio, Interactive Institute, Stockholm

2005-07   Backseat Playground pervasive game research project – design, writing and creative direction – Mobility studio, Interactive Institute Stockholm

2004   Condition Red - online game commissioned for the ICOLS arms fair ISEA 2004

2003   Staying in to play - online [de]game exploring gaming tropes – commissioned by Variablemedia

2002   Levis Stampede - 3D online game for Levis global launch campaign commissioned by Lateral, London

2002   Games proposal for the National Railway Museum - white paper on online educational games for National Curriculum stages 2 and 3.

2002   Consultant designer to Ragdoll a global kids TV production company and makers of the Teletubbies- concept design a major childrens game project.

2002   Consultant games designer and prototype engineer - HiScore TV an interactive TV content working on prototypes for 4 major game licences: Dungeon Keeper - from the Fighting Fantasy Series / Agatha Christie - murder mystery title / Smugglers Cove - resource management game / World Rally Championship title

2002   Firewall - games research project commissioned by Proboscis/Royal College of Art for PRPS (Public Reveries Private Spaces)

2001   Lone Wolf - cold war first person thriller/shooter – online demo.

2001   Loco - the train game Concepted and produced an online model railway game - licensed to Thomas the Tank Engine (Gullane) and Aberdeen Asset management.

2000   Digital Games consultant to Advanced Wireless Technologies Group at Virgin Mobile researching opportunities into gaming on mobile and 3G platforms.

2000   Pokemon and Southpark the movie online games and viral campaigns for Warner Bros.

1998   Grand Theft Auto 2 launch mini-games - Devised and produced one of the first online viral campaigns for GTA2 in conjunction with Rockstar and Take2 creative teams in UK and NY

1997   Melt - first person shooter by Virtual Studios sold to Iron Maiden!!! consultant games design for the project.