Daniel Goodwin - Bloxham Explorations

Daniel Goodwin is based in Bloxham, Oxfordshire. He has adopted a series of mediaeval carvings at St Mary’s Church, Bloxham as a starting point and used them as the foundation for work which explores ancient and modern life. Many of the carvings date from around 1340 and their intended meaning is undocumented and highly ambiguous. This is accentuated by the degradation of the stone over time and his reinterpretation of the carvings in various media.

In some instances Daniel has re-worked the spatial relationships between the carvings. An example of this is Health Game (overleaf). Its central character is what is thought to be a satirical depiction of a doctor. It draws an analogy between medieval health uncertainties and the medical challenges of our times.

Other carvings are similarly re-purposed to draw parallels between the lives and preoccupations of the people and characters in the carvings and those of our current world. Through them Daniel continually asks what makes for a good life, community and place, and how much has this really changed over the centuries?

Daniel studied graphic design and photography in the 1980s, including a BA in Photography from the then Polytechnic of Central London. He had a career cultural services and senior leadership in local government before returning to visual art in 2015 via some short courses at St Martins School of Art and studio practice in Woolwich. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in a range of settings in London and the South East.