About
Vicki Thornton is a visual artist and filmmaker who works between the cinema and the gallery. Her work examines relationships between site, collective memory, performance and identity. She received her MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2011 and completed her PhD in Film Practice at Queen Mary, University of London, in 2024. Her doctoral research – supported by the House of Europe, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, Creative Europe, and the British Council – analyses the decolonisation of Ukrainian memory and identity politics between the first Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and the full-scale invasion of 2022 through documentary film and artists’ moving image produced during this period.
Vicki worked extensively in Ukraine between 2016 and 2022: directing documentary film projects in Donbas, Kyiv and Lviv (2018-2021); co-directing an interdisciplinary musical-film performance, Antratsyt: Perseverance Day at the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre, Kyiv (2021); exhibiting her work at Yermilov Centre, Kharkiv (2018); and participating in the British Council’s SWAP UK/Ukraine artists’ residency scheme at IZOLYATSIA Platform for Cultural Initiatives (2017-2018) and the DocWorks UA: UK documentary development programme in association with Sheffield Doc/Fest and Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Kyiv (2016-2017).
She is the Acting Co-Programme Director of Photography and Course Leader of the BA (Hons) Photojournalism and Documentary Photography course at London College of Communication, UAL.
CV
Education
2024 PhD in Film Practice, Queen Mary University of London
2011 MA Photography, Royal College of Art, London
2003 BA (Hons) Visual Art: Sculpture, Camberwell College of Arts, London
Awards & Grants
2021 Ukrainian Cultural Foundation International Cooperation Grant
2020 House of Europe International Co-Production Award; Arts Council Emergency Response Fund
2019 i-Portunus International Mobility Award
2018 British Council Culture Bridges International Mobility Grant; Queen Mary, University of London PGR Award
2017 Creative Europe MEDIA Development Award; KWA Sound Production Award
2016 Screen International Award (Black Nights @ Tallinn)
2015 Celeste Prize for Video & Animation; Nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award
2013 Arts Council England Grant for the Arts; Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles de Picardie
2011 Painter Stainers’ Company Prize for Photography
2008 Nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award
Residencies
2017 SWAP UK/Ukraine artist residency at IZOLYATSIA Platform for Cultural Initiatives, Kyiv, Ukraine, organised by the British Council in Ukraine and the Liverpool Biennial
2016 DocWorks: UA/UK nine-month feature documentary development and mentoring programme, in association with The British Council, Sheffield Doc/Fest and Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Festival, Kyiv
2013 Ateliers d’Artistes de Sacy residency, Château de Sacy, Sacy-le-Petit, France
2012 VISIO - European Workshop on Artists’ Cinema, Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival, Florence; Artists’ School, LUX/ ICA Biennial of Moving Images, London
Symposia & Talks
2021 Chair, The Ethics of Documentary: Stories We Tell panel discussion, Aesthetica Next Generation Award; Chair, Resilience Collective and the Sustainable Darkroom on Alternative Processes, London College of Communication Graduate Showcase
2018 Group Crit Series with Adam J B Walker, HudPromLoft State Academy of Design and Fine Arts, Kharkiv; Soshenko 33 Studios for Postgraduate Education, Kyiv; National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine; SWAP UK/Ukraine artists’ talk, Yermilov Centre, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2017 Art Wednesdays, IZOLYATSIA. Platform for Cultural Initiatives, Kyiv, Ukraine
2016 Microcinema: Then & Now, round table discussion to mark the 50-year anniversary of the London Filmmakers’ Co-op, curated by James Mackay, Cambridge International Film Festival, Cambridge; Panel discussion at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Hawick, Scotland
2013 Vicki Thornton: Presentation by Artist-in-Residence, Château de Sacy, Oise, France
2010 Panel discussion with Ben Borthwick (Tate Modern) and Anne Hilde Neset (The Wire), Latitude Festival, Suffolk
Industry Selections
2019 When East Meets West, Trieste, Italy
2017 DocuTalents @ KVIFF (13th edition), organised by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic; DocWorks: UA/UK Pitch, Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine
2016 EDN European Documentary Network Market Mentors Pitch, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Sheffield; Baltic Event Co-Production Market, PÖFF 20 Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn, Estonia; 12th DOKLeipzig Co-Production Market, DOKLeipzig 59th International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Leipzig, Germany; Euro Connection Co-Production Forum, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, France
2015 LUX Experimenta Production Pitch, 59th BFI London Film Festival, London
Press & Publications
2021 Lyudnova, Anna. ‘What is the Ukrainian National Idea? Premiere of Antratsyt: Perseverance Day, Review’ in ArtMess (7 November 2021); Kabatsy, Maria. ‘Antratsyt: Perseverance Day: A Musical About Miners Will Be Shown in Kyiv’ in NV.ua (23 October 2021); Schokan, Anna. ‘The USSR Collapsed into Private Soviet Unions: A Musical About Miners, Stood Naked’ in Gazeta.ua (1 November 2021); Vergelis, Oleg. ‘A sensational premiere is being prepared in Kyiv: an international musical about strikes and miners' love’ in Glavcom.ua (6 October 2021); ‘The Musical Antratsyt: Perseverance Day: What Miners Sing About’ in Cedra (27 October 2021)
2020 Bereza, Yuri. ‘Cinema, Musical, Truth: Ukrainian and British artists create a project about Donbass Miners’ in Ukrayinska Pravda (15 October 2020)
2018 ‘Ukrainian Miners through British Eyes’, NPHU Western Donbas News (April 2018); Lanko, Maria, Lizaveta Geman (Eds.). ‘SWAP UK/UKRAINE’, Ukraine: British Council Ukraine; SWAP UK/UKRAINE artist interview with British Council; ‘Ukrainian-British Art Exhibition opens in Kharkiv’ in ArtUkraine; Mackay, James, Daniel Fawcett and Clara Pais (Eds.). ‘Microcinema: New Artists Moving Image Then and Now’ publication, Cambridge
2017 Rubelevskaya, Roxana. ‘Vicki Thornton: Society is Full of Pictures…’ in ArtUkraine; ‘Vicki Thornton: artist in residence’, Cultprostr magazine. 2017 (in Ukrainian); DocWorks: UA/UK: A Documentary Workshop in Practice | British Council in Ukraine, Sheffield Doc/Fest & Docudays UA | YouTube
2016 Blaney, Martin. ‘Tallinn: Ghost town doc wins Screen Best Pitch award’ in Screen Daily; Sandwell, Ian. ‘DocWorks brings together UK and Ukrainian filmmakers’ in Screen Daily; Bassel, Darya. ‘A focus on the idea’, DocuDays UA International Human Rights Festival
2013 Walsh, Alison. ‘Unusual Spaces’ in The Jericho Arts Review; Francis, Dr Melanie SJ. Out of Time: The Remembered Film, Sacy-le-Petit: Ateliers de Artistes de Sacy
2011 Davies-Crook, Susanna. ‘RCA: Battersea Show 2011’ in Dazed Digital; Blees Luxembourg, Rut (Ed.). Hardcover: Image Perspectives, London: Black Dog Publishing
2010 Burns, Stuart Ian. ‘Liverpool Biennial 2010: Album at Wolstenholme Project Space’, Feeling Listless
2008 ‘All That Remains Exhibition’, Paris, Wallpaper magazine; Pugh, Adam (Ed.). Aurora 2008: The Infinite Measure, Norwich: Aurora
2007 Henderson, Louis. All That Remains, Paris: Galerie Schirman et de Beaucé
Curatorial Projects
2018 How to Do Things with Words, exhibition co-curated with Tom Pope, ArtLacuna, London
2009 The Invisible Cinema, screening event co-curated with Dr Melanie SJ Francis, The Film Club, London
Selected Exhibitions & Screenings
2024 CONFINEMENT: Motherhood & the Pandemic (screening and panel discussion with Dr Michiko Oki), Being Human Festival, Shoreditch Town Hall, London
2023 Go Short - International Short Film Festival, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
2022 Preparing Passages (with Yarema Malashchuk), Charim Schleifmühlgasse, Vienna
2021 Antratsyt: Perseverance Day (interdisciplinary musical film performance). Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre, Kyiv; To be consumed in totality: PhotoIreland Festival 2021, curated by Kevin Gaffney & aemi, Dublin
2020 41/42 Group Show, Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, Cornwall; 20.84, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2019 STATESCAPE∞ (live performance event with Adam J B Walker), VAVILON, Kyiv, Ukraine; Experimenta Mixtape #2, curated by Will Fowler, British Film Institute, London
2018 Undertitled (live performance with Adam J B Walker), curated by Adam Pugh as part of the Projections series, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle; How to Do Things with Words, ArtLacuna, London; Works on Paper, curated by Christopher Green, 41/42, London; SWAP UK/Ukraine, Yermilov Centre, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2017 TOMBOLA! (live performance with Adam J B Walker), IZOLYATSIA. Platform for Cultural Initiatives, Kyiv, Ukraine; There's No Place Like, curated by Valentina Lacinio, BJCEM Mediterranea Biennale, Tirana/ Durres, Albania
2016 Microcinema, curated by James Mackay, Cambridge International Film Festival, Cambridge; Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Hawick, Scotland
2015 Shifters, Jersey Projection Gallery at La Société Jersiaise, Jersey; Celeste Prize, curated by Koyo Kouoh, ex-BAZZI, Milan; Analogue Recurring, Lo & Behold Gallery, London; Bohemia Club, St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings; The Best Scene is Off-Screen, Scene Four: Home, curated by John Bloomfield, Flat Time House, Offsite at PeckhamPlex, London
2014 British Swiss: Vicki Thornton, Charlie Godet Thomas and Guy Meldem, 2 Balfron Tower, London; One Hundred Foot II, Lo & Behold Gallery, London; Whitstable Biennale, Whitstable; Made in Sacy, Institut Français, London
2013 The Remembered Film, Château de Sacy, Oise, France; One Hundred Foot I & II, Latitude Festival, Suffolk; BCB Gallery, Athens; University of Northampton; MK Gallery, Milton Keynes; The Center for Performance Research, New York; Museo De Arte Carillo Gil, Mexico City; Estela de Luz/The Center for Digital Art, Mexico City
2012 Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York; OUTPOST Open: Film 2012 Touring Programme, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire; Grand Union, Birmingham; The Minories, Colchester Film Festival; Shortwave Cinema, London; Primary, Nottingham; Outcasting: Fourth Wall, Cardiff; Aid and Abet, Cambridge; Rhubaba, Edinburgh; One Hundred Foot, The Film Gallery, Latitude Festival, Suffolk; Lo & Behold Gallery, London; The Big Screen and Film Gallery, curated by Louise Colbourne (in association with LUX and Cine-city Film Festival), Latitude Festival, Suffolk; SUPERNORMAL Festival, Ipsden; OUTPOST Open: Film 2012, selected by Stuart Croft, OUTPOST Gallery, Norwich; Centrefold 8: The Circle of Manias, 176 Zabludowicz Collection, London
2011 SHOW BATTERSEA, Royal College of Art, Sackler Building, London; Until here everything is fine, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2010 Album, curated by Morgan Quaintance, Liverpool Biennial, Wolstenholme Project Space, Liverpool; Nature is the Church of Satan, curated by Louise Colbourne, Studio 1.1, London (touring to Whitstable Biennale, Latitude Festival, Suffolk and Open 7 Art Exhibition, London)
2009 Just Like That, Studio 1.1, London; Corrupting the Image, curated by Karen Mirza & James Holcombe (no.w.here), VIDEOEX, Zurich
2008 AURORA 2008: The Infinite Measure, curated by Adam Pugh, The Project Space, Norwich; CUBE Open, curated by Juneau Projects, CUBE Centre for the Urban Built Environment, Manchester; Intraveloving, curated by Tank.tv, CASZuidas Urban Screen, Amsterdam; The Urban Tendency, curated by Ken Pratt/ Centrifugal Projects, Ambika P3, London; All That Remains, curated by Guillaume Breton and Thomas Lock, Galerie Schirman et De Beaucé, Paris and Auto Italia, London