About

Deborah True is an artist and researcher whose participatory, practice-based research has used oral history as a primary component of an interdisciplinary creative process entitled the ‘located narrative process’ to explore a particular place.

The interdisciplinary research draws on True’s own understanding of art practice and she has continued to develop her interest in using oral history and dialogue as a tool to inform the creation of artworks. As a contemporary artist, with an established art practice concerned with capturing insights through memories, storytelling and dialogue, her work uses a range of different media, including drawing, printmaking, photography and installation as a means to re-present ideas concerning a ‘sense of place’.

In 2017 True attained a PhD in the field of Fine Art at Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts (CCW), University of the Arts London (UAL). True’s doctoral research focused on the workers of the bobbinet tulle industry at Perry Street Mill in Chard, Somerset. This industry has been associated with Chard for two hundred years and Perry Street Mill is the last working mill of its kind. A narrative unfolded revealing an intricately woven fabric of memory that was used to re-present this place using textiles as a metaphor for conveying ideas through the creation of artwork.

In 2003, True completed an MA in Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts. She collected oral testimonies from East End residents, who had been involved in the garment industry. True’s grandfather was born in East London (Exmouth Street, Stepney, 1881) and her aim was to tell a story about his world and the diverse cultural multiplicity of the East End. The information contained in the interviews was used to inform the production of artworks about the East End of London.

In 2004, she began teaching on the Foundation Course at Central St Martins College of Art and Design. In 2006 she completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, and taught printmaking to BA (Honours) students at the London College of Communication.

Selected solo exhibitions include Located Narrative (2017) at The Centre for Drawing, Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL and Threads (2005) at The Brady Arts Centre, London, which used the metaphor of the garment industry to suggest the threads of a narrative that intersect in Spitalfields as a historic place.

Group exhibitions include Sonia Boyce: The Future is Social - the work that was not mine (2011), Wimbledon Space, Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, and Venice Agendas VI: Past, Present, Future in which True worked with the Audio Arts Archive on a project that used sound recording to address ideas of listening and re-description, parts of which were broadcast live from the Venice Biennale 2009. During her visit to Venice, she produced a sound piece entitled The Grand Canal Audio Guide Palazzo Barbaro to Santa Maria della Salute (2009); and Terms of Engagement, Tate Modern, London (2003-4). True has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is represented in the Tate and Camberwell Collections.