About
Simon Tatum (he/him)
Statement of Practice:
Simon Tatum’s creative practice investigates the material and psychological legacies of what he describes as “colonial debris.” Through a multidisciplinary approach encompassing drawing, sculpture, and installation, he filters the complex histories of the Caribbean through diverse references—ranging from 1960s Grand Cayman tourist ephemera and thrifted American chinaware to satirical film characters and video recordings of public infrastructure. Tatum’s work often negotiates the tension between his familial memory and the broader, often tumultuous, post-colonial developments of the Caribbean.
Central to his recent research is an exploration of how specific materials can serve as vessels for oral histories and "warnings" passed down through generations. In his project Feedback Loops (2025), he utilized his training in ceramic media to create a series of custom-designed, symmetrical canisters. These sculptural forms serve as both physical objects and acoustic outlets, projecting a woven chorus of audio. This soundscape pairs intimate conversations with his grandmother regarding his great-grandfather’s anxieties about 1960s geopolitics with the public oratory of Caribbean leaders and thinkers such as Maurice Bishop, C.L.R. James, and Fidel Castro. By placing these ceramic "broadcasters" in dialogue with video projections of public spaces, he transforms the gallery into a site of active, multisensory history.
Technical experimentation and material studies are foundational to Tatum’s process. He frequently employs methods—such as sculptural ceramic approaches, mold-making, assemblage and wood fabrication—to create objects and containers, which become starting points for larger conversations around colonial debris. This is seen in his earlier series of glass tanks (2017), where hand-crafted portrait busts and floral arrangements were suspended in water, creating a literal and metaphorical "holding space" for memory. Whether working with the transparency of glass or the density of fired clay, Tatum’s goal is to create a personal iconography that treats the past not as a static artifact, but as a living influence in the present tense.
As Tatum expands his practice into larger installations and exhibitions, he remains committed to the idea that drawing and sculpture are tools for sharing experiences. His work invites the viewer to navigate the fragments of the imperial past, using artworks as a tool to anchor the fleeting nature of sound, video, and memory.
Bio:
Tatum is a mixed-media artist born in the Cayman Islands and based in the United States. Tatum received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Missouri (USA) in 2017, and he received his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture and Expanded Media from Kent State University (USA) in 2021. Tatum’s thesis showcase titled the romantic Caribbean featured at Kent State University’s CVA gallery in March 2021, and he shared a selection of works from his thesis during the Sculpture X Symposium hosted at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, USA. Moreover, he is also the first scholar sponsored by the Peter N Thomson Family Foundation in Grand Cayman to pursue a graduate program.
Tatum has shown a two-person exhibition with Matthew Ballow at Vanderbilt University’s Sarratt Gallery in 2024. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, which included Arrivants: Art and Migration in Anglophone Caribbean World at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (2018) and the In Relations exhibition at TERN Gallery in Nassau, Bahamas (2024). He was honored in 2025 to be one of the “top 10 emerging artists to watch” by a committee of international curators for the RiseArt Online Platform. He was also selected to participate with the Alice Yard contingent during Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany (2022) at the trafohaus venue, showing posters from his series See Your Travel Agent that were produced and curated by toofprint press.
Alongside his studio art practice, Tatum exercises skills in art administration, art handling, and exhibition installation. Tatum has worked for Vanderbilt University’s Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice research initiative since 2023. In his role as Program Coordinator, he has worked with curators and artists to organize and install 12 different curatorial projects at Vanderbilt’s Begonia Labs. He has also previously worked at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands as an Assistant Curator, where he helped organize 10 exhibitions alongside the Chief Curator and curated an exhibition for Ella Latter, a photographer from Grand Cayman who was under-recognized.