Biography
Born in Suffolk in 1984, Gus Farnes is a sculptor whose practice explores the relationship between landscape, human intervention, and history.
Working through a process of immersion, Farnes undertakes expeditions into marginal and historically resonant environments—from the ancient terrains of the west of Ireland and Wales to the wetlands, heathlands, sandlings, and fenlands of East Anglia. Rather than positioning himself as a traditional landscape artist, his work emerges as a response to direct experience: a physical and psychological engagement with place.
Central to his practice is an interest in how humans have marked, shaped, and worked the land over time. Farnes draws on forms of monument building—stone stacking, cairns, pyramidal structures, and inuksuit—as gestures that sit between necessity, navigation, and belief. His sculptures often incorporate materials gathered from the environments he inhabits, including stone, wood, flora, and discarded matter, embedding each work within the ecology it responds to.
His work is informed by an ongoing fascination with civilisation and sociology, often taking the form of a speculative or dreamlike anthropology. Farnes constructs narratives around imagined peoples—nomadic, liminal communities occupying estuaries, marshes, and peripheral terrains—whose presence is suggested through sculptural traces and symbolic structures.
Earlier work developed during his time in London explored themes of subjugation, capture, and diaspora, reflecting a more urban psychological landscape. Since returning to Suffolk in 2016 to establish his own studio and foundry, his focus has shifted toward deeper engagement with land, material, and ancient modes of making.
Farnes’ current body of work centres on monument building as both act and language—an attempt
to understand how humans locate themselves within landscape through marking, gathering, and
constructing meaning.
His sculptures are held in collections internationally and have been exhibited in both public and private contexts.
