Roy Amiss self-portrait in the form of an Airy Disc Painting

Born 1958, London. Roy Amiss is a painter, inventor, designer, writer, musician and songwriter. Inspired by surrealism, philosophy, science, logic, and postmodernism. Studied biological sciences and painting. The image shows Roy Amiss assembling his 'Tower of Babel' installation at the Amsterdam Art Fair in 1996. The tower was 4 metres high and 93 cm diameter, and made of 850 bottles filled with water. Each bottle refracting photo-images from behind.During my recent residency at the Schrder Art Foundation in The Hague, Holland, I was able to freely explore and develop my work in a number of different directions creating unique works, most notably in the latter years: Optical Paintings works on canvas or net screens (hand-painted holographs), employing psychophysical methods and mathematics in their construction. Some works featured on local French TV and newpaper.Tower of Babel - installation at the Kunstrai Art Fair 96 in Amsterdam. This work attracted national newspaper coverage in Holland, as well as Amsterdam TV, and actually increased the number of people who went to the fair that year.Bacterially-grown photographic image - featured on BBC TV and live Internet interviews in London.Perpetual Motion - a birdhouse and 7 Windmills that all stand at just over 2.5 metres high, and have been constructed from various domestic materials. Powered by the wind, the windmills generate electricity, powering a special lighting system inside a birdhouse nearby inside, there is an animated and stereoscopic image of the BBC weather forecaster, Michael Fish. Exhibited at the Museum of Domestic Design and Architicture, London.Save Water Shower Together at the the Twente art fair in Holland, I recreated the famous shower scene from Hitchcocks film Psycho, using life-sized dummies electrically automated and situated in a shower with music and water pumped in.Great influences on me have been the ideas of surrealism, philosophy and science - the latter playing an increasing role in my late work. In terms of people, I would cite : the celebrated British philosophers David Hume and Alfred North Whitehead and the artists Dali, Raphael and Da Vinci.I have a great passion for experimentation and use a great variety of materials such as: oil paint, acrylic, pencil, ink, watercolour, chalk, wood, glass, net or vitrage, agar, and chemicals. These materials I have employed in paintings, drawings and objects.