studio contact

email cosahmet@icloud.com instagram @cos_____ahmet

about

Working across sculpture, installation, performance, moving image, and audio in the shape of the spoken word and material sounds, Cos Ahmet’s recent works have enquired into the human subject through the materials that enter his practice. Tropes suggesting the corporeal have consisted of; erasing or distorting the human subject; the body disappearing inside a form; material acting as a secondary skin, barrier, body or limb; and the human form taking on the status of ‘activator’.

When the moving image and audio rub up against these other elements, the anatomy of his work shifts from the physical into the digital gesture, considering the screen, the projected image and the spoken word and other sounds, to become viable ‘part-materials’ that respond and mingle as mutual layers in his ongoing dialogue with the body-material-matters that occur in his practice.

As new works emerge, the body’s ‘physical’ presence is becoming less visible, making way for the invisible activities and actions that the body performs — the indexical, haptic gestures for example, to be preserved, creating new ways of working, thinking and considering the body and its relationship to the materials in Ahmet’s practice to slowly establish and make new marks.

(b. 1973, London) lives and works in the Liverpool City Region. Cos holds an MA Fine Art (with distinction) from John Moores, Liverpool School of Art & Design, studying under Imogen Stidworthy, Bedwyr Williams, Rory Macbeth & Chris Evans, having previously studied a BA (Hons) Fine Art Textiles at Middlesex University, London, & Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at The Hyde Institute, London. Cos is currently on a year long mentor-led programme with Conditions, under the mentorship of Conditions Associate and artist, James Lewis.

soon Untitled (tbc), part of The Right Map, Ghost Art School X Independents Biennial, The Stables, Port Sunlight Village, Wirral, 2025 (solo)

Artists’ Drawings, Issue No. 1: Drawing Sculpture, selected and edited by Matthew Page, Artists’ Drawing Magazine, July 2025 (publication)

2025 The Right Map: Slipstream, curated by Phoebe Thomas, Ghost Art School X Independents Biennial, CBS Gallery, Liverpool, July (group)

The Right Map: Unstable, Ghost Art School X Independents Biennial, The Stables, Port Sunlight Village, Wirral, June-Sept 2025 (group)

Sluice Seyðisfjörður: Infrastructural Futures: A durational radio broadcast, Sluice X Seyðisfjörður Community Radio, Iceland (sluice radio)

Sluice Seyðisfjörður: World-Building, Sluice X Seyðisfjörður Community Radio X LungA School, Iceland, 23 - 25 May 2025 (sluice expo)

World-Building, Sluice Spring / Summer 2025 Issue coinciding with Sluice Seyðisfjörður: World-Building Expo, Iceland (publication)

2024 Conditions Online Programme 2024 - 2025, under the mentorship of Conditions Associate & artist, James Lewis, (conditions artist)

Good Luck, Mysterious Stranger! Publication, collaborative exchange project with Ghost Art School Artists X BSHAD (publication)

Good Luck, Mysterious Stranger!, a collaborative exchange project with Ghost Art School Artists X BHSAD, UK & Russia (group / online)

Contemporary Art Practice & Process: Materials, to History of Art & Museum Studies, Liverpool School of Art & Design (artist talk / lecture)

The Dazzling Edge Of Darkness, The Rock Room X UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Dorking, Surrey (group)

The End of Glory, curated by Rory Macbeth, Blip Blip Blip, Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia (group)

2023 Biennial 23, to coincide with Liverpool Biennial 2023, presentation of ‘Post Factum’, The Royal Standard, Liverpool (duo / group)

dust of traces faint, into fading blurring, a video-text work selected by Lulu Nunn, HOAX Publication, London (online feature)

Artists' Moving Image Works Edition Nº 31, nominated by Nick Smith, curated by Mirelle Borra, 6x6 project, Berlin (online)

Two Queens Two Screens 2, selected by Daniel Sean Kelly, Two Queens Gallery & Studios, Leicester (group / screening)

M0323: Art Talk / Sgwrs Celf, compiled by Linda Jane James, Mid Wales Art Centre, Powys, Wales (group)

DOCUMENTS, curated by Jon Carritt, Gallery DODO, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton (group / screening)

The Next Thing: Moving Image Award 2022 - 23, finalists show, Bury Art Museum + Sculpture Centre, Bury (group / screening)

2022 The Next Thing: Moving Image Award 2022, selected by Susan Lord, Bury Art Museum + Sculpture Centre, Bury (finalist)

TRS Studio Members Shows, presenting ‘They Say Everyone Has To Start Somewhere’, The Royal Standard, Liverpool (duo)

Space Is The Place: Act 2 - A Transfigured Movement in Time, a project by Material Matters, Williamson Art Gallery, Wirral (group)

A Life Plagued with Novelty, text by Stephen Sheehan, for ‘We Are All Going To Die’, Existential House (publication text)

We Are All Going To Die, curated by Stephen Sheehan, artist & director of Existential House, Birkenhead, Wirral (group)

CLEARANCE!, A group exhibition showcasing LSAD MA Fine Art Alumni, The Lewis’s Building (former Dept. Store), Liverpool (group)

This Is Not A Test, STATIC Masters Graduate Residency presentation, Static Complex, Liverpool (residency / group)

STATIC Masters Graduate Residency Recipient, Static Complex, Liverpool (residency award)

2021 MA Fine Art Prize for Best Presentation, awarded by guest critic, Judith Carlton, Director, Southwark Park Galleries, London (award)

Masters Graduate Showcase, presenting a collaborative film ‘Transmitting’, Liverpool School of Art & Design, Liverpool (group)

MA Degree Show, presentation & live performance of ‘A Meniscus (Between)’, Atrium Gallery, Liverpool School of Art & Design (group)

Porosities, text by Sarah Kristin Happersberger, co-editor for Enzyme 2: Life Systems, Enzyme Magazine (publication text)

From Skin To Page and Back Again: Digesting Life Systems Online Lecture Series, Enzyme X Liverpool Biennial 2021(symposium)

Enzyme 2: Life Systems, in collaboration with Jorgge Menna Barreto, Enzyme Magazine X Liverpool Biennial 2021 (publication)

11th Edition, Liverpool Biennial 2021: The Stomach & The Port, curated by Manuela Moscoso, various venues (group)

Output Video Open, selected by Gabrielle de la Puente, curated by Michael Lacey, Output Gallery, Liverpool (group)

Provocations: IB21 X Avoid Collective, to coincide with Liverpool Biennial 2021, Independents Biennial (online)

Uncanny, co-curated by Cos Ahmet & Gary Finnegan, Avoid Collective X Earth Gallery, Liverpool (group / curatorial)

(IN) SIGHT: Avoid Collective Open Exhibition, Bridewell Studios & Gallery, Liverpool (group)

2020 Transmitting, live performance, part of another untitled show #2, MAKE. North Docks, Liverpool (group / collaboration)

Please Add To And Return To: Mail Art Homage to Ray Johnson, Ray Johnson Estate X Performa, New York, US (online)

NeoHaha Editions Nº 6, presenting ‘Curious Being’, a live performance, supported by Avoid Collective, Liverpool (performance)

Sensing The In-Between, live collaborative performance, Atrium Gallery, Liverpool School of Art & Design (performance)

Gaada Issue #4, Online Zine Artist Feature, Gaada Projects, Burra Isle, Shetland (publication / online)

vol.one.vol.two., ERL Masters Residency two-part show, Exhibition Research Lab, Liverpool (group)

ERL Masters Residency Recipient, Exhibition Research Lab, Liverpool (residency)

another untitled show #2, MA Interim Show, MAKE. North Docks Liverpool (group)

MAKE. MA Fine Art Residency Recipient, MAKE. North Docks, Liverpool (residency)

2019 another untitled show #1, MA Interim Show, MAKE. North Docks, Liverpool (group)

MAKE. MA Fine Art Residency Recipient, MAKE. North Docks, Liverpool (residency)