What if the limits of who we think we are are more flexible than they feel?
Sculpture artist Claire Knill and sound artist Julian Deane join a conversation at New House Art Space exploring what happens when the job titles that once defined us start to loosen their grip.
Hosted by Liana Fricker, this conversation is rooted in a simple observation: many working lives are organised around job titles, roles, and professional labels that become shorthand for identity over time. It explores how earlier roles and experiences are carried forward into new forms of creative practice, beautiful endings and beginnings.
An evening for those with long lists of past selves and a slightly harder-to-explain present one. Rather than treating creative practice as an isolated outcome, the event considers it as evidence of a longer process - where previous roles remain embedded, reconfigured, or transformed within current work.
The format is a live, in-room conversation with audience presence and participation. Small-room format (20–30 seats), closer to a recorded exchange than a panel discussion.
About Claire Knill
Claire Knill is a multidisciplinary British artist based in Hove, working across sculpture, installation, and collage. Her work includes kinetic suspended sculptural forms constructed from materials such as brass, aluminium, wood, acrylic, and glass.
She trained in Multimedia Textiles at Loughborough University.
Her work is exhibited regularly at Artists Open House in Brighton and The Affordable Art Fair in London, where she is represented by Lara Bowen Contemporary.
She has undertaken residencies including A Place To Breathe Slowly at the Regency Townhouse, which combined sculpture, sound, and spatial installation.
Prior to working as a full-time artist, she held senior roles in luxury travel marketing and communications, including Head of Marketing & PR at Black Tomato.
Her current practice reflects the ongoing reconfiguration of earlier professional experience into sculptural form, process, and material decision-making.
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/claireknillart/Website:https://www.claireknill.com/
About Julian Deane
Julian Deane is a soundscape artist, writer, and former music industry professional.
He began his career as a musician in Toploader, who released multi-platinum records and achieved multiple UK Top 20 singles.
He later moved into artist management and label operations, working with artists including Bombay Bicycle Club, Reverend and the Makers, and Dream Wife. He most recently served as Managing Director and A&R at Raygun, a Brighton-based management company, record label, and music publisher.
He now works independently as a soundscape artist and writer, focusing on sound as space, attention, and composition.
His current practice emerges from a long history of industry-facing roles, where systems of management, representation, and structure are reworked into sound-based creative output.
He has recently stepped away from full-time artist management after two decades in the industry.
Substack: https://woodchesterpianocompany.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodchesterpianocompany/
About your host: Liana Fricker
Liana Fricker is Founder of The Inspiration Space, a community and business development platform for founders and creatives.
She is a TEDx speaker and has worked as a marketing strategist on campaigns for Bacardi, BMW, and the NHS.
She curates this conversation series, bringing together practitioners to explore how working lives are structured and how those structures evolve over time.
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/lianafricker/