Ellie Harrison

  • About
  • Work
  • Search

exhibition

  • 2013 Performance / Events

    Anti-Capitalist Aerobics

    Originally created as a disruption during Invisible Dust’s Ways of Seeing Climate Change conference on 30 October 2013, Anti-Capitalist Aerobics engages delegates in an energy intensive workout in order to expose some of the fundamental contradictions in the way we live our lives.

  • 2013 Performance / Events

    The Other Forecast

    Recorded LIVE in front of a green screen, Harrison’s The Other Forecast offers her summary of the absurd consequences of capitalism, as a warning about the future we are heading towards if the system continues unchecked. Broadcast on the Big Screen at MediaCityUK in November 2013 as part of The Other Forecast project – a collaboration between Harrison & John O’Shea.
    Project website

  • 2013 Exhibition

    21 Revolutions

    20 Jul 2013
    Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

  • 2013 Exhibition

    Spaceship Unbound

    6 Jun 2013
    Castlefield, Manchester

  • 2013 Exhibition

    Money after Money

    2 May 2013
    Eye of Gyre, Tokyo (Japan)

  • 2013 Exhibition

    Thrift Radiates Happiness

    14 Mar 2013
    Birmingham Municipal Bank, Birmingham

  • 2012 Exhibition

    Data as Culture

    30 Nov 2012
    Open Data Institute, London

  • 2012 Internet / Broadcasts

    Friendship Festival

    For Glasgay! 2012, Harrison & her flatmate Oliver Braid presented Friendship Festival. Building on the success of their popular radio show, they invited six other friendly duos with intimate and provocative thoughts to share with the world, into their home for a series of weekend radio show ‘takeovers’.

  • 2012 Installations
    The Redistribution of Wealth installed at Tate Britain in 2012

    The Redistribution of Wealth

    Installed in Tate Britain’s Historic Collection Room, this piece retells the history of UK government spending on the arts from the birth of the ‘Council for the Encouragement of Music & the Arts’ in 1940, right up to the present day climate of cutbacks.

  • 2012 Exhibition

    21 Revolutions

    22 Sep 2012
    Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow

  • 2012 Exhibition

    Ellie & Oliver Show

    3 Aug 2012
    Edinburgh Art Festival

  • 2012 Exhibition

    Experimenting With Clouds

    12 May 2012
    Rua Red, Dublin (Ireland)

  • 2012 Exhibition

    Ellie & Oliver Show

    20 Apr 2012
    Glasgow International

  • 2012 Exhibition

    Art Lending Library

    20 Apr 2012
    Glasgow International

  • 2012 Exhibition

    Do Billboards Dream of Electric Screens

    7 Jan 2012
    Phoenix, Leicester

  • 2011 Performance / Events

    Relentless Innovation

    Devised by Harrison for the The List Hot 100 Party at the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh after being voted No.93 in this annual list of Scotland’s ‘creative talent’. A ‘propaganda striptease’ of sorts, this artist’s talk / performance attempts to address the relentless innovation cycles such hitlists celebrate, and to explore the detrimental impact this obsession with the new might have on our mental health and the world around us.

  • 2011 Exhibition

    Ha Ha Road

    3 Dec 2011
    Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno

  • 2011 Internet / Broadcasts

    Best of the Rest

    The final instalment in her series of 4 LIVE Broadcasts made over the course of a year (December 2010 – November 2011). Harrison draws on recurring themes from her previous broadcasts, to introduce the ideas behind Oliver Braid’s exhibition I’ll Look Forward To It and tell the story of her own work-life successes and failures in 2011. (Duration: 27:50)

  • 2011 Performance / Events

    Desk Chair Disco

    Ellie Harrison & Adele Prince (Sports Day) staged the first ever Desk Chair Disco in Newcastle upon Tyne on Friday 4 November 2011. City dwellers were offered the opportunity to redress their work-life balance by reclaiming their ordinary office furniture and taking it out on the town. As part of Wunderbar festival, Sports Day were invited to take over an empty office unit in the Pandon Building and put on this ‘roller disco with a difference’. The evening featured disco lights, DJ sets, live music and daring Desk Chair Derby displays courtesy of the Newcastle Roller Girls.

  • 2011 Exhibition

    Work-a-thon for the Self-Employed

    3 Nov 2011
    Wunderbar, Newcastle upon Tyne

  • 2011 Exhibition

    Star & Shadow Cinema

    1 Nov 2011
    Wunderbar, Newcastle upon Tyne

  • 2011 Exhibition

    Market Forces

    1 Nov 2011
    Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne

  • 2011 Exhibition

    Converse/Dazed Emerging Artists Award

    7 Oct 2011
    Whitechapel Gallery, London

  • 2011 Performance / Events

    Fair Game

    An experiment in ‘value’ devised specifically for the context of the art fair. Fair Game is an endurance performance which sees Harrison gamble her entire artist’s fee for the project with fair goers, by setting-up and running a hoopla stall within the fair grounds.

← Older Newer →

News

Ellie Harrison is an artist & activist based in Glasgow (UK). In 2023 she won the Stephen Fry Public Engagement Award for her ‘Bus Regulation: The Musical’ Trilogy in Greater Manchester, Strathclyde & Merseyside (2019 – 2023).
In 2021 the Second Edition of Harrison’s book The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint was launched at the UN Habitat’s Innovate4Cities conference to mark the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, and chosen by the Ecologist for the Resurgence Book Club. Her Early Warning Signs were also exhibited at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library during COP26 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the project.
Harrison’s Vending Machine continues to feature in the 😹 LMAO exhibition exploring humour in data visualisation at the Open Data Institute in London.

Cover for Ellie Harrison
Page likes: 3,007
Ellie Harrison(opens in a new tab)

Ellie Harrison

(opens in a new tab)

Artist, activist & author of 'The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint' 📚

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
Video thumbnail

Thanks so much to The National Newspaper for inviting me to discuss how to fix Glasgow's public transport on their podcast! 😄🚍🚇🚆 Listen to find out more about my campaigning with Get Glasgow Moving, Better Buses for Strathclyde, Bring Back British Rail & GoBike 👇 @followers ...

3 weeks ago
View on Facebook (opens in a new tab)

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

Image attachment
Image attachment
Image attachment
Image attachment

It was great to meet Paul from PalFox Photography last month when he visited me at Wasps Studios Hanson Street to take these fab pictures 📷

My studio has always been more like an office than anything else, going back to my very first one in Glasgow in the Barnes Building at The Glasgow School of Art from 2008-2010. I bought ‘The Boss’ mug back then as I was interested in the aesthetics of the corporate world and exploring what it meant to be self-employed worker, making pieces like ‘The History of Financial Crises’ (2009), ‘Desk Chair Parade’ (2009) and ‘Desk Chair Disco’ (2011), and the ‘Work-a-thon for the Self-Employed’ (2011).

I’m not making much art these days as nearly all my time goes into local community activism, particularly with the Glasgow Community Energy co-operative which I helped get up-and-running during the pandemic, and with the Get Glasgow Moving public transport campaign which I co-founded in 2016.

Over the summer I’m preparing for Get Glasgow Moving’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition at the New Glasgow Society, which opens on Thurs 17 September as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2026.

I love using my creative skills to further causes that I’m passionate about. Over the years I've designed many campaign materials – including this ‘Trans-Clyde Links You Clyde-Wide’ T-Shirt, which is based on the original marketing for the Trans-Clyde integrated public transport network launched by the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive in 1979, the year that I was born.

The integrated public transport networks which most big city-regions had were wilfully destroyed in 1986 with the deregulation (and later privatisation) of buses. This was one of the most destructive of all Margaret Thatcher’s policies, and it is shameful that The Scottish Government has continued to maintain it for more than quarter of a century of devolution. With the Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign, we are doing all we can to get our region’s buses back in public control.

If you like the T-Shirt, come down to the exhibition in September and you’ll be able to get one there! And, if you'd like to have a nosey round my studio, I'm also planning to take part in the Open Studios at Wasps Artists' Studios - Hanson Street, Glasgow on Sat 3 October 😊 See you there! @followers
...

1 month ago
View on Facebook (opens in a new tab)

4 CommentsComment on Facebook

This 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟱 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 in Glasgow! 📢 I'm delighted to be talking about my work with Get Glasgow Moving & Glasgow Community Energy at the 𝘙𝘦𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺: 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘨𝘰𝘸? conference at the University of Glasgow 🎟️ Tickets are free, so come join us 👇 @followers ...

3 months ago
View on Facebook (opens in a new tab)

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

Don't miss our Better Buses National Hustings tonight! 👇 You can catch me on the livestream at 7pm:
📺 www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rFh2CjP_Xs @followers
...

4 months ago
View on Facebook (opens in a new tab)

1 CommentsComment on Facebook

"We need The Scottish Government to support our transport authority, SPT, to bring the bus network back into public control, so they can deliver a fully-integrated, accessible and affordable public transport network across the region like Greater Manchester’s new ‘Bee Network’, or the recently released plans for South Yorkshire’s ‘People’s Network’" — Ellie Harrison

I was delighted to contribute to Gerry Hassan's article for Bella Caledonia about 𝘈 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘨𝘰𝘸 👏 Read online here 👇
bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/03/31/time-for-a-new-deal-and-vision-for-glasgow @followers
...

5 months ago
View on Facebook (opens in a new tab)

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

Calling all A-N members! Don't miss this online artist's talk and workshop on '𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲' which I'm co-hosting this Thursday 2 April, 11am-1pm 🌍 Find out more 👇 @followers ...

5 months ago
View on Facebook (opens in a new tab)

3 CommentsComment on Facebook

Are you in Glasgow t

Are you in Glasgow this evening? Come along to this free screening of the brilliant POWER Film at The Glasgow School of Art 👇 I'll be introducing the event, talking about my work with Glasgow Community Energy and chairing a Q&A with artist and filmmaker Hilary Powell 😊 @followersSave the date! 🌞 We're delighted to be collaborating with Friends of the Earth Scotland to bring you Turning homes into renewable Power Stations: film screening & Discussion 👇
🗓️ Thurs 12 March 2026, 5:30pm
📍 Reid Building, The Glasgow School of Art
🎟️ Book free tickets: powerstationGSA.eventbrite.com @followers
...

5 months ago
View on Facebook (opens in a new tab)

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

It’s this blatant injustice that motivates all my campaigning 😡 Why should people in the poorest parts of Glasgow have to pay 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 for an essential public service as bankers in the City of London? Shame on The Scottish Government for presiding over this system for more than 25 years! @followers ...

7 months ago
View on Facebook (opens in a new tab)

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

Commodities

  • Ellie & Oliver Show T-Shirt Ellie & Oliver Show T-Shirt £20.00
  • Bus Regulation: The Musical T-Shirt Bus Regulation: The Musical T-Shirt £15.00
  • National Museum of Roller Derby T-Shirt National Museum of Roller Derby T-Shirt £25.00
  • The Glasgow Effect (First Edition) The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint £10.00 – £12.00Price range: £10.00 through £12.00
  • Tea Blog Sticker Tea Blog Sticker £1.00
  • 4 Live Broadcasts DVD 4 LIVE Broadcasts DVD £20.00
  • Counterpoint Poster Counterpoint Poster £10.00
  • The Quotidian Factor Badge The Quotidian Factor Badge £2.00
  • Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector Book Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector £10.00

Contact

  • Newsletter Archive
  • Website Archive / Credits
  • Blatant Self-Promotion
  • Twitter Boycott
  • Instagram
  • Video Archive
  • Audio Archive / Podcast
  • Publications Archive
  • Events
  • ellie@ellieharrison.com

Small Print

  • Creative Commons Licence
  • Environmental Policy
This website runs on green hosting - verified by thegreenwebfoundation.org
0.5g of CO2/viewWebsite Carbon

Cleaner than 48% of pages tested