Rory Macbeth gained an MA in English Literature from Edinburgh University in 1985, and spent the next fifteen years street-painting. Since enrolling in Central Saint Martin’s in !996 he has developed a series of collaborative working practices as well as his own practice. For the first of these, he and Laura Lord enrolled a non-existant student (Francis Neil) onto the foundation course, where she gained high marks in assessments. On revealing her as a fake, Rory and Laura were almost thrown off the course. Along with Laura Lord, Eleanor Brown, Torgier Morbeget, and Nathan Barlex, he formed the F.S.C., an office that proceeded to take over various aspects of the disorganised administration of St. Martin’s, and create confusion. The loose group that formed to create ‘Open Day’ at Shoreditch Town Hall (a large fake Town Hall open day with stalls jumble, information, competitions, and speeches), later consolidated into the twelve members of Twenteenth Century, who have since exhibited at Art of the Twenteenth Century(CSM), Centre of Attention(Wilton Music Hall), Newcontemporaries 01(London, Sunderland), Berlin-London 01(ICA), and most recently had their first solo show at Nylon. Since 1999, he has also been working with Darren Phizacklea as the Brians Sewell. The work has been both event based and sculptural, and is based around the ‘fame’ of the outspoken conservative critic Brian Sewell. They have exhibited at the Articultural Show(Southbank), the Liverpool Biannale, London Guildhall University, The Royal Academy, Deptford X, Host (Hastings Museum), and were included in Mathew Collings’ survey of recent British art based on his book ‘Art Crazy Nation’, in Milton Keynes. He also continues to make his own work, and was pleased to have his ‘Statue (Flora)’,( a statue of one of those people who pretend to be a statue), included in the otherwise brilliant Penny Dreadfuls at VTO. While being shortlisted for the Oriel Mostyn Open 2003 and the Peterburgh Art Prize 2003, he has also exhibited at the Economist Plaza, London, at the Hoxton Distillery(‘Group Shows are a Waste of Time’), VTO( ‘Magik’ and ‘Kick it Till it Breaks’). He is currently working towards a solo show at VTO, and is organizing a non-commercial art fair.