Counterwork

21.02.12

A Bench and a Chair

Today at the studio I finished my bench and built a chair that also doubles as drawing board stand.

18.02.12

More In West Bromwich

Coming soon: West Bromwich Connections. A short research project looking at reuniting the town centre with Dartmouth Park.

The project is run by Multistory and involves six artists. We will be looking at ways of improving the connection between the two locations through public works, waymarkers, signage and other interventions.

14.02.12

Happy Fungus

Work for the Public Inquiry is taking shape. After having spent a day collecting and assessing information from people I discovered that although people didn’t initially like The Public many have now come to love it. ‘I hated it at first but now it’s growing on me’ was one of the responses that stuck out. In response to this I decided to make something grow on The Public - a kind of happy fungus.

After a bit of trial and error I have developed a series of ‘spores’ made from heavyweight paper left over from Will Alsop’s piece for the exhibition. These are being clustered underneath the walkway that snakes through The Public.

Here is the progress so far.

27.01.12

Studio Space

Today I went to my new studio space for the first time, to meet the other artists and choose which part of the 32200sqft building was mine.
Everything inside the marked pillars is all mine. It’s very exciting.

17.01.12

2012 Kicks Off

I’ve started the year with a whole load of projects and events lined up. Let’s hope I can keep that momentum going:

First off is ‘WOW: The Contemporary Art of Knit and Stitch’ which opened on Friday 13 January at the Gallery@Rheged in Penrith, Cumbria. I was commissioned to build a sheepfold using Thermafleece - an insulation material made from sheep’s wool. The show is on until 15 April.

I’ve got myself a free studio space for a year through Departure Foundation. I’ll be sharing a 32000sqft warehouse on a trading estate in Southall with nine other artists. I haven’t had a studio for so long (since 1998!) it’s going to be quite exciting to see what happens.

I’ve researched and written the Snapshots section of February’s a-n magazine. Pick up a copy to see what I’ve recommended.

Next comes ’OpenAIR - Effecting Change‘ on 11 February. OpenAIR is Artists’ Interaction and Representation’s inaugural forum for artists, taking place at firstsite in Colchester. It will be a day of dialogue and debate looking at how we can best work to effect change and encourage better living and working conditions for Artists. I’ll be part of a Q&A panel during the afternoon.

Straight after that is ’The Art of Architecture‘ at The Public in West Bromwich. I’m going to be building a work in response to people’s thoughts and feelings about, and around, The Public. This will occur over three days from 13 February.

On 17 April Rosalind Davis and Annabel Tilly’s exciting new venture ZeitgeistArtsProjects has it’s first exhibition: ‘Collectible’. I’ll be attempting to make a small work for inclusion in the show.

Finally, Daniel Hoffmann-Gill’s play ‘Our Style is Legendary’ begins a short run at Nottingham Playhouse. They will once again be using the moving truck scenery I designed.

14.01.12

Sheepfold on show

Sheepfold is now on show at the Gallery@Rheged untill 15 April 2012.

28.11.11

Coming soon…

... to Rheged Gallery, Penrith: A Sheepfold, made out of wool-based insulation material.

01.11.11

Incidentally…

… this was me at this year’s Halloween - Evil Robot Invasion: PIRATES!
More photos here.
Once again we are collecting for Amnesty International. Please donate at our JustGiving page here.