Xmas Art Fair and Lucky Skip - Sat 27th Nov (2-6 pm)

If anyone’s at a loose end this weekend please feel free to come along to the Cecil Court Christmas Fair (Saturday 27th November, 2-6 pm), a short walk from Leicester Square tube station, London. The fair sees the launch of Tenderproduct’s new print space - a basement area featuring a brand new collection of books, limited edition artist prints and original artist drawings and sculptures.

Although my new Swirly Skull prints aren’t yet ready (hopefully they’ll be available in time for Christmas), my Spidey Pods prints will be for sale at the launch. However, if you would like to buy a print from me at the ‘direct from the artist price’ feel free to get in touch at waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk. They are hand pulled, 3 colour, screen prints on acid-free, archival paper. The paper size is 58.6 cm x 54.2 cm (image 38.7 x 39.4 cm). Every print is signed and numbered (being from a maximum edition of 300). And if you would like to get your hands on one, my ‘commission-free’ price is £100 (around 33% off the usual gallery and shop price), unframed.
To find out about the inspiration behind the print check out the original Spidey Pods sketch on my Oodles of Doodles blog.

Tenderproduct’s print space launch also coincides with Garudio Studiage’s Lucky Skip. A hand made artist skip full of wrapped goodies direct from Garudio Studuiage and tenderproduct: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO GET FOR JUST ONE POUND? An excellent way to kick of the Festive season, Garudio Studiage’s Lucky Skip will provide Cecil Court visitors with an afternoon of delight and surprises.
The Salvation Army Brass band will add to the Court’s festive mood by playing some Christmas Carols. Tenderproduct will be serving sweets and hot drinks to keep you warm as you take your lucky dip in the skip.

 As well as myself, other artists participating in the Tenderproduct launch include: Janne Malmros, Junko Otake, James Irwin, Irene Pérez Hernández, Dan Arnold, Reena Makwana, Joseph Whitney, Katy Binks, Lizzie Cannon, Rachel Gannon, Tomasz Goli, Hannah Waldron, Akiko Ban, Glyn Walton, Nicko Straniero, Jacob Love, Mimi Leung, Sally Spinks, Lisa Slominski, Jeremy Wood, JL Murtaugh, Nicholas Phillips and Luzelle van der Westhuizen.

RCA No-longer Secret 2010

Well, the RCA Secret is over for another year so now I can reveal which were my six postcard-sized artworks.

Number 411 (Jellyscuttle). Quite a few people worked this one out because it’s a copy of one of my quick-fire drawings.

This tentacle orifice box pencil sketch which was bought by Mr Adam Stone (one of the many dedicated front line RCA enthusiasts who braved the cold weather and camped out for the opening) was number 701 in the show.

Like the previous drawing, this orifice box sketch (number 2002) was probably quite easy to work out as being one of mine, especially if you’ve look at my new series of sculptures.

Number 2441 is a follow up piece to last year’s Love Is card – and features one of the same creatures. A friend told me that they thought the Love Is drawing seemed cynical so I thought I’d up the ante a little with this one.

 

I entered these last two biro drawings under my nickname, Chig (I thought it needed an outing). They proved to be the hardest ones for people to work out as being mine. This one, number 2210, is of a crow (my favourite bird) with human-like hands instead of feet. Actually there seemed to be a few crow pictures in the show this year. I've just found out that my Werecrow card is now in the possession of Sandy Lyell, up in Edinburgh - thanks for the lovely email Sandy.

I drew this winged torpedo one, number 605, after I got back from viewing an exhibition by a Russia artist in Shoreditch. In the show the artist (whose name I shamefully can’t remember) had made a model submarine that travelled up and down a massive water-filled Perspex tube that ran the length of the gallery.

New Member of the Family

Here’s my latest Orifice Box sculpture. The pictures are courtesy of fellow RCA Secret contributor and photographer, Phil Sofer.

This one took quite a long time to construct as I wanted to cobble it together from multiple bits and pieces – to give it a bit of a Frankenstein’s Monster look. As with most of my box structures, I’m interested in the play between the organic and the geometric. Hopefully this can be seen in the interaction between the carved orifice and the angular interlocking wooden sections.

I’ve only just got round to putting the wheels on it – which is the part that I really look forward to as it gives a piece a sense of completion. However, this one isn’t totally finished yet. I’m working on a smaller cubic box (with an exploded front and back so that you can see straight through it) on stilts, that will sit inside this the sculpture. I’ve already completed the main structure of the inner box (which has now inspired me to make a series of them as sculptural pieces in their own right. This is one of the problems with sculpture – each piece can inspire multiple spin-offs) but before it is ready to install I intend to cover it in a thick coat of rusty nails, similar to my Nail Box sculpture.

This is me conducting rigorous structural integrity tests (don’t try this at home kids).

RCA Secret Artists Party

Yesterday saw the public opening of RCA Secret 2010, the Royal College of Art’s annual exhibition of thousands of original postcard-sized artworks – the sale of which go to help the college’s students. Every year, as a thank you to all the artists who contribute, the RCA throws an opening party. Here are a few photos from that party.

 

This fantastic character, Peter, has been exhibiting at RCA Secret since it began.

Ooh - I can see one of my cards here.

WANTED - New Studio Space

I’ve not been having a great deal of luck lately on the studio front. After just a few months in my new space in Whitechapel I find out that the building is to be redeveloped and we all have to be out by the end of December.
So if anyone out there knows of any suitable East London (Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Whitechapel etc) space that I can use as a studio please get in touch. Anything over 130 square feet would be perfect. Here’s my email address – waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk . Cheers.

RCA Secret Time Again

Well it’s that time of year again – the RCA Secret 2010 show is almost upon us. This year I have entered four pieces as Wayne Chisnall and two pieces as Chig (the name that most friends have known me by since I was ten or eleven). To give you a clue as to which ones in the exhibition are mine, I can tell you that four are pencil drawings and two are black biro drawings. What do you mean ‘those are crap clues’? OK then – here’s a big clue. Two of them relate to the latest set of sculptures that I’ve been working on (see earlier posts). And here’s an even bigger clue – one of the drawings relates to last year’s ‘Love Is’ card.

To anyone that doesn’t know about The Royal College of Art’s annual RCA Secret postcard show, here’s the info (lifted direct from their website – cos I’m too slack to type it out myself) –

RCA Secret is a unique annual exhibition and sale of original postcard-sized art, made by professional artists, designers and illustrators, plus current postgraduate students at the Royal College of Art.

THE SECRET
The postcards are displayed anonymously and are signed on the reverse, so that the artist remains a secret until after the cards are purchased and their signature is revealed on the back.

THE ARTISTS
Over 1,000 artists have donated work to RCA Secret this year, including Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Yoko Ono, Jake Chapman, Olafur Eliasson, Yinka Shonibare, Sir Peter Blake, John Baldessari, fashion designers Manolo Blahnik, Mary Quant and Sir Paul Smith, animator Nick Park, photographer David Bailey, film maker Mike Leigh and designers Ron Arad and James Dyson, as well as up-and-coming students and graduates from the Royal College of Art.

THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition opens on Friday 12 November, then from Sunday 14 November until Friday 19 November, 11am-6pm, with a late opening on Thursday 18 November until 9pm. Please note we are CLOSED on Saturday 13 November due to Government security restrictions for the Festival of Remembrance. Free Admission. The postcards will also be available for viewing on this website from Friday 12 November.

THE SALE
The cards are sold to the public at a one-day sale on Saturday 20 November, from 8am-6pm. Each postcard costs £45 and a maximum of four cards may be purchased per person. Postcards will only be available to purchase in person at the sale. It is recommended that you prepare a list of cards in advance, as the exhibition will not be open for viewing on the day of the sale.
You must have a Collector's Number to purchase a card. Click here to register.

THE RAFFLE
There is a raffle for a chance to win a place in the first fifty people at the front of the sale queue. Raffle tickets will be on sale at the exhibition (with a maximum of 10 tickets per person) until an hour before closing on each day.

WHERE WE ARE
Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU
Tube: South Kensington/High Street Kensington
Buses: 9, 10, 52, 452

Gone Postal

I must admit that I have been a bit slack lately when it comes to playing my part in the postal art project, Collaborations, that was recently set up by the Finland-based photographer and artist, Adam Monaghan. Although I completed the first two of the four pieces straight after receiving them many months ago – I have only just now got round to completing the second two and posting them all off to the next artist on the list. Now I just have to get round to starting the next four that have arrived.

 

 This is the third piece in the set – BEFORE I added to it.

This is the third piece in the set – AFTER my addition (note the naughty tentacle).

This is the fourth piece in the set – BEFORE I added to it.

This is the fourth piece in the set – AFTER my addition. I’m not quite sure where the long armed egg thing came from – I think it was getting late and I was getting tired.

The basic premise of the project is that Adam sends out sets of four 18 x 18 cm paintings/collages (that he has started) to various artists around the world. These artists then add to the works and post them onto another artist in the group, who does likewise. Once an artist feels the work is complete they return to Adam. Eventually, when all the works have been returned, we’ll have a small show somewhere and exhibit the end results. The artists currently taking part in the project are Tony Deleon in New York, Dale Devereux Barker in Ipswich, Katie Waller in Brighton, Larry Crittenden in Texas, Irene Runayker in Eastbourne, Carmen Dominguez in California, Kunigunda Dineikaite in Lithuania, Saara Konttinen in Helsinki, Peter Scribetta in New York, Adam Monaghan in Finland and myself here in London.