Sunday 9 August 2020

'Meet Your Maker' - BBC Shropshire Radio Interview

Last week (3rd Aug. 2020) I had the pleasure of being interviewed by DJ, Jim Hawkins, for the 'Meet Your maker' feature, on his BBC Shropshire Radio mid-morning show. I will admit that I was initially a little apprehensive about chatting live on radio, but Jim's engaging interview style made it a relaxing and fun experience. 

'Meet Your Maker' is a regular feature on the show where Jim interviews artists and makers who are based in Shropshire, and asks them about their practice. To hear the actual interview you can click here and scroll along to the 2 hour, 8 minutes, 30 second mark (2:08:30).


Czech animator, Jan Svankmajer
Czech artist, film-maker and stop-frame animator, Jan Svankmajer


The interview lasted about 20 minutes and in it we talked about lots of things - including my relocation from London back to Shropshire, some of my influences (one of them being the Czech animator, Jan Švankmajer), the changes to London's creative scenes, my switching from being primarily a painter and printmaker, to a sculptor, and the life-size sculpture ('And When I'm a Man, I'll Think As a Man') of myself as a giant Airfix-style model kit


Life-size model kit sculpture, 'And When I'm a Man, I'll Think As a Man', and artist (for scale), Wayne Chisnall


We also discussed my unlikely, and brief, foray into script writing, when I wrote a script (via a Sony scriptwriting competition) with the American actor, John Malkovich - which was turned into the animated short film, 'Snow Angel'

 


I also took the opportunity to mention my current collaboration project with local artist, Sharon Griffin - although I forgot to mention the name of our project, which is 'Unlokdown'. Sharon and I have just created an Instagram page for the project - although, at the moment there isn't much on it, but I assure you that we'll add to it as the work grows. 

 

Artist, Wayne Chisnall, in his Shropshire workshop, working on a piece from the 'Unlockdown' collaboration

 

One of my artworks that Jim brought up on the show was a piece called 'Evil Masked Zombie Pebble' which was one of the wall-mountable wooden plaques (actually there are a few versions, but in different colours) that I created for a pop-up event at the A Plus A Gallery, that was on during the 2015 Venice Biennale. The event was one of artist flea markets attached to American artist, Rob Pruitt - although, in typical style, I forgot Rob Pruitt's name when I was chatting on Jim's show. 


'Evil Masked Zombie Pebble (red)', acrylic on plywood wall plaque, created for 2015 Venice Biennale event by artist, Wayne Chisnall

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