Today I had a rather pleasant surprise (even if the postman did wake me from a mid-day snooze) when an unexpected parcel arrived at my door. I opened it up, thinking that maybe it contained something that I'd ordered as a Yuletide present for someone, only to realise that inside were two copies of a new art book that features one of my sculptures, 'Magnet'. I'd been contacted well over a year ago about having my work featured in a couple of art books, and I'd almost forgot about them.
This book, 'the artist's manual' (ISBN: 9780241483855) is published by
DK, with Rob Pepper as consultant editor, and is surprisingly chunkier than I
was expecting. It is an art source book, covering media, materials, tools, and
techniques, and filled with hundreds of images of work, from a wide range of
artists. My piece is featured in the 'Readymades and Assemblage' chapter.
'Magnet', toy tower sculpture, by artist, Wayne Chisnall, featured in 'the artist's manual'
Flicking through the pages I quickly found images of three sculptures by
one of the contributing authors, the lovely and talented sculptor, Julian Wild -
an artist that I've exhibited alongside a few times, starting from back when we
were both members of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (a society for whom
Julian was Vice President from 2015-2019).
As I'd mentioned in a previous post, 'Magnet', my toy tower sculpture, is
now in the permanent collection at The Black Gold Museum in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia (due to open in 2022).
The Black Gold Museum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (opening 2022)
'Magnet' is from of a series of four wheeled tower sculptures (the
others being The City, Book Tower and Fetish); each relating to a different
aspect of our relationship with material possessions, and how our psychological
attachment to large quantities of physical objects limit our freedom and
mobility.
Originally titled 'Toy Tower', it was renamed 'Magnet' after its first
showing when it became evident that its powers of attraction seemed to work on
children and adults in equal measure. On the first day of Magnet’s first
exhibition the person invigilating told me that he had looked over to where my
sculpture should have been, only to find that it had disappeared. Apparently
four little boys had managed to sneak the piece out into the street before
being chased off by the invigilator, who wheeled the sculpture back into the
gallery.
Contents pages, 'the artist's manual', DK publishing, 2021
It's still a bit odd not having Magnet around anymore, as it's one of
the earliest sculptures I made (way back in 1999) and has been a colourful
presence around the place for over two decades - especially since most of my
later sculptures tend to lean towards the brown end of the colour spectrum. To
compensate for its absence I think that maybe the next piece in my giant face
mask wall sculptures series will have to be made using plastic toys.
