Bunk-Up

I was asked to create an artwork for a bed-themed exhibition in London. What I came up with was ‘Bunk-Up’, an oak sculpture that, at its base, is similar in construction to most of the wooden framework elements I created on ‘Unlockdown’; the art collaboration project I undertook with the ceramics artist Sharon Griffin, during the Covid 19 lockdown. 

 

3 views of  'Bunk-Up', oak sculpture by artist Wayne Chisnall

Incidentally, the Unlocked project was so successful that Sharon and I got selected for the 2022 Collect Open (organised by the Crafts Council) and exhibited several of our sculptures from the project at that year’s Collect art fair at Somerset House in London.

 'Bunk-Up' (detail), oak sculpture by artist Wayne Chisnall

As you can see from the photos, the bed section of the sculpture rises high above its framework foundation on disproportionately long legs. This is partly because I enjoy playing around with expected dimensions, and partly because I have a fascination with towers and architectural structures. But the work also alludes to the elevated state of dreaming; of being set free to inhabit other realities. In this way, the bed can be seen as representing dreams or the dreamer, and having distanced itself from the earthly realm, as represented by the architectural-looking framework below.

 

3 views of  'Bunk-Up', oak sculpture by artist Wayne Chisnall

Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it and I just wanted to make a bed rising above an intricate mass of interlocking oak pieces. Either way, it was fun working on this piece and I enjoyed hand-sewing the mini pillow, mattress and blanket.

 

 'Bunk-Up' (details of base), oak sculpture by artist Wayne Chisnall

In the end, (for reasons that I won’t go into) I chose not to take part in the exhibition that I’d been asked to create this sculpture for.