The Mill Interview

Here's the recent feature that The Mill ran on me and my work, for their blog.

Wayne Chisnall and his June Window Exhibition

Wednesday, June 05, 2013
The Great Marlborough Street, London window has had a summer re-skin this week, with rising star of the art and sculpture world Wayne Chisnall exhibiting his latest creations. I caught up with Wayne to learn more about his previous projects and what inspires his unique approach to material he uses.



You have tried your hand at many areas of art; magazine & technical illustration, printmaking and now you create spectacular sculptures, what drew you to this area of expertise?
My dad was an oil painter so I grew up with the sight and smell of art materials all around me, therefore art has been my passion for as far back as I can remember. All my life I'd been a predominantly 2D artist but it wasn't until I went to University and unexpectedly switched from printmaking to sculpture that I suddenly found a medium that I felt to be more truthful to what I wanted to express through my art. Somehow I felt that by working in 3D I was able to convey my ideas on a greater number of levels. I suppose that because sculptures physically occupy space in the same world as we do, on a level that something like a drawing doesn't, they have more to say - but that might just be how I see things. Of course, I still love drawings and paintings etc.



How did you approach The Mill window?
I decided to exhibit some of the more recent, or rarely shown, sculptures that I thought were quite strong pieces in themselves, but which also worked well as a group. In the deeper window I have, Orifice Tower, Pharos Cyclops #1 and #2, and in the shallow window, Planetoid 210. Although all three pieces (for the sake of argument I'll call 'Pharos Cyclops #1 and #2 one piece for now) share certain commonalities, they are also examples of different lines of enquiry that I have pursued. For this installation I wanted to give an insight into the divergent aspect of my practice; to show how various works can trigger ideas for newer and slightly different pieces, which in turn lead to further, and therefore more distantly related, works. To highlight this aspect of the development of my work I displayed the two Cyclops pieces on bright green deckchairs, the colour of which is a reference to one of my earliest sculptures, And When I'm a Man (I'll Think as a Man).



Being bright green and made of fibreglass, plastic and resin, this earlier work offers a stark contrast to the direction of much of my current work. Incidentally, when I was installing the work, someone commented on the green of the deckchairs being very similar to that of the green screen used in the visual effect industry. I hadn't even thought of it at the time but I guess it ties in nicely with what The Mill does.



Who and what inspires you?
There are so many wonderful sculptors out there but most of my primary influences lie elsewhere. Growing up, I was a big fan of sci-fi and horror literature and films - which is probably where much of my work gets its dark leanings, although now I hope that there is a bit of humour in there too. I can see the choice of found materials that I use in my sculptures emerging from my early love of the strange and uncanny animations of people like Jan Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay, who's work I still have a soft spot for today. I also have a bit of an obsession with the Minkisi/Nkisi wood carvings of the Congo area, which been very influential in my Nail Box and Nail Heart series of works.



Without sounding too hippy, I'm also inspired by nature, especially vines and root systems. Even though I have very geometric elements to a lot of my work I try and incorporate an organic construction model where I can. Drawing is a very important part of my practice and for most of my sculptures I make numerous sketches, prior and during the construction process. My drawing style varies, depending upon what I'm working on, but I honed it during my time as a technical and magazine illustrator back in the 80's and early 90's. Saying that, I've had a life-long love of comic and book illustration so there will be influences from these fields that are probably too numerous to mention.

What has been your favourite project?
I'm not sure if I have favourite projects but do I have a secret art project that I'm not supposed to talk about (the 1st rule of Fight Club etc...) that is a lot of fun. I'll try not to give too much away but it started back in July 2005 (oddly enough, on the day of the London bombings) and is still ongoing. Basically the project is a chain of exchanges between myself and a performance artist called Calum F Kerr. We modelled the exchange on scenes from old cold war spy movies and now we film ourselves making these exchanges. We always meet at the same location (a park bench somewhere in London) at a set time on a set day of the week (but not every week). One of us will get there first, then the other will join him on the bench but we deliberately make no acknowledgement of each other. Then one of us will place a parcel, wrapped in brown paper, between us on the bench, and other will nonchalantly take it. Whoever placed the parcel on the bench walks away first, then the other person a short while later (exiting in opposite directions). Which ever one of us accepts the parcel (containing an object or detailed instructions created by the other) has to create something inspired by the contents of said parcel and then wrap it up in brown paper and continue the chain at the next encounter. As I said, it's a lot of fun to take part in but it's also loosed up both of us as artists, as we've started to dip into each others mode of practice (if only a little). Now I've probably said too much.



Talk us through the reoccurring themes evident in your sculptures?
The tower is one of the main reoccurring themes that runs through my work. All the sculptures in my first tower series where mounted on over-sized wheels and were to do with our attitudes toward material possessions, and how our accumulation of  'stuff' limits our mobility. My most personal piece from this series, The City, was to be the springboard for a lot of later pieces - namely the numerous but much smaller-sized box series (also on wheels). In fact the wheels themselves became a motif  of most of my sculptural work until relatively recently. As the magnified lens aspect of my box structures started to give way to the carved orifice feature (a further attempt to integrate the organic and the rectilinear) so too the wheeled theme stared to disappear and the structures became more tower-like again. A prime example being Orifice Tower, which is basically an elevated box. The thing that I enjoy about working this way is that it feels very natural, like a process of evolution. Forms emerge, disappear, and sometimes re-emerge.

What else is happening for you this year?
So far I have a sculpture on display in an alumni exhibition at my old university in Northampton and I've been asked to create a couple of two metre tall pieces that will be displayed in the windows of a renovated Anglican chapel in Nunhead Cemetery this September. I've also been sketching designs for a new series of tower sculptures but at the moment I've over filled my studio with materials, so until I sort out extra storage space, I'm working on drawings and ideas for editioned prints in my 2D studio (which is also starting to fill up with materials). One of these print ideas is an adaptation of a photo from a newspaper, showing police attacking protesters. But I'm painting out the protesters and replacing them with cartoon bunnies. It's quite a fun but surprisingly thought provoking piece - I'm pleased with how it's going.



But the project that I'm most excited about at the moment is my plan to bring out my own currency (well, sort of). I'm looking to print 20,000, hand signed and numbered, editions of a small double sided art print that takes the form of a fictitious banknote - a 5 Chig (taken from my nickname) note. The designs on both sides will be based upon my artworks and drawings but I'm looking to print on authentic-feeling banknote paper and incorporate watermarks and holographic foils - and use two different printing techniques, one of which will have a slight raised quality. The only problem that I'm currently having is the sourcing of authentic-feeling cotton/linen banknote paper - for obvious anti-counterfeiting reasons.

//Thanks Wayne for this revealing look into your inspirations and creations. Wayne will be exhibiting for the next two months, so pay us a visit and have a peek at the art in person.

Alumni Show

This year, for the first time, my old college, The University of Northampton decided to host an Alumni Art Exhibition alongside their student end of year shows. And I was very pleased to have been invited to be in the show. The exhibitions run till Friday 21st June but I went along to the opening night on Thursday and had fun catching up with a few old college friends, tutors and technicians.

The piece that I'm exhibiting is a tall, thin, wall-mounted, low-relief sculpture called 'Orifice'. It's not a new piece but it is the inspiration behind one of the themes currently running through my work. I'm not sure whether 'incestuous' or 'self referential' best describes my sculptural work these days. I have noticed that not only do certain physical motifs keep reappearing in a lot of my pieces but that elements from different sculptures are now combining in newer works – almost as if they have been cross-breeding.

Swirly Skull Tote Bags

The lovely folk at Tenderproduct (the merchandise store linked to the Tenderpixel gallery - both located in Cecil Court WC2N 4HE, just off Leicester Square in London) have asked me to produce a small edition of tote bags featuring my Swirly Skull design. The shop already sells my Spidey Pods screen prints, along with both my Swirly Skulls and Swirly Skulls on Pink screen prints. Because of the popularity of the skulls prints they thought it would be ideal as a bag design – and also a lot more affordable.

So I've just had a limit number of these Earth Positive, carbon neutral, 100% organic cotton plain weave, 120 g/3.5 oz, tote shopping bags produced with my Swirly Skull design screen printed on the one side. The bags are roughly 42 x 38 cm (not counting the handles).
They won't be in the gallery shop for a couple of weeks yet, so for now I'm selling them at the commission-free price of £10 each. If you would like one, drop me an email at waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk and we'll sort something out.

I spent hours trying to visualize the perfect size to have the image. When they came back from the printers I was very happy with the results. The print quality is fantastic, the bags are lovely, and I think that the image size is just right – nice and bold, without being too big for the bag. To say that I'm chuffed would not be an understatement.

Art at The Mill

I'm happy to say that's, art-wise, it's been a busy week for me. On Tuesday I got my cotton tote bags (screen printed with my Swirly Skull design) back from the printers (more about them in a later post), Thursday I was in Northamptonshire delivering my Orifice sculpture to The University of Northampton, ready for the Alumni Art Exhibition that will be running alongside the university's graduate shows, Friday I collected two of my sculptures from where they've been on display in the Artfinder office, then went to my first get-together of an artists' network group called Sculpture Tribe, and today (Saturday) I installed four of my sculptures in the window display area of the visual effects company, The Mill.

Based in London, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Mill collaborate on award-winning (you can't help but notice the prominently displayed Oscar and two BAFTA awards as you walked into their London base) moving image, design and digital projects for the advertising, film, TV, games and music industry. They also put the two massive front windows of their London building to good use as a display areas for contemporary artwork.

So I was rather pleased when they invited me to exhibit my work in their London space (40-41 Great Marlborough Street, at the top of Carnaby Street, and a few doors along from the Liberty Store) for the whole of June and July.

So this morning I installed four works; in the deeper window, Orifice Tower, Pharos Cyclops #1 and 2, and in the shallow window, Planetoid 210. Although all three pieces (for the sake of argument I'll call 'Pharos Cyclops #1 and 2' one piece for now) share certain commonalities, they are also examples of different lines of enquiry that I have pursued. For this installation I wanted to give an insight into the divergent aspect of my practice; to show how various works can trigger ideas for newer and slightly different pieces, which in turn lead to further, and thus less related, works. To highlight this aspect of the development of my work I displayed the two Cyclops pieces on bright green deckchairs, the colour of which is a reference to one of my earliest sculptures, And When I'm a Man (I'll Think as a Man). Being bright green and made of fibreglass, plastic and resin, this earlier work offers a stark contrast to the directs of much of my current work.

Monster Movie

I don't know how long it will be until the Blaze of Gory movie comes out but her are a few stills from the set of 'Monster', which is one of the nine stories that make up the film.

Here we see actress Sandra Wer as psychopathic killer and arsonist, Stacey, and in the background, a few of the 15 paintings that I created for the film.

This still shows actor Martin Hancock, who plays Terry in the Monster segment of the film, and a few more of my paintings.

And here with have Monster's director, Andy Edwards, putting the crew through their paces.
To see more stills from the set of Monster check out Paranoid Android Films on Facebook.

Blaze of Gory

I'm currently having a bit of fun working on a series of paintings for a new horror film called Blaze of Gory that features nine separate stories told by nine different horror directors from around the world. 
“All the short films are based on the writings of a teenage girl called Blaize-Alix Szanto, who wrote these stories between the ages of 12 and 15. They are truly depraved tales of horror and torture that have made even the hardest horror directors uneasy.” 

The section that I've been asked to produce the work for is called "Monster" and is about a young girl locked away in a high-security mental hospital for a series of brutal crimes. The talented cast includes scream-queen Victoria Broom, and ex-Coronation Street legend Martin Hancock. It is directed by Andy Edwards, whose previous horror anthology feature, the chilling triptych, "Three's A Shroud", won the British Horror Award at the British Horror Film Festival 2012. 

So far I've come up with eight paintings which will eventually be used to adorn the walls of the psycho girl's cell. They're a mixture of images of death, immolation, torture, and dismembered corpses - and are to appear to be the work of the girl herself. To prepare for this and to try and get into the right mindset I spent time looking through, amongst other things, a lot of autopsy photos – always a pleasant way to spend a relaxing Sunday! The last part of the 'Monster' segment of the movie takes place in Professor Damocles's office, and there's a chance that some of my sculptures might also make it this scene. But lets wait and see!

Move Over Tooth Fairy

Do any of you kind folks out there have any unwanted teeth that you wouldn't mind donating to me, for use in some artworks that I'm planning? I don't know - maybe the Tooth Fairy over reached her quota and needs to off-load a few. Either way, I'd be most grateful for any donations and promise to use them in a respectfully frivolous manner.

Now I'm not advocating that you pull out any of your own teeth (unless you really want to - hey! they're your teeth – who am I to say what you choose to do with them), or anyone else’s for that matter (unless you're a dentist – then that's kind of a given), but if you do have some already lying around and would generously like to pass them on, please feel free to contact me at waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk .

Win a Mini Print

For a chance to win one of my last few postcard-sized 'Swirly Skull on Pink' screen prints sign up to Twitter (if you're not already on it) and simply follow me and re-tweet my competition tweet from Tuesday 26th March. And I'll select a winner at random this Monday evening. Good luck!

My RCA Secrets 2013

The sale of the RCA Secret 2013 postcards has been up and running for some hours now so I'm guessing that it's safe to reveal my 3 entries for this year. And to all the brave souls who have queued (not to mention the hardened few who camp out over several nights) through the rain and cold, I salute you! 

This one I definitely know is safe to reveal as I received a text this morning from the lucky person who jammily won (via the RCA Secret's 'first 50 places raffle') second place in the queue, telling me that the person in front of him had bagged it. It was number 1435 in the exhibition, and is probably my most 3D postcard entry to date. For anyone that knows my recent sculptural work it probably wasn't the most difficult piece of mine to spot in the the show. To construct the piece I cut and interlocked the wooden sections to form a box and carved the front to create the orifice section. Inside I placed a mirror to give the postcard the illusion of being internally deeper than it is externally. Hopefully the mirror also adds an unexpectedly fun element as upon initial inspection, the viewer might not expect to suddenly be confronted with their own reflection looking back at them from within the box. 

I'm not not sure what number this postcard was in the show, but it's adapted from an idea that I have for a tall, thin, wooden framed, tower sculpture that I'm planning to build. The eventual sculpture will incorporate a human skull that I acquired from an antiques dealer that I got chatting to whilst I was in the green room at a TV studio for a Channel 4 programme, 'Four Rooms', that is about feature one of my sculptures. 

As I mentioned earlier, this year I only entered three postcards into the RCA Secret. I normally enter more as my (not quite) alter ego, Chig. But this year I didn't receive any cards addressed to my nickname so entry number 1210 (one of the cards entered under my given name) is probably closer to previous drawings that I've entered as Chig. It's much more instinctive and free flowing.

RCA Secret 2013

Last year the Royal College of Art in London took a break from holding it's annual RCA Secret Postcard exhibition/sale, much to the dismay of many of the show's hardened fans. But this year it's back, and at can be seen at a new location, south of the river; at the RCA's Dyson Building in Battersea.

Last night I checked out the show at the RCA Secret Artists' Party. I didn't manage to spot many pieces by my favourite regular contributors but it was a very busy event and I ended up chatting to other artists most of the night, so I probably missed loads of the postcards. Every time that I've revisited past RCA Secret shows I've always discovered a few gems that I missed on previous visits so I plan to go back in the daytime and look over the vast selection of work more carefully.

  
For anyone that doesn't know about the RCA Secret here's the basic run down (lifted from the RCA site) -

“The Secret

Ever wondered if you could spot a Paula Rego at 20 paces? How about a David Bailey? Each postcard in RCA Secret is signed only on the back, so collectors won’t know the identity of the artists until they have made their purchases. 

We’re giving you nine days to check out this eclectic collection and then for one day only the cards will be sold to support the RCA Fine Art Student Award Fund. With generous contributions of new work from hundreds of leading international artists and designers, RCA Secret continues to help emerging artists at a formative stage in their careers. So whether you walk away with a famous name or not, you’ll be buying a bit of history and contributing to the future. 

The new RCA Secret 2013 postcards are available to view HERE. 

Each postcard costs £45 and a maximum of four cards may be purchased per person. Postcards are only available to purchase in person at the Sale. You must have an RCA Secret Collector's Number to purchase a card at RCA Secret 2013. Register HERE to get one.” 

As well as Paula Rego and David Bailey, there are plenty of other well known artists contributing to this years show: Maggi Hambling, Bob and Roberta Smith, Pete Fowler, Nick Park, and Billy Childish, to name but a few... 

As I can't show you my three 2013 RCA Secret postcards until after the sale on 23rd March (that would be naughty), here's a few of my contributions from previous years (unfortunately I don't have any images of my postcards from pre-2008) - 

                       
                                                                                                'Tentacle Tower', RCA Secret 2011

                                                                                                 'Werecrow', RCA Secret 2010

                                                                                                      'Love Is', RCA Secret 2009

     
                                                                                     'Spidey Pod Wave', RCA Secret 2008


Royal College of Art Battersea 
Dyson Building 
1 Hester Road 
London SW11 4AN 

Exhibition open: 14-22 March (11AM-6PM daily) 
Late Open: 21 March (until 9PM) 
Sale Open: Saturday 23 March (8AM-6PM)

Last Night's Opening & Zen Entertainment

Thank you to everyone who joined us for yesterday evening's 'Misuse: Creating Alternatives' exhibition opening at The Cass Bank Gallery. And a massive thank you to the London Metropolitan University's MA Curating the Contemporary team for their hard work and for making it all happen. The pieces in the show work well together and I'm pleased to have one of my works (as you can see in this photo) positioned between two of my current favourite artists, Nancy Fouts and Guy Laramee. 

The show was well attended with more than a few of the guests seeming reluctant to leave when the event ended at 9pm. Luckily the White Heart pub is almost directly opposite the gallery so me and my band of friends decanted to that fine establishment to carry on our merry making. One of our group was the photographer/artist/inventor/Zen practitioner, Yoshizen/Kinetorori, who kept us all entertained for the rest of the night with his tongue-in-cheek, yet insightful, palm readings. 

Not only was Yoshi a contributing factor to an already fun night but I'd like to thank him for taking photographs of the show (e.g. this super-wide angled shot of me and my Orifice Tower sculpture) and for undoubtedly the most original review of my work that I've ever come across. If you ever get the chance to chat to Yoshi as him about his bizarre and interesting life – it'd be great source material for a terrific black comedy or indie film. 

Exhibition Continues: 8th - 22nd March 
Open Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm, Saturday 12pm - 5pm 

Barry Sykes / Artist Talk / 'I Didn't Do it: Various Experiments with Found Objects' Tuesday 12th March / 6.30pm / Room CEI 38 (first floor) / Central House, London Met Uni, E1 7PF

The Cass Bank Gallery,  
Central House, London Metropolitan University,  
59-63 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7PF   
(opposite Whitechapel Gallery)

Misuse – Thurs 7th March

This coming week looks like being a pleasantly hectic one, art-wise. On Monday I install some sculptures in the offices of Artfinder, on Tuesday I take down my first solo show, 'Found Memories', at the Nancy Victor Gallery and on Wednesday I install three sculptures in The Cass Bank Gallery, ready for the opening of the group show 'Misuse: Creating Alternatives'. The show is curated by 'MA Curating the Contemporary' at London Metropolitan University in partnership with Whitechapel Gallery. Apart from myself, the artists exhibiting in the show will be Alice Anderson, Blue Curry, Darren Harvey-Regan, Barry Sykes, Nick Gentry, Kyle Bean, Nancy Fouts, Guy Laramee, Elisabeth Lecourt & Kaarina Kaikkonen.

As you can see from the exhibition poster, one of the three pieces that I'll be showing is Orifice Tower which I completed last year. This sculpture started out as a deliberate rebuff to a sneaking trend that my box sculptures had developed for getting smaller and smaller. In this early sketch that I quickly scribble in the back of a 2011 diary (whilst waiting for the speakers at a Jerwood Space art talk to start, I seem to remember) you can see my blatant approach to how to turn small works into big works – as well as my abandonment of the wheeled motif that had become common throughout my box and tower structures. 

When I was initially asked to exhibit in the show the piece that the curation team was most interested in me exhibiting was my sculpture, The City. Unfortunately after lending this piece to Charlie Levine and Minnie Weisz for their wonderful curatorial collaboration, 'Creative Machines, Minimalist Sculpture' (as part of Trove gallery's 'The Event 2011') it was returned to me having first been mysteriously smashed to pieces. 

Reconstruction of The City is going to be a big undertaking, especially if I want to get the new version looking as close as possible to the original. So for now I've cobble together a temporary structure (basically an old wooden box with a few intricate shelves) to house some of the less damaged pieces from The City. Hopefully this will at least give a taster of the original work until I can find the time to remake it in full. 

The third sculpture that I'm exhibiting will be my Nkisi-inspired piece, Nail Box. This is one of my favourite piece – partly because to construct it I spent four years collecting the rusty nails and screws from wherever I could find them (mostly picked up off the ground whilst out walking, both here in the UK and whilst traveling abroad) and because I feel that the work has quite a distinctive, if not cheeky, personality all of its own (probably just me anthropomorphizing again). Whilst working on Nail Box, rather than taking new nails and screws and rusting them artificially, I chose ones that had corroded naturally – through contact with the elements. I thought that this gave the metal an authentic patina and I hoped that the vast number of rusty nails and screws used in the piece would generate a kind of collective resonance. But maybe I'll let you be the judge of that. 

Anyway – enough waffling. The opening night for the show is this Thursday (7th March - 6-9pm) at The Cass Bank Gallery, 59-63 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7PF (directly opposite the Whitechapel Gallery) so I hope that you can join us. But if you can't make it to the private view then the exhibition will be on till the 22nd March.

Exhibition Continues: 8th - 22nd March

Open Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm, Saturday 12pm - 5pm

Barry Sykes / Artist Talk / 'I Didn't Do it: Various Experiments with Found Objects'

Tuesday 12th March / 6.30pm / Room CEI 38 (first floor) / Central House, London Met Uni, E1 7PF /

The Cass Bank Gallery, 

Central House, London Metropolitan University, 

59-63 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7PF  

(opposite Whitechapel Gallery)

('Nail Box' photo courtesy of Rosie Mayell)

Fitzrovia Late – Thurs 28th Feb

If you fancy seeing my first solo show, 'Found Memories', at the Nancy Victor Gallery, London but weren't able to make it to the opening night and aren't able to finish work in time to get to the gallery before it closes at 6pm, don't worry. This Thursday the gallery will be staying open till 9pm as part of Fitzrovia Lates, as will all the other galleries in the area.

I'll be there from 6 till 9pm (then off to the pub next door) so please feel free to pop along for a chat or just have a browse. And if you want to know about any of the pieces in the exhibition just come up and ask me – I rarely bite.

If anyone is unsure of how to find the gallery it is in Charlotte Place, the third turning on the left (just after Charlotte Street) as you walk West along Goodge Street, having come from the Tottenham Court Road end. The nearest tube station is Goodge Street - a couple of minutes walk away from the gallery. Here's a map.

 
Fitzrovia Late View - Thursday 28th Feb (6-9pm)

Be My Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Channel 4's 'Four Rooms'

I was recently contacted by a researcher from a production company that makes the Four Rooms program for Channel 4. He told me that his producer had seen my 'And When I'm a Man' sculpture and wondered if I'd be interested in bringing it along to the show and seeing if I could sell it to one of their 'dealers'. 

Okay, I admit that I do dip into a bit of on-line telly (English English (UK speak) for TV) now and again but because of its addictive qualities I decided to throw my television set away years ago. Consequently, I'm a bit out of touch with a lot of the new programmes – Four Rooms being one of them. So I looked on Channel 4's site and Four Rooms appears to be something of a cross between Dragons Den and the Antiques Road Show. The basic premise seems to be that contestants come onto the show with an item of interest (previous examples being things like Winston Churchill's gold dentures, Napoleon's death mask, a Marilyn Monroe self-portrait etc.) and haggle over their items with the show's four dealers. They choose the order that they meet the dealers and if they don't like the first dealer's offer they say no and move onto the next one, and so on until they finally accept or decline an offers. The hook of the program is that once the contestant has moved onto another dealer they can't accept a previous dealer's offer even if that was the better one. 

Anyway – I told the researcher that I no-longer owned the sculpture but I did put them in touch with Andrew Dawood who has it on display at his practice, Dawood and Tanner, in Marylebone, West London. Andrew agreed to go on the show so when the day of the shoot came along I helped him to transport the sculpture over to the studio. As the owner of the sculpture, Andrew got to do all the nerve-racking in front of the camera stuff while I spent the day sat in the green room eating cakes, drinking tea and chatting to the other contestants (sometimes it's a hard life being an artist). Having previously worked on Channel 4's Embarrassing Bodies programmes, I'm sure that Andrew was fine being filmed so I'm looking forward to checking out the show when it airs some time in the next couple of months or so. As soon as I find out when that is, I'll let you know.

Nancy Victor Gallery – Opening Party

Thank you to everyone that managed to make it last night to the opening party for my first solo show, 'Found Memories', at the Nancy Victor Gallery in Fitzrovia, London. The turn out was fantastic and it was lovely to see so many familiar faces (some that I'd not seen for years) and to get to meet and chat to loads of new ones. 

I'd also like to thank the staff of Nancy Victor, especially Rachael Hill for her hard work in organising the show - and photographer, Rosie Mayell, for taking all these great photos on the night. Okay I'll leave it at that before it starts to sound like an Academy Awards acceptance speech. 

In the exhibition I'm showing twenty sculptures (ranging in size from around 25 cm to 2 metres tall) and one new screen print, 'Morphed Components'. 

And to give a bit of an insight into the thought processes that go into the creation of my sculptures I've collaged a section of one of the gallery walls with scans of pages from some of my sketchbooks.

A lot of the work in the show has either been made in the last 12 months (with one of them having been completed three days before the opening) or were created a few years ago but not been exhibited before. So for anyone that's familiar with my work there should be something new to look at. 

 

For those of you that wanted to come but couldn't make it, don't worry as we'll be having another late opening (till 9pm) on Thursday 28th Feb as part of the Fitzrovia Lates. As it's the last Thursday of the month most of the other art galleries in the area will also be opening their doors late so if you're around on the 28th please feel free to pop along and join us for a cheeky after work drink and chin-wag.

'Found Memories'  
Nancy Victor Gallery 
6 Charlotte Place (off Goodge St.)  
Fitzrovia  London W1T 1SG (map) 

8th Feb - 4th March 2013  
Fitzrovia Late - Thursday 28th Feb (till 9pm)

'Found Memories' (Solo Show - Nancy Victor Gallery)

It's been a busy few weeks but everything seems to be coming together in time for my first solo show, 'Found Memories', at the Nancy Victor Gallery, which opens in a couple of days. The show officially opens on Friday 8th February but we are having an opening party on Thursday 7th between 6:30 and 8:30 pm so if you are in the area why not pop by and join us for a drink and a chat. 

For the last couple of weeks I've been working on this piece; working title – 'Church of the Crab Doll' (I know - not exactly snappy). I finished it a couple of days ago so it is my newest and first sculpture of the year. 

The majority of work that I'll be exhibiting at Found Memories will be made up of new sculptures (finished in the last 12 months) and older pieces that I've not previously shown.

'Found Memories' 
Nancy Victor Gallery
6 Charlotte Place (off Goodge St.) 
Fitzrovia 
London W1T 1SG

8th Feb - 4th March 2013 
Private view - Thursday 7th Feb (6:30-8:30pm)