South Nottingham College Art & Design Final Show, Nottingham, 11th - 18th June 2010
'The Watching Eyes' (2010)
This was my final piece for the South Nottingham College Final Exhibition, called. The project was based on voyeurism. I wanted to show how every person in the world is a voyeur to some extent, whether it be in a sexual manner or just curiosity. I created a corridor of sorts with a black ramp that a person walked up. At the end in the white wall was a small hole. The viewer would crouch down and look through this hole to find a TV on the other side. This TV was connected to a camera that was pointing up through the ramp, pointing at the viewers crotch. It was dark, yet humorous.
'Praise The Lord! (2011)
After working on a project which involved finding a disused, abandoned flip flop, I wanted to give it worth again. After restoring some of it's colour and pattern, I began to treat it as though it were a human being in need of help. I trimmed the frayed parts, I washed it and then tried to place it in human situations, such as drinking from a can and listening to music (please see the 'My Work' section). From here, I wanted to take it a step further and transform the flip-flop in to a God. I used the notion of stained glass windows to create a scene of figures worshiping at the 'feet' of the flip flop.
'210' (2011)
For this project, I focused on attempting to mix the topic of torture with humour and explore where the line is. The final piece was based on Guantanemo Bay and prisoners who are tortured there. I produced an installation that involved sound and audience participation. The audience enter a dark room, the only light coming from a lamp placed on the floor shining on an drawn image of a figure on his knees, tied up and with headphones on. In Guantanemo Bay, white noise is played for hours on end to send prisoners in to a state of delusional euphoria. In front of the image is a pair of headphones. In the room is a recording of my voice on helium describing a torture scene that relates to the figure in the drawing. The audience then take it turns to bend down on to their knees and listen to what is on the headphones. Playing through through them is the song 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' by Bobby McFadden.
'The Plantation Centre: Angel Of Death' (2012)
This project is based on the opinion some people have of music, in particular heavy metal, influencing people to commit violent acts. Here I have produced the same figures 90 times using black ink on corrugated card, each image individually drawn so they all appear differently. They are of a gardener planting violent lyrics in to someone's head. For each word used, I re-produced the image 9 times to create a representation of a production line, representing heavy metal fans and what they will supposedly become after listening to it. The lyrics are taken from the song Angel Of Death by Slayer, a band who have been accused of influencing individuals to commit murder.
The International Postcard Show 2012, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 25th January - 11th February 2012
'Abyss' (2012)
'Wish You Were Here' (2012)
These are the 2 postcards I entered in to the International Postcard Show 2012. The first piece, 'Abyss', is a representation of someone who is mentally lost in their own world and no-one else can reach them while they are there. The second piece, 'Wish You Were Here' displays an incinerator from 1943 Germany.
'O.M.G.' (2012)
Using my pieces 'Deathmask' and 'Hand Of Doom', I combined the two to create a sculptural piece that I hung on the wall for a Show & Listen session. It is a work in progress, representing the human form in an abnormal way. The emotion I was trying to show is shock.
The Lady Bay Art Festival 2012, West Bridgford, Nottingham, 19th & 20th May 2012
This is probably what I consider my first 'proper' exhibition where I was selected for my work, rather than exhibiting in the university studios or paying a fee. Also, the rare experience of the art festival is something I was happy to be a part of. Displaying my work in someone's home rather than a gallery was a great experience.
Here's me looking like a goon next to my work 'Praise The Lord!' Notice the structure that's been built to hold the frames in place. I needed this as I couldn't stick it to the wall and the piece was too wide to be displayed in the windows. Also, I created a mini comic book to accompany the work, entitles 'The Story Of The Lord'. It was basically the story of Jesus but with a flip flop! I sold a few of these...and managed to offend someone with it!
On the 2nd day, I took my 'Hand Of Death' piece along to show what was focusing on at the time. I had it displayed on the dining room table along with photos of my other work. I did have more photos but haven't got a clue what happened to them!
This is the work of Andy Mason who I exhibited alongside. He had some amazing thrown ceramic pieces on display. The pots in the above photo are ones that were painted by visitors to the house. Andy would then place them in his home made kiln, let them cook for a while and then extract them. I can't remember all of the specifics but there's was a lot of heat involved, water, straw, goggles....he was like a mad professor!
'The Lost Youth' (2012)
I became interested in melting toys and melding them together to create grotesque looking appearances. I really enjoyed the creating process, setting toys on fire and using a heat gun to manipulate their appearance, all these things you shouldn't do with toys. It added a sense of danger. Focusing on the human body and what we perceive as 'normal', I used my process and materials to create a section of a young child's body. It actually ended up looking like a larger, monstrous toy.
Crocus Gallery Open 3, The Crocus Gallery, Nottingham, 17th November - 15th December 2012
'Hand Of Death' & 'The Lost Youth' (2012)
I submitted 'Hand Of Death' and 'The Lost Youth' in for this open exhibition and my work was accepted (yay me!). When the exhibition had its launch night, my fellow Fine Art friend Lauren Halford attended and took some photos. I noticed that 'The Lost Youth' was being displayed in a different way, looking like it had been placed on its side rather than standing up. I thought this was an interesting occurance, making me think about other people's involvement in my art work and different displays. I went along a couple of days later and found that, in fact, they had broken the piece in half and simply rested one half on the other. Would've been nice to have been told before they set it up. I could rant a tiny bit, but I won't!
Here it is a bit more up close.
'The Man Who Sold The World' (2012)
Focusing on the use of found material and creating characters, I made a representation of a homeless person. I was still interested in the process of melting plastics together, but I wanted to incorporate other materials too. The found materials I used were gathered from various places in the studio and from home. The notion of reusing materials and giving them another purpose made me think about how homeless people find objects that other people do not want anymore or are of no use to them, hence I created this character. I didn't have a plan when creating this, using spontaneous methods of creating and relying on chance to create the piece. This involved some troubleshooting to overcome problems that I encountered.
NTU Fine Art Auction, Bonington Atrium, Nottingham,14th - 28th January 2013
'Bauble Boy' (2012)
In order to raise some funds to go towards the final degree show, an auction of art works produced by Fine Art students and tutors were donated and displayed for a week before an auction took place on the last day (all arranged by Lauren Green, no relation, and her budding helpers). My 'Bauble Boy' piece was up for grabs and was bought by my friend Chris Evitts for about £35! Score! The evening was a great success, with£2647 being raised!
The International Postcard Show 2013, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 16th January - 2nd February 2013
I would show photos for this one but they have gone missing! I had 2 postcards on display, both drawn with black ink. One was called 'Austin', a portrait of wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin with blood running down his face, symbolising my love of sports entertainment wrestling (notice, I refer to it as entertainment, I'm very aware its story lined!). The other drawing....as bad as this sounds...I can't remember the name of!! I gave it a stupidly long name that I think involved the word 'wind' somewhere!! I was a bit more experimental with this one, dripping ink on to the card and blowing it in different directions to see what shapes formed. It turned in to an abstract like tree.
I actually managed to sell the 'Austin' postcard, which was a shock! I never expected anything to sell, I just like being in exhibitions!
Mid Point Review, Bonington Studios, Nottingham, 16th January - 18th January 2013
'United We Stand, Divided We Fall' (2013)
This wasn't so much an official exhibition, but this is the piece I created for my Mid Point Review at uni. This is me letting loose! I liked the abstract features that appeared in 'The Man Who Sold The World', so I wanted to take that idea to the next level and create, not so much a character, but something that still had elements of the human body. I used a process of spontaneous creating, only having a rough sketch I created before hand to use as a blueprint. I had never done a piece as big as this. There's so much going on in the piece that you have to look in and around the piece to understand it's complexity. I made random structures out of wood and table legs, I used the surroundings of the studio to incorporate the piece, I set it up in a position so viewers could not see the whole piece from one angle - it was a massive experimentation piece that both works and doesn't work. 3 words to describe it - bat shit crazy!
There's No Place Like Home exhibition, The Classroom Gallery, Nottingham 28th February - 14th March 2013
'Welcome To Nottingham' (2013)
I created this piece specifically for the exhibition 'There's No Place Like Home'. As I explained in my description, travelling around Nottingham, I constantly see broken glass on the ground. I wanted to put a humorous spin on this and use broken glass to create a welcome sign to the place that I now call my home. It's a piece I've wanted to create for a couple of years now. I knew I wanted to use broken glass to represent Nottingham but it took me a while to figure out the best way of doing this.
The gallery itself is an old classroom based upstairs at Hopkinsons (opposite the train station). The use of the old desks was available to us and with the way this work needs to be set up, I used 2 desks to spread the glass over in the centre of the room.
NTU Fine Art Auction, Bonington Atrium, Nottingham, 5th - 12th April 2013
'Great Car Of Fire' (2012)
Another Fine Art Auction was held, again arranged by Lauren Green, to raise funds for our degree show. I donated 'Great Car Of Fire' to help out. It sold!!
'Coming Undone At The Seams' (2013)
I created this during a time where my emotions were all over the place. I strayed away from the interests I had been focusing on through the year. This was a representation of trying to hide negative feelings but not being able to control them. The top part of the piece are 'the feelings' escaping. I felt like this was a piece that I had to make at the time. It made me feel better making it. I didn't get great feedback in my show and listen, but it looks like a cool tree!!!
Atonal exhibition, 35 Gamble Street, Nottingham, 18th - 25th April 2013
The exhibition involved myself along with my fellow NTU fine artists Perri Wilkes, Amy Telford, Tara Hemphill, Kate Miller, Ashley Bunn and Victoria Winwood. We all wanted to put on an exhibition but we didn't necessarily all have something in common with each other regarding our practices, hence the name 'Atonal'. I was the only sculptor to feature out of the seven of us, Victoria was the only film maker, everyone else showed paintings, yet everyone had their own interests; nothing was the same. On the opening night, Maddie Doyle DJ'd, which in my opinion was awesome! It was a chilled atmosphere, without any awkward silence. And plenty of alcohol!
'Coming Undone At The Seams' (2013)
Before placing it in the spot that was planned for it, I decided to set up 'Coming Undone At The Seams' in front of the two large windows at 35 Gamble Street. The light coming through was amazing and really complimented the piece. Having it in such an empty room was pretty cool too.
For the actual exhibition, the piece was displayed in an area near a curved wall for people to walk around.
Me, looking like a goon as per usual, always the professional!
Kate Miller
Victoria Winwood
Tara Hemphill
Amy Telford
Ashley Bunn
Perri Wilkes
The Lady Bay Art Festival 2012, West Bridgford, Nottingham, 18th & 19th May 2012
I was lucky enough and thankful to once again be selected to take part in the Lady Bay Arts Festival. It was a lot busier than last year. My hosts, Mark and Angela along with their family were great to be with, they had a BBQ on the go and offered alcohol to me and sculptor Jeff Childs (who I displayed with) at the end of the day. I decided to have a number of the smaller works I had produced through the year for sale and displayed 'Coming undone At The Seams', which received great feedback. An odd moment occured when one of my tutors, Andrew Brown who I knew would be marking my final degree show piece, come along and seemed to take a great deal of interest looking at all of my work! A very surreal moment!!
I managed to sell 'Psycho Worm' and 'Hand Of Doom' which I still can't believe! It's such a good feeling to sell something, not necessarily to make money, but just the fact that someone appreciates my work enough to do so. So thank you to those that did!
There was a lot more interaction with visitors over the two days of the festival, which I thrived on. I enjoy informally discussing my work and art in general. One of the positive things I will take away from this weekend is spending it with Jeff Childs. We couldn't be more different in our approach to our practices, but the discussions we had about art were really interesting and he has influenced me to try out new ideas and new approaches to creating.
My set up
Jeff Childs' bronze sculptures
Continued exhibition, Final Degree Show, NTU Fine Art Studios, Nottingham, 30th May - 8th June 2013
'...And On The 7th Day God Created Suffering' (2013)
So 3 years of blood, sweat and tears (literally) came down to this moment. In the last 3 or so weeks before my deadline, I was able to focus once again on what I had been interested in throughout the year. Assemblage, distortion, destruction, finding the balance between figuration and abstraction, possibility of function, the use of unwanted objects and everything in between. I didn't use as much plastic as I thought I might, but I don't think there was any need for me to go overkill on it. Looking back at it, I feel as though I could have done better, then again I always feel like that about anything I make! The statement that I submitted a couple of months prior to this piece is completely off the mark. It was written during my 'lost' months. This is about process and how my process creates an abstract assemblage that has figurative features, not emotions. At the end of the day though, fact of the matter is, it earned me my degree!
For information on the more of the other artists involved in the degree show, please visit http://ntufineart.wix.com/continued
Art Auction Fundraising Event, Primary, Nottingham, 29th June - 4th July 2013
'Frankenbird (2012)
Another auction involving Lauren Green (the auction machine!) along with Primary, I submitted my 'Frankenbird' piece, which I have grown fond of. I actually attended the first hour of the auction and managed to see my work up for grabs....very surreal and nerve racking! A lucky bidder won it for £30! I couldn't believe it!
