there is too much to do and too many possibilities. here is some random old and new stuff….
smoke vortex research
smoke vortices were made using a pair of spring-driven smoke pump machines built to purpose, from 2015-2017, filmed in my garage with 16mm slow-motion film cameras. the rolls of film were developed and digitally transferred by hand, each of the small movie frames in over 3 kilometres of film transferred at 4K and carefully studied.
the research documentation took many forms - slow motion films, as well as analogue still images from 35mm small-scale to 16×20” ultra-large-format, direct positives on paper and glass, chemical bleach reversals, sound recordings, laser density measurements, shadow photogrammes using a specially-developed point-source flash unit, streak photography, stereoscopic video imaging with laser-plane cross-sections, and even plain old digital pictures…..
kinetic sculpture
funnel is one of my earliest larger works, but still one of my favourites. created for the tactile art award held at object gallery in 2005, judged by the sighted and non-sighted, the aim was to create works that could be appreciated through touch. a large carbon-fibre funnel was made and smoothed into a wall erected for it, then set with 250 stainless steel balls in a fibonacci spiral. each one of those large balls moved freely on a bed of 180 smaller balls, rolling in a hand-formed hemi-spherical brass cup, sealed with a felt washer, and held in with a cast plastic lip – all 250 units, plus funnel and wall, made by hand - excess effort craziness….
orbit was created for the twocubes exhibition at Sherman Galleries in 2007. using a pair of large magnets rotating in a weirdly designed contraption hidden beneath a hollow dome, stainless steel balls were dragged about in strange charming groups, dancing upon one another and generally enjoying themselves and each other….
golden repairs
these repairs of everyday broken things started out when i fixed my grandmother’s old plastic kettle with a shiny gold button, making a wearable ring out of the broken plastic button. from there it continued, offering my services to an old lady i met in the doctor’s surgery with a broken mixmaster, with many other repairs following for friends and family, from microphones and calculators to set squares and scissors. the work was exhibited with vernon bowden in loaded (2008), and later in kevin murray’s signs of change (2010), championing the repair and re-use of mundane objects, and reconnecting people with their everyday tools and appliances. you can read more about the ideas behind this project here.
stainless steel kettles
i have not made many of these water-boiling kettles, but i keep meaning to come back to the blistery fun of hammering out sheet steel into smooth functional forms. each organic shape starts out as flat stainless steel sheet, which is cut and welded and hammered into being. i use one of these kettles everyday, and it is only getting better with age, as am i….