Sculptures & ideas for installations 2001 - 2015
Several images within this slideshow will no doubt reappear in other sections, possibly accompanied by explanation and context.
Several images within this slideshow will no doubt reappear in other sections, possibly accompanied by explanation and context.
Notes
Love
2012
Five pack of briefs with transfer design.
The design consists of a red heart and written upon each heart is some vivacious vernacular.
The altered panties are repackaged with modified branding; the five items are placed back into the original sheath.
Untitled
Mixed Media
2009
The photo album has been composed from fragments of personal family history…some of the images existed before my time…each photo is honed, determined and focused into a world unto itself. The photos convene in a near featureless interior (a replicated page from an old photo album, a bleak and bare landscape, and a landscape that is claustrophobic and confined. The photos in the album are extracted moments…perhaps they are a longing…and something tangible…holding the comforting past…phantoms.
Exhibited as part of the Cruiser Exhibition, 'Memory & Migration'
Actual Wall, November 2009 & DEDA (Derby Dance Centre) January 2010.
The Haywain
2012
Series of 17 A4 digital prints from my childhood past.
All images taken from 35mm slides
All images were printed to have an equal amount of blurriness.
Prints are mounted on the wall and affixed with dressmakers pins.
Skull
1987
Slip Cast with porcelain clay & biscuit fired
Work exhibited as part of the Oldknows@20 event
This work was one of many casts that I made in 1987 in my second year at Sheffield City Polytechnic. My sketchbooks from the period are full of reference material including drawings, photocopies, postcards, newspaper cuttings and photographs. The source material provides an indication as to what my interests were at that time. In detail the material includes crucifixion images; postcards of altar pieces, drawings for self-portraits, museum artefacts and material relating to archaeology and topography. There are also drawings for the presentation and the display of my art works in museum cases and vitrines. Many pages are dedicated to human interventionism in both the rural & urban environments. There are notes on straight jackets, types of human torture, toothache, modern alchemy and cloud seeding to list but a few items. The majority of the material in the sketchbooks dated 1987 relate to my interest in the human corpse in the states of decomposition and preservation. There had at one time been some loose notes in these books on both mummification and scientific conservation methods including the use of formaldehydes. These detailed notes of recipes have now been lost; this is a shame as a lecturer named Colin Walker gave them to me. Colin several years later was to have a solo exhibition at the Oldknows Gallery.
All this material began to be filtered into my work and I began to undertake and produce a host of experimental works. My experimenting continued through the rest of my time at the college and still continues to this day. One of these experimental works was the making of a skull. This required me to learn how to model in clay, create a complex plaster mould and make my own slip and then to finally cast and fire the object. I had made the decision that in order to preserve the fragile nature of the slip cast that I would only biscuit fire the skulls. Following the firing I proceeded to make use of each skull in a number of ways. These skulls for example were taken out and buried in the Yorkshire landscape. In other skullworks the head splints as used by several African tribal cultures would inspire me to reshape my own skulls to create deformed foreheads. One skull had its cranium removed and the cavity filled with lard and a lemon for the creation of electricity. (Fig3. Electrical power from a fresh lemon stimulates the brain, two rods – copper & zinc create electrical power. The brain and the skull are cleaned in solvent of salt and washing up liquid. The lemon is replaced three weeks later. ‘Come to life damned creature!’)
Thrift Box No.1
2004
It is unlikely any significant treasures’ will be found in thrift box No.1. In 1975 Mr. T. Prestel Norfolk (UK) found in an American thrift box a large brass coin of Justinian 1 (AD537), although in poor condition 2 Mr Presetel upon returning home proudly exhibited the coin in his local public house. The material in Thrift Box No.1 had been created in response to a project I was engaged with. The idea behind the project was to write and to illustrate a fictitious history of a mountain, the book was entitled ‘Vultures Drop Heavy Roses’. I began to work on some ideas for illustrations and even contemplated a possible design for the dust jacket; I pondered how I would acquaint the readership with the books premise, I described the book thus...‘Vultures Drop Heavy Roses’ is a poignant and significant historical account of the conquest of the 4080m, Mount Capitalist. Exquisitely researched and lavishly pictorial, ‘Vultures Drop Heavy Roses’ enchants and embraces the reader. The author Thomas Sinclair 3 shoulders the Odyssey. Seduced by the complex shadow of the mountain, Sinclair traverses Europe’s collective history. Sinclair intelligently asserts the mountain’s psychological significance on European consciousness. Sinclair calls forth a human tragedy, the Lazarus Scott expedition of 1865. It is possible (should I have continued and completed a full draft of the text) that I would have revisited the books synopsis...however it became a project that like other overly ambitious projects of mine it too had to take a back seat. 4
Thrift Box was the result of a process that lead me to consider the mountain more fully, I decided to make a small model of Mount Capitalist (out of clay, plaster and powder paint) and whilst doing undertaking this I began also to create a series of illustrations and paintings...thereafter the thrift box project developed its own impetus...
Notes
1. Justinian I (483 – 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Roman (Byzantine) Emperor from 527 to 565.
2. The beauty of the English language... was it the coin or Mr Prestel who was in poor condition?
3. About the Author - Thomas Sinclair was born in the town of Wick in the Highlands of Scotland in 1962. Sinclair was raised in Theed Street, London, where his father, William worked at Waterloo Station as a night porter. As a young man Sinclair became interested in hill walking and Fine Art. His parents encouraged the young Thomas in both of these activities. Sinclair’s’ parents were avid readers of history and modern literature. Thomas’s Mother, Mabel had published by London Press Print (LLP) an historical novel entitled, ‘A Modern Day Dick Whittington’ (1970) a soldier's tale of a member of the BEF who is left for dead upon the Ypres battlefield during the first months of WW1. His mother’s book was to inspire the young Thomas to write. His first novel, Hostages Welsh published by LLP was in 1985. Portrait and Dream (1988) his second novel was based on the life of the American painter Jackson Pollock. This book won him the eminent NYT Literary award in the same year. In 1991 his book was made into a film by Ron H. Saunders. Mr Sinclair’s other published works include Lost (1992) Mask (1994) Idiot Child (1998) Loose Ends (2004) and ‘Fools’ (2009). Most recently Thomas Sinclair has published books on Art criticism under the auspicious title, From the Asylum - new essays. These were published in three volumes, (2004) (2005) (2010). Thomas Sinclair has regular articles published in the Art Periodical, ‘Quibbler.’ It was while researching the life of the Artist Adam Kuklin 1887-1914 that Thomas Sinclair visited Mount Capitalist and became bewitched by the mountains spell. Thomas Sinclair lives with his wife, Magdalena on the outskirts of Salisbury.
4. Project remains unresolved however the text that I had written thus far can be found on my website.
Untitled
2009
Exhibited as part of the Cruiser exhibition Memory and Migration
The photo album has been composed from fragments of personal family history and some of the images were of a time before I was born...each photo is honed, determined and focused into a world unto itself. The photographs convene in a near featureless interior (a replicated page from an old photo album, a bleak and bare landscape that is claustrophobic and confined). The photos in the album are extracted moments; perhaps they are a longing, a means of holding on to a comforting past...phantoms?
Several of the images in the photo album are from a project called ‘The Ark of Ills’, a series of digital images incorporating handmade paper arks1. I have over 100 images recorded thus far and many are still to be taken prior to selection. The works are echoes of memory, vibrations of history, journeys of countless possibilities, the disintegration and authentic theatre.
Additional works in the series have involved actions within the studio; these involve interactions between artist and object…their substance includes the self in processes of acting and engagement. The scale of the fragile paper ark against the mythological giant is evident. These echo comparisons between mortals and the immortals, gods such as Zeus who is an all knowing, all seeing god who represents the natural forces that govern lives of men. We are bound and held fast by mortal bodies. Furthermore, a series of images of an ark were taken in 2005 of the old family home of some fifty years…several images of the house are included in the photo album. The images were made upon the death of my mother and before the house was duly sold. I shall never return…The Ark of Ills’ is manifest in the aftershock of man being cast adrift with his self-determination and independent from his creator.
Notes
The album originally contained small black and white photographs. The images were of my mother’s past. The album remained incomplete...several of the pages remained unused...the photo album was taken apart and one of these pages was scanned for the work.
This work was produced for the Cruiser exhibition, ‘Memory & Migration’, Actual Wall (2009)
The paper arks. I have designed a template so that I can make them as and when I require them. For example I took a pre-cut ark to Rome in 2005 and assembled it in a hotel room to use during my stay in the city. I had chosen several locations where it was photographed. Subsequently after it had been used the Roman Ark was deposited unceremoniously in to a public litter bin.
One location for the Rome Ark had been to place the ark in front of the Temple of Caesar; this is located in the Forum Romanum. The temple was built by Augustus after the senate deified Caesar following his death. Caesar’s funeral pyre was speedily constructed out of chairs and furniture hastily brought to bear. Caesar was cremated at the site of where the temple would later be constructed. At the spot people continue to place flowers at the site. My intentions on this occasion however was to place the ark at the site…would Caesar understand this act of mine? Would he see the duplicity of the pure fire of cremation and the significance of dumping my homage to him into a public bin, rather than setting it alight in some contrived ceremony? Caesar I believe knew of his destiny on the day of his death…his work incomplete; paused.
Love
2012
Five pack of briefs with transfer design.
The design consists of a red heart and written upon each heart is some vivacious vernacular.
The altered panties are repackaged with modified branding; the five items are placed back into the original sheath.
Untitled
Mixed Media
2009
The photo album has been composed from fragments of personal family history…some of the images existed before my time…each photo is honed, determined and focused into a world unto itself. The photos convene in a near featureless interior (a replicated page from an old photo album, a bleak and bare landscape, and a landscape that is claustrophobic and confined. The photos in the album are extracted moments…perhaps they are a longing…and something tangible…holding the comforting past…phantoms.
Exhibited as part of the Cruiser Exhibition, 'Memory & Migration'
Actual Wall, November 2009 & DEDA (Derby Dance Centre) January 2010.
The Haywain
2012
Series of 17 A4 digital prints from my childhood past.
All images taken from 35mm slides
All images were printed to have an equal amount of blurriness.
Prints are mounted on the wall and affixed with dressmakers pins.
Skull
1987
Slip Cast with porcelain clay & biscuit fired
Work exhibited as part of the Oldknows@20 event
This work was one of many casts that I made in 1987 in my second year at Sheffield City Polytechnic. My sketchbooks from the period are full of reference material including drawings, photocopies, postcards, newspaper cuttings and photographs. The source material provides an indication as to what my interests were at that time. In detail the material includes crucifixion images; postcards of altar pieces, drawings for self-portraits, museum artefacts and material relating to archaeology and topography. There are also drawings for the presentation and the display of my art works in museum cases and vitrines. Many pages are dedicated to human interventionism in both the rural & urban environments. There are notes on straight jackets, types of human torture, toothache, modern alchemy and cloud seeding to list but a few items. The majority of the material in the sketchbooks dated 1987 relate to my interest in the human corpse in the states of decomposition and preservation. There had at one time been some loose notes in these books on both mummification and scientific conservation methods including the use of formaldehydes. These detailed notes of recipes have now been lost; this is a shame as a lecturer named Colin Walker gave them to me. Colin several years later was to have a solo exhibition at the Oldknows Gallery.
All this material began to be filtered into my work and I began to undertake and produce a host of experimental works. My experimenting continued through the rest of my time at the college and still continues to this day. One of these experimental works was the making of a skull. This required me to learn how to model in clay, create a complex plaster mould and make my own slip and then to finally cast and fire the object. I had made the decision that in order to preserve the fragile nature of the slip cast that I would only biscuit fire the skulls. Following the firing I proceeded to make use of each skull in a number of ways. These skulls for example were taken out and buried in the Yorkshire landscape. In other skullworks the head splints as used by several African tribal cultures would inspire me to reshape my own skulls to create deformed foreheads. One skull had its cranium removed and the cavity filled with lard and a lemon for the creation of electricity. (Fig3. Electrical power from a fresh lemon stimulates the brain, two rods – copper & zinc create electrical power. The brain and the skull are cleaned in solvent of salt and washing up liquid. The lemon is replaced three weeks later. ‘Come to life damned creature!’)
Thrift Box No.1
2004
It is unlikely any significant treasures’ will be found in thrift box No.1. In 1975 Mr. T. Prestel Norfolk (UK) found in an American thrift box a large brass coin of Justinian 1 (AD537), although in poor condition 2 Mr Presetel upon returning home proudly exhibited the coin in his local public house. The material in Thrift Box No.1 had been created in response to a project I was engaged with. The idea behind the project was to write and to illustrate a fictitious history of a mountain, the book was entitled ‘Vultures Drop Heavy Roses’. I began to work on some ideas for illustrations and even contemplated a possible design for the dust jacket; I pondered how I would acquaint the readership with the books premise, I described the book thus...‘Vultures Drop Heavy Roses’ is a poignant and significant historical account of the conquest of the 4080m, Mount Capitalist. Exquisitely researched and lavishly pictorial, ‘Vultures Drop Heavy Roses’ enchants and embraces the reader. The author Thomas Sinclair 3 shoulders the Odyssey. Seduced by the complex shadow of the mountain, Sinclair traverses Europe’s collective history. Sinclair intelligently asserts the mountain’s psychological significance on European consciousness. Sinclair calls forth a human tragedy, the Lazarus Scott expedition of 1865. It is possible (should I have continued and completed a full draft of the text) that I would have revisited the books synopsis...however it became a project that like other overly ambitious projects of mine it too had to take a back seat. 4
Thrift Box was the result of a process that lead me to consider the mountain more fully, I decided to make a small model of Mount Capitalist (out of clay, plaster and powder paint) and whilst doing undertaking this I began also to create a series of illustrations and paintings...thereafter the thrift box project developed its own impetus...
Notes
1. Justinian I (483 – 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Roman (Byzantine) Emperor from 527 to 565.
2. The beauty of the English language... was it the coin or Mr Prestel who was in poor condition?
3. About the Author - Thomas Sinclair was born in the town of Wick in the Highlands of Scotland in 1962. Sinclair was raised in Theed Street, London, where his father, William worked at Waterloo Station as a night porter. As a young man Sinclair became interested in hill walking and Fine Art. His parents encouraged the young Thomas in both of these activities. Sinclair’s’ parents were avid readers of history and modern literature. Thomas’s Mother, Mabel had published by London Press Print (LLP) an historical novel entitled, ‘A Modern Day Dick Whittington’ (1970) a soldier's tale of a member of the BEF who is left for dead upon the Ypres battlefield during the first months of WW1. His mother’s book was to inspire the young Thomas to write. His first novel, Hostages Welsh published by LLP was in 1985. Portrait and Dream (1988) his second novel was based on the life of the American painter Jackson Pollock. This book won him the eminent NYT Literary award in the same year. In 1991 his book was made into a film by Ron H. Saunders. Mr Sinclair’s other published works include Lost (1992) Mask (1994) Idiot Child (1998) Loose Ends (2004) and ‘Fools’ (2009). Most recently Thomas Sinclair has published books on Art criticism under the auspicious title, From the Asylum - new essays. These were published in three volumes, (2004) (2005) (2010). Thomas Sinclair has regular articles published in the Art Periodical, ‘Quibbler.’ It was while researching the life of the Artist Adam Kuklin 1887-1914 that Thomas Sinclair visited Mount Capitalist and became bewitched by the mountains spell. Thomas Sinclair lives with his wife, Magdalena on the outskirts of Salisbury.
4. Project remains unresolved however the text that I had written thus far can be found on my website.
Untitled
2009
Exhibited as part of the Cruiser exhibition Memory and Migration
The photo album has been composed from fragments of personal family history and some of the images were of a time before I was born...each photo is honed, determined and focused into a world unto itself. The photographs convene in a near featureless interior (a replicated page from an old photo album, a bleak and bare landscape that is claustrophobic and confined). The photos in the album are extracted moments; perhaps they are a longing, a means of holding on to a comforting past...phantoms?
Several of the images in the photo album are from a project called ‘The Ark of Ills’, a series of digital images incorporating handmade paper arks1. I have over 100 images recorded thus far and many are still to be taken prior to selection. The works are echoes of memory, vibrations of history, journeys of countless possibilities, the disintegration and authentic theatre.
Additional works in the series have involved actions within the studio; these involve interactions between artist and object…their substance includes the self in processes of acting and engagement. The scale of the fragile paper ark against the mythological giant is evident. These echo comparisons between mortals and the immortals, gods such as Zeus who is an all knowing, all seeing god who represents the natural forces that govern lives of men. We are bound and held fast by mortal bodies. Furthermore, a series of images of an ark were taken in 2005 of the old family home of some fifty years…several images of the house are included in the photo album. The images were made upon the death of my mother and before the house was duly sold. I shall never return…The Ark of Ills’ is manifest in the aftershock of man being cast adrift with his self-determination and independent from his creator.
Notes
The album originally contained small black and white photographs. The images were of my mother’s past. The album remained incomplete...several of the pages remained unused...the photo album was taken apart and one of these pages was scanned for the work.
This work was produced for the Cruiser exhibition, ‘Memory & Migration’, Actual Wall (2009)
The paper arks. I have designed a template so that I can make them as and when I require them. For example I took a pre-cut ark to Rome in 2005 and assembled it in a hotel room to use during my stay in the city. I had chosen several locations where it was photographed. Subsequently after it had been used the Roman Ark was deposited unceremoniously in to a public litter bin.
One location for the Rome Ark had been to place the ark in front of the Temple of Caesar; this is located in the Forum Romanum. The temple was built by Augustus after the senate deified Caesar following his death. Caesar’s funeral pyre was speedily constructed out of chairs and furniture hastily brought to bear. Caesar was cremated at the site of where the temple would later be constructed. At the spot people continue to place flowers at the site. My intentions on this occasion however was to place the ark at the site…would Caesar understand this act of mine? Would he see the duplicity of the pure fire of cremation and the significance of dumping my homage to him into a public bin, rather than setting it alight in some contrived ceremony? Caesar I believe knew of his destiny on the day of his death…his work incomplete; paused.
Virtual Pots
These were produced on my iPad whilst travelling to and from Stoke-on-Trent in 2013
These were produced on my iPad whilst travelling to and from Stoke-on-Trent in 2013
Sculptures 1989 - 2000
This slideshow is not all the work I made during these years. There are a good many works on slide only, at some point in time I may scan in new works or replace images presented herewith.
Notes
The Airplane
Is this some form of ‘Golden Time’ preparation for trying to survive a plane crash? Even since I first started flying in the 1970’s flying is a more serious activity…one is wise not to talk about crash survival statistics and is there really such thing as a safe seat on an aircraft? I contemplated whether these small lead aircraft are votive offerings to the gods…may be I sometimes I like to dwell on thoughts of impending doom and to make plans for dealing with catastrophic events like airline crashes. I read the emergency leaflets on each flight I take and by all accounts I am in a minority.
Wise after the event…be prepared.
At the American Psychological Association’s annual convention in 1999, researchers from Virginia’s Old Dominion University presented some unique findings: Plane crash survivors were healthier, psychologically, and lived with substantially less anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress than travellers who had never been involved in an aviation accident.
The Airplane
Is this some form of ‘Golden Time’ preparation for trying to survive a plane crash? Even since I first started flying in the 1970’s flying is a more serious activity…one is wise not to talk about crash survival statistics and is there really such thing as a safe seat on an aircraft? I contemplated whether these small lead aircraft are votive offerings to the gods…may be I sometimes I like to dwell on thoughts of impending doom and to make plans for dealing with catastrophic events like airline crashes. I read the emergency leaflets on each flight I take and by all accounts I am in a minority.
Wise after the event…be prepared.
At the American Psychological Association’s annual convention in 1999, researchers from Virginia’s Old Dominion University presented some unique findings: Plane crash survivors were healthier, psychologically, and lived with substantially less anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress than travellers who had never been involved in an aviation accident.