There is a short piece about my work inside this recently published book, it look like quite an interesting read. It is available from the Book Depository here or from Amazon here
Additions to Clay Bodies by Kethleen Standen
There is a short piece about my work inside this recently published book, it look like quite an interesting read. It is available from the Book Depository here or from Amazon here
Exhibition words...
Exhibition notes for the first show in the 'Outrageously Pretentious' tour
OUTRAGEOUSLY PRETENTIOUS - A One Night Stand (21st Nov 2012)
Standing in front of the urinal, contemplating life, the universe and everything, you find yourself drifting to that sunny day. That day with both feet barely touching the ground, proudly astride your birthday bike to grow into, the instruction to begin the race eagerly anticipated. With streaming tassels protruding from the end of your handlebars, you wait.
Your racetrack extends in front of you, the steady gradient rising past a frenzied throng of spectators. This is to be the greatest race of the day, the race for which all five spectators had ignored signs of imminent rainfall. They huddle, fixatedly, wondering ‘what’s for tea?’ Hoping for sausages.
As you strain against the peddle, two wheels slowly begin to move. The ten thousand mile race to the end of the road and back begins.
Five artists walk into a bar.
As you meander slowly through the first installment, a one night stand. Consider a hop, a twirl, a pretentious pose. Stop off for a moment to enjoy a slice of cake, before continuing on your journey with a smile of self-gratification.
Yuang Chai Wong, Ben Wardell, Richard Taylor, Nick Davie, and David Stanners come together in this, the first in a series of shows that witness their playful experimentation with collaborative development and curation. Unified through an interest in elevating the mundane, whilst observing the absurdity of existing as an artist, and having fun whilst they are at it.
As you enjoy their work, look at, through and beyond. Realise that we, the audience, become an integral component within the experience. We become the outrageous, the pretentious participants within the presentation of artwork. Its entire positioning meticulously calculated through the rules of pataphysics.
The sun continues to shine as your feet continue to push peddles to the speed of light, around the bend, close to the hogshead barrel to view your uphill return to the bottom of the hill. Relentlessly you toil, determined to win, to gain the adulation of the long gone crowd.
A butterfly passes, a momentary distraction. You put away your ‘shewee’, zip up you trousers, wash your hands and get on with the rest of your life.
We hope you enjoy the show.
More exhibition words...
Essay for the 'Second Coming - Intro' event for the 'Outrageously Pretentious' touring exhibition...
Outrageously Pretentious – The Second Coming (4th March 2013) Over+Out Lincoln.
As the warm sea rolls in over your feet, splashing your rolled up legs, you drift gently into a world of tranquillity. The sun strokes your face, and all is well. Pineapple pushing memories from the night before are shaken away with the trees that merrily sway in the gentle breeze.
Climb the stairs,
Brush the curtain aside and enter the darkness.
Lie down by the playful fountain.
And squeeze yourself into something less comfortable.
Welcome, once again, to the world of the Outrageously Pretentious.
Following the fortunes of a time with cake, join this fruit filled ride. As Jupiter looks on, you may sip and wander. As the transformed dream steams along to discover those heady days from antiquity and beyond.
Time slows to the speed of light and once again you view the world through the eyes of a potato, blinkered only through your desire to see more. What delights will you find? What revelations to behold? Experiences met? In this - The Second Coming.
Tonight, ‘The Intro’, a pineapple of a night that delivers what, for the past two months, Richard Taylor, Ben Wardell, Nick Davie, Yuang Chai Wong and Sarah Coombes have been formulating, plotting and playing. Join them as they step to the beat of their own composition in this chapter of the experience through another curated experiment in how to create, consider and look at artwork.
Did you know that the pineapple, a most excellent fruit and an emblem of welcome, hospitality and giving, is a clump of berries, fused together to create a whole?
The ‘Intro’ will be followed shortly by “The Outro’, A night that will extend the dialogue created by these artists through the invitation of those based in Lincoln, Artists who will be selected for their positive embracement of the playful, the inquisitive and beyond.
Alongside bananas in a deserted courtyard, you stare aimlessly towards the horizon. The waves continue to lap at your feet as the number 42 train comes into view. It pulls up. You climb aboard and continue along your merry way.
Some More Exhibition words
The essay for the final exhibition in the series 'Outrageously Pretentious'
Outrageously Pretentious: the Second Coming The Outro (22.03.13)
Speeding along on your merry way, juggling eyeballs as trees and bananas flash by the window of your carriage. You stare slowly back through the courtyard, into the distance of a world about to become inside out, you wait, as paint dries.
Once again waves lap against your rolled up legs as you ascend into the darkness through a sprinkling of gold, to be faced with a tight squeeze, or a ring of a bell.
Decision made, you immerse yourself into the carnivalesque world of the Outrageously Pretentious.
The Second Coming draws to a close with this, the Outro. A mopping up of a night that also hails the end of the space beneath your feet.
For the past 18 months Over+Out has delivered an extensive programme of exciting events and exhibitions that, with this night, will come to an end.
Before that can happen, tonight must transpire.
For tonight, Ben Wardell, Yuang Chai Wong, Dicky Taylor, Nick Davie and Sarah Coombes are joined by an array of Lincoln based artists and a select group of honorary Frank Bobbins artists to bring you a night of multi sensory delight.
As The Invisible Artist, Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber rub shoulders in this gnome filled time of merriment, we strike a pose and drink from the fountain of eternal obviousness. Ponder for a while, before accepting the difference between Time Transfixed on a bicycle and the lucky patch of night is really the size of an oak tree.
Listen intently as the voice of a generation shouts quietly in your ear, with the sound of the drum beating down gently from intention to realisation. If you have a beard, now would be an opportune time to give it a stroke.
Lower the flag. Pull the plug, and put the cat out with the milk bottles, if you are the last to leave. This journey has only just begun.
Look at the stars in the sky, make a wish, step on board and throw caution to the wind. Place the can with the can and dust merrily along towards the next instalment as we spin around in the waltzer cars.
Keep your hands inside the car at all times, hold on tight and scream if you want to go faster.
We hope you enjoy the ride.
After all, a potted plant is not always what it seems.
The Frank Bobbins Institute.
Twenty years ago I had a
passing thought. A passing though that led to viewing a building with the
intention to buy. I was busy researching for an artists biography when I found
that his former studio space was for sale. It was an interesting space and I wanted
to save it from demolition. Alas, my endeavour was to be futile. The land upon
which the building stood was contaminated and the cost was to prove too much.
My intention for the building was to convert it into studio spaces for recent
graduates. A space that would provide a cheap stepping stone over those first
difficult years.
The studio was later
demolished to become a car sales business, and my idea was put aside. Over the
years the idea has drifted in and out of focus alongside various unsuccessful
attempts to obtain properties for potential gallery and studio projects.
Head down, I have continued
to work as an artist, art historian, curator, writer of nonsense and lecturer.
It is through my work as a
lecturer that I met Dave. Dave is also an artist, alongside being a designer,
an author and a lecturer. We began working together about ten years ago when he
became the painting and design lecturer where I was the sculpture and art
history lecturer.
During a period of mutual
confusion with elements of the structure that surrounded us, we blundered upon
Frank Bobbins and his Bobbinist Manifesto. Frank became our catalyst, our
invented deity, through whom we vented our creative frustration. Our antidote
to what had fast become a constraining situation. Over time Frank has come to
symbolise all that is positive with childlike curiosity and fun, when
oppressive seriousness appears to engulf our creativity.
A year ago, whilst sitting
beside the water, close to Sol LeWitt's cinder block and mortar sculpture at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where
our students were on their research trip. Our conversation drifted towards
where their future would lie and we joked about setting up a studio space and
gallery. We named the idea ‘The Frank Bobbins Institute’.
A year later, the
opportunity for a venue arose and we stumbled back into the earlier
conversation. An opportunity too good to be missed, we took the risk.
A busy few months later, our
artists selected, the building work nearly complete. We are pleased to unveil
the studio space and gallery, that is “The Frank Bobbins Institute”.
It has been twenty years
from initial idea, to the final realisation. The space will be a provider of
cheap studio space, dialogue and exhibition opportunity for a group of recent
graduates.
We hope you find time to visit and enjoy the atmosphere.
Frank Bobbins Institute blog
@frank_bobbins
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