Conjoined objects

wooden crates + video tape, 2007

wooden doors + hoover tube, 2007

Here are a couple of works created in the studio last year, it was around a time when i was using a lot of found objects and creating sculptural pieces with a quick and playful way of arrangement. These two works were recognizing a materials properties and how it can be used to do a job in creating a basic structure. Also I was considering how the objects were used prior to my intervention and keeping these roles active; the video tape is wound around in a continuous loop, the hoover tube is pressed against the door seeming to hold it upright through suction.
The reason I've posted these up is I went to a talk the other night hosted by artist Vanessa Billy, hearing her talk about similar starting points in her installations; material qualities, connotations, arrangement within a space, it made me think back to these works and elevated them as artworks for me. Maybe its because they were products of experimentation within the studio and never exhibited, i don't know, but there has been a definite addition of levels with recent work, a lot more of a narrative and factors of site specificity to make my work feel whole when now i don't know if this was massively important.

Liverpool biennial at A foundation.

Suspension of disbelief, Steve Bishop, 2007

Repetitive strain injuries 1-3, Andrew Larkin, 2007

I know this seems a little dated piece of info now but i wanted to write about my experience working at the A foundation this September. I had read about the events taking place but when I was told i should come and get involved i had no idea what I would be doing. What actually happened was I turned up on day one of setting up a huge scale installation for the group Artists Anonymous. They are a 3 person artists group from Berlin and although I had not heard about there work it seemed the projects they were currently involved in were all on the grander side of things.
I was working with a team of guys who had all worked with the group prior and had come across with one of the artists. We went about building a huge set of wooden tunnels connecting a series of temporary cabins which are usually used on building sites. These rooms were all setup into changed and disturbing environments, for example a 70's style living room; carpeted, wallpapered and furnished but with a sauna stove running inside. The entire installation worked as a stage for people to interactive with and all these features provoked a dialog of conversation which played out the work. It was definitely an interesting project to work on and certainly not somewhere where id be sitting around most of the time with nothing to do which is usually the case, the average day working was creeping up to 15 hours but i was certainly glad of this.
The images I have included are from the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition which was running at the same time. Some of the work was hugely impressive and a real wake up to the level of professionalism i need to have in my own work even at this stage.
I'm massively busy myself at the moment with the shop exhibition I'm working on with Krystle, we are now working alongside members of the arts development at Poole council which is great and although we have not got a shop sorted yet ,which is quite scary, it feels like were approaching the project in the right way with real enthusiasm from everyone we speak to. The date in our heads for the show is early December and I'll write up an entry about how it all went then.