Americium 241 (we are all terrorists now)

Referencing the abstract expressionist boxes of Louise Nevelson.

Medium: electronic components including parts from a disused burglar alarm mounted on canvas.

A Plague Upon You (new assemblage sculpture)

A test tube containing an unspecified substance is embedded into a 20x20cm canvas and illuminated. With the piece I am challenging notions of superstition in the modern world. In particular the hypocrisy of those who benefit from all the advances of science (eg: medicine and technology) and yet still promote superstition and myth.

Pole Dancing Robots and Disgusting Switches

Good BBC news piece about Giles Walker and Katrin Baumgarten who subvert technology to make an artistic message. We like that :-)

Night Cavity #2 : New Sculpture

This is my latest sculpture, its mixed media/assemblage art. Mounted in a 8x8 deep edge canvas. The "organ" part the glows is made of moulded fabric/paper and acrylic paints. The illumination is provided by a high brightness LED. This powered by a 2xAA batteries, connected to a home made circuit, which is a light-dependent resistor and a "Darlington pair" of two transistors. This detects when its dark and switches on the LED. The batteries last weeks and it looks quite different at night to during the day.

Finished sculpture

Whole view of sculptures

The preset resistor (blue on left) allows the circuit to be "calibrated" so you can decide how dark it needs to be before it switches on.

The sculpture and electronics before assembly

Henry Miller on artists and suffering

I found this wonderful Henry Miller quote on the TV series "Century of the Self" by Adam Curtis. I think its particularly relevant to artists;

"My argument with so much as psychoanalysis is the preconception that suffering is a mistake, or a sign of weakness, or a sign even of illness, when in fact, possibly the greatest truths we know have come out of people’s suffering; that the problem is not to undo suffering or to wipe it off the face of the earth but to make it inform our lives, instead of trying to cure ourselves of it constantly and avoid it, and avoid anything but that lobotomized sense of what they call “happiness.” There’s too much of an attempt, it seems to me, to think in terms of controlling man, rather than freeing him. Of defining him rather than letting him go. It’s part of the whole ideology of this age, which is power-mad."
Henry Miller 1960s

Most of the Adam Curtis documentaries are on youtube and are well worth a look.

The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic

I'm a real fan of Alan Moore and his work. As a rationalist I am interested in the occult but from from a psychological perspective. Moore was interviewed for the Disinformation podcast a while back and he made references to The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic a collaboration that he is working on with Steve Moore. It sounds like a humorous but thought provoking guide to the occult in a "boys own" style. It even includes a board game and a tarot set! Can't wait, 2013 is just too far off. More detals below.


The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic is an upcoming hardcover work by Alan Moore and Steve Moore (no family relation to each other). Both men have written comics and together co-founded the private magical order known as The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels. The book is due for release from Top Shelf Productions in 2013. [1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_and_Serpent_Bumper_Book_of_Magic

PPV (torture) - assemblage sculpture

Assemblage sculpture using electronic circuit boards, cotton fabric and acrylic paint.
Encapsulated organic form with slot for pay-per-view card


side view


front view (with viewing card)


close up detail

Altar of the Thermionic Valve

Assemblage sculpture using electronic, paint and thermionic valve from the 60s. Technology and flesh appear to be merged.

Experiment #1

I've had this one in the studio for months and I finally finished it the other day. Its another mixed media piece, including paper mache like techniques, tubing, wire, acrylic paint

.

Started making mixed media art again.

After a longish break producing some landscapes for a big exhibition I am concemtrating on sculpture, sketching and nonlandscpae painting for a while. Pictures coming up