Well, this story is about 4 years old and something that strongly influences the work I make now. It is a true story that I sometimes refer to when people ask about what drives my personality to make the work that I do.
I have always collected useful pieces of plastic, wood and cardboard from skips, recycling bins and charity shops, often using small parts for each of my projects. I was waiting for an exhibition of my work to be installed at a local gallery and had to select items from a large collection I owned. I wanted to exhibit a collection of pieces I had made based around taking apart old pieces of furniture and alarm clocks. However, at the time I lived with my parents in a house that my mother refers to as “a little home with too much tat” (literally every wall is decorated with framed photographs, cukoo clocks, lucky horse shoes, wooden spoons, anything and everything) so I didn’t have enough room to lay my works out and select the ones that complimented each other. Luckily my Nan lived nearby and had a large front yard, of which we hiked all of my works in the car and layed them out. My Grandad had gone to the shops for his daily newspaper and when he arrived back to all my work on the lawn he took one glace at me, smirked and said very loudly, “You waiting for the ‘Rag and Bone’ men to come and collect all this tat then?” and with that he continued to affectionatly mock me and refer to any work I made as “old junk made lovingly”.
