Apocalypse Right Now!

This was an instillation I did recently at The Smiling motorbike (a squatted social centre in Stokes croft) as a response to the stop Hinkley campaign (the proposed nuclear sight not far from Bristol) along with a benefit gig.

I worked solidly through the day and into the evening in the front window. This became something of a live painting spectacle as the window display area was large and very visible on the main strip in Stokes Croft. So all through the day and into the night when the party started I had an audience, which if I'm honest I quite liked.

The two radio active suits sit around drinking radio active wine, trying to ignore the destruction around them and the nuclear blast going off in the distance.

There seems to be a lot of films about at the moment concerning future worlds and a general sense of doom and gloom as to this planet or more specifically our species fate. These are distressing times, though the future is not necessarily decided. Id like to think we will get our act together and do something about it but have a sinking feeling we Will just sit around with our fingers in our ears and let it all fall down around us...

Loonar City

Loonar City, this was what I came up with after a short while spent pondering an email that requested artists to come and make an instillation for a festival of lunacy (a film festival, put on by compass film, held in an old coroners court and one time mortuary for suspicious deaths).

The idea revolves around the idea of lunacy as a relative thing depending on your perspective. So one person's idea of madness is another's genius plan, one woman is clearly insane another is wonderfully eccentric. So what if such characters that push to redefine the boundaries of madness were all to live in a city that allowed them to live out there crazy lives to the full?

My plan was to make a 3d version of this city of the mind where within the cities buildings would be little dioramas that revealed the secret worlds of the cities inhabitants. I'd never done anything quite like this and wasn't quite prepared for the work load that ensued.

Making the instillation was lots of fun. Just to work on a big scale made a change. Ive always liked making things since I was a kid and made castles and monsters out of cereal packets, but this time I got to make things on a room filling scale.

It was great to work instinctively with materials available ( I scouted round town with a trolley and picked up anything that looked interesting). Not having enough time to fuss over things but just doing, flat out hour after hou, was refreshing. Saying that, an artist is never satisfied with what they've done; I would have loved more time to explore more ideas and to make Small and fine details.

The slap dash sprawling cardboard monster that came forth from this hectic activity surprisingly came together at the last possible moment as something approaching a finished piece.

Seeing as the creation was called loonar city and made for a festival of Lunacy it was appropriately mad and received enthusiastically by a few (probably also mad) people.

Im as busy as I want to be

Loonar city, an instillation I did for the
lunacy film festival.


The last three weeks have been a shit storm of busyness for me.
So when my dad recently said " I'm as busy as I want to be" when asked about his day to day activities, this sounded to me like the way things should be and made me think of my life of late, which has been exceedingly full and stressful. Did I choose it to be so?

Well not exactly, Ive had a whole host of personal problems piled on top of which I've been helping with a squatted social centre, helping with the organising of a Christmas market, trying to put a news letter together, planing for an exhibition and making an instillation for a film festival.

To illustrate the point it took me four an a half hours to find a spare few minutes to brush my teeth a few days ago. Even when I finally managed to slip away an attend to said teeth, someone managed to track me down and ask me about things while I was brushing, I was a stressed and agitated teeth brusher I can tell you.

Now I could go on whining about my stressful life, but that would be pathetic and bedsides, yes I did choose to be this busy. Not quite in such a mind bendingly, head fuck way, but I do want to live a full life and things will calm down. So overall, on average, I'm only a bit busy. If not I would be very much dead by now.

In fact given the choice between excessive thumb twiddling and hectic chaos Id go for the chaos every time.

I think its good to be busy, just make sure your busy doing what you wanna do an not what someone else wants you to do. And once in a while ask yourself "am I as busy as I want to be?"

There will be more about just what it is that's been keepin me busy when I'm not so damn busy!

What once was an idea, became something real

Setting up meetings and getting everyone focused and excited was the first step but the actual mechanics of putting everything together and crucially opening the doors and getting the public to come in and see our hard work was, Well, it wasn't as straight forward as I first thought.

Showing art, getting it out there from the confines of your mind, from an idea to a tangible thing that is out there in the big world is the whole point isn't it? Well there is always the sheer joy of making things, ultimately though, I think its expressing yourself that drives most artists. So how can you express yourself if you have no one to express yourself to?

Our main problem was that we were an unknown group in an unknown venue that although enjoys a prime central location sits just of the main thoroughfares and there for just outside of most poeples radars. To add to this access to the venue is through some old iron gates and then up some stairs; the public being fickle as they are, it proved hard to lure them inside.

There were problems of access, publicity, of making sure there are enough people to invigilate and reminding them when there shifts are. These problems were confronted in an ad hock and unprepared way, this lead to some of us working at four in the morning making a program and cutting out huge gold arrows to point the way, which we then stuck up around the building.

Often it is only when you realise that there is lots to do and it has to be done right now that it actually gets done. Yet I find that if your determined and passionate about what your doing then you will find a way. Next time though I would prefer not to work 18 hour days and walk around in a sleep deprived, glazed eyed, dribbling daze.

So in conclusion I recommend being prepared and organised, delegate and give yourself realistic time scales for everything. Saying that if your not so good at these things just run around in a manic rush for a few days and with a bit of luck and determination it will all come together in a magical way. Honestly.

The Island Artists Exhibition, the begining

The flyer for the Island Artists Exhibition
(not my design)


Hmm there's so much to talk about and so little time to talk about it. My intentions were to keep up to date with all my various endeavours but Ive had enough trouble keeping up with the endeavours themselves.

Well I guess the biggest and most interesting endeavour so far has been organising an exhibition. Id never done it before so it was certainly a shock to the system. The set up is a little out of the ordinary so will take some explaining:

I rent a studio at the Island which is a mad jumble of buildings ( an old police station and an old fire station in one complex ) and a mad jumble of people.

For instance the Island is the home of the Invisible Circus who put on mind boggling theatrical, circus shows followed by bands and music till the early ours creating a chaotic, alternative, fun night of revelry that is renowned Bristol wide and beyond. As well as the colourful circus there are studios full of busy painter's, sculptures, film makers, carpenters and well all soughts.

So that's the setting, the challenge was bringing together the diverse mix of people who rent studios there, to create an exhibition worthy of such a left of center jumble of creativity.

The whole thing started in a blissfully ignorant manner, when one day I asked
" have we ever had a tenants exhibition here?" to which the reply came " no, you should do that" so I did.

First came weekly meetings and many mass emails, followed by door knocking campaigns. Very slowly I started to meet more and more people and introduce them to other people, whilst the idea for an exhibition took hold and from vague beginnings some momentum was achieved.

If the aim is to be more twisted I think I'm making progress.

This will be the cover to Oyy! you twat comics no2, which by organic accident rather than design is turning into a feminist issue. This is because it has occurred to me that while half the worlds population is oppressed there is little hope for change in this world and unless we all want to drown in a pool of our own piss and shit then change is definitely a necessary thing.
Another theme in this issue is that of overpopulation and the fact, that this is probably the single biggest factor contributing to the down fall of the human race and degradation of the planet. No matter how much you recycle how much you try to live a sustainable life having one more child will undo all of that. Not that we should or could all stop the natural urge to procreate but we should think about it a little more and be aware of the problems of over population.

Yawn yawn yawn .

But hang on think about this this is, The human race, everything we know and care about.
OK I'm ranting a bit, I should shut up now because to much ranting can grate on the ears and mind. This in essence is why I'm trying to put my thoughts down in comic form. A format I hope will be enlightening and informative without being preachy, so that just maybe entertainment, humour and enlightened ranting can exist in one place, we shall see...

Incidentally it has been shown that one of the most effective ways of reducing population growth is through the education and emancipation of women. In places where women have access to education and are able to live more self determined lives it is shown that they are more likely to have less children and in pursuing careers and education are likely to have children later in life.

Here are a couple of previews of some new stories to be found in the upcoming episode of OY!!! YOU TWAT COMICS NO2.

The Man Who Came From Far Away And Was Mildly Irritating!: A heart wrenching tale of crudely drawn stick men on an inane and purposeless mission to nowhere set to a backdrop of oppression and subjugation of the worlds women. Fun for all the family!

The Orgasm Catcher: The story of one woman’s struggle to achieve an orgasm with the help of a special delivery and the services of Doctor Umnga Bumnga. Poignant and thought provoking.