Music can touch people, some say it is the highest of all the art forms. Surely it is time for the human body to go beyond the hand under the armpit trumpet.
In other news I have been asked to talk about my work at an event on Thursday. Come along. The Gopher Hole, 350-354 Old Street, EC1V 9NQ
7pm, 27th Jan (thursday) at 350-354 Old Street, EC1V 9NQ
‘As part of our inaugural exhibition, ‘About a Minute’, The Gopher Hole presents four designers, architects and artists from the show to discuss their own work and practice, followed by a discussion chaired by the curators.’
DOMINIC WILCOX
POST WORKS
CHRISTIAN KERRIGAN
THE NEW MINUTE SOCIETY
Chaired by aberrant architecture & Beatrice Galilee
Turn on sound to hear the speaker. Video link
Btw that’s not me in the video.
I was asked to create something for the inaugural exhibition ‘About a Minute’ at a new gallery called The Gopher Hole. The premise of the exhibition was to ‘consider the fact that thanks to decades of exponential hyperactive consumption, the time that someone visiting our gallery will spend contemplating your piece is likely to be less than 59 seconds.’ I decided to play on the traditions of the gallery context by creating a wire sculpture of a chair on a white plinth. However I also decided to add an entertainment factor by integrating a game to keep the attention of those who’s mind jumps quickly onto other things. I thought about the old ‘buzz wire’ game where you try to navigate around a wire without touching it. Typically it makes a buzzing sound when touched but I decided to replace that with my voice saying ‘Do not touch’ to reference the usual stern warnings around galleries. It was very difficult to turn a long length of wire into something that held a shape and I went through a number of failures. You can see more images on my project site here. The exhibition details are below there are 14 other exhibitors.
I know what you’re thinking, ‘So where can I buy this delightful garment?’
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My Friend the talented illustrator Clare Mallison whose work appears in all the big newspapers around the world has started a little web shop of a few drawings. She does particularly nice architecture drawings around London.
I’ve added two pages to this site on the left menu, Drawings and Concepts which hopefully make it easier to view my ideas.
Recently, I gave a recorded interview about recent projects and how I come up with ideas to Shift Run Stop which can be heard here. (The interview is dotted across the pod cast between other things).
I finished two years of my monthly ‘Lost sketchbook’ drawings in Icon magazine recently, here are some ideas from that series.
I have created an index page for the whole 30 day Speed Creating project so that it is easy to view here. Check it out in case you missed a day. I’ve received lots of pleasant emails and comments about the project so thanks for that. Currently I am being invited to talk about the project by different creative organisations so that is keeping me busy. The main aim of the project was to make things instinctively and force myself into making decisions quickly. I believe that some things can only be discovered by getting your hands dirty and just doing it. Try it, see if it works, if not then adjust it or learn from it and do something different. I think when the mind is concentrating on what the hands are doing then the sub-concious mind gets freed up to observe and make creative links. What may appear as a bit of fun to some is deadly serious work to me. Looking back, there is an eclectic mix to each day, it’s always difficult for people to pigeon hole me as a certain type of creative person who works in a particular way. I’m just interested in doing things that excite me and attempt to shine a little light through the fog of everyday normality.
Here is a list of some other examples of people’s creativity that have emerged from a process of thoughtful, hands on experimentation.
Vase Made by Bees by Tomáš Libertiny who I met briefly in New York.
On his website you can see his full body sculpture made by bees (click through). Also see his tables made from the solder in a welding gun here
Maarten Baas is another example of a creative person who takes a path of experimentation in his work. His most well known work is his Smoke furniture range where he sets fire to furniture then strengthens it again with resin.
While I was at the Royal college of art there was a group of people who believed in re-thinking material use and making processes in order to create unique objects. One, more recent RCA graduate was Max Lamb who does some great work like this video of a table made from digging a hole in sand.
The last day of my speed creating project and I wanted to do something that I had a strong feeling could be a total failure but still a hope it might just work. I have no idea how this idea arrived in my head but the plan was this. Buy crisps (chips) crush them up, add a little water and form into a little man, then inflate the crisp packets with helium, tie them to the man and let him fly away.
Anyway I had some packets left over from the day before and started making a little man and his son incase he was too heavy.
Then I found a newsagent shop that inflated birthday balloons for people.
Dominic: Hello do you sell helium?
Shop keeper: yes, what balloon do you want?
Dominic: Well actually I want to inflate a crisp packet.
Shop keeper: a what?
Dominic: Crisp packet
Shop Keeper: Not possible ( This is a regular answer to my questions by people)
Dominic: Why?
Shop keeper: The helium will just pass through the packet. (Helium is thinner than air and can just go through certain materials)
Dominic What even the metallic ones?
Shop keeper: hmm don’t know.
Dominic Can I try?
Shop keeper: Hmm yes.
As you can see in the video the packet just sank to the floor. undeterred I bought some multi pack packets as they are bigger and lighter. On returning to the shop they were too busy to help so i found a florist and went through the explanation again. This time the assistant was a tough looking man who was saying that it would be expensive and there would be lots of wasted helium. I thought ‘I’m not asking you to fill up my Zeppelin parked outside.’ I ignored him and found another assistant called Kevin who was very helpful.
It worked and my crisp packet was flying around the florist.
The other 2 packets I bought didn’t work so it was a bit of a failure in my attempt. I needed some extra lift to get my man in the air. However determined to end on a high (!) I bought two balloons to celebrate the 30th day of my Speed Creating project.
The crisp man was carried far into the distance heading in an easterly direction. I hope you have enjoyed following my 30 days of Speed Creating I am going for a nap now.
This is part of a 30 day Speed Creating project I am doing. Outcomes were exhibited at the Anti – Design Festival between 18th-21st September, Mestakes and manifestos, curated by Daniel Charny, Londonewcastle gallery, 28 Redchurch St, London. You can follow my progress on Twitter and Facebook, Click here to view all the days so far in a row.
I forgot how addictive onion ring crisps (chips) are. Like many people I admire the looped shape of them. I thought about how to use them in a project and eventually ended with the idea of making a fabric out of them.
I glued the onion rings together with a flexible glue. The main problem I had was that I kept eating the rings. This is however the perfect solution to my Day 8: Reminder Flag .
This is part of a 30 day Speed Creating project I am doing. Outcomes were exhibited at the Anti – Design Festival between 18th-21st September, Mestakes and manifestos, curated by Daniel Charny, Londonewcastle gallery, 28 Redchurch St, London. You can follow my progress on Twitter and Facebook, Click here to view all the days so far in a row.
Balloons are great, I’ve had some good fun with them over the years and socks are just one of those excellent inventions. So I thought why not bring the two together? By inserting a balloon into a sock and inflating, the sock stretches to its fullest capacity.
I then thought if I coat them in clear resin the socks could remain in that shape. I didn’t have enough time in the day and the resin I used didn’t harden quick enough so I improvised.
In my resin testing at first I was trying to get the balloon out but then decided to let it stay in as it stuck to the inside of the sock when I pop it, giving an extra layer of strength but also adding a colour.
I will continue this one and make a sock lamp collection.
Today I made a shelf from coloured pencils by glueing them together. I was suprised at how strong it was using two layers of pencils.
The shelf brackets are made by cutting a single pencil case into two parts and glueing together. The sliding doors hide the screws.
This is part of a 30 day Speed Creating project I am doing. Outcomes were exhibited at the Anti – Design Festival between 18th-21st September, Mestakes and manifestos, curated by Daniel Charny, Londonewcastle gallery, 28 Redchurch St, London. You can get updates on my future work on RSS, Twitter and Facebook.
Continuing my investigation into bread I created some bread vases. I used tin foil as a base on which to wrap the bread dough. I decided to overlap the dough and keep the seam which seemed a natural method of joining the rolled dough. I always think it is best to let a material go where it wants and take a natural form under guidance. I started sealing the vases with resin and varnish and i will report back in the future.
I enjoy waiting to see how the heat and the baking process affects the dough. I’m learning what is possible and how to solve issues as I go along. The imperfections, curves and leans in the vases are something I am excited about.
The stage of creating the foil base is essential to the final form.
This is part of a 30 day Speed Creating project I am doing. Outcomes were exhibited at the Anti – Design Festival between 18th-21st September, Mestakes and manifestos, Londonewcastle gallery, 28 Redchurch St, London. You can follow my progress on Twitter and Facebook, Click here to view all the days so far in a row.
The door stop is a modest thing, quietly getting on with it’s job of keeping the door open. I decided to attempt to reveal it’s true inner strength. Using lengths of wood I extended out from the door stop across the room. The extension does not touch the floor, it is purely supported by the solitary door stop and the strength of it’s wedge under the door.
2 hours previously my sister had a baby called Holly, I have added her name in the work. Congratulations little sis and Rob, welcome tiny Holly.
Time is so fleeting, many people want it all back again but the best we can do is try to capture moments. A bronze bust captures a person’s face for eternity. I decided to use another metal to create my own bust, one that is so fragile it can be destroyed in a second. This tin foil bust is me at the age of 21 (a long while ago). (Made by forming foil into the original old plaster mould)
This is part of a 30 day Speed Creating project I am doing. Outcomes were exhibited at the Anti – Design Festival between 18th-21st September, Mestakes and manifestos, curated by Daniel Charny, Londonewcastle gallery, 28 Redchurch St, London. You can follow my progress on Twitter and Facebook, Click here to view all the days in a row.
I like how light passes through a balloon. One of the top dogs in the balloon kingdom is the balloon animal and I decided to make a chandelier out of them.
I enjoyed the colours on the ceiling.
Making balloon animals is a test of nerve, they can go bang at any time.
Herding my balloons into some sort of order was a difficult task. They are all shapes and sizes and each wants to go it’s own way.
My favourite imaginary fruit would be a giant grape the size of a cantaloupe melon. I can imagine it heavy in my hand and I would have a slice with cheese. Grapes are little juicy jewels to me and I wanted to treat them as something deserving of special attention.
Here I wrapped them in thread. It’s quite a difficult procedure, the unwrapping of the grape will be far quicker depending on your prefered technique.
Here I thought about packaging them in a layer of wax so that the ceremony of eating each grape gained an even higher level of appreciation.
I used thread around the grape so that it could be used to aid the pealing of the wax which would cover it.
‘The dipping of the grape’ in the wax.
The grape is unveiled by pulling the thread and peeling back the wax shell. The ‘Eating of the Grape’ commences. I think I have been subconsciously influenced by the work of Deirdre Nelson.
This is part of a 30 day Speed Creating project I am doing. Outcomes were exhibited at the Anti – Design Festival between 18th-21st September, Mestakes and manifestos, Londonewcastle gallery, 28 Redchurch St, London. You can follow my progress on Twitter and Facebook, Click here to view all the days so far in a row.
I wanted to mix bread with some existing structure so chose a couple of items for the baking treatment. Firstly the Philippe Starck lemon squeezer which is very sleek and stylish, perfect to be breadified.
Dough took a while to wrap around the squeezer.
Made me hungry for lemon curd on crispy bread.
Attempt at stylish shot in style of.
I had the idea to mix plaster with the flour to see if it made a super strong bread.
Thought I would make the grip comfortable for me.
The Plaster-Bread has the nice crack/crustiness of bread but loses the brown colour. More testings of this new material are imminent.
The opening party for the Anti design festival was today and so I had to go in and build/design a way of showing the things I have made during my one a day speed creating project so far. I had a large column in the middle of the room to work around. The Anti design festival is very much anti ‘slick’ so I knew I could just make it up as I went along in a speedy way with lots of Gaffa tape. The videos I have made are also projected on a large screen within the ‘Mestakes and Manifestos’ room. If you are new here go to the main page to see all the day projects so far. My installation and the many other works by other people are on show until the 21st sept (adf continues till 26th) at the LondonNewcastle gallery, 28 Redchurch st, London. map
On visiting the space I saw some pizza boxes used by some people the previous night. I asked if anyone was using them and they werent. I thought that the fast food nature of the boxes fitted with ‘speed creating’ and so I would make some shelves from them.
used some more fast food things in these chinese take away boxes.
I bought packets of ice lolly sticks from a craft shop and arranged them on the floor. I liked the random pattern and decided to glue them together.
I thought adding colour to the sticks would be good and I decided to dip the sticks in ink up to the same line as used ice lollys are stained.
I made the word YES as I think it’s the most positive word there is. I feel this sums up the project in some way, Can I think of an idea today? ‘YES’ I try to tell myself. As soon as I start thinking NO then it tends to come true so I want to try to keep reminding myself of the YES.
There are a couple of ideas I’ve had in the past that I wanted to try out to see if they work. This one is about making it easier to walk up hills. I attach a angled block onto my shoes so that my foot can remain horizontal as I climb the hill.
I found a piece of wood in a skip and cut it up. I drilled some holes in the side and fed some shoe laces through it that would be used to fasten the blocks to my shoes.
I found a little hill, there are very few hills in London so this had to do
Got my hill blocks out.
Strapped them on.
The test revealed that I shouldn’t have used laces as they kept coming loose. The foot did keep quite horizontal but it was still a bit awkward, though this may have been down to the feeble lace attachment. I ran out of time to fix it so it felt a bit of a failure. Which as I say in my project description, I embrace and learn from.
My bath always seemed to be missing something, could not put my finger on it, then I realised what it was so I made it.
Bought a cherub and drilled a hole in it’s mouth, attached some pipes and glued them in place.
This is part of a 30 day Speed Creating project I am doing. Final outcomes will be exhibited at the Anti – Design Festival between 18th-21st September, Mestakes and manifestos, Londonewcastle gallery, 28 Redchurch St, London. You can follow my progress on Twitter and Facebook, Click here to view all the days so far in a row.
I visited a factory and looked around for something to make. I found some rope and a wooden armchair and decided to make a swing as there was a high beam on the ceiling.
Ron and Richard helped me put it up.
It took a little time to work out how to tie it securely.
Dominic Wilcox 