130 - Diversion - Part 1, Problems

I went off at a tangent with the plasticine work - which brought conflict, problems and a reward.  Blowing up the female form suddenly about-faced to a kind of conceptual expressionism, challenging human communication. It is not always a good idea to follow a whim, but ideas are legion, and so tempting.

The idea literally popped into my head for ‘Black and White Issue’ and ‘Coloured Vision’ when I was in the studio amongst balloons and a small packet of coloured Plasticine modelling clay. I quickly sketched the ideas out in felt tip and wrote a short application for a commission, offered by the Whitechapel Gallery as part of an open studios biennial. They wanted work for a warehouse space called Commercial Too.

I was delighted to get a yes and enough money to buy the materials.

There was only one snag:  I hadn’t actually made a piece of work this size or weight before. Or anything of this ilk. The miraculous moment of inspiration hadn’t come with engineering instructions.

I remember sitting in the dimly lit warehouse, surrounded by antish artists busily installing. There was a large stack of bulk buy modelling clay in cardboard boxes on the cement floor. In sailed the gallery assistant, (or director? Not sure). She chirped over gaily inquiring how the schedule was going. I had this feeling I was going to be able to wing it and it would be OK. It was half OK.

I had made a large tray, roughly 1.5 metres wide and I imagined hanging the tray vertically on the wall and pushing the soft clay onto the back of it. But the MDF tray was too large and heavy for the small 'heavy duty' metal brackets I’d chosen. There was no way two of us could lift it and align the brackets. And the modelling clay wasn't pliable. It was cold and hard.

In the end, I had to abandon the brackets and I just screwed the whole thing to the wall.  I found a hammer, got a block of modelling clay and smashed it onto the backing. It stuck, luckily.

The finished piece looked great and I took some blurry photographs in the half light.

It was a beautiful, modelling clay abstract artwork waiting to become a work of expressionism.

Over the weeks of the show it morphed into 3D graffiti. It was fabulous. 

And it was stuck to the wall.

Tomorrow, Part 2