I wanted to expand the Tubie world into seated figures. This proved exceedingly difficult! The aluminium ducting is very resistant to bending. Simon the very knoweldgeable Metalwork technician at Bath Spa uni batted away every suggestion I came up with to achieve this. Eventually he told me to go away! As short of running it over with a JCB or as my tutor suggested a Tank; nothing was going to work. These 2 options were likely to flatten the pipe completely which isn’t what I wanted. Ans the army probably have more pressing concerns at the moment.
I went away then came back and asked Simon one more time – would a sledgehammer work? He wasn’t hopeful. Repeated blows just dented the pipe. I was about to give up but Simon took a look and advised me the only other method was to use the hammer vertically. And after a lot of bashing it finally started to crease. Then become bendable.
I now have 2 seated Tubies. In common with the other Tubies, the whole outside surface is part of the work. I thought this was integral to the work even if the viewer can’t see it. And then there are things that aren’t imediately apparent – the bottle of gin hidden behind the legs of the apparently respectable knitting woman. And her puppy has psychelic Smileys for pupils. While the Purple Ribena man is drinking out of a pint glass and the bottle is painted through his legs on both sides. When I carry these it feels like I am carrying a person. It’s really odd. But in a good way. And they settle into a chair really naturally.
Fashion photography had a cool vintage chair in the window in their space at Locksbrook campus. It looked ideal for the Tubie to spend the night in comfort. It also made an impromptu guerilla exhibition space for 18 hours. Which felt like a continuation of when I piggybacked on Venice Bienniale in 2019 and set up guerilla exhibitions in both their main venues – Arsenale and Giardini. You can still see them on Artrabbit.
