Visualisation of an art gallery wall mural proposal
Digital montage. March 2025
A visualisation of a proposal for a mural painted directly onto an art gallery wall.
The mural depicts a procession of people with extremely long legs.
A possible interpretation of the work is that the extreme height that the people have attained due to having such long legs comes at a price.
Physical height is usually thought of as being desirable in people as it is interpreted as a sign of power and strength.
However it has its drawbacks. Tall people tend not to live as long as shorter people, and in the case of the long-legged people in my image how on earth do they tie their shoe laces? Also, notice that they seem to need sticks to help them to keep their balance.
The physical height of the people can be taken to be a metaphor for power of more abstract forms, while the sticks that the people are using in order to keep themselves upright may be seen as metaphors for the methods which people in positions of power have to use in order to prop themselves up.
Sketch of a bizarre headless figure with flying head
Digital sketch on iPad. February 2025
A digital sketch from the imagination, drawn on an iPad.
This sketch was drawn spontaneously, with no preconceived idea of what I was going to draw.
It’s quite bizarre and fantastical, maybe a bit unsettling and grotesque.
The process involved drawing the slightly random black form of the body first and then adding additional elements that were suggested by the shape of the body. The giant hands were the first additions. These suggested that the figure should remain headless.
The hands seemed to be grasping for something, which suggested a floating object just out of reach of the hands. This in turn suggested that a floating head could be the object, particularly because the figure had no head.
This in turn gave rise to the idea that the head could actually be flying, and that it could be doing so with the use of extra-large ears (possibly reflecting the extra-large hands of the headless figure).
Bridge. A sculpture as a metaphor for cooperation.
Document clips, wood 18x31x10cm Jan 2025
A sculpture composed of document clips that grip each other to form an arch or bridge. The bridge spans the gap between two pieces of wood on which the document clips stands.
Part of the concept behind the assemblage is that the arch of clips literally bridges the gap between the two separate parts of the base. The linked clips represent the concept of achievements that can only be made by cooperation with others (In this case with other document clips). It’s a metaphor for communication and cooperation.
The fact that the clips are in a variety of different colours is significant, as it represents diverse types of people cooperating. The colours aren’t meant to signify any particular quality of diversity such as race or sexuality, just diversity in general.
It’s quite a literal sculpture, conveying a straightforward concept. It’s also a simple and elegant form. Simple in form and simple in concept – that makes a change.
Digital drawing (Procreate on iPad). 8th January 2025
A sketch from the imagination depicting a ship with legs.
The ship looks as though it may be based on a historical wooden sailing ship. The masts resemble crosses for some reason, each having only one horizontal member (or yard). This is probably just for simplification and clarity (and laziness) rather than it being some sort of profound allusion to Christianity. Feel free to find a profound allusion though. The legs are very long and spindly, which is probably linked to the long-legged surreal birds that I’ve drawn on and off over the years, starting about fifty years ago in the 1970s.
The sketch was drawn on an iPad in Procreate. I see from the metadata that it’s got 318 strokes and it took 12 minutes.
This work is currently on display in the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol exhibition Paper Works (until 27 April 2025)
A sculpture composed of two hemispheres on a flat surface, with one of the hemispheres protruding from one surface and the other protruding from the other surface. Both hemispheres are hollow, so that relative to each surface of the flat card one hemisphere protrudes and the other creates a hollow. The sculpture is coated with very matt black acrylic paint (Stuart Semple Black 4).
The matt black colour of the sculpture makes the form deliberately difficult to read. This is especially the case with the hollows (possibly because the brain is not expecting there to be hollows in the surface).
On one level the work can be viewed as a simple intriguing puzzle that engages the viewer’s perception and cognition in interpreting the positive and negative forms that are generated by the hemispheres.
The work also has a metaphorical interpretation that relates to my interest in science.
In this interpretation the flat black surface of the sculpture can be thought of as representing the ‘base state’ of physical reality. Think of this state as being flat and featureless – a state in which nothing physical can meaningfully be said to actually exist – maybe the ‘resting’ state of the universe. Perhaps think of it as being comparable to a graph in which the line of the graph flatlines along the zero value of the x axis, indicating that there’s nothing to measure.
The two hemispheres in the sculpture disrupt the flat surface, creating the existence of form. Returning to the graph analogy, this is similar to the presence of two blips on the flatlining graph, with one blip going up and the other going down.
Because the hemispheres are hollow the pair create a bulge and a depression on each side of the flat surface, with the one that forms a bulge on one side of the sculpture forming a depression on the other side.
On either of the two sides of the flat surface, in terms of total volume, the bulge of one of the hemispheres and the depression of the other cancel each other out, with the negative volume of the depressed hemisphere cancelling the positive volume of the protruding one.
This can be thought of as an analogy for the physical nature of the universe at its most fundamental level. The flat featureless surface of the sculpture represents the flat featureless ‘surface’ of the fundamental universe when it is devoid of matter and when nothing exists other than the ‘surface’. The pair of hemispheres conceptually represents a single fundamental ‘disturbance’ in the flat fearless surface, a single simplest element of existence perhaps analogous to the most fundamental of fundamental particles.
Importantly, because this fundamental disturbance is represented by two identical forms (the hemispheres) of which one has positive volume and one has negative volume which cancel out, the total volume of the disturbance is zero. This is analogous to the physical universe arising out of a state of nothingness (the flat surface) yet adding nothing to the volume, thus adding nothing to nothing.
So, although the universe exists it is still composed of nothing.
This work reflects my interest in both art and science (I started out on a scientific career before moving over to an artistic one).
I believe that art and science are often much more closely linked than is often assumed. There is for instance a huge amount of aesthetics in the appreciation of mathematics, and the study of the way that our senses make sense of the world is nothing if not a science.
The work consists of a sheet of plastic mesh from the packaging for a pack of oranges.
I particularly like this piece because of the mundanity of its material.
I’ve been experimenting with the generation of moiré patterns and related optical effects for many years, often involving the interaction of digitally generated simple grids such as in the example below from 2008 or as seen here .
I’ve previously used the same sort of plastic mesh to create moiré patterns in an exhibit in my solo exhibition at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens in 2022.
The term moiré pattern or moiré fringe comes from a type of French fabric called moire, in which two layers of fabric are pressed together to form a single sheet in which the slight misallignment of the fabric’s mesh generates patterns.
An earlier (2008) example of patterns generated by overlapping grids (this time produced digitally).
An earlier (2008) example of patterns generated by overlapping grids (this time produced digitally).
An earlier (2008) example of patterns generated by overlapping grids (this time produced digitally).
A digital visualisation of a proposed mural on an art gallery wall.
The mural depicts two men standing on stilts. One of the men has much taller stilts than the other man. The man with the shorter stilts is sawing through one of the tall stilts.
The image is partly a metaphor for power and attacks on that power. It’s also just a funny idea.
The image can be interpreted as a metaphor for political power and opposition to that power. The person on the tall stilts is invested with the power while the person with the short stilts is wanting to topple the person in the position of power (as an act of rebellion against political oppression, military repression, economic exploitation or one of any number of engines of social or political inequality).
The power that is personified in the image needn’t necessarily be the power of large scale institutions and entities, but could also be the power gained at an interpersonal level by an individual who has status enhancing qualities such as an appealing personality or striking good looks, making the attacks on that individual the consequence of personal envy or resentment.
The man on the tall stilts represents a person in a position of high status or power. The structure of that power (the tall stilts) however makes him isolated from people with less power (the shorter stilts). This flaw makes him vulnerable to attacks from below, especially if the person below has a metaphorical saw.
I’ve used a cartoon-like quality for the image is because the cartoon medium is the perfect way to convey the concept in the image. I think that cartoons are an excellent medium for political or social comment art as they can convey concepts directly and unambiguously. I’ve drawn cartoons for publication in newspapers, magazines and books since the 1970s. You can see my cartoons here.
The large photograph on the wall in the visualisation is from a series of studies of skulls.
Shown in the ING Discerning Eye exhibition in the Mall Galleries, London, November 2024.
This sculpture, composed of a hammer and nails, symbolises the act of the oppressed overthrowing their oppressor. The nails represent the oppressed and the hammer represents their oppressor.
The metaphor raises a few questions . How did the nails become driven into the hammer? By another hammer? If so, is that other hammer a potential oppressor? Is the (unseen) second hammer just an oppressor in its own right, simply using the nails for its own ends?
Jar opener, spinning top, document clip, hand. 27x9x5cm (excluding hand). Feb 2024
An assemblage of household items (a jar opener, a spinning top and a document clip). In the photograph the assemblage is paired with a human hand to create an ambiguous form. There are suggestions of a flowering plant, a human form or an apparatus with a wheel.
A spontaneously conceived piece of artwork created while I was putting away the washing up in the kitchen. The shadows are created by the ceiling lights.
This is a good example of finding inspiration anywhere and in mundane objects and mundane places, and of the importance of being open to inspiration striking at any time.
In some ways it’s a piece of readymade art, being basically a fork plucked from my dish rack, however the importance of the shadows also makes it into shadow art in which the cast shadows are as important as the object casting the shadows.
Conté Pierre Noire pencil, novelty spectacles, paper 42x30cm 2021-2024
The pencil drawing was executed in December 2021 using a Conté Pierre Noire pencil. The novelty glasses and nose were added in September 2024 to create a montage or assemblage.
It was created in the typical way that works of this type are often created: the drawing was lying on a work surface and the glasses were lying nearby. I’d already placed the glasses on a few other pictures to suitable comic and/or bizarre effect, so I thought I’d try them on this drawing for size. They fitted (at least as far as I’m concerned).
The nose/glasses combination are sometimes called disguise glasses or Groucho glasses (after Groucho Marx, whom I think used to wear them).
The process of coming up with new ideas as a result of inspiration generated by things around you applies to everything in life, not just art. By ‘things’ I don’t just mean objects (such as novelty glasses) but ideas. When a person comes up with a new idea it’s very often a fusion of ideas that are already around and which the person picks up and combines in a new and interesting way. As a result,in any given culture, new concepts tend to be predetermined by the concepts that the culture already holds.
Workman’s tools and handyman’s tools are a frequent feature of my work, with my first sketches of them dating from my early twenties, about fifty years ago.
I’ve always liked the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic qualities of hand tools. Pliers, such as the ones here, have legs that are suggestive of human legs and jaws that are suggestive of crocodile jaws or perhaps pterodactyl jaws. The business end of tin snips and garden pruners resemble the beaks of birds, and hammers have heads.
Another appeal about hand tools is their robust usefulness. They tend to look strong and they make hard physical work that much easier.
They are also nostalgic. In my youth my father had a garden shed that contained racks and racks of tools that were in constant use for repairing broken household items and for constructing basic items of furniture. Now such tools feel as though they may be on the brink of extinction as people no longer fix things and as what tools there still are tend to be power tools which lack the simple physicality of hand tools
A study in the perception and interpretation of images.
This photograph is an undoctored image, but it’s very hard to decipher what exactly’s going on in it. It looks like an aerial photo of rows of terraced houses, but there’s something not quite right about it.
Have a look near the very top left hand corner and you may realise what it is you’re looking at. You can see a line of cars there, but they are all upside down.
The photo is just a straight photo that’s being viewed upside down. The unexpected orientation of the image creates the effect of disoriention in the observer.
The photo shows the way in which the observer tries to construct a meaningful interpretation of an image that is giving confusing and ambiguous cues. The observer may easily be able to recognise that the image shows the walls of houses because the windows and doors are easily identifiable. And there are house roofs here too, but these components don’t seem to marry up properly to create a coherent whole.
It’s a study in visual perception and interpretation.
For the sake of efficiency the brain makes a lot of assumptions about what it’s perceiving at any moment, so it takes a few cues and interprets things from there.It only does any extra work if it notices that things don’t add up, as here. If it didn’t do that it would have to analyse everything from first principals and you’d need a brain as big as a planet to do anything.
Steel pliers, ceramic head, magnet. 15x15x1cm August 2024
An anthropomorphic sculpture composed of a pair of pliers to which a ceramic head has been attached.
I made the head about thirty years ago in around 1994.
I call the piece Homo Habilis after the extinct species of human that lived in Eastern and Southern Africa about two million years ago. Homo Habilis literally means Handy Man, which in my piece nicely links to the handyman’s tool, the pliers. Homo Habilis is also referred to as ‘Man the Toolmaker’, which links equally nicely with the piece.
Pliers, wood, paper, acrylic. August 2024. 335x335x30mm
A pair of workman’s pliers mounted on coloured paper with three painted hemispheres of wood attached.
To me the pliers have a pleasing anthropomorphic appearance, with their handles resembling legs (here dressed in brightly coloured trousers or stockings).
The three hemispheres disrupt the shape of the pliers, visually separating the jaws at the top of the tool from the base. This is reinforced by the fact that these particular pliers have brightly coloured plastic on the handles (the trousers) which are there to insulate the user of the pliers from any accidental contact with live electricity.
The use of handyman’s or workman’s tools such as hammers, pliers and spanners is a recurring theme in my work.
Mirror, wood, paper, acrylic. 30 x 30 x 20cm. August 2024
A mirror-based artwork. It features a mirror mounted perpendicular to a coloured ground on which are mounted two hemispheres in different colours. The hemispheres are positioned so that the reflection of one hemisphere in the mirror precisely coincides with the position of the other hemisphere. This creates an intriguing effect when the viewer observes the work from different angles.
Mirrors are a useful device for the exploration of perception and the interpretation of what we see. I think this is partly because perfect reflections like those found in mirrors are almost nonexistent in the natural world other than when they are observed on stretches of water such as puddles, ponds and lakes in perfectly still conditions. When you look at a puddle, a pond or a lake you know exactly what you’re looking at, so your brain knows that the reflection in its surface is an optical effect, especially because the nature of the surface will usually be betrayed by the occasional ripple or the presence of a floating object such as a leaf or a duck.
Mirrors however are different. They can easily be placed in an artificial context in which the brain has to do a bit of work in deciding what it’s actually looking at. And to compound this, mirrors are almost always vertical (which the surface of a puddle or a pond never is). Put a mirror in a slightly unusual context and the brain can be deceived, which is a good avenue into the study of perception.
I’ve noticed several artworks recently that are modelled on the shape of tissue boxes. These include one in the recent 2024 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (Mannanan by Brian Kneale RA) and a mention of them relating to the work of Florence Carr who is set to do a solo presentation at Frieze London 2024 this October.
A version of my tissue box work containing an object in the form of a door lock (showing the internal structure).
Above are a couple of photos of one of my own experiments with tissue boxes in which I painted an old tissue box blue on the outside and red on the inside.
My tissue box sculpture was probably inspired by seeing a large marble work by Anish Kapoor in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in (I think) 2021.
I very much doubt that the Anish Kapoor work was inspired by the shape of a tissue box, however once I’d seen the similarity I couldn’t get it out of my head, very much in the same way that once you’ve seen the shape of a human form in an abstract painting you can’t unsee it.
A video of a 30mph speed limit road sign with the number 30 rotating within the circular sign. The figure 30 in the sign has been rotated digitally.
This concept occurred to me spontaneously when I looked at the sign (Having said that, I’ve walked past this sign many times over the past few decades and the idea has never occured to me before – more on that later). The sign is in Market Drayton, Shropshire, where I grew up.
One of the points that the video is hopefully making is about the nature of the shapes of numbers (and by association, of letters too). I’m interested in the fact that the shapes of numbers (and letters) are to a large extent random. You can understand why the number one is represented by the shape 1, which is essentially the simplest possible mark that can be made to represent the presence of something, and why zero is represented by 0, which is possibly a symbol that visualises an empty space. But why is 4 the shape that it is, or 5,6,7,8,9?
Bearing this interest in the shapes of numbers in mind, one of the features of the video is the way that it emphasises the changing shape of the numbers as they rotate. When the 3 and the 0 have rotated by 90º and are on their sides they no longer look like the number 30 viewed sideways but as distinctly different shapes – especially the 3. The 3 stops being a 3 and starts becoming a mysterious symbol. This phenomenon works particularly well with the numbers 3 and 0 because the shapes of these numbers are more or less symmetrical about a horizontal axis through their centres. It wouldn’t work so well with, say, the number 47, where the brain would probably have a lot more difficulty seeing the digits as nothing other than the 4 and the 7 at unusual angles.
