Songbird

Medium: Mock-up for large version: Found objects – antique hardwood decoy duck covered in 23 ct gold leaf and engraved with 100 word text ; 3500 razorblades
Sizes:  300 cm x 80cm x 25cm (approx)

Medium:  Found objects – antique hardwood decoy duck covered in 23 ct gold leaf; approximately 60 duck calling whistles made from Winchester rifle 12 bore brass bullet cartridges

Medium:  Found objects – antique hardwood decoy duck covered in 23 ct gold leaf; 100 razorblades engraved with text and set into the body of the decoy.

Medium:  Found objects – antique hardwood decoy duck, cut into various  sections and partially covered in 23 ct gold leaf;

Eventually there should be approximately 10 different decoys that will be added here as they are completed.

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The Sunbeam

Modified found object: ‘The Ashley Book of Knots’ by Clifford W. Ashley (1993) covered with 23ct gold leaf and embossed with text inscription on cover.
Sizes: 21.5  x  28.5 x 5.5 cm

The inscription embossed on the cover is literally instructions to the viewer to turn to a specific page, paragraph and sentence contained in the text. This selection of text has particular relevance to the title of the work itself.  The inscription is therefore an invitation to handle the object and enter into real communication with it via the senses and the mind. I consider the work a conceptual piece although ironically it can only become an artwork once the viewer enters into direct physical contact with the object and the text.

The title is taken from the passage to which the embossed instructions direct the viewer: in 1904 a ship named the ‘Sunbeam’ sailed from the port of New Bedford containing a small library of 100 books. As the author of the text explains, this is noteworthy because the library contained too few books to satisfy the Sunbeam crew’s appetite for reading materials during the 5 years of its voyage. The crew soon returned to the art of scrimshaw and rope-knotting in order to keep themselves busy. The irony is that it was in fact the introduction of literacy programmes aboard sea-vessels that led to the almost wholesale extinction of the traditional art of rope knotting.

And lastly, the Ashley Book of Knots contains written instructions and illustrations for 3854 different rope knots and rope-knotting techniques. It remains a seminal text detailing the history of the sailors craft of rope-knotting. Today the book helps to keep this dying art form alive.

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Rack of Pipes/ Throwing Bones

Modified found object: Used smoking pipes and pipe rack covered with 23ct gold leaf and embossed with text inscriptions. The construction of the pipe rack has been unobtrusively modified in order to allow for its easy assembly and dis-assembly.

Kings & Queens 1

Modified found object: Limited Edition Casino quality twin-deck playing cards covered with 23ct gold leaf (Cards published in 2009 in commemorating Darwin’s Bicentenary and 150 years of The Origin of Species. Illustrated with images from Darwin Online)

Kings & Queens 2

Modified found objects: Camel bone chess set (with certificate of authenticity), steel knuckle duster with word ‘love’, all packed together tightly into a mahogany chess box covered with 23ct gold leaf (The pieces do not fit into the container in other other formation)
Sizes: 18cm x 12cm x 9cm

Rabbit & Hat (for Mary Tofts 1701-1763)

Modified found objects: 206 Rabbit bones covered with 23ct gold leaf; vintage collapsible silk top hat with original storage box (German made, 1930).

Sizes: 25cm x 32cm x 23cm (height)

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Tumbler (2011)

Modified Found Objects and mixed media: David Bryce & Son commemorative miniature bible and lectern made to mark the tercentenary of the Authorized Version of the English Bible, 1911; Pigeon skeleton;  23 ct Gold leaf; builders foam), museum glass display cases

Sizes: 15cm diameter x 50cm high