Early Work

Early work from 1970- 74. Conceptual work was rather dismissed at Chelsea where the artistic climate was far more conservative and constrained. At the time the dominant idiom in British Sculpture was powdercoated welded steel or Caro-esque corten steel confections. One deviated off the path at one’s peril. Strangely though, since nobody at all seemed to be able to make a living through their work, it gave young radical artists a brief illusion of freedom before economic reality took hold. The following photographs are from the studio at Chelsea and work from my degree show

I left London in 1974 and headed off initially to Sydney where I had been given an introduction to an eminent sculptor called Robert Klippel. Bob helped organise a meeting between myself and young Sydney sculptors. Talk about a lamb to the slaughter! The sculptors I met regarded Caro as their mentor and anything like conceptual art was very unwelcome. It makes me laugh now but at the time it was very clear that Australia was very unwelcoming to young arty Poms.

I spent seventeen years in Australia. I loved it and the people I met especially the students I taught at Deakin University.

Project for a Church in Melbourne.

In 1985 a developer in Melbourne bought a church which no longer had a congregation but in itself was a historic building and had a preservation order on it. The developer decided that if he demolished the building over the weekend he would be able to better use the site for apartments. So on a Saturday morning he got the bulldozer onto the site and proceeded to demolish it. By the time a court order to stop the work had been issued half the building had gone.

The group Working Together in Architecture approached the brilliant Australian architect Nonda Katsolides to assemble a team of artists to develop a proposal for the site which would marry contemporary art and architecture to the new site. We produced this.

The designs that the team came up with for replacing the walls, floor and glass work put the architecture of the everyday Victorian church architecture rather in the shade. It was subsequently decided to proceed with the demolition. And yes the developer built his apartments.

Maquette for the International Year of Peace 1985 (?).

So many of my early years were spent teaching or designing books, furniture or devising paper designs. I also managed the CAD facilities of a small but forward looking architecture practice in Melbourne. My memories of the time are of working very hard but finding it very difficult to make enough money to devote myself to sculpture full time. It was a frustrating time for me but I learned a lot and met wonderful people.