A full-scale marble rendering of the bed from the front cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ album cover.
heavy metal
Temporary Tattoos /
Temporary (water-applied) tattoo sheets as a curatorial project.
Invite a range of artists to come up with a temporary tattoo design and have them produced, collectively, on a single sheet of tattoos.
A group exhibition on a single sheet.
'Phil Myatt' zine /
A zine about Phil Myatt, best known for setting up ‘Mothers’ club in Erdington in the late 60s, using the photos, anecdotes, and recorded conversations I gathered from/with Phil when I was researching my ‘A Real Rock Archive’ project…
…such as when he ran a nightclub in Spain in the 60s and a bunch of key players from the England World Cup-winning squad turned up and he convinced Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst to play on his club’s football team in a beach football match against a rival nightclub the following weekend (I have a photo of this team as evidence).
Titles as T-shirts /
The titles of my solo shows re-worked as illsutrated heavy metal t-shirts in collaboration with different artist-illustrators I like i.e.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
How Should I Live? (Maybe that’s not the question)
My Empire of Dirt
Revelations: The Poison of Free Thought Prt.II
History is Written by the Winners
Third from the Sun
The Last Judgement
Battle Jacket Fiction /
A ‘battle jacket’ (cut-off denim jacket covered in band patches worn by heavy metal fans) covered in patches of fictional heavy metal bands.
Walk on the Wild Side /
A performance, that becomes a video, of the drummer from a Mötley Crüe tribute act riding on The Scenic Railway at Margate’s ‘Dreamland’ funfair, with their drum-kit strapped onto the ride, playing along to Mötley Crüe’s song, ‘Wild Side’.
The original video for the song famously features Tommy Lee playing his drum-kit in a hydraulic, revolving, cage.
As a former resident of Margate, employee at Dreamland, and (then) aspiring rock star, this work also contains autobiographical meaning.
Burning Guitar /
An electric guitar, on a stand, plugged into an amplifier, feeding back, doused in a flammable liquid and set on fire.
This could be a performance that later becomes a video, sound work, and/or photograph.
Rules of the The Pit poster /
A poster-diagram of ‘the pit’ from heavy a metal concert that defines the different areas and the unspoken rules that exist around it, such as…
Front row/on-the-barrier, about 2 or 3 people deep, un-moving.
Behind that - the main pit. An area of non-specific size (ebbs and flows in size and dynamic throughout the gig). The main rule - if someone falls, you help them back-up immediately.
On the edge of that - the pit-guards. A self-selected row of people, one-person deep, who act as a barrier between the pit and the people who just want to stand and watch. These people play an active role in, both, defending the standers from the pit, and also pinballing wayward pit members back towards the centre of the action. Pit-guards often peel-off into the pit for a while, then rejoin the row of pit-guards.
Behind that, the standers. The people who just want to stand and watch to enjoy the gig. Secondary rule - don’t start a new pit amongst the standers; make your way to the main pit and join in.
Etc. etc.
Raining Blood /
This could either be a live performance or a video (possibly both).
At Bluestone holiday resort in Wales, they have a swimming pool with a wave machine and large water jets/fountains that spray out in an arc into the pool from a raised platform above the wave-pool.
This performance/filming would happen at night, as lighting is key to its mood.
The pool will start off in low-light-to-darkness.
A soundtrack of Slayer’s ‘Raining Blood’ will play, loud, through the room.
As the track plays, white lights will flash to animate the opening drumbeats of the song.
As the opening riff of the track plays, people dressed in the clothes of heavy metal fans begin to gather on the raised platform (they’re wearing jeans, boots, band t-shirts, cut-off denim jackets with patches).
As the song fully kicks in with Tom Araya’s high pitched scream, the fountains begin spraying into the pool, lit only by red light, and the people amassed on platform begin diving off the platform into the pool, as if stage-diving at a concert.
This continues for 3m25s of the song, until it ends with a huge clap of thunder and the sound of rain.
At this point, the stage-diving stops and the red light changes to white light on the fountains for the remainder of the track (which consists of audio of thunder and rain).