exhibition
A series of text poster-works describing disappointing artworks, such as…
“An artwork that is fascinating on paper, but that you don’t need to see once you’ve read about it.”
“An artwork that is fascinating on paper, but that doesn’t deliver in real life.”
Every episode of the US sitcom ‘Friends’ recategorised to describe what the episode truly contains, using the established format description of ‘The one with…’
Such as…
in S2E10 - The one with Russ - Monica begins dating ‘Fun Bobby’ again and the gang realise he’s an alcoholic (hence why he’s so much fun). So they convince him to stop drinking and he becomes boring, so Monica breaks up with him.
So, ‘The one with Russ’, gets recategorised as, ‘The one with judgement of an alcoholic’
A multi-screen video (wide-screen monitors, installed portrait, to create a tall tower of screens).
On the top screen is a full-frame shot of a flute of champagne standing on a tray. The tray wobbles, causing the flute to fall from the tray.
In slow motion, the flute falls towards the floor, moving from one screen to the next, until we see the glass smash on the floor.
Once it has come to rest, the audio of a room full of people cheering plays.
The end.
A two part project/sculpture/installation, existing concurrently.
One part involves the purchase of a standard single burial plot in a cemetery. The plot is then dug, as if ready to receive a burial.
In the other part, the earth removed from that burial plot is exhibited as a mound in a room/gallery somewhere else (logically, within the same city/town).
Both spaces can be visited by the public.
Fill a room/gallery with blackboards, so it looks a bit like an exhibition of Joseph Beuys blackboards from his lectures, but the diagrams on the blackboards are copies of blackboards from scenes in films, such as when Lieutenant Harris is writing on a blackboard in front of the new recruits in the first Police Academy movie.
Make some full-size human hearts out of clay and glaze them a bright, sticky, blood-red.
Learn how to throw a knuckleball, as referred to in baseball.
“A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimise the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion.”
A single channel video/projection of a multi-multi-split-screen image containing film of matadors being gored by bulls.
A ‘battle jacket’ (cut-off denim jacket covered in band patches worn by heavy metal fans) covered in patches of fictional heavy metal bands.
A digital screen/monitor attached to a computer showing every tweet, in real time, that contains the word or hashtag ‘hiraeth’ in it.
Hiraeth is Welsh word meaning a deep longing for something, particularly one’s home.
Often described as an untranslatable word, as there is no direct translation in English, I’ve just translated it for you.
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.
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.
The phrase ‘All in this together’ written in the style of the ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ gate outside of Auschwitz, rendered as a print or sculpture.
‘We’re all in this together’ become the catchphrase and persistent lie of the Tory party from 2008 onwards to justify the crippling programme of austerity they unleashed upon the UK.
A poster that lists the main politicians involved in 80s politics, from a Western perspective, arranged according to the rules of a classic Western movie poster i.e. the leading man’s name is written biggest, with the leading lady’s name second biggest. Smaller, underneath, are the main supporting actor’s names.
i.e…
Biggest: Ronald Reagan
Second biggest: Margaret Thatcher
Supporting biggest: Mikhail Gorbachev, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, The Ayatollah Khomeini…
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.
A long-term project, whereby a bush appropriate for topiary is planted. As the bush grows, it is trimmed to form the shape of a nuclear mushroom cloud.
A fun-fair carousel, where each of the horses is named after a horse that has died in the Grand National.
A huge holographic installation in a desert somewhere.
This is based on (essentially a recreation of) a scene from the film ‘Time Bandits’.
In one scene of the film, the Time Bandits find themselves in a desert and come across an invisible barrier they can’t pass through. They start arguing and one of them picks up a nearby skull from a deceased animal (maybe human, I need to check) and throws it at the person they’re arguing with.
The skull misses the person and smashes through the invisible barrier, shattering it like a massive piece of glass, and making a huge hole in it, which reveals The Fortress of Ultimate Darkness (a scary castle) behind.
This sculpture/installation would be a massive glass hologram in the desert, in the shape of a huge broken sheet of glass, with an image of a scary fortress/castle in it.
An illuminated shop-sign (3D, exterior, double-sided, sign - of the sort you more traditionally get/got outside of American stores) that says, large:
‘S Mark Gubb’
and smaller underneath…
‘Est. 1974’
Mid-to-large scale sculptural renderings of the shocked-face, hand clap, high-five, and fire emojis.
A second part to this work (maybe the entire work..) is a photograph of these works posted on Instagram.
