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.
All in This Together print/sculpture /
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.
80s Politics Western Movie poster /
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…
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.
Topiary of Doom /
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.
Carousel of Death /
A fun-fair carousel, where each of the horses is named after a horse that has died in the Grand National.
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).
Evil Portal /
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.
Est. 1974 /
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’
New Work - 'So Good!' /
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.
Ring of Fire /
A slow-motion video of a 1970s Evel Knievel wind-up toy being jumped through the middle of a burning car tyre (set up like a flaming hoop that stunt-bikers jump their bikes through).
The video starts as a close crop, front-on, to the centre/hole of the tyre.
The tyre is doused liberally in flammable liquid and set alight.
Through the hole, in the distance, we see the toy being wound up and released, jumping through the centre of the tyre off a small ramp.
After the toy has passed through the tyre, the camera slowly pans out to show the entire burning tyre, full-frame.
For several minutes (final length to be decided in the edit) the film focuses on the burning tyre, before fading to black.
Ghost Room /
Using air-conditioning units connected to a weather-app via a computer, the room/gallery will be kept at the local (and live) temperature of Williamsburg in New York.
When I came up with this idea I immediately thought it should be Williamsburg, for no more conscious reason than it’s somewhere I would often like to be, but aren’t.
I’ve since come to think of how Williamsburg has been described as cool, as hot, and for many people is now something of a cultural ghost town, due to gentrification.
It would be possible to come up for a conceptual justification for setting the temperature to pretty much any town or city in the world.
A key recommendation is that wherever the work is installed, a town/city is chosen somewhere in the world that has a significantly different temperature/season/weather-pattern, to ensure the work is physically effective on entering the room.
Nike Air Bathroom /
This is a sculpture that consists of a pair of large Nike Air trainers nailed to the wall (the soles of the shoes flat on the wall, the shoe facing ‘up’ the wall, with the nail going through the toes).
The two trainers are positioned either side of a ceramic urinal divider, of the kind you find in men’s public bathrooms to divide the space between the urinals.
Positioned inside each trainer is a single urinal-cake (the perfumed cleaning blocks that are placed in urinals).
The sculpture should be positioned on the wall at urinal height.
Cultural Icon Fire /
This could be a performance, an action, a video, a photograph, or all of them.
Using a flammable liquid or gel, a large pentagram (for example) is drawn on the floor, after dark. This is then set alight.
I have also imagined this as a potential series of ‘round iconography’ burns i.e. do the same with an anarchy symbol, C.N.D., a smiley etc.
Neon Bra Fire /
A neon-sculpture of a bra, on fire.
A Stella Cast /
A hand-painted bronze cast of a can of Stella Artois lager.
It could be an empty-and-crushed can.
It could also be a multiple.
A Repurposed Statue /
The world is in a constant state of upheaval and in recent years we’ve seen various uprisings and societal collapses. What often goes along with that is the destruction of public statues and monuments representative of a formerly oppressive regime.
Statues tend to be heavy things, so when they’re not being dragged into Bristol docks, they’re often dismantled using cranes.
I’ve often been struck by the powerful images of statues of dictators being removed from their plinths, hoisted high in the air, by a chain round their neck. There’s something very brutal and precarious about this image - like a metaphorical lynching of the oppressor.
For this work I propose a temporary (could be permanent) public sculpture that consists of a removed-statue, hanging by a chain round its neck, dangling from a crane.
A Repeatable Action-Work /
Every artist needs a simple action-work that they can do anywhere, anytime (for example, on arrival somewhere), which transforms a fairly modest moment into a moment of creativity, capturing something of that moment and lending it significance (even if it doesn’t really have any).
Something like:
Balling/screwing-up a blank piece of A4 paper, then photographing it in-situ.
Keeping the disposable cup from the first cup of coffee you drink in a new destination.
Sending a postcard to your dead Grandmother’s last address.
In some ways, it doesn’t really matter what the action is, it’s just a physical representation of a moment. The success of a work like this exists in the repetition. One balled-up and photographed piece of A4 is photograph of a piece of trash, whereas 100 photographs of balled-up pieces of A4 in different locations becomes a marker of time.