Melt Art Fair - Opening Party (Wed 6pm - 8:30 pm)

Here are some photos from Monday’s installation of the Melt Art Fair at the Art Pavilion in Mile End Park. The venue has to be one of the most amazing exhibition spaces in London. As well as being an architecturally stunning building (half buried under a man-made hill), it is almost magical how the light reflects from the adjacent pool and plays across the ceiling and walls of the gallery interior.
Along with 40 artists from the UK and abroad, I will be exhibiting a couple of my sculptures, Fetish and Nail Box. Melt is an independent venture, organised by Arthemisia.eu, as an alternative to the established London art fairs, Frieze and Zoo.

Although Melt officially opened today, we will be having opening party/private view tomorrow (Wednesday) from 6pm – 8:30pm (although the gallery will be open from 11am to view the artwork) so please feel free to come along and join us for a drink and a chance to meet the artist involved.

The opening times are from 11am – 6pm, Tuesday 12th to Sunday 17th October (closing at 5pm on Sunday) and the private view/drinks reception will be Wednesday 13th October (6pm – 8:30pm)
Melt Art Fair, Mile End Pavilion, Clinton Road (off Grove Road), Mile End Park, London E3 4QY

Sleeping Beauty Box (interior)

Sleeping Beauty Box (interior)4, originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

This is an interior shot of my 'Sleeping Beauty Box'.
In making this box sculpture my intention was to create a piece that from the outside appeared quite dull and ordinary. Yet, when you peered through its window you could imagine that you were looking at a scene from a fairy tale or a dream. This piece was also heavily influenced by the work of animators such as the Brothers Quay and Jan Svankmajer. I have always been facinated with animation and I sometimes think that many of my sculptures, especially the box and tower ones, resemble parts of animated film sets. I like to think of this interior shot as a still from a film that doesn't exist.

Entrail Plasma Box Sketch

Entrail Plasma Box Sketch, originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

I seem to have an obsession with wheeled boxes that trail entrails behind them. I think it might be something to with the conflict between man-made geometric forms and the biomorphic aspect of the natural world. Or maybe it’s something to do with the body being seen as this pristine box that tries to deny the existence of its viscous, smelly and often rebellious insides. There’s probably something deeply Freudian going on.
Anyway - this is the most recent drawing and it’s for an idea that I had that requires the use of a plasma cutter and a welder. Unfortunately I don’t yet have a plasma cutter so this particular project has been put on the back burner.

'Crutch & Tumour Box', Wayne Chisnall

'Crutch & Tumour Box', Wayne Chisnall, originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

With ‘Crutch & Tumour Box’ I was trying to apply organic principles to something that is obviously man-made and rectilinear.
Taking the construct of the box as a starting point, this piece pursues the biological anomaly of the cancerous cell as a mode of enquiry.
Whilst mimicking the out of control mechanism of the malfunctioning and self-replicating cancerous cell, the piece hopefully manages to convey a biomorphic presence.
Teetering like a top-heavy fraction, ‘Crutch & Tumour Box’s’ comical appearance is further heightened by the necessitation of its crutch section - a support that is deliberately undermined by the application of a wheel.

'Nail Box', Wayne Chisnall

'Nail Box', Wayne Chisnall, originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

‘Nail Box’ is a sculpture greatly indebted to and influenced by the minkisi artefacts of central Africa. Many of these ritualistic objects are carved wooden totems that have had nails and other metal items hammered into them. However, where as the minkisi derive their power from their contents, with ‘Nail Box’ I was trying to create something that’s presence was derived from its adornment of carefully selected nails and rusty metal. By bringing together so many items that had interacted with the elements and their specific environments I hoped to create a piece that would generate a cumulative resonance.
As is the case with many of my sculpture, the found materials used in this pieces’ construction were selected for their ‘resonance’ and collected over several years.
Whilst most of the metal items used in this piece were found in London, anywhere from the streets of Hackney to the inside of the Dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, much of it was collected from the my travels around Britain and abroad, including Europe, Mexico, Cambodia, Thailand, Tunisia and India.
Considering the obsessive nature behind the way I collect and hoard the materials that I use in my work (you should see my studio – it is full of boxes of rubbish (a.k.a. treasure) – I fear that I am a lost cause), I see these sculptures as totems or magnifications of the ritualistic side of everyday life. Physical embodiments of the personal belief systems we all create around us.

The City (doll detail)

The City (doll detail), originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

Sleepin Beauty ( detail )

Sleepin Beauty ( detail ), originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

Nest Box

Nest Box, originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

Spider Box

Spider Box, originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.